LIBRARY 

OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
Class 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD  CULTURE  PAPERS. 


FKOEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN, 


WITH   SUGGESTIONS  ON 


PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  OF  CHILD  CULTURE 


IN  DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES. 


REPUBLISHED   FROM 

American  Journal  0f  (Etoratioiu 

HENRY  BARNARD,  LL.D.,  EDITOR. 


REVISED  EDITIO.^ 

f          OF  THE 
I   UNIVERSITY 

HARTFORD: 

OFFICE  OF  BARNARD'S  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  EDUCATION. 
189O. 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD-CULTURE  PAPERS. 

PLAN  OF  PUBLICATION. 


LETTER   TO  PRESIDENT  OF   THE  AMERICAN   FROEBEL   UNION. 

DEAR  Miss  PEABODY:  I  propose  to  do  more  in  1880  than  7, 
have  done  as  publisher  since  1838,*  in  any  one  year  for  the  eluci- 
dation of  Child-Culture,  and  particularly  of  the  Kindergarten  as 
devised  by  Froebel,  and  developed  by  himself  and  others  who 
have  acted  in  his  spirit  and  after  his  methods.  The  conviction 
expressed  by  me  in  printed  report  f  and  public  addresses  in  1854, 
that  "the  system  of  infant  culture,  presented  in  the  Interna- 
tional Exhibition  of  Educational  Systems  and  Material  at  St. 
Martin's  Hall,  by  Charles  Hoffman  of  Hamburg,  and  illustrated 
by  Madame  Ronge  in  her  Kindergarten  in  Tavistock  Square,  Lon- 
don, was  by  far  the  most  original,  attractive,  and  philosophical 
form  of  infant  development  the  world  has  yet  seen,"  has  been 
deepened  by  much  that  I  have  since  read  and  observed.  But  the 
suggestion  in  my  Special  Report  as  Commissioner  of  Education  to 
the  Senate  in  1868,  and  again  to  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
1870,  on  a  System  of  Public  Instruction  for  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, "that  the  first  or  lowest  school  in  a  graded  system  for  cities 
should  cover  the  play  period  of  a  child's  life,"  and  that  "the  great 
formative  period  of  the  human  being's  life"  "in  all  that  concerns 
habits  of  observation  and  early  development,  should  be  subjected 
to  the  training  of  the  Kindergarten" — must  be  received  now 
under  at  least  the  conditions  of  the  original  recommendation.  A 
variety  of  agencies  must  be  at  work  to  train  the  teachers  of  each 
grade  (and  the  Kindergartners  with  the  rest)  for  their  special 
duties,  and  to  instruct  and  interest  parents  in  the  work  of  the 
school-room,  and  to  give  to  them  as  such  a  direct  right  of  inspec- 
tion and  suggestion  as  to  the  schools  where  their  children  are  in 
attendance.  I  believe  that  parents  as  such  have  more  rights,  and 
rights  which  should  be  respected  by  their  own  direct  representa- 

*In  the  Connecticut  Common  School  Journal  from  1838  to  1842.  and  from  1849  to  1854; 
Educational  Tracts  (monthly)  from  1842  to  1845;  the  Journal  of  the  Rhode  Island  Insti- 
tute of  Instruction  from  1845  to  1848 ;  and  the  American  Journal  of  Education  from  1855 
to  1880.  In  every  year  of  these  periodicals  are  elaborate  Papers,  original  and  selected,  on 
the  Principles  and  Methods  of  early  education  applicable  to  children  in  home  and  school. 

t  Report  to  the  Governor  of  Connecticut  on  the  International  Exhibition  of  Educational 
Systems  and  Material  at  St.  Martin's  Hall,  London,  under  the  auspices  of  Prince  Albert, 
and  the  Society  of  Arts,  Commerce,  and  Manufactures.  By  Henry  Barnard,  delegate  from 
Connecticut  by  appointment  of  the  General  Assembly.  1854. 


107501 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD-CULTURE  PAPERS. 

tion  in  all  educational  boards,  than  are  now  conceded  to  them 
in  State  and  municipal  school  organizations. 

All  schools  not  under  progressive  teachers,  and  not  subjected 
to  frequent,  intelligent,  and  independent  supervision  are  sure  to 
fall  into  dull,  mechanical  routine;  and  the  Kindergarten,  of  all 
other  educational  agencies,  requires  a  tender,  thoughtful,  practical 
woman,  more  than  a  vivacious,  and  even  regularly  educated  girL 
The  power  of  influencing  and  interesting  mothers  in  their  home 
work  and  securing  their  willing  co-operation,  is  an  essential  qualifi- 
cation of  the  Kindergartner.  The  selection  of  such  cannot  be 
safely  left  to  school  officers  as  now  appointed,  and  who  too  often 
do  not  look  beyond  their  neighbors,  nephews,  and  nieces  for  can* 
didates.  Until  the  principles  of  early  child -culture  are  better 
understood,  and  school  officers  and  teachers  are  more  thoroughly 
trained  in  the  best  methods,  the  first  establishment  of  Kindergar- 
tens had  better  be  left  to  those  who  are  already  sufficiently  interested 
to  make  some  sacrifice  of  time  or  means  in  their  behalf;  and  when 
found  in  successful  operation  and  conforming  to  certain  require- 
ments, they  should  be  entitled  to  aid  from  public  funds  in  proportion 
to  attendance;  and  for  such  aid,  be  subject  to  official  inspection. 

My  desire  is  to  help  place  this  whole  subject  of  the  early  devel- 
opment and  training  of  the  human  being,  especially  of  the  claims 
and  results  of  the  Froebel  Kindergarten  in  this  work,  clearly  and 
fully  before  teachers,  parents,  and  school  officers;  and  in  thest 
efforts  I  solicit  your  advice  and  co-operation,  and  through  you,  of 
all  who  are  laboring  for  the  same  object  in  the  Home,  the  Kinder- 
garten, and  the  Primary  School. 

My  first  plan  of  publication  was  to  issue  these  Child-Culture 
Papers  in  separate  Numbers  or  Parts  alternating  with  the  regular 
Numbers  of  my  Journal,  but  not  necessarily  connected  with  the 
latter.  On  further  consideration  I  have  concluded  to  incorporate 
them  all  with  the  discussion  of  other  educational  topics,  and  then 
to  issue  the  whole  in  a  volume  of  Contributions  to  the  literature  of 
the  Kindergarten. 

You  will  greatly  oblige  me  by  suggesting  additions  or  modifica- 
tions to  the  accompanying  scheme  of  treatment  for  the  first  portion 
of  the  volume  (to  page  400),  as  well  as  Papers  with  their  authors 
on  any  topic  in  the  wide  range  of  child-culture  for  the  concluding 
portion.  May  I  look  to  you  for  an  article  in  the  next  Number  on 
the  Progressive  Development  of  Froebel's  Kindergarten? 

HENRY  BARNARD. 

HARTFORD,  December,  1879. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 


LETTER    FROM    MISS    PEABODY    TO    THE    EDITOR  : 

DEAR  SIR  :  Nothing,  it  seems  to  me,  can  do  more  to  establish 
the  Kindergarten  on  a  permanent  foundation,  and  place  its  prin- 
ciples and  methods  fairly  before  American  parents  and  teachers, 
than  the  full  and  exhaustive  treatment  which  you  propose  to  give, 
in  the  last  volume  of  your  truly  Encyclopediac  Journal,  of  the 
whole  subject  of  child  culture,  as  held  by  eminent  educators, 
at  home  and  abroad,  giving  due  prominence  to  its  latest  de- 
velopment in  the  Kindergarten  as  devised  by  Frederic  Frobel 
and  others  trained  in  his  spirit  and  methods.  Your  willingness 
to  issue  these  papers  in  a  connected  form,  and  detached  from 
other  discussions,  will  enable  Kindergartners  to  possess  them- 
selves,  at  a  moderate  price,  of  a  volume  (a  manual  I  think  it  will 
prove  to  be),  in  which  the  Frobel  idea  and  institute  will  be  pre- 
sented in  their  historical  development,  and  in  their  pedagogical 
connection  with  other  systems  of  human  culture.  I  respond  cor- 
dially to  your  invitation  to  co-operate  in  this  work  and  to  secure 
contributions  from  my  correspondents  and  fellow-laborers  in  this 
field,  in  our  own  ^ind  other  countries ;  and  I  will  begin  at  once 
with  the  subject  suggested  by  yourself,  the  "Development  of  the 
Kindergarten,"  as  it  was  suggested  to  Frobel  by  his  study  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom  of  Nature,  and  his  insight  into  the  gracious 
purposes  of  the  Father  of  Spirits. 

The  Baroness  Marenholtz-Biilow,  in  her  "  Reminiscences  of 
Frobel,"  has  told  us  of  her  discovery,  in  1849,  of  this  great  gen- 
ius ;  and  her  introduction  of  him  to  the  Duke  of  Weimar,  and 
to  the  leading  educators  of  Germany  ;  and  of  the  instantaneous 
acceptance  of  him  by  Diesterweg  and  others  as  "  a  prophet." 

Three  years  afterwards  he  died,  when  the  reactionary  govern- 
ment of  Prussia  had  forbidden  the  introduction  of  his  Kinder- 
gartens into  the  public  system  of  education  ;  instinctively  divin- 
ing that  an  education  which  recognizes  every  human  being  as 
self-active,  and  even  creative,  in  his  moral  and  intellectual  na- 
ture, must  be  fatal,  in  the  end,  to  all  despotic  governments. 

But  already,  through   the  friendship   of    the  ducal  family  of 


6  FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN. 

Weimar,  Frobel's  normal  school  for  Kindergartners  was  estab- 
lished at  Marienthal ;  and  through  the  influence  of  Diesterweg 
over  Madame  Johanna  Goldschmidt,  he  had  established  another 
at  the  free  city  of  Hamburgh ;  and  the  governmental  prohibition 
in  Prussia  had  stimulated  the  founding  of  private  Kindergartens 
in  Berlin  and  elsewhere  Some  years  after,  his  eminent  and  ap- 
preciative pupil  and  chosen  apostle,  the  Baroness,  brought  about 
the  rescinding  of  the  prohibitory  decree.  Nevertheless,  not  even 
yet,  as  you  will  see  from  a  letter  I  send  you,  written  by  Frau  Ber- 
tha Meyer  on  their  present  condition  in  Berlin,  are  there  any  but 
private  Kindergartens  in  Prussia.  These,  indeed,  are  patronized 
by  the  best  people,  led  by  the  Crown  Princess  of  Germany, — Vic- 
toria of  England,  who  has  not  only  had  her  own  children  edu- 
cated by  strictly  Frobelian  Kindergartners,  but  has  interested 
among  others  the  Princess  Helena  of  Russia  in  the  system,  and 
lets  herself  be  named  as  Lady  Patroness  of  the  training  school 
for  Kindergartners  at  17  Tavistock  square,  London. 

Only  two  governments  in  Europe  yet  have  recognized  the  Kin- 
dergarten as  a  public  interest — that  of  Austria,  which  imposes  on 
all  pupils  of  normal  schools  in  the  empire,  of  whatever  grade  of 
instruction,  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with  Frobel's  princi- 
ples ;  and  makes  compulsory  on  the  people  to  send  all  their  chil- 
dren under  six  to  some  Kindergarten  ;  also  the  government  of 
Italy,  where  Kindergartens  were  first  established  by  the  Italian 
Minister  of  Education,  whose  attention  had  been  directed  to  the 
subject,  in  1868,  by  our  own  American  minister,  the  Hon.  George 
P.  Marsh.  This  attempt  was,  however,  rather  premature,  for 
Italian  Kindergartners  were  not  yet  properly  prepared  for  the 
work,  and  though  Frobel's  educational  method  is  found  to  be 
harmonious  with  the  deepest  motherly  instinct,  when  that  is  un- 
derstood, it  does  not  come  by  instinct  into  a  systematic  form.  In 
1871-2  the  Baroness  Marenholtz-Biilow  was  solicited  by  the  Ital- 
ian minister  to  go  to  Florence  and  lecture  upon  the  training,  and 
she  taught  a  large  class.  The  resume,  of  her  lectures  was  printed 
in  a  pamphlet,  in  1872,  and  translated  and  published  by  our  Bu- 
reau of  Education  at  Washington,  in  its  circular  of  July,  and 
forms  an  admirable  syllabus  for  the  training  of  teachers.  In  that 
same  year,  1872,  Madame  Salis-Schwab  introduced  the  system  at 
Naples  at  great  expense  to  herself  of  money  and  labor,  and  gained 
from  the  municipality  the  promise  to  make  it  the  first  grade  of 
the  public  education,  when  Kindergartners  should  be  trained  for 


FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN.  Y 

it.  You  must  publish  in  your  volume  the  report  of  the  success- 
ful Kindergarten  now  kept  in  the  Collegia  Medici,  a  copy  of 
which  I  hope  to  furnish  you.  This  jfroves  one  of  the  greatest 
charities  in  Europe,  and  princes  send  their  children  as  pupils. 

But  though  the  European  governments  do  not  yet  adopt  the 
system,  Kindergartens  are  established  widely  in  all  the  German 
states,  in  Sweden,  Denmark,  Russia,  Switzerland,  France,  Bel- 
gium, even  in  Spain,  also  in  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  ;  and 
wherever  there  are  Kindergartens  there  are  more  or  less  inade- 
quate attempts  at  training  Kindergartners,  Koehler's  establish- 
ment at  Saxe-Gotha,  and  lately  the  Frobel  Stif  tung  at  Dresden, 
being  the  best.  The  latter  will  probably  swallow  up  the  former, 
as  Koehler  has  lately  died. 

In  England,  in  1872,  there  was  an  association  formed,  among 
whose  members  are  famed  scientists  like  Huxley,  as  well  as  dig- 
nitaries of  the  Church  of  England,  who  have  founded  an  institu- 
tion for  training  Kindergartners  at  Manchester,  to  be  examined 
for  certificates  after  two  years  study  with  observation  in  a  model 
Kindergarten  now  kept  by  Miss  Anna  Snell,  a  pupil  of  Midden- 
dorf.  Two  years  afterwards  another  training  class  was  founded, 
as  a  part  of  the  Stockwell  training  school  for  primary  teachers 
in  London,  S.  W.,  and  another  pupil  of  Middendorf,  Miss  Elea- 
nor Heerwart,  who  had  been  keeping  Kindergarten  some  years 
near  Dublin,  Ireland,  was  made  its  teacher  and  the  principal  of 
the  Stockwell  model  Kindergarten.  Also,  in  1874,  the  London 
Frobel  Society  was  founded  by  Miss  Doreck  and  Mr.  Payne, 
whose  present  president,  Miss  Emily  Shirreff,  and  her  sister,  the 
Hon.  Mrs.  Grey,  have  published  most  valuable  lectures,  among 
which  I  would  mention,  as  most  important,  Miss  ShirrefPs  "Life 
of  Frobel,"  and  her  essay  on  the  right  of  his  Kindergarten  to 
the  name  of  the  "  New  Education."  This  London  society  has  a 
monthly  meeting  and  lecture,  and  I  can  send  you  for  your  volume 
one  of  these :  Miss  E.  A.  Manning's  lecture  on  "  The  Discour- 
agements and  Encouragements  of  the  Kindergartner."  She  has 
sent  it  to  me  to  be  read  at  the  meeting  of  our  American  Frobel 
Union,  which  was  appointed  for  December  29-31,  1879,  but  had 
to  be  postponed.  Some  other  articles  were  sent ;  one  by  Miss 
Shirreff,  one  by  -Miss  Lychinska,  and  one  by  Miss  Heerwart, 
which  are  at  your  service  also ;  and  I  hope  to  have  Miss  Shirreff' s 
article  about  a  chart  of  Kindergarten  employments,  made  by 
Madame  du  Portugall  for  the  direction  of  the  Swiss  Kindergart- 


g  FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN. 

ners,  and  which  has  been  asked  for  by  the  English  Education 
Journal  for  publication  in  its  pages. 

It  was  the  Baroness  ^Marenholz-Biilow  who  may  be  said  to 
have  started  and  done  the  most  in  this  great  propagandism. 
Acknowledged  by  Frobel,  in  1849,  as  the  one  who  more  deeply  than 
any  one  else  saw  into  his  "  last  thought,"  she  must  be  considered 
as  his  most  complete  representative,  and  most  effective  apostle. 

In  1858  she  went  to  Paris  and,  taking  rooms  at  the  Louvre, 
summoned  to  her  parlor-lectures  the  most  distinguished  men  of 
the  time  in  Paris,  of  all  churches,  Catholic,  Protestant  and  Jew- 
ish, and  outsiders  of  every  school  of  philosophy.  Their  wonderful 
unanimity  in  accepting  the  idea  and  system,  as  developed  in  her 
lectures,  was  expressed  in  letters  to  her  from  all  of  them,  includ- 
ing the  Cardinal  of  Tours,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Paris,  the 
Abbe  Michaud,  and  many  Catholic  savants;  Michelet,  Edgar 
Quinet,  Auguste  Comte,  Protestant  pastors,  Harmonists,  etc , 
etc.  These  letters  she  has  printed  as  an  appendix,  making  one- 
half  of  her  volume,  which  is  entitled  "  Die  Arbeit,"  relative  to 
Frobel's  Education,  which  was  the  resume  of  her  lectures  at  the 
Louvre.  This  unanimity  of  assent  is  the  best  proof  that  the 
element  in  which  the  Kindergarten  works  is  that  of  universal 
humanity,  not  yet  narrowed  from  "the  kingdom  of  heaven," 
which  Christ  declared  that  children  represent,  in  their  pre-intel- 
lectual  era,  when  the  Kindergarten  takes  them  from  the  moth- 
er's nursery,  to  initiate  them  into  the  society  of  their  equals. 
Madame  Marenholtz  also  carried  the  system  into  Belgium,  and 
the  first  guide-book  of  the  method  "  Le  Jardin  des  Enfants " 
was  published  in  Brussels  by  F.  Claasen,  with  an  introduction 
by  herself.  She  then  went  into  England,  where,  however,  she 
had  been  preceded  by  Madame  Konge,  one  of  that  Meyer  family 
of  North  Germany  which  has  been  always  a  munificent  benefac- 
tor of  education, — Henry  Adolf  having  given  to  Hamburg  its 
Zoological  Garden  and  Aquarium,  the  finest  foundations  of  the 
kind  in  the  world  j  and  he  is  still  the  most  enthusiastic  patron 
of  Frobel's  Kindergarten. 

But  in  England  some  accidental  collateral  circumstances  inter- 
fered with  Madame  Ronge's  perfect  work,  and  broke  her  heart. 
The  seeds  of  Kindergarten  were  however  planted  in  several  local- 
ities, and  some  good  work  done,  among  others  by  Madame  du 
Portugall  at  Manchester,  who  is  now  the  Inspector  of  Primary 
Education  in  her  native  city,  Geneva,  Switzerland,  and  is  gradu- 


FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN.  9 

ally  making  the  Kindergarten  the  foundation  of  the  primary  ed- 
ucation there. 

But  the  most  important  establishment  on  the  Continent  for  the 
education  of  Kindergartners  is  in  Dresden,  founded  in  1872  by 
the  Union,  which  grew  up  since  1867,  out  of  the  Committee  of 
Education  of  the  Congress  of  Philosophers  that  met  in  Prague 
that  year.  This  committee  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
ultimate  results  on  individuals  of  the  Kindergarten  education 
given  by  Frobel  with  Middendorf,  who  had  been  his  faithful  friend 
and  coadjutor  at  the  school  for  boys  founded  by  them  both  at 
Keilhau  in  1817,  long  before  the  Kindergarten  was  named  in 
1839.  It  took  more  than  twenty  years  of  earnest  experiment- 
ing to  enable  Frobel  to  arrive  at  the  complete  Kindergarten 
practically.  In  that  year  he  gave  it  its  very  expressive  name. 
As  long  before  as  1827  he  had  published  Erziehung  der  Mensch 
(the  Education  of  Mankind),  a  book  addressed  to  the  mother,  in 
which  is  found  all  the  elementary  principles  of  Kindergarten 
except  one.  In  this  book  he  took  the  ground  that  the  mother 
exclusively  should  be  the  educator  of  the  child  till  it  was  seven 
years  old;  but  a  dozen  years  of  observation  had  taught  him  in 
1839,  that  no  mother  had  the  leisure  and  strength  to  do  for  her 
child  all  that  needed  to  be  done  in  its  first  seven  years,  without 
assistants  and  in  the  narrow  precinct  of  a  single  family.  For 
the  social  and  moral  nature,  after  three  years  old,  requires  a 
larger  company  of  equals.  The  Kindergarten  does  just  what 
neither  the  home  nor  the  primary  school  can  do  for  a  child. 

In  1867,  at  the  re-assembling  of  the  "Congress  of  Philoso- 
phers "  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  the  Committee  of  Inquiry  ap- 
pointed at  Prague,  of  which  Prof.  Fichte  of  Stuttgart,  son  of  the 
great  J.  G.  Fichte,  was  chairman,  reported  that  the  pupils  taught 
at  the  Kindergarten  age  by  Frobel  himself,  had  been  looked  up 
at  the  universities  and  elsewhere,  and  been  found  to  be  of  excep- 
tional intelligence  :  and  that  they  themselves  ascribed  it  to  their 
Frobel  education  in  the  "  connection  of  contrasts  "  or  "  law  of 
equipoise,"  that  secret  of  all  nature  and  true  life. 

At  this  meeting  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  the  Baroness  Maren- 
holtz  had  four  afternoons  assigned  her  to  explain  FrobePs  idea 
and  method,  and  the  result  was  the  formation  of  the  General 
Union,  and  the  establishment  of  its  organ,  Die  Erziehung  der 
Geyenwart,  together  with  the  Training  College,  at  Dresden. 

I  will  send  you  the  first  report  of  the  activity  of  this  society 


10 


FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN. 


which  you  can  use  if  you  think  best  in  making  up  your  volume. 
Mrs.  Kriege  has  translated  and  sent  it  to  me  for  the  meeting, 
which  is  postponed  until  Easter.  I  will  also  send  the  Baroness's 
own  letter  to  me,  though  it  is  rather  sad.  She  feels  the  immense 
difficulties  of  planting,  amid  the  stereotyped  conservatisms  of 
Europe,  this  living  germ,  which  requires  the  fresh-plowed  un- 
worn soil,  and  all  the  enlivening  influences  of  the  American  na- 
tionality, in  its  pristine  vigor,  as  is  intimated  by  the  flourishing 
growth  at  St.  Louis  and  California,  especially  of  the  public  Kin- 
dergartens there. 

BRIEF   NOTICE   OF    THE    KINDERGARTEN   IN   AMERICA. 

After  your  own  articles  on  Frb'bel  in  your  Journal  in  1856 
and  1858,  nothing  was  said  in  America  till  the  review  in  the 
Christian  Examiner,  in  1859,  Boston,  of  "  Le  Jardin  des  En- 
fants"  In  the  course  of  the  next  ten  years  some  innocent, 
because  ignorant,  inadequate  attempts  were  made  at  Kindergar- 
tens, but  without  such  study  into  the  practical  details  of  the 
method  as  to  do  any  justice  to  Frobel's  idea  ;  and,  on  the  whole, 
the  premature  attempt  was  unfortunate.  The  most  noted  one 
was  my  own  in  Boston  ;  but  I  must  do  myself  the  justice  to  say 
that  I  discovered  its  radical  deficiency,  by  seeing  that  the  results 
promised  by  Frobel,  as  the  fruit  of  his  method,  did  not  accrue,  but 
consequences  that  he  deprecated,  and  which  its  financial  success 
and  the  delight  of  the  children  and  their  parents  in  the  pretty 
play-school  did  not  beguile  me  into  overlooking.  Hence  I  went, 
in  1867,  to  Europe,  to  see  the  Kindergartens  established  and 
taught  by  Frobel  himself  and  his  carefully  educated  pupils ;  and 
I  returned  in  1868,  zealous  to  abolish  my  own  and  all  similar 
mistakes,  and  establish  the  real  thing,  on  the  basis  of  an  adequate 
training  of  the  Kindergartners. 

My  plan  was  to  create,  by  parlor  lecturing  in  Boston,  a  demand 
that  should  result  in  our  sending  to  Lubeck,  Germany,  for  Friiu- 
lein  Marie  Boelte  (now  Mrs.  Kraus-Boelte  of  New  York)  to 
come  to  Boston  and  establish  a  model  Kindergarten  and  a  train- 
ing school  for  Kindergartners,  inasmuch  as  she  was  one  of  the 
few  ladies  of  position  and  high  culture  in  Germany  who,  from 
purely  disinterested  motives,  had  become  a  Kindergartner.  She 
had  studied  three  years  with  Frobel's  widow  in  Hamburg,  and 
went  to  England  with  Madame  Ronge,  and  was  her  most  efficient 
assistant,  and  had  a  high  reputation  there,  where  she  had  ac- 


FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN. 


II 


quired  the  language  in  that  perfection  necessary  to  teach  little 
children  orally.  1  knew,  from  a  distinguished  relative  of  hers, 
that  she  would  be  willing  to  sacrifice  everything — and  it  was  a 
great  deal  she  had  to  sacrifice — to  come  to  America,  because  she 
knew  that  Frobel  had  said  that  the  spirit  of  the  American  na- 
tionality was  the  only  one  in  the  world  with  which  his  creative 
method  was  in  complete  harmony,  and  to  which  its  legitimate 
institutions  would  present  no  barriers. 

But  when  I  came  back  to  Boston,  I  found  Madame  Kriege  and 
her  daughter  already  there,  and  the  enterprise  had  to  contend 
with  an  unprepared  public,  which  had  been  also  misled  by  my 
own  unfortunately  precipitate  attempts,  and  others  which  had 
perhaps  grown  out  of  mine. 

But  something  valuable  was  done  by  the  intelligent  and  faith- 
ful labors  of  Mrs.  Kriege  and  daughter  during  the  next  four 
years  j  and  then  Miss  Boelte  came  to  New  York  on  invitation  of 
Miss  Haines  of  Gramercy  Park,  at  the  moment  that  Mrs.  Kriege 
and  her  daughter  returned  to  Europe  for  a  vacation.  A  pupil  of 
Madame  Kriege,  Miss  Garland,  who  associated  with  herself  a 
pupil  of  her  own,  Miss  Weston,  has  carried  on  the  Kindergarten 
training  school  of  Boston  with  great  fidelity.  These  two  train- 
ing schools  are  still  doing  the  best  work.  Mrs.  Kriege  and 
daughter  also  returned  to  America  in  1874,  and  as  Miss  Boelte 
married  Mv.  Kraus  and  became  independent  in  her  work,  they 
took  her  place  with  Miss  Haines  for  two  years.  There  have  also 
branched  from  Mrs.  Kraus's  school  the  work  of  Miss  Blow,  who 
has  kept  a  free  training  school  at  St.  Louis,  since  1872,  and  is  now 
inspector  of  the  more  than  fifty  free  Kindergartens  established 
by  the  municipality  of  that  city  ;  and  a  training  school  in  Iowa 
by  another  of  Mrs.  Kraus's  pupils.  Mrs.  John  Ogden  of  Worth- 
ington,  Ohio,  is  also  a  valuable  trainer,  a  pupil  of  Miss  Garland ; 
also  another,  Miss  Alice  Chapin,  in  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  and 
another  in  connection  with  the  Brooks  school  of  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Of  Mrs.  Ogden's  pupils,  Miss  Sara  Eddy  and  Mrs.  A.  H.  Put- 
nam, both  of  Chicago,  and  Miss  Burritt,  known  as  "the  Centen- 
nial Kindergartner  of  the  Great  Exhibition."  and  the  Misses 
Mclntosh  of  Montreal,  P.  Q.,  are  at  present  training  Kindergart- 
ners  with  success.  Mrs.  Van  Kirk  of  Philadelphia,  who  studied 
three  years  with  the  best  pupils  of  Miss  Garland,  practicing  all 
the  while  in  a  Kindergarten  of  her  own,  in  which  one  of  them 
was  principal,  has  also  a  training  school  in  Philadelphia.  One 


12  FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN. 

of  Miss  Burritt's  pupils  has  this  year  been  appointed  training 
teacher  of  a  class  of  Kindergartners  at  the  Baltimore  Normal 
school,  where  she  also  keeps  a  model  Kindergarten. 

There  are  three  other  training  schools  kept  by  German  ladies — 
Miss  Anna  Held,  in  Nashua,  N.  H.,  Miss  Susie  Pollock,  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  both  of  whom  were  graduates  of  a  training  school 
in  Berlin,  and  Miss  Marwedel,  once  having  her  training  school  in 
Washington,  and  now  in  Berkeley,  California,  a  woman  of  bril- 
liant genius,  who  has  studied  Frobel's  works  by  herself  very  pro- 
foundly, according  to  the  testimony  of  Madame  Kriege,  and  who 
proved  her  understanding  of  Frobel  by  the  beautiful  results  in 
her  Kindergarten  at  Washington.  A  pupil  of  hers,  Miss  Graves, 
succeeded  her  in  Washington  when  she  left  for  California,  and 
Miss  Pollock  and  her  mother  have  a  training  school  there.  There 
must  be  a  good  deal  to  choose  with  respect  to  these  several  train- 
ers. Of  those  trained  in  Germany  I  can  myself  fortn  no  judg- 
ment, with  the  exception  of  Madame  Kraus-Boelte,  all  of  whose 
remarkable  antecedents  I  know,  and  whose  work,  both  here  and 
in  Europe,  I  know.  She  has  the  obvious  advantage  of  having 
been  more  than  twice  as  long  at  work  as  any  other,  and  from 
spontaneous  enthusiasm,  and  having  had  the  nearest  relations  to 
Frobel  Mrs.  Kraus-Boelte  always  cries  aloud  and  spares  not  in 
deprecation  of  recent  students  and  not  long  experienced  Kinder- 
gartners undertaking  to  train  others,  and  has  much  and  most  true 
things  to  say  of  the  profoundness  of  insight  and  depth  of  expe- 
rience necessary  in  order  to  be  sufficient  to  undertake  the  respon- 
sibilities of  a  Kindergartner,  which  are  even  greater  than  those  of 
the  Christian  clergyman,  because  children  are  more  utterly  at  the 
mercy  of  their  Kindergartner  than  the  adult  at  that  of  the  cler- 
gyman. Mrs.  Kraus  would  have  the  American  Frobel  Union  do 
something  very  emphatic  to  check  those  who,  as  she  thinks,  rush 
too  rashly  upon  holy  ground,  where  "angels  fear  to  tread." 

But  no  society  has  the  power  to  take  the  place  of  conscience 
and  reason,  which  are  the  only  real  guardians  of  the  purity  and 
efficiency  of  the  Kindergartner's  or  of  the  clergyman's  office. 
All  that  the  American  Frobel  Union  can  do  is  to  provide  a  stand- 
ard library  of  Kindergarten  literature,  and  at  its  meetings,  and 
by  correspondence  with  Kindergartners'  reunions  and  auxiliary 
societies,  propagate  the  science  and  art  of  Frobel,  and  do  its  best 
to  keep  the  Kindergartners  careful  and  studious,  humble  and  dil- 
igently progressive  ;  fitting  themselves  to  Hue  with  the  children 


FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN 


13 


genially  and  to  their  edification,  by  themselves  becoming  as  little 
children,  and  living  their  own  lives  over  again,  religiously  and 
morally,  in  the  light  of  Frobel's  idea,  and  so  becoming  capable 
of  character-forming  and  mind-building,  by  sincere  study  of  nat- 
ure, material,  human  and  divine. 

The  Union  was  formed  primarily  to  protect  the  name  of  Kin- 
dergarten from  being  confounded  with  methods  of  infant-training 
inconsistent  with  Frobel's  idea  and  system,  and  which  was  as- 
sumed, without  sincerity,  as  a  cover  of  quite  another  thing,  which 
calls  itself  "  the  American  Kindergarten,"  and  claimed  Frobel's 
authority  expressly  for  its  own  devices.  The  society  has  already 
done  this  work  by  giving  a  nation-wide  impression  that  there  is 
the  difference  of  a  genuine  and  a  contrary  thing,  and  awakening 
care  and  inquiry  in  those  who  are  seeking  the  most  desirable  edu- 
cation for  their  little  children. 

I  must  not  omit  to  speak  of  one  professor  of  Frobel's  art  and 
science,  whose  works  sufficiently  praise  him — I  mean  Mr.  W.  N. 
Hailman,  author  of  an  admirable  little  work  called  "  Kindergar- 
ten Culture,"  also  "  Letters  to  Mothers,"  "  Lectures  to  Kinder- 
gartners"  (the  two  latter  first  published  in  "the  New  Educa- 
tion," which  he  edits,  but  now  to  be  had  in  pamphlet  form).  This 
gentleman,  who  learnt  the  system  in  his  native  city  of  Zurich,  has 
been  engaged  for  ten  years  and  more  in  this  country  in  the  Ger- 
man-American schools  of  Louisville,  Milwaukee,  and  now  in  De- 
troit, and  earned  the  money  to  enable  his  wife  (American-born) 
to  carry  on  a  Kindergarten,  as  he  is  doing  again  now  in  Detroit, 
and  also  keeping  with  her  a  free  training  school  for  Kiiidergart- 
ners  in  that  city.  I  do  not  know  any  one  who  has  made  such  sub- 
stantial sacrifices  to  the  cause,  or  is  doing  more  for  it  now. 

And  now  a  word  upon  the  American  Frobel  literature  and  I 
have  done. 

The  first  publication  in  America,  except*  some  letters  by  Mr. 
John  Kraus,  in  the  Army  and  Navy  Gazette  and  other  newspa- 
pers, and  my  own  letters  in  the  New  York  Herald,  of  1867-8, 
was  the  "Plea  for  Frobel's  Kindergarten  as  the  Primary  Art 
School,"  appended  to  the  "  Artisan  and  Artist  Identified," — an 
American  re-publication  of  Cardinal  Wiseman's  lecture  on  "  the 
Relations  of  the  Arts  of  Design  and  the  Arts  of  Production," 

*Earlier  than  either  was  a  pamphlet  issue  of  an  article  in  the  American  Journal  of 
Education  for  September,  1856,  which  by  successive  enlargements  in  1858,  1861,  and 
1867,  was  continued  011  the  List  of  Barnard's  Educational  Publications,  and  substan- 
tially embodied  in  the  first  edition  of  "  German  Pedagogy"  in  1867. 


14  FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN. 

Boston,  1869 ;  the  next  was  the  article  on  '•  Kindergarten  Cul- 
ture," in.  the  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Education  for  1870.  I 
see  you  mean  to  re-publish  these  in  your  volume.  I  also  re- 
published,  revised  in  1869,  the  "  Moral  Culture  of  Infancy  and 
Kindergarten  Guide,"  by  which  I  had  misled  the  public,  previ- 
ous to  my  visit  to  Europe,  in  1867  ;  and  in  1873,  two  lectures,  one 
on  the  "  Education  of  the  Kindergartner,"  and  one  on  the 
"Nursery,"  in  which  I  state  the  grounds  of  Frobel's  authority. 
In  that  same  year  came  out  the  "Resume"  of  Mrs.  Kriege's  in- 
structions to  her  training  class,  which  she  names  "The  Child  in 
its  threefold  Nature  as  the  Subject  of  the  Kindergarten,"  and 
with  most  honorable  intentions  she  called  it  a  free  rendering  of 
the  Baroness  Marenholtz,  which  has  unfortunately  led  many  to 
suppose  it  was  a  translation  of  the  Baroness's  book  on  '*  the  Be- 
ing of  a  Child,"  which  it  is  not,  as  she  desires  should  be  dis- 
tinctly stated,  that  it  may  not  preclude  a  possible  English  trans- 
lation of  that  work.* 

But  in  1871,  Milton  Bradley,  a  toy  manufacturer  of  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  and  a  very  intelligent  man,  became  interested,  by 
Mr.  Edward  Wiebe,  in  the  Kindergarten  idea,  and  under  his  ad- 
vice, undertook  the  manufacture  of  Frobel's  materials,  in  the 
faith  that  there  would  presently  be  a  remunerative  demand  for 
them.  He  also  published  a  manual  to  show  their  use,  which  was 
largely  a  selection  from  Goldammer's  German  Guide,  both  as  to 
plates  and  matter;  to  which  Mr.  Wiebe  prefixed  also  an  exact 
translation  of  the  Baroness  Marenholtz's  introduction  to  that 
work  (but  without  giving  credit).  The  work  was  called  "  Paradise 
of  Childhood,"  but  was  a  different  thing  from  Lina  Morgenstern's 
German  book  of  the  same  title.  Within  a  year,  Mr.  Bradley  has 
re-published  the  plates  of  this  work,  but  with  other  letter-press 
of  a  superior  character,  credited  to  the  Kindergartners  of  Flor- 
ence, Massachusetts.  I  think  Mr.  Bradley  himself  was  the 
author  of  the  very  valuable  chapter  on  the  manipulation  of  the 
scalene  triangle.  The  chapters  on  the  Second  Gift  and  the  Fifth 
Gift  are  better  than  those  of  any  other  manual  that  I  have  seen. 

In  1873,  I  began  to  edit  the  Kindergarten  Messenger,  and 
carried  it  through  the  years  1873-4-5  and  7,  affording  many  able 
persons  opportunity  to  express  themselves.  There  is  one  article 
which  I  have  twice  printed  arid  which  I  wish  you  would  re-print 

*Such  a  translation  has  been  made  by  Miss  Alice  M.  Christie,  (London  :  W.  Swan 
Sonneschein,  15  Paternoster  Square,  1879,)  and  will  be  republished  in  the  Kinder- 
garten Papers. 


FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN.  15 

in  your  volume  :  Miss  Garland's  paper  on  Frb'bel's  "  Law  of  Con- 
trasts and  their  Connection,"  which  is  the  best  statement  I  have 
seen  made  of  this  fundamental  principle,  in  which  lies  the  secret 
of  the  power  of  the  system.  There  may  be  other  articles  you 
may  wish  to  preserve ;  especially  do  I  wish  to  suggest  to  you  to 
consider  Mrs.  Aldrich's  address  to  her  mothers7  class  in  an  article 
called  "Mothers'  Unions,"  in  the  double  number  for  March  1877. 

During  1876  our  Kindergarten  Messages  were  put  into  the  New 
England  Journal  of  Education,  but  discontinued  because  the 
editor  advertised  and  recommended  the  spurious  so-called  Amer- 
ican Kindergarten ;  and  since  1877  the  New  Education,  edited 
by  Mr.  Hailman,  has  been  our  Kindergarten  Messenger. 

The  American  Frobel  Union  commenced,  in  1871,  the  Stand- 
ard Library  for  Kindergartners  and  Parents,  by  publishing  Mrs. 
Horace  Mann's  translation  of  the  Baroness  Marenholtz's  "  Rem- 
iniscences of  Frobel,"  and  in  1878,  a  fac  simile  reproduction  of 
Frobel's  most  characteristic  work,  *'  Mother  Play  and  Nursery 
Songs,"  with  the  music  and  engravings ;  the  songs  being  trans- 
lated in  the  very  cadence  of  the  music  by  Miss  F.  E.  Dwight, 
and  the  explanatory  notes  by  Miss  Josephine  Jarvis.  When  our 
treasury  shall  be  large  enough  to  afford  it,  a  translation  of  the 
Erziehung  der  Mensch  and  his  posthumous  works,  edited  by 
Wichard  Lange  of  Hamburg  (son-in-law  of  Middendorf),  will  be 
added.  Meanwhile  the  Union  considers,  as  a  part  of  the  Stand- 
ard Library,  Mrs.  Kraus-Boelte's  Guide  and  Manual,  which  is  in 
the  course  of  publication  by  E.  Steiger,  25  Park  Place,  New  York, 
and  most  of  the  Kindergarten  literature  which  he  publishes,  in 
English  and  German,  and  especially  his  "  Kindergarten  Tracts," 
so  called,  which  he  sends  to  all  who  ask  for  them,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  an  order  with  six  cents.  The  5th,  9th,  and  14th  of 
these  tracts  have  diffused  an  immense  amount  of  information  all 
over  the  country.  Mr.  Steiger  also  imports  all  the  materials  of 
occupation  and  gifts  and  is  a  truly  liberal  propagandist  of  the 
idea  of  Frobel. 

But  I  must  here  put  in  a  caveat.  The  interest  of  manufactur- 
ers and  of  merchants  of  the  gifts  and  materials  is  a  snare.  It 
has  already  corrupted  the  simplicity  of  Frobel  in  Europe  and 
America,  for  his  idea  was  to  use  elementary  forms  exclusively, 
and  simple  materials, — as  much  as  possible  of  these  being  pre- 
pared by  the  children  themselves. 

And  here  I  would  say  a  word  respecting  all  reputed  improve- 


16  FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN. 

ments  on  Frobel.  Of  these  pretensions  we  cannot  be  too  jealous. 
Frobel,  in  his  half  century  of  experimenting,  very  thoroughly 
explored  the  prime  necessities  of  the  Kindergarten  age.  Chil- 
dren under  seven  years  old,  at  least  at  three  or  four,  are  very 
much  alike  in  all  countries  and  ages. 

And  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  but  one  harmony  of  nature, 
available  for  earliest  education,  was  left  undiscovered  by  Frobel, 
and  that  is  the  discovery  of  Mr.  D.  Batchellor,  of  the  use  to  be 
made  of  colors  in  teaching  children  the  elements  of  music.  He 
is  to  explain  this  and  his  happy  experiment  in  Miss  Garland's 
Kindergarten  at  our  next  meeting. 

But  the  heights  and  depths  of  the  moral  and  religious  nature 
of  children  will  open  more  and  more  on  mankind,  as  progress  is 
made  in  moral  refinement ;  and  will  open  on  the  Kindergartners 
deeper  and  clearer  views  of  Frobel's  moral  idea,  which  it  seems 
to  me  is  nothing  less  than  Christ's  idea  of  the  child,  of  whom 
He  says,  "  Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  and  "  He  that 
receiveth  a  little  child  in  my  name  receiveth  me." 

Before  you  close  your  projected  volume  of  the  history  and  ex- 
position of  Frobel's  reform,  I  hope  we  shall  have  our  postponed 
meeting,  and  hear  the  papers  from  Mr.  Batchellor  and  others,  on 
practical  points  of  Kindergartening ;  and  those  of  Dr.  W.  T. 
Harris,  Rev.  R.  H.  Newton,  Prof.  Felix  Adler,  Dr.  J.  S.  White, 
Thomas  Gushing,  and  other  principals,  on  its  relations  to  the  state, 
church,  and  the  progressive  education  of  humanity. 

ELIZABETH  P.  PEABODY. 


THE  KINDEKGAKTEN  AND  ITS  FOUNDER. 


PREFATORY  NOTE.* 

To  aid  parents  and  teachers  to  a  thorough  understanding  of  the 
Kindergarten — its  genesis  and  growth,  its  theories  and  philosophy, 
its  method  and  processes,  and  to  some  extent  its  relations  to  other 
systems  of  early  training — is  the  object  of  this  publication.  /  Our 
hopes  of  a  better  popular  education  for  our  country  and  the  world 
rest  on  the  universal  understanding  and  recognition  in  the  family 
and  the  school,  of  the  fundamental  ideas  of  Froebel  as  to  the  law  of 
human  development,  and  of  the  intuitional  method  of  both  Pesta- 
lozzi  and  Froebel,  as  the  surest  process  at  once  of  mental  discipline 
and  valuable  attainment. 

In  Froebel's  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Meiningen,  as  published  by 
Dr.  Wichard  Lange,  we  have  the  key  to  some  of  the  mental  peculi- 
arities of  the  founder  of  the  Kindergarten  in  his  own  family,  school, 
and  self  training ;  and  in  his  letter  to  the  Princess  Sophia  of  Rudold- 
stadt  on  the  system  of  Pestalozzi  we  find  the  germs  of  that  child 
culture  which  it  was  the  blessed  results  of  his  restless  and  self- 
sacrificing  life-work  to  develop  and  mature.  The  gradual  ripening 
of  the  Kindergarten  is  shown  in  his  letters  to  Barop  in  1829,  and 
again  in  1836  and  1839,  until,  in  1840,  he  appeals  to  the  women  of 
Germany  "  to  assist  in  founding  an  institution  for  the  nurture  of 
children,  which  shall  be  named  Kindergarten,  on  account  of  its  inner 
life  and  aim." 

In  the  published  observations  and  experience  of  many  thoughtful 
educators  and  teachers  in  our  own  and  other  countries,  we  have  aids 
to  a  fuller  understanding  of  the  underlying  principles  of  Froebel,  to 
such  modifications  of  his  Kindergarten  method  and  processes,  as 
peculiarities  of  individual  children,  or  family  and  national  surround- 
ings may  demand,  and,  above  all,  to  such  changes  in  the  subjects  and 
methods  of  existing  primary  instruction,  as  will  make  the  transition 
from  improved  home  and  Kindergarten  training  to  the  School,  easy 
and  progressive.  If  the  Kindergarten  is  to  form  an  integral  part  of 
the  popular  education  of  our  country,  its  aims  and  methods  must  be 
felt  in  the  Public  Primary  School. 

•  Froebel,  Kindergarten,  and  Child  Culture  Papers :  Republished  from  The  American 
Journal  of  Education,  Henry  Barnard,  LL.D.,   Editor.    Hartford,  1881.    758 
American  Froebel  Union  Edition.    $3.50. 


A  NEW  LIFE  OF  FRIEDERICH  FROEBEL. 

Compiled  from  Original  Documents  in  Dr.  Wichard  Lange's  Collected  Writings  of  Froebcl. 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE. 

The  following  reminiscences  of  Froebel,  and  aids  to  the  better 
understanding  of  his  life-work,by  Dr.  Wichard  Lange,  gathered  from 
articles  he  wrote  upon  Froebel  from  time  to  time,  are  of  inestima- 
ble value,  for  they  show  from  the  outside,  as  he  himself  attempted 
to  do  in  his  autobiographical  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Meiningen  from 
the  inside,  the  growth  of  his  great  idea,  as  well  as  the  estimation 
in  which  he  was  held  not  only  by  the  world,  who  gradually  saw 
in  him  the  great  man  that  he  was,  but  that  of  his  own  inner  circle, 
the  members  of  which  never  lost  their  enthusiasm  and  devotion  to 
him  in  spite  of  some  human  faults  that  one  can  easily  see  grew  out 
of  that  temperament  of  genius  which  makes  anything  unbearable 
to  the  sensitive  soul  of  such  a  man  which  even  threatens  to  inter- 
fere with  the  great  purpose  of  his  life.  Our  sympathy  for  him  is 
quickened  and  intensified  by  the  picture  of  his  shady  side,  and  we 
can  understand  the  magic  power  he  wielded  over  those  whom  he 
found  ready  to  understand  him  and  who  were  capable  of  helping 
him  by  such  devotion  of  life  as  is  seldom  met  with  in  this  world. 

PREFACE    TO   COLLECTED   EDITION    OF   FROEBEL'S   WRITINGS. 

FRIEDERICH  FROEBEL  AND  WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF  were  insepar- 
able in  life.  If  Middendorff  appeared,  Froebel  was  not  far  off. 
Middendorff  came  before  the  German  people  in  1848  and  1861,  and 
after  his  death  that  reputation  which  he  acquired  in  his  life  greatly 
increased.  He  traveled  as  an  apostle  of  the  new  idea  in  those 
districts  and  regions  of  Germany  in  which  the  efforts  of  his  bosom 
friend  were  yet  unknown,  and  by  his  philanthropic,  versatile,  radi- 
ant personality,  and  by  his  powerful  because  heart-winning  and 
persuasive  eloquence,  he  could  not  but  excite  enthusiasm.  He  was 
the  Aaron  who  stood  by  the  side  of  the  heavy-tongued  Moses  as  a 
needed  expositor,  and  softened  the  heart  of  many  a  hardened 
Pharaoh.  Here  in  Hamburg,  up  to  1840,  he  won  unheard  of 
success,  and  fastened  general  attention  upon  the  cause  of  Froebel. 
Froebel  found  a  smooth  path  made  for  him,  but  he  still  had  to 
combat  many  difficulties,  because  people  did  not  and  could  not  find 

*  Thoughts  on  the  Kindergarten  dedicated  to  the  German  Parliament  in  1818. 

2  (17) 


18  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

what  they  had  been  led  to  expect;  namely,  versatility  and  elo- 
quence  like  Middendorff's. 

May  the  little  messenger  of  1861  have  roused  the  desire  and  the 
impulse  to  draw  full  attention  to  the  distinguished  chief  wherever 
the  unskillful  form  makes  the  reading  or  the  understanding  of  the 
idea  difficult.  I  have  endeavored  to  improve  this  form  so  far  as 
such  alteration  is  consistent  with  reverence  for  what  is  thus  criti- 
cised. Originals  must  remain  originals.  I  was  obliged  to  give  a 
new  shape  to  the  autobiography  running  through  almost  the  whole, 
because  its  contents  could  only  thus  be  deciphered  from  an  almost 
unreadable  manuscript. 

Since  Froebel's  appearance  in  Hamburg  in  the  winter  of  1849- 
V  1850,  I  have  been  occupied  uninterruptedly,  even  if  sometimes 
<only  periodically,  with  his  cause.  At  the  period  mentioned  I  was 
ralmost  every  afternoon,  and  often  in  the  night  also,  active  at  his 
side.  He  had  made  me  at  that  time  editor  of  his  paper,  which 
Appeared  weekly,  and  endeavored  to  appropriate  me  wholly  to 
Mmself.  After  a  close  trial  of  myself  I  was  obliged  to  confess 
that  I  was  not  made  to  work  among  little  children  or  for  the 
training  of  kindergartners,  that  my  special  mission  was  the 
education  of  boys,  and  therefore  I  felt  obliged  to  remain  faithful 
to  the  Real  School  to  which  I  once  belonged.  "When  I  declared 
this  to  him,  he  exclaimed,  deeply  displeased,  "  If  you  do  not  come 
now,,  come  ten  years  hence,  but  you  must  surely  come! ''  I  hope 
that  liis  manes  will  be  appeased  by  my  "  coming  "  now. 

The  first  stimulus  for  editing  Froebel's  writings  I  received 
through  the  superintendent  of  the  educational  institute  at  Keilhau, 
the  cradle  of  the  Frobelian  efforts,  Johannes  Arnold  Barop.  At 
my  last  visit  he  conversed  daily  with  me  of  the  efficiency  of  his 
aforetime  friend,  of  which  every  place  that  we  set  foot  upon  gave 
testimony.  I  was  made  accurately  acquainted  with  the  whole 
development  of  that  activity,  and  received  an  incidental  oversight 
of  the  printed  and  literary  legacy  of  the  Thuringian  friend  of 
children.  Barop  handed  over  to  me  everything  that  was  at  his 
command,  and  was  not  a  little  amused  when  he  saw  me  at  once 
fall  upon  the  offered  material  in  Keilhau,  in  consequence  of  the 
impetus  he  had  given  me,  and  convert  my  freedom,  which  was  to 
be  devoted  to  recreation,  into  intense  work.  "When  I  returned  to 
-\IIamburg,  Froebel's  widow  delivered  up  to  me  all  that  was  want- 
ing and  which  I  was  seeking.  So  against  my  intention  I  became 
the  editor  of  Froebel's  writings. 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  ]  9 

It  has  not  been  easy  to  wind  my  way  through  his  numerous 
scribblings,  to  separate  the  essential  and  the 'unessential,  and  to 
use  only  wnat  is  necessary  for  the  full  understanding  of  the  idea 
and  the  correct  estimate  of  the  founder.  Even  a  selected  edition 
should  not,  in  my  opinion,  go  beyond  bounds,  for  the  price  of  the 
whole  naturally  rises  with  the  dimensions,  and  in  proportion  the 
difficulty  of  its  general  dissemination.  I  trust  the  selection  I  offer 
will  fully  answer  its  purpose. 

Three  chronological  errors  which  I  have  found,  I  will  here 
correct.  Henrietta  Wilhemine  Hofmeister  was  born,  not  on  the 
20th,  but  on  the  17th  of  September,  1780.  Froebel  was  not  an 
assistant  in  the  mineralogical  museum  at  Berlin  in  the  summer  of 
1813,  but  in  August,  1814.  He  did  not  die  on  the  21st  of  July, 
but  on  the  21st  of  June,  1852. 

In  regard  to  my  remarks  on  the  letter  to  Krause,  I  will  here 
confess  to  the  votaries  of  Friederich  Froebel  that  I  do  not  con- 
sider it  right  that  the  shady  side  of  this  remarkable,  indeed  this 
great  man,  should  be  carefully  covered  up  by  his  friends.  I  think 
we  should  honor  the  truth  here  as  elsewhere,  and  that  by  such 
uprightness  we  injure  neither  the  man,  who  could  as  little  be  an 
angel  in  human  form  as  other  men,  nor  his  cause,  which  will  stand, 
so  far  as  it  has  emanated  from  God,  the  source  of  all  truth.  We 
are  much  more  likely  to  obtain  a  favorable  judgment  from  all 
thoughtful  and  quietly  investigating  men.  who  are  not  inclined  or 
accustomed  to  throw  away  the  true  metal  with  the  schlag,  by  such 
considerate  uprightness.  On  this  ground  I  shall  never  fear  to 
speak  freely  of  the  human  imperfections  of  a  man  who  has  done 
and  brought  into  use  so  much  good. 

I  see  in  this  man  the  future  reformer  of  the  education  of  little 
children  in  their  homes.  Only  in  the  closest  connection  with  his 
efforts  will  it  be  possible  for  the  female  sex  to  obtain  that  culture 
and  those  means  of  help  of  which  this  whole  half  of  humanity  is 
capable,  in  order  to  fulfil  intelligently  their  high  mission.  The 
recognition  of  this  will  stimulate  me  ultimately,  on  the  ground  of 
the  practical  works  of  Froebel  which  are  now  partially  at  hand  in 
these  three  volumes,  to  issue  a  "  Book  on  the  Care  of  Childhood," 
and  with  it  to  venture  a  comprehensive  essay  to  make  accessible  to 
all  the  ideas  and  plans  of  the  founder  of  kindergartens,  so  as  at 
the  same  time  to  supplement  those  ideas  and  plans  by  whatever 
science  and  life  have  brought  to  me  of  insight  and  experience 
since  Friederich  Froebel's  death.  May  fate  not  put  any  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  this  purpose! 


20  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

1  believe  farther,  that  Dr.  Karl  Schmidt  is  right  when  he  sees 
in  the  efforts  of  this*  original  pedagogue  of  ours  those  principles 
which  will  again  set  in  motion  and  bring  to  flood  tide  the  peo- 
ple's education  of  the  time.  Froebel  will  excite  the  need  for 
learning  by  learning;  he  will  not  alone  develop  receptivity  by 
means  of  productivity,  according  to  Pestalozzi,  but  will  develop 
men  directly  through  productivity.  It  is  not  difficult  to  point  out 
that  a  reformation  in  instruction  can  be  easily  attained  on  the 
ground  *of  its  demands,  and  that  one  may  think  of  that  reforma- 
tion without  meaning  a  total  revolution,  of  which  now  and  then 
there  is  foolish  talk.  Its  radical  demand,  that  we  must  let  univer- 
sal life  and  especially  the  life  of  nature  influence  the  child,  will 
very  rarely  be  able  to  adapt  itself  to  the  reality  of  things.  The 
theory  which  considers  the  universe  as  an  organic  whole  and  man 
as  a  member  of  the  whole  in  all,  and  which  will  allow  the  laws  of 
education  to  be  dictated  chiefly  by  the  laws  of  life,  governed 
Froebel  through  and  through,  governs  the  present  time,  and  will 
make  its  influence  felt  more  and  more  in  the  educational  field,  and 
if  we  should  find  ten  times  another  ''conformity  to  law"  of  all 
life  as  the  parson's  son  of  Oberweisback  saw  it. 

In  short,  I  look  upon  Friederich  Froebel  as  a  truly  great  man. 
He  who  has  pursued  a  single  thought  for  a  whole  lifetime  and 
served  that  thought  with  the  utmost  self-devotion  and  self  denial, 
who  like  him  is  able  to  set  aside  everything  else  for  this  thought 
and  allow  himself  if  necessary  to  be  stoned  or  hung  on  the  cross 
in  its  service,  who  knew  no  flinching  and  wavering  in  its  presence, 
indeed  even  scarcely  any  weariness,  and  set  aside  everything  the 
world  calls  happiness,  which  he  found  only  in  the  realization  of 
this  thought  (turning  this  thought  into  act),  he  is  a  great  man, 
and  would  have  hunted  himself  down  in  pursuit  of  an  error. 

And  because  Froebel  was  a  great  man,  he  must  for  this  reason 
not  be  forgotten,  and  deserves  the  attention  of  a  nation  to  which 
he  clung  with  infinite  love,  for  whose  outer  and  inner  freedom  he 
fought  literally  on  the  battlefield,  and  which  perhaps  is  the  only 
one  in  the  world  that  would  let  so  ideal-minded  a  man  as  Friede- 
rich Froebel  go  forth  froi^  its  bosom. 

Hamburg,  April  21,  1862. 

DR.  WICHARD  LANGE. 

NOTE. — \\re  hope  yet  to  see  Dr.  Lange's  "Book  on  the  Care  of 
Childhood:'— TR. 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  21 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY    IX    LETTER    TO    THE    DUKE    OF    MEININGEN.* 

Early  Childhood — Loss  of  Mother. 

I  AVAS  born  in  the  Thuringian  forest  in  Oberweissbach,  a  village  of  Schwarz- 
burg,  April  21,  1782.  My  father,  who  died  in  18U2,  was  then  priest,  or 
pastor,  there.  I  was  early  initiated  into  the  painful  struggle  of  life,  and  a 
deficient,  unnatural  education  exerted  its  influence  upon  me.  Soon  after  my 
birth,  my  mother  became  ill,  and,  after  nursing  me  niue  mouths,  died.  The 
whole  outward  direction  and  growth  of  my  life  was  changed  by  thie  painful 
loss.  I  consider  this  event  to  have  affected,  more  or  less,  the  phenomena  of 
my  external  life.  My  father  had  sole  charge  of  a  parish,  scattered  in  six  or 
seven  groups,  numbering  probably  five  thousand  people  ;  which,  even  to  so  ac- 
tive a  man  as  he  was — who,  in  his  conscientiousness,  never  forgot  his  parish — 
Avas  very  arduous  work,  especially  with  the  very  frequent  religious  services 
then  customary.  It  happened,  also,  that  associate  charge  of  a  large  new  church 
was  given  him,  so  that  he  was  more  and  more  drawn  away  from  his  home  and 
children. 

1  was  much  left  to  the  servant,  who  understood  how  to  take  advantage  of  my 
father's  pre-occupation,  and  was  consigned  by  her  (certainly  for  my  good)  to 
my  brothers  and  sisters,  somewhat  older  than  myself.  From  this  and  one  cir- 
cumstance of  my  later  life,  my  indelible  love  for  the  family,  and  especiallv  for 
my  brothers  and  sisters,  may  have  taken  its  rise,  and  which,  up  to  the  present 
moment,  has  had  a  strong  hold  on  my  heart. 

Although  my  father  was  a  stirring,  active  man,  seldom  surpassed  in  his  re- 
lations as  country  pastor  in  education,  learning  and  experience,  yet  I  re- 
mained a  stranger  to  him  through  his  entire  life,  owing  to  these  separations 
caused  by  early  circumstances.  I  had  really  no  more  a  father  than  a  mother. 
Under  these  conditions,  I  grew  to  my  fourth  year,  when  I  received  a  second 
mother  through  my  father's  second  marriage.  My  spirit  must  have  felt  then 
deeply  the  need  of  motherly  and  parental  love,  for  in  that  year  should  have 
come  the  first  period  of  consciousness.  I  remember  that  to  my  new  mother 
I  brought  richly  the  emotions  of  a  simple,  true  child's  love.  They  were  en- 
couraged, developed  and  strengthened  because  they  were  good-naturedly  re- 
ceived and  responded  to.  Yet  I  did  not  long  keep  this  joy — this  good  fortune.  • 
Soon  the  mother  rejoiced  in  a  son  of  her  own,  and  now  she  not  only  withdrew 
her  love  from  me  for  this  one,  but  more  than  indifference  met  me — perfect  es- 
trangement, which  found  expression  in  accent  and  speech. 

I  am  obliged  to  make  this  circumstance  especially  prominent  because  I  rec- 
ognize herein  the  first  cause  of  my  early  introspection,  my  desire  for  self- 
knowledge  and  my  youthful  separation  from  other  human  ties.  Soon  after 
the  birth  of  her  son,  my  second  mother  gave  up  the  trustful  and  soul-uniting 
"  thou,"  and  began  to  address  me  in  the  third  person,  in  a  distant  manner. 
As  the  word  Er  separates  everything,  so  a  great  gulf  was  placed  between  my 
mother  and  me.  I  felt  myself  already,  in  my  dawning  boyhood,  quite  isolated, 
and  my  soul  was  filled  with  grief. 

Dishonorable  people  wished  to  use  this  feeling  and  state  of  mind  to  the  in. 
jury  of  my  mother ;  but  I  indignantly  turned  away  from  them  and  avoided 

*  Translated  by  Miss  Lucv  WUEELOCK,  of  the  Chauncey  Hall  Kindergarten,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 


22  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  ME1NINGEN. 

them  when  I  could.  Under  such  circumstances,  I  early  became  conscious  of 
my  purely  inner  life,  and  the  foundation  was  laid  for  that  becoming  self- 
respect  and  moral  pride  which  has  accompanied  me  through  life.  Temptations 
returned  from  time  to  time,  and  took  a  still  more  threatening  aspect.  Dishon- 
orable things  were  not  only  demanded  of  me,  but  directly  attributed  to  me, 
and  this  in  a  way  which  left  no  doubt  of  the  impropriety  of  the  thing  desired 
and  the  falsehood  of  the  accusations. 

Local  Influences — Family  Life. 

So  I  was  led  on  powerfully  in  my  early  boyhood  to  the  consideration  of  life 
and  its  inner  development  in  opposition  to  its  external  appearances.  My  inner 
and  outer  life,  at  this  time,  even  in  the  midst  of  my  plays  and  activities,  were 
the  principal  object  of  my  thoughts v  and  reflections.  The  location  of  my 
parents'  house  had  also  an  essential  influence  in  the  development  and  formation 
of  my  inner  being.  This  structure  was  closely  surrounded  by  other  buildings, 
walls,  hedges  and  fences,  and  was  further  inclosed  by  a  court-yard  and  by 
grass  and  vegetable  gardens,  entrance  on  which  was  severely  punished.  The 
dwelling  had  no  other  outlook  than  right  and  left  on  houses,  in  front  on  a  large 
church,  and  behind  on  the  grassy  base  of  a  high  mountain.  I  was  thus  de- 
prived of  a  distant  view  ;  only,  above  me  I  saw  the  clear  sky  of  the  mountain 
region,  and  felt  around  me  the  pure  fresh  air.  The  impression  which  this 
clear  sky,  this  pure  air,  made  on  me  has  continuously  remained  present  with 
me.  My  observation  was  truly  directed  on  what  was  near  me  in  nature ;  the 
plant  and  flower  world  became,  so  far  as  I  could  see  and  touch  it,  an  object  of 
my  contemplation  and  thought.  I  early  helped  my  father  in  his  favorite  oc- 
cupation of  gardening,  and  received  in  this  way  many  lasting  impressions ; 
yet  the  anticipation  of  the  true  life  of  nature  first  came  to  me  later — to  which 
I  shall  come  in  the  course  of  my  story. 

The  family  life,  also,  at  this  time  gave  me  much  opportunity  for  self-occupa- 
tion and  reflection.  There  was  much  going  on  in  our  house ;  both  parents 
displayed  great  activity,  loved  order,  and  sought  in  all  imaginable  ways  to 
beautify  their  surroundings.  I  had  to  help  their  activity  according  to  my 
strength,  and  soon  observed  that  I  gained  by  that  means  in  power  and  judg- 
ment. Through  this  increase  of  strength  and  reason,  my  self-organized  plays 
and  occupations  gained  greater  value. 

From  the  free  life  in  nature,  from  the  external  family  life,  I  must  now  turn 
back  to  the  internal  one  that  I  then  led. 

My  father  was  a  theologian  of  the  old  school,  who  considered  knowledge  and 
learning  of  less  value  than  faith,  yet  sought  to  keep  pace,  as  far  as  possible, 
with  the  times.  For  this  purpose  he  took  the  best  publications  of  the  time, 
and  carefully  considered  what  was  offered  to  him  in  them.  This  contributed 
not  a  little  to  the  genuine  Christian  life  that  reigned  in  our  family.  All  the 
members  of  it  were  assembled  morning  and  evening,  even  on  Sundays ;  al- 
though on  that  day  divine  service  brought  us  together  for  a  common  religious 
observance.  Zollikofer,  Hermes,  Marezoll,  Sturm  and  others  led  us  in  these 
excellent  hours  of  thought  and  communion  with  our  inner  selves,  and  tended 
to  the  inspiration,  unfolding  and  elevation  of  our  spiritual  life.  Thus,  my  life 
was  early  influenced  by  nature,  by  work,  and  by  religious  perceptions ;  or,  as 
I  prefer  to  say,  the  natural  and  primitive  tendencies  of  every  human  being 
were  nurtured  in  the  germ. 

In  order  to  develop  later  my  view  of  the  being  of  man,  and  for  the  sake  of 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  ME1NINGEN.  23 

my  professional  and  individual  efforts,  I  must  mention  that  here,  with  feelings 
deeply  stirred,  I  resolved  to  be  truly  noble  and  good. 

As  I  hear  from  others,  this  firm  inner  resolution  often  contrasted  with  my 
outer  life.  I  was  full  of  youthful  spirits  and  the  joy  of  life,  and  did  not  al- 
Avays  know  how  to  be  moderate  in  my  activity,  and  through  carelessness  got 
into  critical  situations  of  all  kinds,  and  in  my  thoughtlessness  destroyed  every- 
thing around  me  that  I  wished  to  investigate  and  become  acquainted  with. 

Since  my  father,  through  his  many  duties,  was  prevented  from  instructing 
me  himself,  and  especially  because  he  had  lost  the  desire  to  do  it,  from  my 
causing  him  so  much  trouble  in  studies  which  were  difficult  to  me,  I  was 
obliged  to  attend  the  public  village  school.  The  relation  of  my  father  to  the 
village  school-teachers,  to  the  director  of  music,  and  the  teachers  of  the  girls' 
school — also,  the  hopes  that  he  cherished  from  the  instruction  of  both — deter- 
mined him  to  send  me  to  the  last-named.  This  choice,  on  account  of  the  neat- 
ness, quiet,  method  and  order  which  reigned  there,  had  an  important  influence 
on  my  inner  development.  In  confirmation  of  this,  I  will  speak  of  my  entrance 
into  the  school. 

First  Entrance  into  School. 

As  in  that  time  church  and  school  stood  in  interchangeable  relations,  so  it 
was  the  case  with  us.  The  school-children  had  appointed  places  in  the  church  ; 
they  were  not  only  obliged  to  attend  church,  but  every  child,  as  a  proof  of  his 
attention  to  the  preaching,  had,  on  Monday  (on  which  day  an  examination 
was  held  for  this  purpose),  to  repeat  to  the  teacher  some  one  of  the  passages 
which  the  preacher  had  used  in  his  discourse  as  proof  texts.  The  one  most 
suitable  for  the  childish  mind  was  then  selected  to  be  committed  to  memory 
by  the  little  ones.  One  of  the  larger  school-children,  at  an  appointed  time,  had 
to  repeat  the  Bible  verse  to  the  smaller  ones,  sentence  by  sentence,  through 
the  whole  week.  The  little  ones,  all  standing,  had  to  repeat  the  same,  sentence 
by  sentence,  until  the  passage  was  perfectly  comprehended  by  every  child. 

I  was  brought  to  school  on  a  Monday.  The  appointed  passage  for  the  week 
was  the  well-known  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God."  I  heard  these  words 
repeated  every  day  in  a  quiet,  earnest,  somewhat  sing-song  childish  tone,  now 
by  one,  now  by  the  whole.  The  verse  made  an  impression  on  me  like  nothing 
before  or  since.  Indeed,  this  impression  was  so  lively  and  deep,  that  to-day 
every  word  lives  freshly  in  my  memory  with  the  peculiar  accent  with  which 
it  was  spoken  ;  and  yet  since  that  time  nearly  forty  years  have  elapsed.  Per- 
haps the  simple  child's  soul  felt  in  these  words  the  source  and  salvation  of  his 
life.  Indeed,  that  conviction  became  to  the  struggling,  striving  man  a  source 
of  inexhaustible  courage,  of  always  unimpaired  joy  and  willingness  in  self- 
consecration.  Enough  to  say,  my  entrance  into  this  school  was  for  me  the 
birth  to  a  higher  spiritual  life. 

Key  to  the  Inner  Life. 

I  pause  here  in  my  recollections  to  ask  myself  whether  I  shall  dwell  longer 
upon  this  first  period  of  my  life ;  yet  this  is  the  time  in  which  the  germs  of  my 
life  unfolded — in  which  the  heart  crisis  occurred — the  first  awakening  of  my 
inner  life.  Should  the  delineation  of  this  earliest  period  be  successful,  the 
comprehension*  of  my  mature  life  and  struggles  will  be  easy.  Therefore,  I 
prefer  to  dwell  upon  it  a  relatively  long  time,  and  so  much  the  more  because 
I  can  then  pass  more  quickly  over  the  later  periods  of  life.  It  seems  to  me  as 
if  it  were  with  this  account  and  view  of  my  life  exactly  as  with  my  educational 


24  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

and  teaching  method;  what  is  set  aside  as  the  most  common  and  insignificant 
appears  to  me  often  the  most  important,  and  it  always  seemed  to  me  a  mis- 
take to  leave  a  gap  in  what  is  original  and  fundamental.  Yet  I  know  well 
that  by  such  a  search  into  the  hidden  springs  of  action  one  may  easily  weary 
those  who  cannot  yet  see  the  whole  picture  clearly  or  comprehend  the  whole 
aim  of  the  representation. 

Contrary  to  the  existing  regulation,  I  was  placed,  by  the  position  of  my 
father  as  village  minister,  in  the  girl's  school.  Hence  I  received  no  place  near 
pupils  of  my  own  age,  but  next  the  teacher,  and  was  so  brought  near  the 
largest  pupils  that  I  shared,  when  I  could,  their  instruction,  especially  in  two 
studies.  At  one  time  I  read  with  them,  and  then  I  had  to  learn,  instead  of 
the  above-mentioned  Bible  quotations,  the  sacred  songs  which  were  sung  on 
Sundays  in  the  church.  There  are  two  songs,  especially,  which  shone  forth 
like  two  clear  stars  in  the  dark  and  awful  morning  twilight :  "  Soar  above,  my 
heart  and  soul ;  "  "  It  (.  osteth  much  to  be  a  Christ."  These  were  songs  of  life 
to  me.  I  found  my  little  existence  pictured  therein,  and  the  purport  of  them 
so  penetrated  my  being  that  in  later  life  I  have  often  strengthened  and  en- 
couraged myself  by  what  then  enriched  my  soul. 

The  domestic  life  of  my  father  accorded  perfectly  with  the  school  arrange- 
ment mentioned  above.  Although  two  divine  services  were  held  on  Sunday, 
yet  seldom  was  I  allowed  to  miss  one  of  these  solemn  occasions.  I  followed 
my  father's  discourse  with  great  attention,  partly  because  I  believed  I  should 
find  therein  many  references  to  his  own  ministerial,  professional,  and  spiritual 
activity.  I  do  not  now  find  it  immaterial  that  at  divine  service  I  sat  apart 
from  the  congregation,  in  the  vestry,  because  I  was  less  distracted  there. 

I  have  mentioned  before  that  my  father  belonged  to  the  old  orthodox  school 
of  theology;  therefore  the  \vell-known,  strong,  highly-colored  language  pre- 
dominated as  well  in  sermon  as  in  song,  a  language  which  I,  in  more  ways 
than  one,  might  denominate  a  stone  language,  because  it  requires  a  strong  ex- 
planatory power  to  free  the  inner  life  therein  contained  from  the  outer  covering. 
Yet,  later,  the  developed  power  appeared  too  weak  to  influence  the  active  life, 
the  stirring,  responsive  strength  of  a  simple,  introspective  young  soul,  one  just 
unfolding  itself — a  mind  asking  everywhere  for  cause  and  connection,  very 
often  after  long  experiment,  investigation  and  consideration. 
Joy  and  Strength  in  Se/f- Activity. 

Whenever  the  thing  ardently  sought  was  found,  I  experienced  great  joy. 
Among  the  circumstances  under  which  I  grew  up,  especially  in  mv  first  child- 
hood, external  charms  influenced  me  much.  They  were  early  an  object  of  at- 
tentive observation  to  me.  The  result  of  this  investigating  and  inquiring 
observation  coming  in  my  earliest  boyhood,  Avas  very  clear  and  marked,  al- 
though directed  not  so  much  to  words  as  to  things.  I  realized  that  the  passing 
influence  of  external  charms  gives  nothing  really  lasting  and  satisfying  to 
man,  and  that  on  this  account  they  are  not  to  be  valued  above  conduct. 

This  result  affected  and  determined  my  whole  life,  as  this  first  consideration 
and  comparison  of  the  inner  and  outer  world,  and  their  interchangeability,  is 
the  key-note  of  my  entire  life  since.  Uninterrupted  self-observation,  self- 
reflection  and  self-education  is  the  key  to  my  life,  early  shown  and  continued 
to  the  later  periods  of  it.  To  arouse,  animate,  awaken  and  strengthen  man's 
joy  in  and  power  for  working  continually  on  his  own  education  had  been  and 
remained  the  fundamental  necessity  of  my  educational  work.  All  my  efforts 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN.  25 

and  methods,  as  a  teacher,  are  directed  towards  the  awakening  and  fostering 
of  this  joy  and  strength,  of  this  personality  by  which  the  human  being  first 
truly  sets  himself  to  work  as  a  man. 

The  hard,  unpleasant  expressions  of  an  orthodox  theology  I  soon  trans- 
formed in  my  imagination,  to  which,  perhaps,  two  circumstances  especially 
contributed.  I  heard  the  same  expressions  an  indefinite  number  of  times  ;  for 
I  lived  also  under  the  precepts  of  the  confirmation  instruction  which  my  father 
imparted  to  his  household.  I  heard  the  terms  in  the  most  different  connec- 
tions, whence  finally  the  conception  sprang  up  of  itself  in  my  soul.  Secondly, 
I  was  frequently  the  silent  witness  of  my  father's  earnest  and  rigid  pastoral 
care  ;  of  the  frequent  interviews  between  him  and  the  many  people  who  vis- 
ited the  parsonage,  to  obtain  counsel  and  instruction.  I  was  thus  again  led 
from  the  outer  to  the  inner  world.  Life,  with  its  most  secret  impulses,  and 
the  words  and  opinion  of  my  father  thereupon,  passed  before  my  eyes,  and  I 
realized  in  this  way  things  and  \vords,  deeds  and  professions,  in  their  most 
vital  connection.  I  saw  the  fragmentary  and  burdened,  torn  and  dismembered 
life  of  man  as  it  appeared  in  this  collection  of  five  thousand  people  to  the  ob- 
servant eye  of  their  earnest  and  resolute  pastor. 

Discordant  Life — Harmony  of  Nature. 

Matrimonial  and  family  relations  were  often  the  subject  of  his  admonitory 
and  corrective  conversation  and  remonstrances.  The  way  in  which  my  father 
spoke  of  this  made  me  consider  the  subject  as  one  of  the  most  pressing  and 
difficult  for  man,  and,  in  my  youth  and  innocence,  I  felt  deep  grief  and  pain 
that  man  alone  among  created  things  should  pay  the  penalty  of  such  a  sexual 
difference  that  made  it  hard  for  him  to  do  right. 

I  could  find  nothing  to  reconcile  that  within  and  without  me  which  was  ab- 
solutely adapted  to  my  mind,  heart  and  inner  need.  And,  indeed,  how  could 
this  be  possible  at  my  age,  and  in  my  position  ? 

Just  then  my  oldest  brother,  who  lived  away  from  home  (like  all  my  older 
brothers  and  sisters),  came  back  for  a  time,  and  when  I  told  him  my  delight  in 
the  purple  threads  of  the  hazel  buds,  he  made  me  notice  a  similar  sexual  dif- 
ference among  flowers.  Now  my  mind  was  satisfied ;  I  learned  that  what  had 
troubled  me  was  a  wide-spread  arrangement  throughout  nature  to  which  even 
the  quiet,  beautiful  growths  of  flowers  were  subject.  Henceforth,  human  and 
natural  life,  soul  and  flower  existence,  were  inseparable  in  my  eyes,  and  my 
hazel  blossoms  I  see  still,  like  angels  that  opened  to  me  the  great  temple  of 
nature.  I  received  what  I  needed  :  in  place  of  the  church,  a  natural  temple ; 
in  place  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  life  of  nature  ;  in  place  of  harmful, 
hating  human  life,  a  quiet,  speechless  plant  life.  Henceforth  it  seemed  as  if  I 
had  the  clew  of  Ariadne,  which  would  lead  me  through  all  the  wrong  and  de- 
vious ways  of  life — and  a  life  of  more  than  thirty  years  with  nature,  often,  it  is 
true,  falling  back  and  clouded  for  great  intervals — has  taught  me  to  know 
this,  especially  the  plant  and  tree  world,  as  a  mirror ;  I  might  say,  an  emblem 
of  man's  life  in  its  highest  spiritual  relations  ;  so  that  I  look  upon  it  as  one  of 
the  greatest  and  deepest  conceptions  of  human  life  and  spirit  when  in  holy 
scripture  the  comparison  of  good  and  evil  is  drawn  from  a  tree.  Nature,  as  a 
whole — even  the  realms  of  crystals  and  stones — teaches  us  to  discriminate  good 
from  evil ;  but,  for  me,  not  so  powerfully,  quietly,  clearly  and  openly  as  the 
plant  and  flower  kingdom. 

I  said  my  hazel  blossoms  furnished  me  Ariadne's  thread.     Much  was  thus 


26  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

solved  to  me  again  and  again  in  an  entirely  satisfactory  way ;  for  example,  the 
first  life  experience  of  the  first  beings  in  Eden,  and  much  that  is  connected 
with  them. 

Three  crises  of  my  inner  life,  which  happened  before  my  tenth  year,  I  must 
bring  out  here  before  I  turn  to  my  outer  life  of  this  period.  As  folly,  miscon- 
ception and  ignorance,  even  in  the  earliest  epoch  of  the  world,  are  presumed  to 
have  determined  its  ruin,  so  it  happened  in  the  time  of  which  I  now  speak.  My 
inner  life  was  then  very  quiet.  I  said  to  myself,  very  determinedly  and  clearly, 
the  human  race  will  not  leave  the  earth  until  it  has  reached  so  much  perfection 
in  this  dwelling-place  as  can  be  reached  on  earth.  The  earth — nature,  in  the 
narrow  sense — will  not  pass  away  until  men  have  attained  a  perfect  insight 
into  the  composition  of  the  same.  This  thought  often  returned  in  different 
aspects  to  me ;  to  it  I  often  owed  rest,  firmness,  perseverance  and  courage. 
Reconcilement  of  Differences. 

Towards  the  end  of  this  period,  my  oldest  brother,  of  whom  I  have  already 
spoken,  was  in  the  university.  He  was  studying  theology.  The  critical  phi- 
losophy of  that  time  began  to  illumine  the  doctrines  of  the  church.  It  could 
not  but  happen  that  father  and  son  were  often  of  different  opinions.  I  remem- 
ber that  once  they  discussed,  with  a  lively  exchange  of  words,  some  religious 
or  church  opinion.  My  father  was  excited,  and  on  no  account  would  give  up. 
My  brother,  although  mild  by  nature,  was  growing  red,  and  could  not  resign 
what  he  held  as  true.  I  was  here  also,  as  so  often,  an  unobserved  listener,  and 
I  still  see  my  father  and  brother  as  they  stood  opposed  in  their  war  of  opinion. 
It  seemed  to  me  almost  as  if  I  comprehended  something  of  the  subject  of  their 
strife,  and  that  I  must  decide  that  my  brother  was  in  the  right ;  and  yet  there 
seemed  to  be  something  in  my  father's  view  that  was  not  entirely  incompatible 
with  a  mutual  understanding.  It  came  to  my  mind  that  in  every  foolish  idea 
there  is  a  true  side  to  be  found,  which  often  misleads  to  a  convulsive,  firm  hold 
of  the  wrong.  This  view  came  out  in  my  life  more  and  more,  and  later,  when 
two  men  in  my  presence  contended  for  the  truth,  I  learned  to  know  it  from 
both.  On  this  account,  I  never  liked  to  take  sides,  and  this  was  my  salvation. 

Another  experience  of  my  youth  which  had  a  definite  influence  upon  my 
inner  life  was  the  following  :  There  are  constantly  recurring,  positive  demands 
in  our  church  religion  to  put  on  Christ,  to  show  Christ  in  the  life,  to  follow 
Jesus,  and  so  on.  These  demands  were  often  presented  to  me  through  my 
father's  zeal  in  teaching  and  his  earnest  life. 

The  child  knows  no  fear  from  the  claims  which  are  adapted  to  the  childish 
spirit.  As  he  receives  to  himself  and  recognizes  the  claim  as  a  whole,  so  he 
wishes  the  fulfillment  of  the  same  to  be  entire  and  perfect.  By  the  so-frequent 
recurrence  of  this  demand  came  to  me  in  its  highest  importance,  also,  the  great 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  its  fulfillment ;  it  even  appeared  to  me  that  the  latter 
was  quite  impossible.  The  contradiction  which  I  believed  I  discovered  in  this 
way  was  oppressive  to  me  in  a  high  degree.  Finally,  the  blessed  thought 
came  to  me :  human  nature,  in  itself,  does  not  make  it  impossible  for  man  to 
live  and  represent  again  the  life  of  Jesus  in  its  purity ;  man  can  attain  to  the 
purity  of  the  life  of  Jesus  if  he  only  finds  the  right  way  to  it.  This  thought, 
by  which  as  often  as  I  think  of  it  I  am  transplanted  to  that  place  and  condition 
of  my  boyhood,  was  by  chance  the  last  of  that  epoch  of  life,  and  so  it  may 
close  the  account  of  my  inner  development  at  that  point.  In  looking  back 
upon  it,  I  see  that  it  was  the  heavenly  moment  of  my  life. 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN.  27 

Disturbed  Outer  Life. 

From  the  delineation  of  my  inner  boy  life  one  might  possibly  infer  a  happy, 
satisfied  outer  life.  Such  a  conclusion  would  not  be  correct.  It  appears  to 
have  been  my  destination  to  set  forth  and  unravel  the  sharpest  and  hardest 
contrasts  and  contradictions.  My  external  life  was,  therefore,  of  an  entirely 
opposite  character.  I  grew  up  without  a  mother ;  my  physical  condition  was 
neglected,  and  through  this  neglect  I  had  acquired  many  bad  habits.  I  liked 
to  be  occupied ;  but  often  erred,  in  my  awkwardness,  in  choosing  material,  time 
and  place.  So  I  often  drew  on  myself  the  highest  dissatisfaction  of  my  parents. 
From  my  aroused  feelings,  I  was  deeply  sensible  of  this,  and  for  a  longer  time 
than  it  lasted  with  them,  and  so  much  the  more  because  I  found  myself  at  best 
at  fault  in  the  scheme,  though  not  in  the  motive.  In  my  mind,  I  saw  always 
one  side,  viewed  from  Avhich  my  doing  the  thing  was  not  entirely  wrong,  still 
less  deserving  of  punishment.  In  my  opinion,  designs  were  attributed  to  my 
actions  which  did  not  lie  in  them.  This  consciousness  first  made  me  what  I 
had  the  credit  of  being — namely,  a  bad  boy.  Finally,  from  fear  of  a  severe 
punishment,  I  concealed  the  most  innocent  transactions,  or  shielded  myself  by 
false  assertions,  when  I  was  asked.  Enough,  I  early  passed  as  bad ;  and  my 
father,  who  did  not  always  have  time  for  investigation,  received  the  thing  as 
it  was  represented  to  him. 

In  play  with  my  half  brothers  and  sisters,  according  to  the  mother's  con- 
stmction  I  was  always  the  occasion  of  all  improprieties  that  happened.  As 
the  sympathy  of  my  parents  separated  itself  from  me,  my  life  separated  more 
and  more  from  them,  and  I  was  deprived  of  contact  and  union  with  men. 

In  this  mournful  condition,  I  ardently  wished  a  change.  I  counted  my 
older  brothers  and  sisters  happy  who  were  all  out  of  the  house.  At  this 
troublous  time,  my  oldest  brother,  already  mentioned  many  times,  returned 
home.  He  appeared  to  me  as  an  angel  of  life;  for  he  recognized  in  and  under 
my  mistakes  the  human  side  of  my  being,  and  took  me  often  under  his  pro- 
tection, with  my  misdemeanors.  After  a  short  time,  he  departed  again,  it  is 
true ;  but  my  inner  being  was  bound  in  the  closest  way  with  his,  and,  after  his 
death,  this  love  was  the  turning-point  of  my  life. 

The  happiness  of  being  able  to  leave  the  paternal  roof  finally  fell  to  my  lot, 
and  it  was  of  the  highest  necessity ;  for  otherwise  the  violent  contradictious  of 
my  inner  and  outer  life  would  necessarily  have  confirmed  the  bad  reputation 
that  had  now  attached  itself  to  me. 

Life  Away  from  Home. 

When  I  was  ten  and  three-quarter  years  old,  a  new  life  began,  quite  differ- 
ent from  the  earlier  one.  I  permit  myself  here  to  make  a  comparison  of  this 
my  early  life  with  my  present,  to  show  how  the  former  is  to  me  the  source  of 
knowledge,  and  experience  for  the  latter. 

As  I,  when  a  child  and  boy,  strove  to  educate  myself  properly,  according  to 
the  laws  placed  by  God  himself  in  my  nature,  although  yet  unknown,  so  I 
strive  now  in  a  similar  way,  according  to  similar  laws,  and  by  a  similar  pro- 
cess, to  educate  men — the  children  of  my  fatherland.  What  I  attained  by  my 
exertions  as  a  boy,  with  a  certain  degree  of  unconsciousness,  man  often  gains 
with  a  certain  degree  of  ignorance,  not  less  truly,  but  generally  under  more 
favorable  circumstances  than  those  which  I  experienced  in  my  boyhood.  So 
life  is  to  me,  in  its  great  and  small  phenomena,  in  those  of  mankind  and  the 
human  race,  as  well  as  in  those  of  the  individual  (although  he  himself  arbi- 


28  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

trarily  distorts  his  life) ;  so  the  present,  past  and  future  is  to  me  an  unbroken, 
continuous,  great  whole,  in  which  one  thing  explains,  justifies,  conditions  and 
demands  another. 

My  childhood  taught  me  that  when  mistrust  exists  where  confidence  should 
be,  where  separation  takes  the  place  of  unity,  when  doubt  is  active  where  be- 
lief in  man  should  operate,  sorrowful  fruits  must  appear,  and  a  burdensome, 
oppressed  life  is  the  consequence. 

I  now  go  back  to  the  recital  of  the  history  of  the  development  of  my  inner 
and  outer  life. 

A  new  life  now  began  for  me,  different  from  the  former  one.  An  uncle  on 
my  mother's  side — Superintendent  Hoffman,  of  Stadt-Ilm — visited  us  this  year. 
He  was  a  gentle,  benevolent  man.  His  appearance  among  us  made  a  benefi- 
cent impression  on  me.  As  an  experienced  man,  he  may  have  perceived  the 
unhappiuess  of  my  situation  ;  for,  soon  after  his  departure,  he  asked  my  father, 
by  letter,  to  give  me  into  his  charge.  Consent  was  easily  and  gladly  given. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1792  I  went  to  him.  His  wife  and  child  had  died 
early.  Only  his  aged  mother-in-law  lived  with  him.  As  austerity  reigned  in 
my  father's  house,  so  here  kindness  and  benevolence.  I  saw  there,  in  respect 
to  myself,  distrust;  here,  confidence;  there,  I  felt  constraint;  here,  freedom. 
While  there,  I  had  been  hardly  at  all  among  boys  of  my  own  age ;  here,  I 
found  certainly  as  many  as  forty  fellow-pupils — for  I  entered  now  the  higher 
class  in  the  town  school.  This  market-town  lies  in  a  quite  broad  valley,  by  a 
clear  little  stream.  My  uncle  had  a  garden,  near  the  house,  which  I  could  visit, 
and  I  was  allowed  to  roam  through  the  whole  region,  if  I  only  appeared  at 
home  again  punctually  at  the  right  time ;  which  was  an  irremissible  law.  I 
drank  here  fresh  courage  in  long  draughts ;  for  the  whole  country  was  to  me  a 

Physical  Growth  and  Play. 

place  of  action,  as  earlier  our  farm  premises  had  been.  I  gained  freedom  of 
mind  and  bodily  strength.  The  eyes  of  our  higher  spiritual  teacher  never  dis- 
turbed our  plays,  which  went  on  in  an  appointed  place  before  him,  and  were 
always  merrily  conducted.  The  frequent  re-action  after  play  was  often  griev- 
ous to  me,  which  took  place  because  my  bodily  strength  and  activity  were  not 
developed  according  to  my  age,  and  my  bold  daring  could  never  supply  the 
quiet,  vigorous  strength,  and  the  knowledge  of  its  limit,  which  my  companions 
enjoyed.  These  happy  ones  had  grown  up  in  the  constant  use  of  their  youthful 
and  boyish  strength  I  felt  myself  fortunate  beyond  measure  when  at  last  I 
was  received  as  an  equal  companion  in  the  play  of  my  school-fellows.  But 
what  afterwards  skill,  purpose  and  life  remedied  in  this  respect,  I  then  felt 
always  a  physical  weakness  at  variance  with  boyish  vigor. 

That  of  which  my  former  education  had  robbed  me  being  supplied,  my  life 
became  vigorous,  outwardly  unconstrained — and,  as  I  am  told,  I  have  made 
this  useful  to  others  in  a  high  degree. 

The  world  lay  open  to  me  as  far  as  I  could  take  it  in.  It  may  be  that  my 
life  at  that  time  was  as  free  and  unconstrained  as  my  former  life  had  been 
confined  and  bounded  ;  at  least  my  youthful  comrades  of  that  time  have  com- 
municated to  me  several  incidents  which  make  me  believe  that  my  gayety  bor- 
dered on  wildness  and  carelessness — so  far  did  I,  even  as  a  boy,  intend  the 
outward  acts  of  my  life  to  be  of  a  more  simple  kind  than  those  of  my  contem- 
poraries. My  heretofore  quiet  life  in  nature  was  now  a  more  free  and  living 
one.  At  the  same  time,  my  uncle's  house  was  a  peaceful,  generally  a  quiet 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  3IEIX1XGEN.  29 

one,  so  that  I  lived  and  grew  in  this  direction  also,  and  now  consequently  a  true 
balance  came  into  inv  life.  Thus  iii  two  places  of  culture  I  was  quite  at  home, 
as  formerly — although  more  frequently  distraction  of  mind  took  possession  of 
me — I  mean,  the  church  and  school.  In  the  latter,  the  hour  of  religious  in- 
struction quite  captivated  me.  Like  my  uncle's  lii'e  and  character — gentle, 
kind,  and  breathing  love — so  were  his  pulpit  utterances.  I  followed  them  en- 
tirely, and  gave  an  account  of  them  at  the  Monday  repetition. 
Religious  and  Scltool  Instruction. 

But  the  religious  instruction  of  our  teacher  was  most  agreeable  to  me.  In 
him  and  through  him  I  received  greater  light  and  higher  confirmation  for 
everything  that  I  had  explained  to  myself.  I  spoke  later,  when  a  young  man, 
of  the  excellence  of  this  instruction,  to  my  uncle,  and  he  expressed  the  opinion 
that  it  might  be  really  good,  but  too  philosophical,  and  for  this  degree  of  ad- 
vancement difficult  to  understand.  "  For  you,"  he  added,  "  it  might  answer, 
because  you  had  already  received  excellent  instruction  from  your  father." 

This  teaching  sufficiently  illuminated,  animated,  warmed,  even  inflamed  me, 
to  whom  it  was  the  thing  desired,  so  that  I  was  often  deeply  affected,  especially 
by  the  representation  of  the  life-work  and  character  of  Jet;us.  I  was  then  dis- 
solved in  tears  and  a  most  decided  longing  filled  my  breast  to  be  able  to  lead 
at  once  a  similar  life.  When  I  now  hear  reports  of  the  youthful  overflow  of 
mv  spirits  at  that  time,  I  must  believe  that  it  may  easily  have  led  the  super- 
ficial observer  to  the  wrong  opinion  that  all  religious  admonitions  and  teach- 
ings passed  over  me  without  making  an  impression.  How  incorrectly  would 
such  an  observer  have  judged  the  true  condition  of  my  inner  life ! 

Heading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  religious  instruction  were  well-conducted  in 
the  school  of  Stadt-Ilm.  Latin  was  miserably  taught  and  yet  more  sparingly 
learned. 

Here,  as  in  many  similar  schools,  the  element  of  generalization  was  entirely 
lacking.  The  time  I  spent  on  Latin  was  not  lost,  in  so  far  as  it  taught  me  that 
a  course  of  instruction  so  carried  on  can  brine1  forth  no  fruit  in  the  scholars. 

Mathematics  lay  very  near  my  nature. ,  When  I  received  private  instruction 
in  this  branch  also,  my  advance  steps  were  so  marked  that  they  bordered  on 
the  by  no  means  small  height  of  knowledge  and  ability  of  my  teacher. 

How  astonished  I  was  when  in  my  twenty-third  year  I  went  to  Yverduu  for 
the  first  time  and  could  not  solve  the  problems  which  were  there  given  to  the 
pupils !  This  was  one  of  the  experiences  which  quickly  captivated  me  with 
Pestalozzi's  manner  of  teaching,  and  decided  me  to  begin  mathematics  anew 
according  to  his  method.  But  of  that  later. 

In  Geography  we  recited  everything  parrot-like,  used  many  words  and  knew 
nothing,  for  there  was  lacking  in  this  instruction,  also,  the  slightest  connection 
with  life  and  any  intuition,  although  we  could  name  properly  our  colored  mar- 
ket towns  and  little  boroughs.  I  received  private  instruction  in  Geography  also. 
My  teacher  wished  to  go  on  with  me  in  this  branch.  He  gave  me  England  to 
study.  I  could  not  place  this  land  in  relation  with  the  villages  and  country  in 
which  I  lived,  and  so  I  received  little  from  this  instruction  likewise. 

Special  instruction  in  German  was  not  thought  of ;  yet  we  received  teaching 
in  writing  and  spelling.  I  do  not  know  with  what  orthography  was  connected. 
I  believe  with  nothing  exactly;  it  floated  in  the  air. 

I  had  instruction,  also,  in  singing  and  playing  the  piano  ;  but  without  result. 
I  mention  all  this  merely  to  connect  it  with  something  later. 


30  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

My  life  during  the  whole  time  of  my  abode  at  my  uncle's  had  three  direc- 
tions ;  the  religious,  the  unfolding  and  establishing  of  that  which  was  expressed 
in  my  boyish  play,  and  the  quietly  active  ideas  gained  in  my  uncle's  peaceful 
home.  To  this  life  I  devoted  myself  fervently,  without  thinking  what  contrasts 
my  outer  life  might  show. 

My  life  passed,  as  that  of  my  school-fellows,  without  a  visible  or  perceptible 
control  over  me,  quite  unrestrained,  and  yet  I  do  not  remember  that  a  base  act 
was  ever  perpetrated  by  any  of  us. 

Influence  of  Manner  on  Children. 

Something  presses  upon  my  thoughts  now,  which,  as  a  teacher,  I  cannot 
leave  unnoticed.  We  had  instruction  from  two  teachers ;  one  was  pedantically 
severe ;  the  other,  the  special  teacher  of  our  class,  was  humane  and  easy.  The 
former  never  effected  anything  with  the  class ;  the  latter,  what  he  wished  ;  and 
if  it  had  been  laid  upon  him,  or  he  had  known  his  strength  and  power,  he 
would  have  been  able  to  accomplish  something  great. 

In  the  little  city  there  were  two  clergymen,  both  directors  of  the  school.  My 
uncle,  the  first  clergyman,  was  mild,  gentle,  and  full  of  feeling,  effective  i-n  his 
life  as  in  his  profession  and  pulpit.  The  second  clergyman  was  rigid,  even 
hard;  he  quarreled  and  found  fault  disproportionately  much.  The  former 
guided  us  by  a  look.  Certainly  few  would  have  been  rude  enough  to  deny 
any  word  of  his  entrance  to  their  hearts. 

The  long  admonitions  of  the  other,  as  a  rule,  passed  over  us  without  making 
any  impression.  My  uncle  was,  like  my  father,  a  true  pastor  of  his  flock ;  but  a 
gentle,  human  friendliness  guided  him.  The  conviction  of  the  truth  of  his 
utterances  guided  my  father ;  he  was  earnest  and  severe.  Both  passed  away 
more  than  twenty  years  since ;  but  how  different  the  two  congregations  appear ! 
In  one  they  are  reckless,  now  that  rigid  control  is  shaken  off,  and  if  I  hear  cor- 
rectly, much  unbridled  license  reigns ;  in  the  other,  the  little  city  elevates  itself 
to  always  greater  prosperity,  and  everything  thrives  from  an  inner  culture  as 
well  as  from  a  true  citizen-like  industry.  I  mention  these  things  because  the 
consequences  laid  hold  on  me  as  a  life  experience. 

In  this  way  I  lived  until  my  confirmation,  a  few  weeks  excepted,  which  I 
passed  with  my  parents  during  the  long  school  vacations  Here  also,  every- 
thing appeared  milder,  and  the  thrifty,  economical  activity  which  went  on  there, 
into  which  I  was  led  anew  during  my  temporary  stay,  exercised  a  very  benefi- 
cent influence  over  me. 

At  that  time  I  sought  first  in  the  library  of  my  father  the  engravings,  espe- 
cially those  which  represented  incidents  in  the  universal  history  of  the  world. 
One  plate  on  which  was  contained  the  representation  of  our  alphabet  together 
with  many  others,  made  a  very  surprising  impression  on  me. 

By  it  I  was  placed  in  a  condition  to  understand  the  dependence  and  the  deri- 
vation of  our  written  characters  from  the  old  Phoenician  letters.  This  gave 
me  a  dark  intimation  of  the  inner  dependence  of  languages,  of  which  I  heard 
and  saw  much  from  my  brother's  studies,  and  from  pursuing  the  investigation 
myself.  The  Greek  especially  lost  in  my  eyes  much  of  its  strangeness  when 
I  recognized  these  written  characters  again  in  German.  The  idea  of  harmony 
that  I  gained  at  that  time  had  no  effect  on  my  life  then,  but  a  powerful  one  at  a 
later  period. 

At  this  time  I  read  many  kinds  of  juvenile  writings.  The  story  of  Samuel 
Lawills  made  a  lively  impression  on  me.  I  wished  a  ring  for  myself  which  by 


\B 

UNIVE 

LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEX. 

a  pressure  on  the  finger  could  inform  me  of  any  objectionable  design  of  the 
hand,  and  I  was  very  indignant  at  the  youthful  possessor  of  this  ring  who 
threw  it  away  in  anger  because  it  pressed  him  quite  hard  in  a  moment  when  he 
wished  to  do  a  passionate  deed. 

The  time  of  my  confirmation  passed,  and  this,  like  the  preparation  for  it,  was 
carried  on  by  my  uncle.  I  experienced  in  this  the  most  effective  and  penetrat- 
ing impression  of  my  life — the  threads  of  my  being  found  their  point  of 
unity  and  rest  at  that  time. 

Choice  of  Vocation. 

I  was  destined  for  some  civil  calling,  and  the  question  was  now  asked — for 
what  ?  It  was  already  decided  by  my  step-mother  that  I  should  not  study. 
Since  two  of  my  brothers  had  devoted  themselves  to  study,  she  feared  that  by 
new  expenses  the  property  of  my  father  would  be  too  much  diminished. 

There  is  in  our  country  a  vocation  which  is  frequently  chosen  by  the  most 
respectable  and  faithful  parents  for  their  sons.  It  is  a  situation  in  financial 
and  mercantile  affairs.  The  aspirants  for  this  course  have  two  ways  of 
entrance  ;  either  the  one  who  enters  it  begins  with  a  subordinate  revenue  offi- 
cer as  secretary,  or  with  one  of  the  highest  civil  officers  as  servant.  As  my 
ability  in  writing  and  reckoning  appeared  to  my  father  satisfactory  and  suffi- 
cient for  this  course,  and  as  he  also  knew  very  well  that  it  would  lead  later  not 
only  to  a  life  free  from  care,  but  to  property,  he  destined  me  for  this  calling. 
But  the  revenue  officer  who  could  use  a  young  man  of  this  kind  gave  reasons 
why  he  could  not  and  did  not  wish  to  receive  me  then. 

Something  in  my  soul  strove  against  either  of  these  two  resources,  something 
which  absolutely  kept  me  from  treading  that  path,  although  all  kinds  of  invit- 
ing allurements  were  held  out.  My  father  meant  well  and  honorably  by  me, 
but  destiny  willed  it  otherwise.  Yet  it  is  extremely  probable  that  in  this  case 
an  externally  careless  and  happy  lot  would  have  fallen  to  me,  while  I  now  have 
to  strive  with  care  and  poverty.  Enough ;  this  course  was  closed  to  me.  My 
wish  and  my  desire  were  now  considered.  I  wanted  to  be  a  husbandman,  but 
in  the  entire  meaning  of  the  word,  for  I  loved  the  mountains,  the  fields  and 
the  woods ;  also  I  heard  that  to  acquire  skill  in  this  department  one  must 
understand  fully  geometry  and  surveying.  After  what  I  had  opportunely 
learned  to  know  of  the  latter,  this  prospect  was  delightful  to  me.  My  father 
sought  to  find  me  a  place,  but  the  stewards  demanded  too  much  apprentice 
money  At  this  time  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  forester  who  had  a  great 
reputation  as  geometrician  and  assessor  of  taxes.  They  came  to  an  agreement, 
and  a  contract  was  made  for  two  years'  instruction  in  forest  matters,  taxing, 
geometry  and  surveying.  I  was  fifteen  years  old  when  I  began,  in  1797,  as 
the  forester's  apprentice.  He  showed  me  repeatedly  his  many-sided  knowl- 
edge, only  he  did  not  understand  the  art  of  teaching  others  ;  also  the  business 
of  water  transportation  did  not  allow  him  to  devote  to  me  the  promised  and 
necessary  time  for  my  instruction.  So  soon  as  I  was  clear  on  that  point,  my 
own  peculiar  life  drove  me  to  use  the  really  good  books  on  forest  affairs  and 
geometry  which  I  found  there.  I  made  the  acquaintance  also  of  a  physician 
of  a  neighboring  market  town,  who  from  love  of  it  indulged  in  physics,  and  he 
gave  me  botanical  books  by  which  I  became  acquainted  with  other  than  wood 
plants.  I  used  the  long  time  of  the  forester's  absence,  during  which  I  was  left 
entirely  to  myself,  for  drawing  a  kind  of  map  of  the  district  in  which  I  lived  ; 
botany,  however,  busied  me  chiefly.  My  church  religion  changed  into  a  relig- 


32  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

ious  life  in  nature,  and  in  the  last  half  year  I  lived  entirely  in  and  with  plants, 
which  attracted  rne  wonderfully,  without,  however,  the  meaning  of  the  inner 
life  of  the  plant  world  yet  dawning  on  me.  The  collecting  and  drying  of  plants 
I  carried  on  with  the  greatest  zeal.  This  time,  in  manifold  ways,  was  devoted 
to  my  self  education,  self  information  and  elevation. 
Influence  of  Theatricals. 

I  now  mention  an  incident,  the  most  important  to  my  inner  condition. 
There  is  a  little  country  town  a  league  distant  from  my  dwelling-place.  A 
company  of  wandering  actors  had  arrived  there  who  played  in  the  princely 
castle.  After  I  had  once  seen  one  representation,  hardly  one  of  the  following 
remained  unsought  by  me.  The  exhibition  made  a  deep  and  vital  impression 
on  me,  and  this  so  much  the  more  as  a  long  denied  nourishment  seemed  to  be 
supplied  to  my  feelings  by  it.  These  impressions  were  much  more  lasting  and 
effective  to  me,  as  every  time  after  the  play  I  retraced  my  way  home  in  a  dark 
or  starry  night  and  worked  over  to  myself  the  purport  of  the  play.  My  inter- 
est led  me  to  seek  the  actors,  and  among  them  an  earnest  young  man  especially 
attracted  me,  with  whom  I  spoke  of  his  calling.  I  congratulated  him  on  being 
a  member  of  a  company  which  was  able  to  cause  such  beautiful  effects  on  the 
human  disposition,  and  expressed  also  the  wish  to  be  a  member  of  such  a  com- 
pany. Then  this  honorable  man  painted  the  actor's  vocation  to  me  as  a  glar- 
ing and  deceptive  evil,  and  confessed  to  me  that  he  had  chosen  this  calling  only 
by  necessity  and  would  soon  leave  it. 

My  father,  to  whom  I  had  freely  revealed  my  attendance  at  the  plays,' 
reproached  me  bitterly  on  this  account,  and  regarded  my  action  as  highly  culpa- 
ble, which  contradicted  greatly  my  own  experience,  as  I  placed  my  play  attend- 
ance beside  my  best  church  attendance.  Later,  as  so  often  already,  my  brother 
was  the  mediator  between  my  father  and  myself.  In  1799,  St.  John's  day,  my 
apprenticeship  was  at  an  end.  The  forester  who  had  now  the  advantage  of  my 
activity  wished  to  keep  me  a  year  more  ;  but  a  higher  purpose  was  awakened 
in  me.  I  wished  to  carry  on  mathematics  and  botany  more  comprehensively, 
and  would  not  remain.  When  my  time  had  expired  I  left  and  returned  to  the 
paternal  roof.  My  master  knew  well  that  he  had  not  fulfilled  his  duty  towards 
me,  and  in  this  probably  oppressive  consciousness  he  took  a  not  exactly  honor- 
able course  of  procedure  towards  me.  He  did  not  know  my  private  work,  for 
example,  the  study  of  some  elementary  mathematical  books  which  I  was  easily 
able  to  comprehend  Besides  he  was  dissatisfied  that  I  would  not  remain  a 
year  longer.  He  sent  a  letter  to  my  father  in  which  he  brought  bitter  com- 
plaints against  me,  and  put  the  blame  of  my  ignorance  entirely  on  myself. 
This  letter  reached  my  parents'  house  before  I  did,  and  my  father  sent  it  to  my 
brother,  who  was  preacher  in  a  village  through  which  my  homeAvard  way  led. 
Soon  after  I  arrived  at  his  residence  he  showed  me  the  letter  of  accusation.  I 
righted  myself  by  disclosure  of  my  master's  unconscientious  way  of  dealing,  as 
well  as  by  setting  forth  my  private  work,  and  in  a  reply  to  my  master  I  exam- 
ined all  the  charges  made  against  me  and  his  conduct  toward  me,  so  that  I  satis- 
fied my  father  and  brother.  My  mother  saw,  however,  in  the  forester's  verdict, 
the  confirmation  of  her  own  views.  The  aspirations  of  my  spirit,  which  al- 
ready began  to  quicken  into  existence,  were  again  fettered,  and  my  life  ap- 
peared again  cold  and  hard. 


LETTKli,  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN.  33 

Studies  at  Jena. 

It  happened  that  my  father  had  to  make  a  remittance  of  money  to  one  of 
my  brothers,  who  was  studying  medicine  in  Jena.  I  had  nothing  to  do,  and 
was  appointed  a  messenger.  Arrived  in  Jena,  and  penetrated  by  the  active  in- 
tellectual life,  I  wished  to  stay  there.  It  was  eight  weeks  to  the  close  of  the 
summer  half  year  of  1799.  My  brother  wrote  my  father  that  I  could  fill  this 
time  profitably  in  Jena,  and,  in  consequence  of  his  letter,  I  was  allowed  to  re- 
main. I  now  received  instruction  in  topographical  and  local  drawing,  and 
employed  the  whole  time  on  it. 

On  Michaelmas  Day  I  returned  home  with  my  brother.  My  purpose  and 
spirit  were  aroused  in  many  ways,  and  I  expressed  the  wish  to  my  brother  to 
be  allowed  to  study  also.  My  father  was  willing  to  give  his  permission,  if  I 
knew  how  to  plan  the  means  to  reach  my  end.  I  possessed  a  very  narrow 
maternal  property,  but  esteemed  it  insufficient.  I  was  still  not  of  age,  and  so 
needed  the  consent  of  my  guardian.  When  I  had  received  this,  I  went,  in 
1799,  to  Jena  as  a  student.  My  registration  named  me  student  of  philosophy, 
which  appeared  to  me  very  strange,  because  I  had  only  thought  of  quite  prac- 
tical knowledge  as  the  object  of  my  study,  and  had  formed  another  idea  of 
philosophy  which  I  often  heard  named.  The  word  made  on  my  dreamy, 
easily-moved  susceptible  life  a  very  great  impression,  and  its  effect  did  not  fail. 
The  impression  disappeared,  it  is  true,  almost  at  the  beginning ;  but  it  gave 
my  studies  an  unexpected  higher  meaning. 

I  heard  lectures  on  practical  mathematics,  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry, 
mineralogy,  botany,  natural  history,  physics,  chemistry,  the  science  of  finance, 
on  the  care  of  forest  trees  and  forest  matters,  on  architectural  and  common 
building,  and  surveying. 

I  continued  topographical  drawing.  At  first,  the  mathematical  instruction 
appeared  to  me  unimportant ;  later,  however,  I  could  not  follow  in  every  case. 
The  lectures  of  my  excellent  teacher  had  not  the  same  value  that  they  might 
have  had  and  would  have  had  if  I  had  seen  in  the  sequence  of  the  instruction 
and  the  progress  of  the  same  more  inner  necessity  and  less  arbitrariness.  It 
was  this  consideration  that  decided  me  against  this  process  of  teaching.  If  I  felt 
it  already  in  the  pure  mathematics,  how  much  more  must  it  be  the  case  with 
practical  mathematics,  and  especially  with  experimental  physics.  The  ex- 
periments could  not  captivate  me.  I  sought  and  wished  to  see  the  whole  in  its 
inner  connection.  In  botany,  I  had  a  sensible,  loving  and  benevolent  teacher 
(Batsch).  Through  him,  my  insight  into  nature  was  essentially  quickened, 
and  my  love  for  observing  it  made  more  active.  I  shall  always  think  of  this 
man  with  gratitude.  He  was  also  my  teacher  in  natural  history.  Two  ideas 
which  he  set  forth  especially  laid  hold  of  and  satisfied  me  :  first,  the  thought  of 
the  relation  of  animals,  branching  out  on  all  sides  ;  and,  second,  that  the  bone 
or  framework  of  fish,  birds  and  men  is  one  and  the  same,  and  that  of  man  is  to 
be  considered  perfected  as  the  ground  type  of  all  the  rest,  which  nature  strives 
to  represent  in  their  subordinate  frames. 

During  my  abode  at  the  university,  I  lived  very  much  retired,  and  economi- 
cally.    I  appeared  seldom  in  public  places,  and  visited  only  my  older  brother, 
who  was  studying  medicine  at  Jena  during  the  first  year  of  my  stay  there. 
Consequences  of  Debt. 

When  I  went  to  the  university,  my  father  had,  I  believe,  given  me  the  entire 
remittance  for  the  first  half  year.     My  brother  asked  for  a  part  of  the  money, 
3 


34  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

which  I  did  not  need  immediately.  He  hoped  to  be  able  soon  to  refund  the- 
sum.  I  gave  him  willingly  the  greater  part  of  my  little  stipend  ;  but,  unfor- 
tunately, I  could  not  get  the  money  back,  and  thereby  came  into  great  diffi- 
culty myself.  Towards  the  end  of  the  third  term  the  pressure  of  my  situation 
increased.  I  had  become  thirty  thalers  in  debt  to  the  proprietor  of  an  eating- 
house,  if  I  mistake  not.  When  this  man  had  made  legal  demands  for  payment 
several  times,  which  I  could  never  satisfy,  and  had  even  turned  to  my  father 
himself,  but  had  received  from  him  a  very  positive  denial,  I  was  threatened 
with  imprisonment  in  case  of  longer  failure  to  pay.  And  I  really  met  with 
this  punishment.  My  guardian,  who  still  had  some  means  at  my  command, 
would  not  assist  me,  because  the  letter  of  the  law  spoke  against  his  stepping  in 
as  a  partisan.  I  was  the  sport  of  the  caprice  of  this  inflexible  man,  and  lan- 
guished as  such  for  nine  weeks  in  the  prison  at  Jena.  But,  finally,  my  renun- 
ciation of  any  later  paternal  inheritance  satisfied  my  father,  and  I  was  freed  in 
the  summer  of  1801.  I  left  Jena  and  my  academical  course  immediately,  and 
returned  to  my  father's  house.  I  was  now  just  nineteen  years  old.  Naturally, 
I  entered  the  house  with  a  heavy  heart,  a  troubled  mind  and  oppressed  spirit. 
Spring,  however,  quickened  and  awakened  all  nature,  and  called  back  my 
slumbering  endeavors. 

My  father  now  strove  to  obtain  a  suitable  position  for  me  in  my  chosen  call- 
ing— to  create,  at  least,  an  activity  which  should  bring  me  nearer  it.  A  favor- 
able opportunity  soon  presented  itself.  A  relative  on  my  father's  side  had  an 
estate  in  Hildburg  which  a  steward  managed.  The  friendship  of  this  relation 
for  my  father  allowed  me  to  become  acquainted  with  practical  husbandry,  un- 
der the  oversight  of  this  steward. 

The  misunderstanding  with  my  father  often  painfully  occupied  my  thoughts 
at  this  time.  I  had  to  respect  and  reverence  him.  In  his  extreme  old  age  he 
was  strong  and  sound  in  body  as  in  mind,  impressive  in  word  and  counsel,  and 
vigorous  in  action,  earnest,  and  had  a  firm  will,  but  was  at  the  same  time  full 
of  noble  self-sacrifice.  I  knew  that  my  father  was  old  and  near  the  grave — it 
grieved  me  not  to  be  understood  by  him. 

Death  of  the  Father. 

After  an  abode  of  some  months  on  this  estate,  a  letter  called  me  home.  My 
father  carried  his  anxiety  for  my  future  on  his  heart  until  the  end.  He  died 
in  February,  1802. 

I  now  stood  free  in  this  relation,  and  could  determine  my  life  according  to 
circumstances.  With  this  feeling  I  left  home  again  at  Easter  of  the  same 
year,  in  order  to  take  the  place  of  actuary  of  the  forest  court  near  Bamberg. 
The  place  lay  in  a  rarely  beautiful  district.  My  duties  were  light.  After 
them,  I  could  go  out  freely  in  the  spring  weather,  and  grow  strong  in  mind 
and  feelings. 

Although  this  officer,  with  his  whole  family,  was  a  Catholic,  yet  he  chose  a 
tutor  recommended  by  Professor  Caius,  who  had  many  excellent  qualities,  so 
that  we  were  soon  friendly. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1803  I  left  this  place  and  went  to  Bamberg  with  the  firm 
expectation  that  the  proposed  government  and  land  changes  and 'the  projected 
land  survey,  would  quickly  give  me  an  appropriate  sphere  of  action.  My  expec- 
tation was  in  no  wise  disappointed.  I  made  it  my  aim  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  land  geometers  there,  and  immediately  received  from  one  a  similar 
employment.  He  had  had  much  surveying  to  do  arid  had  it  still  on  hand.  He 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OP  MEININGEN.  35 

commissioned  me  to  prepare  the  necessary  maps  because  I  had  some  readiness 
in  map  drawing.  This  gave  me  occupation  for  a  longer  time,  which  was  com- 
pensated sufficiently  for  my  needs.  Now  naturally  with  the  new  government 
the  appointment  of  land  surveyors  was  agitated,  and  those  living  in  the  city  had 
to  hand  in  plans  of  Bamberg  as  a  test.  I  was  not  unacquainted  with  such  work 
and  prepared  a  plan  with  great  pleasure  and  gave  it  in.  My  work  received 
approbation,  and  I  my  reward ;  yet  as  an  inexperienced  young  man,  a  stranger, 
I  received  no  appointment.  After  this  work  was  finished  I  was  commissioned 
to  measure  a  little  estate.  This  business  had  for  me  weighty  consequences.  I 
only  mention  one  point ;  the  joint  proprietor  was  a  young  Doctor  of  Philosophy 
who  inclined  toward  the  new  school  of  Schelling.  It  could  not  but  happen  that 
we  alluded  to  that  which  animated  our  inner  life,  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that 
he  gave  me  to  read,  Schelling's  "  Bruno  or  the  Spirit  of  the  Age"  What  I 
read  in  this  book  influenced  me  powerfully.  The  friendly  young  man,  who 
was  not  much  older  than  myself  (we  had  already  seen  each  other  in  Jena), 
saw  my  lively  interest  in  the  contents  of  the  book.  I  had  also  repeatedly 
spoken  to  him  of  it.  Therefore  he  said  to  me  one  day  the  following  words. 

Philosophy  and  Art. 

which  were  very  strange  and  inexplicable  to  me  then  :  "  Guard  against  philoso 
phy  ;  it  leads  you  to  doubt  and  night.  Devote  yourself  to  art;  it  gives  life, 
peace,  and  joy."  I  remembered  the  words  of  the  young  man,  yet  I  could  not 
understand  him  since  I  looked  on  philosophy  as  belonging  to  the  life  of  man, 
and  could  not  comprehend  how  one  could  come  into  night  and  doubt  if  he  fol- 
lowed quietly  the  inner  life.  His  words  made  me  turn  my  attention  to  myself, 
my  life  and  endeavors,  and  showed  two  separate  and  very  different  ways  of 
life.  My  friend,  the  teacher  of  the  officer's  family,  had  in  the  mean  time  left 
his  place,  lie  told  me  that  he  was  on  the  point  of  going  to  Frankfort  and; 
from  there  to  France.  I  saw  him  depart  regretfully,  not  suspecting  that  some 
years  later,  life  would  bring  us  together  and  he  would  directly  decide  my  career 
Here  also,  as  so  often  in  life,  separation  led  to  unity  and  unity  to  separation. 

I  pass  over  several  essential  influences  for  the  building  up  of  my  character 
and  moral  life,  and  come  to  the  end  of  my  stay  in  Bamberg.  I  had  now  to 
think  in  earnest  of  seeking  again  a  certain  definite  work.  I  really  stood  alone. 
I  had  no  one  who  could  help  me.  I  caught  the  idea  from  a  paper  then  much 
read,  "  The  Universal  German  Advertiser,"  of  advertising  for  a  place  and 
adding  as  a  proof  of  my  qualifications  some  architectural  and  geometrical  work 
to  the  illustrations  of  the  paper.  I  immediately  entered  upon  the  scheme. 
For  an  architectural  work  I  chose  the  plan  of  a  nobleman's  castle  in  the  coun- 
try together  with  the  proper  out-buildings  ;  for  the  geometrical  design  I  chose 
a  table  out  of  the  maps  prepared  by  me  earlier,  which  I  completed.  In  1803  I 
sent  these,  together  with  my  application  for  employment,  to  the  paper  named, 
with  the  request  that  the  editor  would  add  some  approving  words  to  my 
sketches.  My  work  and  testimonials  won  approbation.  My  request  was  grati- 
fied, and  I  received  different  commissions  each  of  which  brought  something  wel- 
come to  me.  The  choice  was  difficult ;  but  I  finally  decided  on  the  acceptance 
of  a  private  secretaryship  with  the  president  and  former  private  counselor  of 
Dewitz  in  Mecklenberg,  who  now  resided  in  Gross  Milchow.  In  the  rough 
and  very  severe  winter  davs  of  February  I  journeyed  thither  on  foot.  The 
people,  simple,  active  young  men  from  Saxony  and  Prussia,  received  me  in  a 
friendly  manner.  I  had  never  yet  had  the  opportunity  even  to  see  the  accounts 


3(5  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  ME1NINGEN. 

of  husbandry  on  a  large  scale,  much  less  to  carry  them  on,  and  here  I  had  to 
do  it  by  a  perfect  and  plain  scheme  by  which  everything  was  written  down  in 
the  most  exact  way.  This  was  of  the  greatest  advantage  to  me,  and  thus  I 
was  able  to  satisfy  my  new  employer,  and  especially  his  wife,  who  examined 
into  the  smallest  things  in  the  closest  manner.  The  surroundings  of  the  estates 
of  Dewitz  were  very  charming.  Good  fortune  had  led  me  at  all  times  into 
beautiful  natural  regions.  I  constantly  enjoyed  what  nature  offered  me,  and 
she  was  always  truly  bound  to  me  like  a  mother  When  I  had  acquired  some 
skill  my  business  became  simple  ;  it  had  a  regular  recurring  weekly  course  and 
gave  me  time  to  think  of  my  own  improvement.  My  work  on  these  estates 
was,'  however,  short. 

The  direction  of  my  life  and  mind  was  already  decided,  and  a  star  had  risen 
inwardly  for  me  which  I  must  observe.  Therefore  I  could  consider  my  occu- 
pation then  only  as  a  sheet  anchor  to  be  given  up  as  soon  as  the  opportunity 
was  furnished  to  take  up  again  my  special  vocation.  This  opportunity  soon 
•came.  My  uncle,  who,  like  my  brother,  bore  me  in  love  on  his  heart,  had  just 
•  died.  To  the  last  he  had  thought  of  me,  and  charged  my  brother  to  do  every- 
thing to  give  me  a  secure  position  in  life,  and  to  prevent  my  leaving  the  place 
which  I  had  for  a  time,  at  least,  without  a  certain  prospect  of  a  sure  aud  better 
one.  Providence  ordered  it  otherwise.  Directly  after  his  death  through  the 
little  inheritance  falling  to  me,  the  means  were  in  my  hand  to  fulfill  the  wish 
of  my  heart,  the  strivings  of  my  spirit.  So  wonderfully  God  guides  the  destiny 
of  men  ! 

So  though  healthy  in  body  and  soul,  head  and  heart,  yet  my  spirit  felt  soon 
the  need  of  a  higher  culture.  The  president  had  two  sons  who  were  trained  in 
Halle  in  pedagogy.  They  visited  their  parents  in  company  with  their  teacher. 
He  was  a  mathematician  and  versed  in  physics.  I  found  him  open  and  com- 
municative. He  was  so  good  as  to  name  and  point  out  to  me  the  manifold 
problems  which  he  had  laid  out  for  himself  for  solution,  and  thus  awakened 
my  long  slumbering  love  for  mathematics  and  physics. 

For  some  time  my  desire  had  turned  especially  to  architecture,  so  that  I  was 
firmly  resolved  to  choose  it  for  my  career  and  to  study  it  with  all  earnestness. 
The  time  when  my  present  work  could  no  longer  satisfy  me  had  come,  and 
I  asked  for  my  dismissal.  The  highest  outward  inducement  to  it  was  this : 
I  remained  in  correspondence  with  the  young  man  whom  I  learned  to  know  as 
a  teacher  in  Bamberg,  who  had  left  that  place  to  go  to  Frankfort  and  then  to 
France.  He  now  lived  again  as  tutor  in  a  merchant's  family  in  the  Nether- 
lands. I  imparted  to  him  my  wish  to  give  up  my  place  and  seek  a  position  in 
architectural  affairs,  and  asked  him  whether  in  the  accomplishment  of  my  wish 
I  could  not  work  best  in  Frankfort,  where  so  much  life  and  human  intercourse 
were  united.  My  friend  wrote  me  that  in  the  beginning  of  the  summer  he 
should  spend  some  time  in  Frankfort,  and  if  I  could  also  come  there,  a  con- 
ference on  the  situation  would  be  most  advantageous.  In  consequence  of  this 
promise  I  took  the  firm  and  unchangeable  resolve  to  step  out  of  my  place  in 
the  early  spring  and  go  to  Frankfort.  Yet  where  should  I  procure  the  money 
for  such  a  journey  ?  In  this  difficulty  I  wrote  again  to  my  oldest  brother  who 
had  so  justly  understood  me  and  asked  for  assistance.  His  answer  came. 
With  joyful  trembling  and  anxiety  I  held  it  in  my  hands.  For  an  hour  I  car- 
Tied  it  around  with  me  before  I  opened  it ;  for  days  I  did  not  read  it,  for  it 
.appeared  to  me  highly  improbable  that  he  would  be  able  to  do  anything  for  the 


LETTER  TO  J)UKE  OF  A1EININGEN.  .')  7 

accomplishment  of  the  wish  of  my  soul,  and  so  I  feared  to  find  in  the  letter  the 
destruction  of  my  life.  When  after  some  clays  of  alternation  between  hope  and 
doubt  I  finally  opened  it,  I  was  not  a  little  astonished  that  in  the  beginning  of 
it  the  most  heartfelt  sympathy  was  expressed.  The  farther  contents  moved  me 
deeply.  It  contained  the  news  of  my  uncle's  death,  and  the  announcement  that 
a  legacy  had  fallen  to  me  as  well  as  to  my  brothers  and  sisters.  The  die  was 
cast.  From  this  moment  my  inner  life  had  quite  a  different  signification  and 
character,  and  yet  it  was  all  unknown  to  me.  I  was  like  a  tree  that  blooms 
and  knows  it  not.  At  the  end  of  April,  1805,  with  peace  in  my  heart  and  joy 
in  my  soul,  I  left  the  struggling  purpose  and  spirit  of  my  former  condition. 
The  first  days  of  a  rarely  beautiful  May  I  spent  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word 
with  a  friend.  This  very  dear  friend  lived  on  an  estate  beautifully  situated  in 
Uckermark.  In  these  beautiful  but  very  quiet  and  solitary  surroundings  I 
fluttered  merrily  about  from  one  flower  to  another  like  a  butterfly.  I  deeply 
loved  nature  in  her  colored  and  jeweled  attire  and  drew  near  to  her  in  my 
youthful  gayety.  When  I  first  made  the  discovery  that  the  landscape  viewed 
witli  this  feeling  appears  in  heightened  beauty,  I  expressed  this  perception  in 
the  following  words  :  "  The  more  deeply  we  bind  ourselves  to  nature,  so  much 
the  more  adorned  she  gives  us  everything  back."  In  May,  1805,  I  arrived  on 
my  journey  at  the  house  of  my  brother,  so  often  mentioned,  who  had  now  re- 
ceived another  place  as  pastor. 

He  was  kind  and  full  of  love  as  ever,  and  instead  of  blaming  me  expressed 
his  assent  in  the  most  decided  manner.  He  encouraged  me  to  follow  my  inner 
determination  faithfully  and  unchangeably,  and  wrote  this  sentiment  in  my 
album  at  my  departure  :  "  Man's  lot  is  to  struggle  towards  an  end.  Be  a 
man,  dear  brother,  firm  and  decided.  Overcome  the  obstacles  which  oppose 
you  and  be  confident.  You  will  gain  your  end."  So  I  departed  encouraged 
by  sympathy  and  agreement,  strengthened  and  confirmed  in  my  resolution  by 
my  brother. 

Just  before  midsummer  I  entered  Frankfort,  according  to  the  agreement 
mentioned  between  my  friend  and  myself.  During  my  journey  of  many  weeks 
in  that  beautiful  spring-time  I  had  time  to  become  quiet  and  collected.  My 
friend  kept  faith  and  we  worked  together  towards  bringing  on  a  favorable 
future  for  me.  The  plan  of  seeking  a  place  as  architect  was  firmly  held. 
Many  favorable  circumstances  also  seemed  to  point  towards  its  accomplishr 
ment ;  yet  my  friend  was  determined  that  I  should  ensure  my  support  by  pri- 
vate instruction  until  something  farther  should  show  itself  for  the  maturing  of 
my  plan  But  the  more  decided  the  prospect  became,  so  much  the  more  a 
repressed  feeling  took  possession  of  me.  I  began  to  ask  myself,  "  How  can 
you  work  through  architecture  for  the  culture  and  ennobling  of  man  ?  "  Yet 
I  remained  true  to  my  resolution  and  began  to  work  at  my  calling  with  an 
architect.  My  friend  who  was  unceasingly  active  for  the  fulfillment  of  my 
aim,  introduced  me  to  a  friend  of  his  who  was  then  head  teacher  in  the  model 
school  just  established  in  Frankfort.  My  life  and  aim  was  mentioned  and  dis- 
cussed. I  expressed  myself  freely.  "  O !  "  said  Gruner,  turning  to  me,  "  give 
up  architecture  ;  it  is  not  for  you.  Become  an  educator.  We  need  a  teacher 
in  our  school.  Make  up  your  mind  and  you  shall  have  the  plac  e."  My  friend 
advised  the  acceptance  of  Gruner's  proposal,  and  I  began  to  waver.  Then  an 
outward  circumstance  happened  that  decided  me.  I  received  news  that  my 
testimonials,  especially  those  which  I  had  received  in  Jena,  were  lost.  They/ 


38  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

were  sent  to  a  man  who  had  actively  interested  himself  in  me,  and  I  could  not 
divine  by  what  ill  luck  the  loss  had  happened.  I  therefore  concluded  that 
providence  had  taken  down  the  bridge  of  retreat  and  hesitated  no  longer,  but 
willingly  and  joyfully  grasped  the  hand  offered  me  and  was  soon  a  teacher  in 
.the  model  school  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

Teacher  in  Model  School — Pestalozzi. 

The  watchword  in  education  at  that  time  was  Pestalozzi.  That  word  was 
•also  pointed  out  to  me  as  mine,  for  Gruiier  when  an  under  teacher  in  the  school 
had  been  Pestalozzi's  pupil,  and  as  head  teacher  had  written  a  book  on  this 
method  of  instruction.  I  remembered  now  that  in  my  early  boyhood  in  my 
father's  house  I  learned  from  a  paper  the  following  news  :  In  Switzerland,  so 
IE  understood,  a  man,  Pestalozzi  by  name,  living  for  forty  years  quite  isolated 
from  the  world  had  learned  to  read,  write  and  reckon  by  himself  and  his  own 
•exertions.  This  announcement  acted  beneficially  on  me.  I  felt  then  the  slow- 
ness and  unsatisfactoriness  of  my  own  development,  and  this  intelligence  con- 
soled me,  and  filled  me  with  hope  that  I  might  supply  the  deficiency  in  my 
culture  by  my  own  efforts. 

It  was  natural  that  everything  about  Pestalozzi  affected  me  wonderfully,  and 
I  formed  the  resolution  of  seeing  this  man,  who  so  thought  and  strove  to  act  in 
his  life  and  work.  In  August,  1815, 1  went  to  Yverdun  where  Pestalozzi  had 
come  shortly  before.  As  soon  as  I  arrived  I  was  received  in  an  especially 
friendly  manner  by  Pestalozzi  and  his  teachers  on  account  of  the  recommenda- 
tion of  Gruner  and  his  co-laborers,  and  was  conducted  into  the  recitations  and 
left  more  or  less  to  myself.  I  was  still  very  inexperienced  in  teaching.  What 
I  saw  elevated  and  depressed  me,  awoke  and  amazed  me.  My  stay  lasted  four- 
teen days.  I  worked  over  what  I  could  to  give  a  true  written  account  of  how 
I  saw  the  whole  and  the  impression  it  made  on  me. 

I  left  Yverdun  in  the  middle  of  October  with  the  resolve  to  return  for  a  lon- 
ger time  as  soon  as  I  was  able.  When  I  returned  to  Frankfort  my  appoint- 
ment was  definitely  confirmed  by  the  consistory.  The  work  which  awaited  me 
in  the  school  was  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  an  entirely  new  plan  of 
instruction  for  the  whole  institution,  which  consisted  of  four  or  five  boys'  and 
two  or  three  girls'  classes,  and  was  attended  by  nearly  two  hundred  children. 
There  were  four  regularly  appointed  and  nine  private  teachers.  The  subjects 
which  were  assigned  to  me  were  arithmetic,  drawing,  geography,  and  the  Ger- 
man language.  I  taught  mostly  in  the  middle  classes. 

Of  the  impression  of  my  first  instruction  and  school  keeping  in  a  class  of 
from  thirty  to  forty  boys,  between  the  ages  of  nine  and  eleven,  I  spoke  thus  in  a 
letter  to  my  brother  :  "  It  seems  to  me  as  if  I  had  found  something  not  known 
:and  yet  long  desired,  long  missed ;  as  if  I  had  finally  found  my  native  ele- 
ment." I  was  like  a  fish  in  water  or  a  bird  in  the  air.  Before  I  carry  far- 
ther this  side  of  my  life  development,  I  must  take  up  another  thing  which  was 
more  important  for  me  by  far  as  a  man,  an  educator  and  teacher,  and  which 
was  soon  complicated  with  the  first. 

Soon  after  my  early  friend  whom  I  had  met  in  Frankfort  had  established 
.me  with  Gruner,  he  returned  to  his  situation  as  tutor. 

Private  Tutor. 

Since  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to  present  me  personally  to  a  family  that 
desired  suitable  private  instruction  for  their  sons,  he  did  it  in  writing,  and  sev- 
eral days  before  my  journey  to  Yverdun  his  kiud  letter  introduced  me  to  this 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEIN1NGEN.  39 

family.  Instruction  and  education  were  desired  for  three  sons.  I  saw  them, 
and  after  they  had  gone  away  their  personal  qualities  were  pointed  out  to  me, 
the  method  of  teaching  which  they  had  formerly  enjoyed  and  its  consequence. 
I  was  taken  into  consultation  on  the  subject  of  their  farther  instruction.  I  had 
really  not  thought  of  education  at  all  as  an  objective  thing.  I  had  indeed  an 
inner  dread  of  giving  private  instruction;  but  the  trustful  indulgence  with 
which  I  was  met  here,  and  the  clear,  fresh,  friendly  glance  which  met  me,  espe- 
cially from  both  the  younger  boys,  determined  me  to  give  them  daily  two  hours 
of  teaching  and  to  share  their  walks.  I  gave  them  lessons  in  arithmetic  and 
the  German  language.  The  first  were  soon  arranged.  I  gave  them  according 
to  Pestalozzi's  method.  But  I  had  great  difficulty  with  the  instruction  in 
language.  I  began  to  give  it  according  to  the  German  grammars  used  then 
and  now.  I  prepared  myself  as  well  as  possible,  and  exercised  myself  in  the 
most  careful  manner  on  what  was  unknown  to  me.  But  this  way  of  teaching 
tired  me.  I  could  endure  it  neither  for  my  pupils  nor  myself.  Then  I  began 
to  connect  it  with  Pestalozzi's  mother  book.  In  this  way  it  went  much  better, 
yet  this  did  not  satisfy  me.  In  numbers,  by  the  use  of  the  tables  in  Pestalozzi's 
book,  I  reached  the  same  result  which  I  had  seen  in  Switzerland.  My  pupils 
often  had  the  solution  almost  before  the  last  word  of  the  problem  was  spoken. 
In  our  walks  I  exerted  myself  to  enter  into  the  life  of  the  children  and  to  fur- 
ther it.  I  lived  my  own  early  life  once  again,  but  in  an  improved  form,  and  it 
now  became  clear  to  me  in  its  individuality  and  its  universality.  I  now  devoted 
all  my  thought  and  all  my  work  to  building  up  and  educating  men. 

My  life  in  the  school  with  my  pupils,  excellent  fellow-teachers,  and  occa- 
sional visitors  was  also  ver}r  elevating  and  beneficial.  Favored  by  the  situation 
of  the  school  building  the  scholars  could  exercise  freely  and  play  in  the  court 
and  garden,  and  so  an  important  means  was  given  to  the  teachers  of  growing 
inwardly  with  their  pupils.  All  voluntarily  resolved  that  once  a  week  each 
teacher  should  go  with  his  pupils  into  the  open  air.  Each  one  chose  a  lasting 
or  temporary  occupation  with  them  as  it  suited  him.  I  busied  my  class  espe- 
cially with  the  plant  world.  As  teacher  of  geography  I  used  this  opportunity 
to  bring  them  to  the  contemplation  and  comprehension  of  the  earth's  surface, 
connected  the  instruction  in  geography  with  the  view  thus  obtained,  and  let  it 
grow  out  of  it."  I  took  everything  according  to  nature,  and  drew  the  picture 
immediately,  diminished  in  size,  on  an  even  surface  of  ground  or  sand  chosen 
for  the  purpose. 

When  the  picture  was  firmly  grasped  and  imprinted,  we  drew  it  in  school  on 
a  blackboard  lying  horizontally.  It  was  sketched  first  by  the  teacher  and 
pupils  together,  then  made  an  exercise  for  every  scholar.  Our  representations 
of  the  earth's  surface  had  at  first  a  spherical  form  like  the  apparent  horizon. 
At  the  first  public  examination  which  the  school  gave,  I  was  so  fortunate  as 
not  only  to  rejoice  in  the  undivided  approbation  of  the  parents  present,  but 
especially  of  my  superiors,  and  they  said  geography  should  be  so  taught.  The 
child  must  first  learn  to  know  his  surroundings  before  he  goes  into  the  distance. 
The  scholars  were  at  home  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city  as  in  their  own  rooms, 
and  noticed  quickly  and  promptly  every  relation  of  the  surface  of  their  district. 
In  teaching  numbers  I  did  not  have  the  lower,  but  only  the  middle  classes.  As 
teacher  of  this  I  received  encouraging  approbation. 

I  had  not  only  the  joy  of  attaining  results  which  perfectly  satisfied  the  ex> 
sminers,  but  I  saw  that  my  pupils  worked  with  pleasure,  zeal,  and  independ' 


40  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

ence.  Concerning  my  own  life  and  efforts  at  that  time  I  expressed  myself  in 
the  following  words  :  "  I  wish  to  cultivate  men  who  stand  rooted  in  nature 
with  their  feet  in  God's  earth,  whose  heads  reach  toAvard  and  look  into  the 
heavens,  whose  hearts  unite  the  richly  formed  life  of  earth  and  nature,  and  the 
purity  and  peace  of  heaven — God's  earth  and  God's  heaven." 

Often  now  the  wish  arose  to  be  released  from  my  engagement  to  the  model 
school.  I  had  pledged  myself  to  remain  in  it  as  teacher  at  least  for  three  years. 
The  celebrated  head  teacher  Gruner  knew  enough  of  human  nature  to  see  that 
such  an  active  man  as  I  could  not  work  well  in  such  an  institution  as  that  of 
which  he  was  the  head,  and  I  was  released  from  my  obligation.  My  departure 
from  the  school  was  decided  and  I  could  develop  myself  again  freely  and  uncon- 
strainedly.  The  three  boys  to  whom  I  had  given  private  instruction  in  num- 
bers and  language  UOAV  needed  a  teacher  on  account  of  the  departure  of  their 
former  tutor.  The  task  of  seeking  a  teacher  in  the  circle  of  my  acquaintance 
was  given  me  as  being  best  acquainted  with  the  character  and  needs  of  these 
children.  I  earnestly  turned  in  all  directions  and  among  others  to  my  oldest 
brother.  I  divulged  to  him  the  qualifications  which  appeared  to  me  necessary 
for  a  teacher.  He  wrote  me  decidedly  and  simply.  He  could  not  propose  a 
teacher  such  as  I  wished  for  the  relations  pointed  out,  and  did  not  believe  that 
I  would  find  one  ;  for  the  pure  inner  life  would  be  lacking  in  one  possessing 
knowledge  and  the  outside  experience  of  life  ;  the  care  and  recognition  of  the 
same  in  another  Avho  possessed  this.  So  the  thing  stood  for  several  months, 
when  in  my  deep  love  for  the  boys  and  anxiety  for  their  education  I  sought 
to  place  myself  in  the  parent's  place.  This  decided  me  to  become  their  teacher 
myself.  After  a  very  hard  struggle  I  expressed  my  resolution.  It  was  thank- 
fully received,  and  understood  as  I  gave  it.  As  my  choice  and  decision  were 
connected  with  a  deep  inner  struggle,  so  was  also  my  initiation  into  the  place. 
There  were  two  unchangeable  things  in  our  contract.  One  was  that  I  should 
never  be  obliged  to  reside  with  my  pupils  in  the  city,  and  that  from  the  first 
they  should  be  freely  given  up  to  me. 

Takes  Sole  Charge  of  these  Pupils. 

I  entered  this,  my  new  educational  work,  in  July,  1807.  I  Avas  now  really 
twenty-five  years  old,  but  my  development  was  several  years  younger.  I  could 
not  feel  myself  so  old,  nor  had  I  a  consciousness  of  my  age. 

The  highest  activity  for  education  and  instruction  began  in  me.  The  first 
thing  which  occupied  me  Avas  the  distinct  feeling  that  to  live  one's  self  is  the 
true  and  proper  education.  Then  the  questions :  What  is  education,  and  what 
do  the  means  of  elementary  instruction  set  forth  by  Pestalozzi  signify  ?  What  is 
principally  the  object  of  instruction  ?  To  answer  the  question — What  is  the 
object  of  instruction  ? — I  proceeded  from  the  following  considerations  :  Man 
lives  in  a  world  of  objects  Avhich  act  upon  him,  on  which  he  wishes  to  work  ; 
thus  he  must  know  them  according  to  their  nature,  their  character,  and  their 
relation  to  each  other  and  to  himself.  The  objects  have  form  (lessons  on  form), 
size  (lessons  on  size),  are  manifold  (lessons  in  number).  I  had  in  the  expres- 
sion outer  world  only  nature  before  my  eyes.  I  so  lived  in  nature  that  artistic 
or  human  works  did  not  exist  for  me.  Therefore  it  cost  me  a  long  struggle  to 
make  the  consideration  of  the  works  of  man  a  subject  of  elementary  culture. 
It  was  for  me  a  great  widening  of  my  inner  and  outer  sight  when  at  the  expres> 
sion  "  outer  world,"  I  thought  of  the  realm  of  human  work. 

So  I  sought  to  make  everything  clear  through  man,  through  his  relation  to 


LETT!.!;  To  DUKE  OF  ME1N1NGEN.  41 

himself  and  to  the  outer  world.  The  highest  sentiment  which  came  from  me 
then  was :  "  Everything  is  unity  ;  everything  rests  in,  proceeds  from,  strives 
for,  leads  and  returns  to  unity."  This  striving  for  unity  is  the  foundation  of 
the  different  phenomena  in  human  life.  Fortunately  works  on  education  ap- 
peared then  from  Seiler,  Jean  Paul  and  others.  They  helped  me  partly  by  the 
agreement  therein  presented  with  my  views,  partly  by  their  opposition.  What 
especially  pressed  on  me  at  this  time  was  the  lack  of  an  organized  series  of 
objects  of  instruction.  Cheerful  and  free  action  springs  from  viewing  the 
whole  as  a  unity  ;  it  is  made  necessary  by  the  being  of  everything  and  the  life 
and  action  resting  in  it.  When  I  now  seek  to  make  clear  to  myself  the  life  and 
influence  of  an  educator,  the  notes  of  that  time  meet  me,  freshly  inspiring  and 
cheering  me.  1  now  look  back  into  that  childhood  of  my  educational  life  and 
learn  from  it,  as  I  look  back  to  and  learn  from  the  childhood  of  my  natural  life. 

Why  is  all  childhood  and  youth  so  full  of  richness  and  knows  it  not,  and  why 
does  it  lose  it  without  knowing  it,  and  learn  first  to  know  it  when  it  is  lost  ? 
Must  it  always  remain  so  ?  Will  it  not  finally— not  soon — happen  that  the 
experience,  the  insight,  the  knowledge  of  age  will  build  a  defense,  a  support 
and  protection  around  childhood  and  youth  ?  Otherwise  what  advantage  to  age 
is  its  experience,  to  the  hoary  man  his  wisdom  ?  What  advantage  to  the  human 
race  is  the  experience  of  age,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  old  man  if  it  sinks  with 
him  into  the  grave  1 

My  first  life  with  my  pupils  was  very  circumscribed.  It  consisted  in  living 
and  walking  in  the  open  air.  Cut  off  from  the  influence  of  a  city  education,  I 
did  not  yet  venture  to  introduce  the  simple  life  of  nature  into  the  sphere  of 
education.  My  younger  pupils  themselves  taught  me  and  guided  me  to  that. 
In  the  following  year  this  life  of  my  pupils  was  especially  roused  and  animated, 
when  the  father  gave  them  a  piece  of  a  field  for  a  garden  which  we  cultivated 
in  common.  "Their  highest  joy  was  to  give  their  parents  and  me  presents  of 
the  fruits  of  their  garden.  Oh,  how  their  eyes  glistened  when  they  could  do  it ! 
Beautiful  plants  and  little  shrubs  from  the  field,  the  great  garden  of  God,  were 
planted  and  cared  for  in  the  little  gardens  of  the  children.  After  that  time  my 
youthful  life  did  not  appear  to  me  so  entirely  useless.  I  learned  what  a  very 
different  thing  it  is  for  the  care  of  a  plant,  whether  one  has  seen  and  watched  its 
natural  life  at  the  different  epochs  of  its  unfolding,  or  if  he  has  always  stood 
far  from  nature.  Then  when  I  lived  in  nature  with  my  first  pupils  so  cheer- 
fully and  gayly,  I  said  to  myself  that  the  life  of  man  connects  itself  with  the 
care  of  nature's  life.  For  were  not  those  presents  of  flowers  and  plants  the 
expression  of  regard  and  acknowledgment  of  the  love  for  parents  and  teacher, 
the  expression  of  the  child's  own  love  and  joyful  childish  thought  ?  A  child 
that  freely  and  voluntarily  seeks  flowers,  cherishes  and  cares  for  them  in  order 
to  wind  them  into  a  bouquet  or  wreath  for  parents  or  teacher  cannot  be  a  bad 
child  or  become  a  bad  man.  Such  a  child  can  easily  be  led  to  the  love,  to  grati- 
tude to,  and  knowledge  of  his  father,  God,  who  gives  him  such  gifts.  I  assert 
that  a  child  naturally  guided  needs  no  positive  ecclesiastical  form,  because  the 
lovingly  cared  for,  and  thereby  steadily  and  strongly  developed,  human  life,  also 
the  cloudless  child's  life,  is  of  itself  a  Christ-like  one. 
Life  as  an  Educator 

I  now  turn  to  the  recital  of  my  life  as  an  educator.  What  a  young  man 
gains  in  one  year  from  nature  when  she  lies  clear  and  open  before  him,  she  does 
not  give  him  when  the  vision  is  closed  and  he  is  separated  from  contact  with  her. 


42  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MELNINGEN. 

Both  these  seasons  give  different  results  and  make  different  demands.  When 
more  separated  from  nature  he  becomes  more  concentrated  within  himself. 
The  life  of  youth  then  demands  material  for  firmly  establishing  itself,  and  lends 
to  otherwise  shapeless  material  a  living  form.  My  pupils  soon  came  to  me  with 
this  demand,  from  which  arose  the  following  self-questionings :  What  did  you 
do  as  a  boy  ?  What  happened  to  you  to  quicken  your  impulse  for  activity  and 
representation  ?  By  what  means  was  this  impulse  at  that  age  most  fitly  satis 
lied  ?  What  did  you  wish  as  the  end  of  this  satisfaction  ?  Then  out  of  my  ear- 
liest boyhood  something  came  to  me  which  gave  to  me  at  that  moment  all  that  I 
needed.  It  was  the  simple  art  of  imprinting  on  smooth  paper  signs  and  forms 
by  regular  lines.  I  have  often  tried  this  simple  art  and  it  has  never  failed  of  its 
end.  From  these  forms  on  paper  we  advanced  to  the  investigation  of  the  paper 
itself,  then  of  pasteboard,  and  finally  of  wood.  My  later  experience  has  taught 
me  to  know  still  other  materials  for  making  forms  and  shapes.  But  I  must  dwell 
yet  a  moment  with  that  simple  occupation  of  paper  forms,  because  it  occupies 
the  child  so  entirely  for  a  time,  so  satisfies  and  fills  the  demand  of  his  strength. 
Man  demands  to  know  nature  in  the  variety  of  her  forms  and  shapes,  and  to 
understand  it  in  its  unity,  in  its  inner  activity  and  reality,  and  therefore  he 
goes  on  in  his  course  of  development  and  formation  according  to  the  process 
of  nature ;  he  imitates  in  his  plays  her  creative  process.  In  his  early  plays  the 
young  human  being  likes  to  imitate  the  first  activities  of  nature.  Thus  he 
likes  to  build,  for  are  not  the  first  solid  forms  of  nature  built  ?  Let  this  intima- 
tion of  the  higher  meaning  of  the  free  occupations  and  plays  suffice  here. 
From  the  love,  zeal,  persistence  and  joy  witn  which  children  pursue  these  occu- 

Play — Activity —  Gifts. 

pations  arises  a  very  important  thing  of  a  different  character.  Play  must 
necessarily  bring  a  child  into  a  deeper,  higher  communion  with  a  higher  exist- 
ing whole.  If  he  builds  a  house  he  builds  it  to  inhabit  it,  like  grown  people, 
and  to  realize  limitations  and  to  impart  something  to  others  !  Notice  the  fact 
that  the  child  who  receives  freely,  gives  freely  if  his  heart  is  not  smothered  and 
dulled  by  the  profusion  of  the  gifts  lie  receives.  This  is  inevitable  with  the 
innocent  child.  Fortunate  is  he  who  understands  how  to  satisfy  this  need. 
That  only  has  worth  to  a  child  at  this  time  which  he  can  use  as  a  means  of 
union  between  his  loved  ones  and  himself.  This  should  be  respected  by  par- 
ents and  teachers  and  used  as  a  means  of  awakening  the  instinct  of  activity  and 
representation  and  unity  with  others,  and  therefore  not  even  a  trifling  gift  of  a 
child  should  remain  unnoticed. 

I  strove  earnestly  to  give  my  pupils  the  best  possible  education,  the  best  pos- 
sible instruction ;  this  end,  however,  could  not  be  reached  in  my  condition  at 
that  time  and  with  my  degree  of  information. 

Residence  with  Pestalozzi. 

When  I  fully  realized  this,  the  thought  arose  that  I  should  be  benefited  by 
a  stay  with  Pestalozzi.  I  expressed  this  with  great  decision,  and  in  conse- 
quence it  was  decided  in  the  summer  of  1808  that  I  should  go  to  Yverdun  with 
my  three  pupils.  Thus  it  happened  after  a  short  time  that  I  was  there  as  both 
teacher  and  scholar,  educator  and  pupil.  In  order  to  be  fully  and  perfectly 
placed  in  the  midst  and  the  heart  of  Pestalozzi's  work,  I  wished  to  reside  with 
my  pupils  in  the  building  of  the  institution,  in  the  castle  so  called.  We  wished 
to  share  everything  with  the  rest ;  but  this  wish  was  not  granted  us,  for  strange 
selfishness  interfered.  Yet  I  soon  came  to  dwell  as  near  the  institution  as 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  JME1XINGEN.  43 

possible,  so  that  we  shared  dinner,  afternoon  lunch  and  supper,  the  instruction 
adapted  to  us  and  the  whole  life  of  the  pupils.  I  for  myself  had  nothing  more 
serious  to  do  than  to  allow  my  pupils  to  take  a  full  share  of  that  life,  strength- 
ening spirit  and  body.  With  this  aim  we  shared  all  instruction,  and  it  was  a 
special  care  to  me  to  talk  with  Pestalozzi  on  every  subject  from  its  first  point 
of  connection,  to  learn  to  know  it  from  its  foundation.  I  soon  felt  the  need  of 
unity  of  endeavor  in  means  and  end.  Therefore  I  sought  to  gain  the  highest 
insight  into  everything.  I  was  pupil  in  all  subjects,  numbers,  form,  singing, 
reading,  drawing,  language,  geography,  natural  science,  dead  languages,  etc. 
In  what  was  offered  for  youthful  life,  for  comprehensive  teaching,  for  higher 
instruction,  I  missed  that  satisfying  of  the  human  being,  the  essence  of  the 
subject.  Pestalozzi's  views  were  very  universal,  and,  as  experience  taught,  only 
awakening  to  those  already  grounded  in  the  right.  I  revealed  my  feelings  on 
this  subject  very  earnestly  and  plainly  to  Pestalozzi,  and  finally,  in  1810,  resolved 
to  leave  Yverdun.  In  connection  with  the  subjects  taught,  the  instruction  in 
language  struck  me  first  in  its  great  imperfection,  arbitrariness,  and  lifelessness. 
The  discovery  of  a  satisfactory  method  of  teaching  the  mother  tongue  occupied 
me  especially.  I  proceeded  from  the  following  considerations  :  Language  is 
the  image,  the  representat  on  of  a  world,  and  is  related  to  the  outer  world 
through  articulately  formed  tones ;  if  I  wish  properly  to  represent  a  thing  I 
must  know  the  original  according  to  its  character.  The  outer  world  has  ob- 
jects ;  I  also  must  have  a  decided  form,  a  decided  word  for  the  object.  The 
objects,  however,  show  qualities  ;  language  must,  therefore,  have  qualitv  words 
.in  its  construction.  These  qualities  are  necessarily  bound  up  with  the  objects ; 
qualities  of  being,  having  and  becoming. 

I  learned  also  to  recognize  boyish  play  in  the  free  air  in  its  power,  develop- 
ing and  strengthening  spirit,  disposition  and  body.  In  these  plays  and  in  what 
was  connected  with  them,  I  recognized  the  chief  source  of  the  moral  strength 
of  the  young  people  in  the  institution. 

The  higher  symbolical  meaning  of  play  had  not  then  opened  to  me,  so  I 
regarded  it  merely  as  a  moral  power  for  mind  and  body.  The  walks  were  like 
the  plays  in  their  moral  influence,  especially  those  in  Pestalozzi's  company. 
There  is  no  question  that  Pestalozzi's  public,  and  especially  his  evening  reflec- 
tions, in  which  he  liked  to  exert  himself  to  awaken  and  unfold  the  ideal  of 
noble  manhood  and  true  human  love,  contributed  most  essentially  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  inner  life.  On  the  whole,  I  spent  in  Yverdun  an  inspiring, 
grand,  and  for  my  life,  decisive  time.  In  1810  I  returned  to  Frankfort.  I  had 
wished  to  enter  a  university  immediately,  but  saw  myself  obliged  to  remain  in 
my  place  until  July  of  the  coming  year. 

Gottingen. — Study  of  Language  and  Nature. 

In  the  beginning  of  that  month,  I  went  to  Gottingen.  I  arrived  there  in  the 
middle  of  the  half  year,  because  I  felt  that  I  needed  several  months  to  right 
myself,  to  bring  my  inner  and  outer  being,  my  thoughts  and  actions  into  har- 
mony. Several  months  really  passed  before  my  inner  life  quieted  itself.  I 
sought  to  find  how  to  place  mankind  as  a  whole  in  and  outside  of  me.  So  I 
was  led  back  to  the  first  appearance  of  man  on  earth,  to  the  country  where  he 
originated,  and  to  the  first  expression  of  mankind,  his  speech  The  studv  and 
investigation  of  language  formed  now  the  object  of  my  endeavors.  Learning 
the  eastern  languages  seemed  to  me  the  necessary  object  of  my  efforts  and 
.aspirations,  and  I  forthwith  began  with  Hebrew  and  Arabic.  From  these  I 


4A  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

wished  to  open  a  way  to  other  Asiatic  tongues,  especially  the  Indian  and  Per- 
sian. Greek  likewise  allured  me  by  its  fullness,  order,  and  law.  I  was  now 
free.  I  was  happy.  I  was  cheerful,  and  peace  reigned  within  and  without 
me.  As  I  lived  alone  through  the  day,  I  walked  late  in  the  afternoon  in  order 
to  be  greeted  by  the  light,  friendly  rays  of  the  sinking  sun.  I  walked  until 
nearly  midnight  in  the  beautiful  suburbs  of  Gottingen,  in  order  to  strengthen 
body  and  mind.  The  heavens  lit  with  stars  accorded  with  my  feelings  So 
the  summer  half-year  had  flown  and  Michaelmas  day  had  come.  My  self- 
development  had  imperceptibly  led  me  away  from  my  study  of  language  to 
natural  objects.  My  design  of  studying  nature  in  her  first  phenomena  and 
elements  again  sprang  up.  But  my  remaining  means  were  too  small  to  con- 
tinue longer  at  the  university.  Since  I  had  nothing  but  my  own  mental 
strength  I  thought  I  could  supply  the  means  necessary  for  the  farther  attain- 
ment of  my  end  by  literary  work.  I  began  to  be  active  in  that  direction,  when 
my  outer  condition  took  a  very  different  turn  through  an  unexpected  legacy. 
I  had  an  aunt,  my  mother's  sister,  whose  sudden  death  put  me  in  a  condition  to 
carry  on  my  desired  studies  in  an  unthought-of  way.  My  situation  was  now 
highly  agreeable,  and  I  felt  such  a  quiet  joy  and  cheerfulness  as  never  before. 

Physics,  chemistry,  mineralogy  and  natural  history  were  my  first  studies. 
The  study  and  investigation  of  nature  seemed  to  me  the  foundation  and  cor- 
ner-stone of  human  development,  improvement,  and  education.  The  lectures 
on  natural  history  at  this  university  gave  me  a  view  of  the  fundamental  forms, 
of  crystals  and  minerals.  I  could  not  live  an  entire  term  more  by  my  own 
means,  but  hoped  to  be  able  to  assure  my  support  in  Berlin  by  giving  instruc- 
tion. Therefore  I  resolved  to  go  there  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  winter 
term,  in  order  to  study  mineralogy,  geology,  crystallography  and  their  laws. 
Residence  in  Berlin. 

After  a  visit  of  some  weeks  with  my  brother  in  Osterode,  I  went  to  Berlin 
in  October,  1812.  The  lectures  I  had  desired  gave  rny  mind  and  spirit  what 
I  needed,  and  unfolded  in  my  feelings  still  more  my  conviction  of  the  inner 
connection  of  all  cosmic  development.  For  my  maintenance  I  gave  instruc- 
tion in  a  then  famous  private  school. 

Now  came  the  year  1813,  pregnant  with  fate.  Every  one  was  called  to 
arms,  to  protect  the  fatherland.  I  had  indeed  a  home,  a  native  land,  I  might 
say  a  motherland,  but  no  fatherland.  My  native  country  did  not  call  me.  I 
was  not  Prussian,  and  so  it  happened,  owing  to  my  retired  life,  the  call  to 
arms  inspired  me  little.  It  was  something  different  that  called  me,  not  with 
enthusiasm,  but  with  a  firm  resolution  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the  German  sol- 
diers. It  was  the  feeling  and  consciousness  of  the  ideal  Germany,  that  I  re- 
spected as  something  high  and  holy  in  my  spirit,  and  which  I  wished  to  be 
everywhere  unfettered  and  free  to  act.  Farther,  the  firmness  with  which  I 
held  to  my  educational  career,  decided  me.  Although  I  could  not  really  say 
that  I  had  a  fatherland,  yet  it  must  happen  that  every  boy,  that  every  child 
who  should  later  be  educated  by  me  would  have  a  fatherland,  and  that  that 
fatherland  now  demanded  protection,  when  the  child  himself  could  not  defend 
it.  I  could  not  possibly  think  how  a  young  man,  capable  of  bearing  arms, 
could  become  the  teacher  of  children  whose  country  he  had  not  defended  with 
his  life-blood.  This  was  the  second  thing  that  influenced  me  to  my  decision. 
Thirdly,  the  summons  to  war  appeared  to  me  a  sign  of  the  common  need  of 
man,  of  the  country,  of  the  time  in  which  I  lived,  and  I  felt  that  it  would  be 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN.  45 

unworthy  and  unmanly  not  to  struggle  for  the  common  necessity  of  the  peo- 
ple among  whom  one  lives,  not  to  bear  my  part  towards  repelling  a  common 
danger.     Every  consideration  was  secondary  to  these  convictions,  even  that 
which  grew  out  of  my  bodily  constitution,  too  feeble  for  such  a  life. 
Short  Campaign  as  Soldier. 

At  Easter,  1813,  I  entered  Dresden  in  order  to  join  the  infantry  division  of 
the  corps  of  Lutzow  at  Leipsic.  Owing  to  the  retirement  of  my  life,  it  was 
natural  that  I,  although  matriculated  as  a  real  student,  yet  stood  far  from  the 
others,  and  really  had  no  acquaintance  among  them,  and  so  among  my  strong 
comrades,  whom  I  joined  in  Dresden,  I  could  find  no  acquaintance,  although 
there  were  so  many  students  from  Berlin  among  them.  At  the  first  day's  rest 
after  our  march  out  of  Dresden,  our  leader  introduced  to  me  one  of  our  com- 
rades from  Erfurt,  as  a  Thuringian  and  fellow-countryman ;  it  was  Langethal. 
Although  a  passing  acquaintance  at  first,  it  was  destined  to  be  a  lasting  one. 

Our  first  march  and  halt  was  Meissen.  We  had  already  enjoyed,  during 
the  march,  a  beautiful  spring  day,  and  so  we  rejoiced  during  our  rest  in  a  yet 
more  beautiful  evening.  Led  by  the  same  impulse,  all  who  were  students 
found  themselves  together  on  an  open  place  on  the  banks  of  the  Elbe,  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  public  house,  and  the  old  Meissen  wine  soon  united  us.  We  sat 
some  twenty  in  number,  a  merry  circle,  at  a  long  table,  and  greeted  and 
pledged  each  other  now  really  for  the  first  time.  It  was  here  that  Langethal 
brought  me  his  friend  at  the  university  of  Berlin,  the  young  Middendorff,  a 
theological  student.  We  were  together  until  the  middle  of  the  beautiful 
spring  night,  and  on  the  following  morning  we  visited  the  magnificent  cathe- 
dral of  Meissen.  Thus  we  three  found  each  other,  who  from  that  time  have 
remained  united  for  now  almost  fifteen  years,  in  a  common  struggle  and  for  a 
higher  life ;  although  not  always  in  the  same  outer  bond  of  life,  yet  in  the 
inner  striving  for  self-education.  Laugethal  and  Middendorff  had  a  third 
friend  among  our  comrades,  Bauer  by  name.  I  became  acquainted  with  him 
also  at  Meissen,  I  believe;  yet  we  first  associated  as  friends  at  Havelburg. 
With  him  the  narrow  circle  of  my  companions  in  war  was  closed. 

My  principal  care  was  to  improve  myself  in  my  present  calling,  and  so  one 
of  my  first  endeavors  was  to  make  clear  to  myself  the  inner  necessity  and  the 
connection  of  the  demands  of  service  and  drill ;  it  came  to  me  very  soon  and 
easily,  from  the  mathematical,  physical  side,  and  strengthened  me  against 
many  little  disagreeable  things  which  easily  befell  others  when  they  thought 
this  or  that  command  could  be  omitted  as  too  trifling.  During  the  long  stay 
in  Havelburg  I  strengthened  my  inner  life,  so  far  as  the  service  permitted,  by 
living  much  in  nature.  We  friends  sought  to  be  together  as  much  as  possible. 
Our  camping  life  was  especially  pleasant  to  me,  because  it  made  many  facts 
of  history  clear  to  me.  Owing  to  the  fate  of  our  corps,  which  was  dislodged 
from  the  real  theater  of  war,  and  with  the  great  aggressiveness  of  our  military 
activity,  we  passed,  at  least  I  did,  our  war  life  as  in  a  dream.  Only  occasion- 
ally, as  at  Leipsic,  at  Dalenburg,  at  Bremen,  and  at  Berlin,  we  seemed  to  wake 
up,  yet  only  to  sink  again  into  a  feeble  dream. 

It  was  specially  oppressive  and  enervating  to  me,  never  to  know  our  real 
relation  to  the  great  whole,  and  to  be  able  to  say  nothing  satisfactory  either 
of  the  reason  or  the  aim  of  our  employment.  It  was  so  to  me,  at  least ;  others 
might  have  seen  it  more  clearly  and  better.  The  campaign  afforded  me  one 
thing,  howover.  In  the  course  of  the  actual  soldier's  life,  I  aroused  myself  for 


46  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN. 

the  interest  of  the  German  land  and  people ;  my  exertions  became  patriotic  irr> 
that  direction.  Everywhere,  so  far  as  the  exhaustion  of  my  mind  allowed,  1 
bore  my  future  vocation  about  with  me,  even  in  the  few  battles  in  which  we 
took  part ;  there  also  I  could  collect  experiences  for  my  future  work.  Our 
corps  marched  through  the  districts  of  Bremen  and  Hamburg,  Holstein,  and 
from  there  we  came  finally,  in  the  year  1813,  to  the  Rhine.  Peace  prevented 
us  from  seeing  Paris.  We  were  stationed  in  the  Netherlands  until  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  corps.  At  last,  in  July,  1813,  every  one  who  did  not  wish  to 
serve  longer,  was  allowed  to  return  home  and  to  his  earlier  calling. 

At  my  entrance  to  the  corps  among  Prussian  soldiers,  the  promise  of  an  ap- 
pointment in  the  Prussian  state  was  given  me  through  the  intercession  of 
honored  friends.  It  was  a  position  as  assistant  in  the  mineralogical  museum 
of  Berlin,  under  Weiss.  Thither  I  turned  my  way  as  to  the  next  place  of  my 
destiny.  I  wished  to  see  the  Rhine  and  Main,  and  also  my  native  country. 
So  I  went  from  Dusseldorf  back  to  Lunen,  and  from  there  through  Maintz, 
Frankfort  and  Rudolstadt  to  Berlin. 

I  left  the  army  with  an  utter  feeling  of  dissatisfaction.  The  inner  longing 
for  accord  and  harmony,  for  inner  peace,  was  so  powerful,  that  it  pressed  itself 
before  me  in  symbol  and  form  unconsciously.  With  an  inexplicable,  anxious 
desire,  T  passed  through  many  beautiful  regions  and  many  gardens  on  my 
return ;  but  I  was  always  drawn  from  them  unsatisfied.  In  Frankfort  I  vis- 
ited a  large  garden  ornamented  with  the  most  varied  beauties.  I  looked  at  all 
the  luxuriant  growths  and  fresh  flowers  which  it  offered ;  but  no  blossom 
gave  satisfaction  to  my  inner  being.  When  all  the  manifold  beauties  of  the 
garden  entered  my  soul  at  a  glance,  it  flashed  upon  me  vividly  that  I  found  no 
lily  among  them.  I  asked  the  owner  of  the  garden,  "  Have  you  no  lilies  in 
your  garden  ?  "  He  responded  quietly,  "  No."  When  I  expressed  my  sur- 
prise at  that,  he  told  me  just  as  quietly  that  no  one  had  ever  missed  them  in 
the  garden.  But  I  knew,  now,  what  I  had  missed  and  sought.  How  could 
my  inner  being  express  it  in  words  more  beautifully  than  thus :  You  seek 
quiet  peace  of  mind,  harmony  of  life,  purity  of  soul  in  the  image  of  the  quiet, 
pure,  simple  lily.  The  garden  in  its  beautiful  variety,  without  a  lily,  seemed 
to  me  as  the  many-colored  life  passing  before  me,  without  unity  and  har- 
mony. I  saw  afterwards,  in  a  walk,  costly  blooming  lilies  in  a  country  gar- 
den ;  but  they  were  separated  from  me  by  a  hedge.  I  must  especially  note 
one  thing ;  in  the  place  where  I  saw  the  lilies  in  the  garden,  a  three-years'  old 
boy  trustfully  drew  near  me. 

Assistant  in  Museum  of  Mineralogy. 

The  first  day  of  August,  1813,  I  arrived  in  Berlin,  and  immediately  received 
the  appointment  mentioned  above.  The  duties  obligatory  on  me  brought  me 
in  contact,  for  the  greatest  part  of  every  day,  with  minerals,  those  dumb 
proofs  of  the  quiet,  creative  activity  of  nature,  and  the  witnesses  of  the  same. 
Geology  and  crystallography  opened  to  me  a  still  higher  circle  of  insight  and 
perception,  and  also  a  h'-gher  aim  for  seeking,  aspiration,  and  striving.  Nat- 
ure and  man  seemed  to  me  to  explain  each  other,  although  in  such  different 
degrees  of  development. 

Although  Langethal,  Middendorff,  Bauer,  and  I  had  during  the  whole  war 
served  not  only  in  the  same  corps,  but  also  in  the  same  battalion,  yet  we  were 
separated  the  last  of  the  time,  especially  when  quartered  in  the  Netherlands,  so 
that  I,  at  least,  at  the  dismissal  of  the  corps,  did  not  know  to  what  region  my 
friends  had  turned. 


LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEININGEN.  47 

Re-union  with  Middendorff and  Langethal. 

So  it  was  an  unexpected  joy  to  me  when  after  some  time  I  saw  them  all 
again  in  Berlin.  My  friends  pursued  earnestly  their  theological  studies,  I,  my 
study  of  nature.  So  at  first  there  was  little  contact  between  us.  Thus  sped 
several  months  when  life  suddenly  called  us  together  again.  It  happened 
through  the  summons  to  war  in  1815.  Together  we  reported  as  volunteers. 
According  to  our  earlier  position  and  the  will  of  the  king  we  could  enter  imme- 
diately as  officers.  Soon  each  one  of  us  was  assigned  to  his  regiment. 

Such  a  number  of  volunteers  reported  themselves  that  neither  state  officers 
had  to  leave  their  posts,  nor  students  to  break  up  their  studies.  For  this  rea- 
son a  counter  order  admonished  us  to  remain. 

Middendorff,  certain  of  his  speedy  departure  to  the  army,  did  not  wish  to  rent 
apartments  for  the  short  time  of  his  stay  in  Berlin,  and  since  mine  was  sufficient 
for  us  both,  he  came  to  me. 

At  first,  owing  to  the  different  directions  of  our  lives,  this  seemed  to  bring 
us  not  much  nearer  ;  soon  a  stronger  point  of  union  showed  itself.  Langethal 
and  Middendorff,  in  order  to  support  themselves  accepted  places  in  families  as 
tutors  ;  but  so  that  their  attendance  at  their  lectures  was  not  shortened.  At 
first  the  work  undertaken  seemed  simple  to  both  ;  but  soon  they  found  difficul- 
ties in  regard  to  the  instruction  as  well  as  the  education  of  the  children  in- 
trusted to  them. 

Our  conversation  often  led  us  to  these  subjects,  and  so  they  turned  to  me 
with  questions  especially  in  regard  to  mathematical  instruction,  and  we  ap- 
pointed two  hours  a  week  in  which  I  imparted  instruction  to  them.  From  this 
moment  the  mutual  intercourse  became  active  and  permanent. 

SUPPLEMENT  BY  THE  EDITOR — W.  LANGE. 

Here  the  account  breaks  off  suddenly.  I  had  to  decipher  it  out  of  an  almost 
illegible  manuscript.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  letter  destined  for  the  Duke 
of  Meiningen  on  the  occasion  of  the  negotiation  concerning  the  people's  educa- 
tional institution  in  Helba,  was  ever  brought  to  an  end,  finished  and  sent ;  but 
I  doubt  it.  Finally  my  own  introductory  account  of  the  efficient  activity  of 
Froebel  in  Switzerland  gives  further  information  concerning  the  life  of  this 
remarkable  man. 

In  1839,  Froebel,  accompanied  by  Middendorff  and  a  Herr  Frankenburg, 
went  to  Dresden  and  was  active  there  for  the  establishment  of  the  Kinder- 
garten. After  Frankenburg  had  undertaken  a  Kindergarten  in  Dresden, 
Froebel  returned  to  Blankenburg  and  Middendorff  to  Keilhau.  The  friends 
did  not  separate  entirely ;  but  from  time  to  time  Middendorff  took  a  helpful 
and  active  share  in  the  efforts  at  Blankenburg. 

Froebel  now  summoned  a  distant  relative  to  him,  but  could  not  long  con- 
tinue his  establishment  for  pecuniary  reasons  in  spite  of  the  continued  support 
from  Keilhau.  He  took  refuge  again  in  his  mother-institution,  without,  how- 
ever, any  way  influencing  its  direction.  In  August,  1848,  he  held  a  teachers' 
union  in  Rudolstadt,  and  laid  before  it  his  plan  for  the  education  of  young  chil- 
dren. The  aim  of  the  gathering  was  attained.  He  won  universal  approba- 
tion, and  the  world  of  teachers  became  mindful  of  his  exertions. 

In  the  autumn  of  1848  he  went  to  Dresden  again  in  order  to  carry  on  there 
a  course  for  the  training  of  Kindergartners. 

In  the  spring  of  1849  he  sought  a  new  abode  in  Liebenstein.  In  the  fall  of 
the  same  year  he  was  called  to  Hamburg  by  a  woman's  union,  after  Midden- 


48  LETTER  TO  DUKE  OF  MEIN1NGEN. 

dorff  shortly  before  in  the  institution  of  the  celebrated  teacher,  Doris  Lutkens, 
had  made  an  appeal  for  Froebel's  cause. 

The  idea  of  the  Kindergarten  quickly  took  deep  root  in  Hamburg.  In  the 
spring  of  1850,  he  returned  to  the  hunting-castle,  Marienthal,  at  Liebenstein, 
which  the  Duke  of  Meiningen  had  granted  to  him  at  his  request  for  educa- 
tional purposes.  He  had  established  here  an  institution  for  training  Kinder- 
gartners.  In  July,  1850,  he  was  married  for  the  second  time  to  a  pupil,  Louise 
Levin. 

In  1852,  the  German  Teachers'  General  Assembly,  meeting  in  Gotha  with 
Theodore  Hoffman  presiding,  invited  him  to  its  sessions.  At  his  entrance  the 
whole  assembly  rose  as  one  man,  and  he  had  the  joy  of  a  universal  recognition 
of  his  efforts.  Soon  after,  these  same  efforts  were  banned  by  the  Prussian 
ministry.  This  ban  was  the  indirect  cause  of  his  death.  He  made  the  greatest 
exertions  day  and  night  to  avert  the  reproach  of  the  unchristian  spirit  and  the 
destructive  tendency.  The  unfinished  defense  lies  before  me.  I  cannot  read 
this  his  last  work  without  emotion.  On  the  twenty -first  of  July,  1852,  death 
caused  his  pen  to  rest. 

[Mad.  Marenholtz  Bulow's  Reminiscences  of  FroebeL,  supplement  this  auto- 
biography very  satisfactorily.  It  was  translated  by  Mrs.  Mann,  and  pub- 
lished in  Boston  by  Lee  &  Shepard.J 


FRIEDERICH  FROBEL  UPON  PESTALOZZI, 

LETTER  TO  THE  PRINCESS-REGENT  OF   SCHWARZBURC-RUDOLSTADT, 
April  27,  1809. 


MAN  AS  THE  SUBJECT  OF  EDUCATION. 

PESTALOZZI'S  principles  of  education  and  instruction  and  his  pro- 
ceedings, growing  out  of  them,  and  the  means  for  their  application  are 
founded  entirely  upon  the  phenomena  of  his  existence  as  a  created 
being. 

Man  as  he  is  represented  to  us  is  a  union  of  three  chief  attributes ; 
body,  soul,  mind ;  to  cultivate  these  harmoniously  and  as  a  whole  is  his 
object.  Pestalozzi  goes  from  this  existence  of  man  into  the  phenomena, 
that  is,  from  that  which  he  is  by  the  sum  of  his  powers  and  according 
to  his  destiny  (its  suitable  culture).  Hence  he  takes  man  into  consid- 
eration according  to  this  sum  of  his  powers  as  a  bodily,  intellectual  and 
emotional  being,  and  works  upon  him  in  this  sum  of  his  powers  and  for 
their  harmonious  development  and  culture,  from  which  first  arises 
that  whole  which  is  called  man. 

Pestalozzi,  therefore,  works  not  merely  upon  the  bodily  powers  and 
their  development,  not  only  upon  the  culture  of  the  mind  and  its  devel- 
opment, nor  only  upon  the  soul  and  its  development  (although  he  is 
accused  of  doing  so),  nor  merely  upon  two  of  these  at  once,  as  body  and 
mind,  or  body  and  soul,  or  soul  and  mind.  No !  Pestalozzi  develops 
man,  works  upon  man  in  the  totality  of  his  powers. 

Man  in  his  manifestations  must  run  through  three  principal  epochs, 
according  to  his  powers  ;  that  of  the  body,  that  of  the  soul,  that  of  the 
mind;  he  runs  through  them  not  separated,  or  singly,  so  that  he  first 
runs  through  that  of  the  body,  then  that  of  the  soul,  and  at  last  that  of 
the  mind ;  no,  these  epochs  are  convertible  in  the  man  developed  in  per- 
fectly undisturbed  natural  relations ;  their  circular  course  returns  ever 
again,  and  the  more  so  the  more  perfect  the  man  becomes — until  the 
limits  of  his  powers  as  well  as  of  their  development  fall  away  and  are 
removed,  and  the  continuous  whole — man — stands  before  us. 

It  would  be  highly  unjust,  therefore,  to  say  of  Pestalozzi  that  he  de- 
veloped men,  the  powers  of  men,  each  power  separately  at  three  differ- 
ent epochs,  first  the  body,  then  the  soul,  and  then  the  mind,  since  he 
really  takes  them  all  into  view  at  once  in  harmonious  and  brotherly 
union,  and  although  he  seems,  perhaps,  for  the  time  to  be  treating 
merely  the  physical  powers,  he  is  observing  and  taking  into  considera- 
tion equally  the  influence  of  this  treatment  upon  mind  and  soul. 

He  has  man  as  a  whole  in  his  eye,  as  an  unseparated  and  inseparable 
whole,  and  in  all  that  he  does  and  wishes  to  do  for  him  and  his  culti- 
vation, he  does  it  for  him  as  a  whole.  At  no  time  does  he  act  only  for 
49  4= 


50  FUOEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

the  development  of  one  power,  leaving  the  others  without  nourishment ; 
for  example,  he  never  is  acting  for  the  mind  alone  and  leaving  uncon- 
sidered,  unsatisfied  and  uncared  for  and  in  inaction  the  body  and  the 
soul ;  all  the  powers  are  cared  for  at  all  times. 

But  often  one  or  other  of  the  three  great  divisions  of  man's  nature 
stands  forth  and  apparently  dominates  the  others. 

Pestalozzi  takes  into  view  man  according  to  and  in  his  manifestation, 
according  to  the  laws  of  nature  and  those  which  are  grounded  in  the 
mind  of  man,  when  he  works  specially  upon  the  predominant  power ; 
it  is  not  done  in  an  isolated  and  divided  way,  but  in  order  to  work 
through  his  treatment  upon  the  other  equal  but  slumbering  and  resting 
powers.  So,  for  example,  in  one  and  the  same  epoch  upon  the  senses, 
through  these  upon  the  body,  and  through  these  again  upon  the  feel- 
ings, and  so  in  a  perpetual  round. 

Pestalozzi  takes  man  according  to  his  manifestation.  But  man  does 
not  manifest  himself  alone,  for  and  through  himself;  he  manifests 
himself  under  conditions  determined  by  nature  and  by  his  mother,  and 
both  these  united — that  is,  by  love. 

So  the  man  becomes  child,  that  is,  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  love 
of  the  father  and  mother. 

Pestalozzi  then  wishes  to  develop  and  cultivate  the  man  in  his  mani- 
festation as  child,  through  the  conditions  under  which  he  appears,  that 
is,  the  love  of  the  father  and  mother.  We  think  of  the  father  and 
mother  as  united  by  love  in  order  to  exalt  the  child,  i.  e.,  the  sum  of 
their  love,  into  an  independent  being  by  means  of  education. 

Can  there  be  a  truer,  more  careful  nurse  and  developer  of  this  love 
made  visible,  this  independent  essence,  this  child,  than  the  father  and 
the  mother,  than  the  two  united  by  mutual  love,  to  which  the  child 
owes  his  existence — indeed,  whose  sum  and  substance  the  child  is  ? 

Pestalozzi  thus  wishes  only  what  nature  and  the  being  of  man 
wishes ;  he  wishes  that  man  in  his  manifestation  as  child  shall  be  de- 
veloped by  his  father  and  mother,  and  in  their  mutual  love  be  culti- 
vated throughout  and  educated  according  to  his  capacities  as  a  corporeal, 
feeling  and  intellectual  being. 

MAN   IN   HIS    MANIFESTATION   AS    A    CHILD. 

The  existence  of  mind  and  soul  in  the  child  is  expressed  merely  by 
simple  life. 

Mind  and  soul  appear  limited  by  and  in  the  mass,  the  body — for 
still  all  parts  in  the  body  are  one ;  the  mind  and  the  senses  by  which 
the  world  without  works  through  the  body  upon  the  mind  and  soul  are 
not  yet  distinguishable. 

The  body  of  the  child  is  still  a  mass ;  it  appears  so  tender  and  frail, 
so  much  too  material  and  awkward  for  the  mind  and  the  soul  of  the 
child,  yet  slumbering  and  weak,  to  work  through  it. 

By  degrees  the  senses,  feeling,  sight,  etc.,  develop  and  separate. 


FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI.  cl 

The  child  feels  the  warmth  of  the  mother's  breast  and  the  breath  of 
her  loving  lips  ;  it  smiles  (the  first  appearance  of  the  soul,  the  first  sign 
of  the  soul's  existence). 

The  child  perceives  the  mother ;  it  feels  her  nearness,  her  distance, 
etc. ;  the  child  looks  (the  first  appearance  of  mind — the  first  sign  of  its 
existence). 

At  the  moment  of  the  beginning  of  this  separation  of  the  senses,  the 
true  mother  works  upon  the  unfolding  and  development  of  the  child 
according  to  its  various  capacities  ;  the  love  of  the  mother  makes  the 
child  feel,  see,  hear. 

Thus  are  developed,  without  giving  any  account  of  themselves — 
yielding  only  to  holy  feeling,  to  the  demands  of  their  nature — the 
senses  of  the  child,  which  are  the  paths  to  its  mind  and  soul. 

Here  is  the  third  point,  where  Pestalozzi  takes  into  account  the  par- 
ents— where  he  appeals  to  them  with  the  view  of  exalting  the  being  of 
their  love  to  the  higher  life,  to  conscious  independence — where  he  gives 
them  means  and  guidance  to  develop  and  cultivate  the  capacities  of 
their  child. 

What  Pestalozzi  wishes  as  means  of  development  he  had  pointed  out 
in  his  Book  for  Mothers,  which  many  have  misunderstood  and  which 
is  yet  the  highest  which  can  be  given  to  man,  the  most  loving  feeling 
could  create,  the  highest  and  best  gift  which  he  could  bestow  in  the 
present  circumstances  upon  his  brethren  amd  sisters. 

What  Pestalozzi  expresses  in  that  book  are  only  suggestions  of  what 
lies  in  his  soul,  as  a  great,  glorious,  living  and  unspeakable  whole. 

His  soul  felt  the  joys  of  heaven  in  his  intuition  of  the  perception  of 
the  father  and  mother  following  the  call  of  nature  by  the  education  of 
their  children.  Overpowered  by  this  heavenly  joy,  he  sat  down  and 
wrote,  not  for  word-catchers  and  quibblers — no  !  he  wrote  for  parents, 
for  fathers,  for  mothers,  who  he  thought  would  conceive  and  feel  as  he 
did,  to  whom  he  only  needed  to  point  out  what  they  should  do,  what 
they  could  do,  and  how  they  could  do  it. 

The  highest  object  of  recognition,  of  the  intuition  of  mind  and  soul 
to  man,  is  humanity. 

Pestalozzi  took  pleasure,  in  his  Book  for  Mothers,  in  pointing  out  to 
man  what  he  wished ;  and,  in  order  to  point  out  all  that  he  wished, 
could  he  choose  anything  higher  and  more  perfect  than  man,  whose 
body  is  destined  for  the  earth  and  whose  being  is  destined  for  heaven  ? 
That  he  chose  the  highest,  the  most  perfect  thing,  is  now  made  a  re- 
proach to  him ! 

But  is  there  a  more  glorious,  more  exalted,  more  beautiful,  more 
worthy  object  of  observation  and  recognition  than  man  ? — and  is  not 
the  body  the  house  of  our  spirit,  which  is  destined  for  eternity  and  for 
communion  with  God  ?  Can  it,  as  he  himself  says,  be  contrary  to  nat- 
ure to  learn  to  know  it  early,  to  respect  it  early,  to  rejoice  in  it  early, 
that  it  may  be  made  holy  for  us?  Can  it,  as  they  charge  Pestalozzi, 


52  FKOEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

be  contrary  to  nature  to  orient  one's  self  early  in  the  house  where 
one  dwells? 

As  I  stand  before  you,  it  cannot  be  my  aim  to  contradict  the  objec- 
tions of  Pestalozzi's  opposers,  who  for  the  most  part  misunderstand 
him,  since  I  am  merely  striving  to  represent  literally  the  essence  of 
Pestalozzi's  fundamental  efforts  according  to  his  own  representation ; 
I  merely  say  that  a  great  part  of  the  objections  made  to  these  efforts 
consists  in  this;  that  Pestalozzi,  for  various  reasons,  errs  very  much 
when  he  enlists  the  child  himself  iii  the  first  cognition  and  develop- 
ment of  himself  and  the  man,  and  even  starts  from  the  body  of  the 
child. 

But  how  can  it  be  a  crime;  how  can  it  be  against  nature  to  re- 
spect the  body  early,  to  learn  early  to  know  the  body  and  its  use,  the 
use  to  which  we  all  owe  everything,  by  which  alone  we  learn  to  know 
the  world  without,  which  helps  us  to  sustain  and  battle  for  our  life,  as 
it  helps  us  to  recognize  God,  to  do  good,  and  to  rescue  our  brothers  and 
sisters  with  strong  arms  from  the  brink  of  perdition  ? 

Truly,  whoever  wishes  to  teach  the  child  to  respect  his  body  must 
respect  himself ;  if  he  wishes  to  learn  to  know  it,  he  must  know  him- 
self ;  whoever  wishes  to  instruct  in  the  use  of  it,  must  know  it  himself, 
all  this  must  come  to  his  consciousness ;  whoever  works  to  make  the 
child  feel  the  sacredness  of  his  body,  to  himself  it  must  be  sacred ! 

Indeed,  no  man  could  understand  Pestalozzi  who  had  not  in  his  soul, 
when  this  elementary  book  first  fell  into  his  hands,  that  which  Pesta- 
lozzi felt  to  be  exalted  in  humanity ;  to  him  those  principles  were  dead 
forms  without  sense  or  significance,  and  afterwards  one  person,  perhaps 
without  examination,  repeated  the  judgment  of  another  who  seemed  to 
him  well-informed. 

But  were  all  these  men  parents  to  whom  Pestalozzi  spoke  ?  Noble 
Princess,  if  I  were  not  afraid  of  wearying  you,  I  could  say  much  upon 
the  excellence  and  the  principles  of  Pestalozzi,  of  the  man  himself ;  I 
only  permit  myself  to  express  one  thing  of  which  I  am  deeply  per- 
suaded in  my  own  mind. 

Many  a  young  man  and  boy,  powerful  by  the  nature  of  their  collec- 
tive capacities,  would  not  have  lost  his  powers  in  the  bloom  of  his  youth, 
if  his  parents  or  teachers  had  followed  in  his  education  the  principles 
laid  down  by  Pestalozzi  in  his  Book  for  Mothers. 

Many  a  young  man  would  have  known  how  to  be  a  useful  and  esti- 
mable subject,  in  the  years  of  his  ripeness  and  understanding,  if  his 
body  could  have  fulfilled  the  requisitions  of  his  mind  and  heart. 

Pestalozzi's  Book  for  Mothers  is  only  a  suggestion  of  what  he  wishes 
to  do  ;  he  wrote  significantly  ;  "  or  a  guide  for  mothers  in  the  observa- 
tion of  their  children,  and  to  teach  them  to  speak." 

But  man  is  not  the  only  thing  upon  earth  ;  the  whole  outward  world 
is  the  object  of  his  recognition,  and  the  means  for  his  development  and 
culture. 


FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI.  53 

Pestalozzi  said,  therefore,  and  still  says  :  "  As  I  have  shown  you  that 
you  can  bring  man  by  degrees  through  gradual  development  of  the 
child  to  the  conscious  inspection  and  recognition  of  the  world  without, 
so  bring  every  other  object  of  the  world  without  to  his  inspection  and 
recognition,  every  object  which  approaches  the  child,  which  lies  in  hu 
circle,  in  his  world,  as  he  himself  lies  in  this  world  J " 

Scarcely  does  it  seem  possible  that  herein  can  lie  anything  contrary 
to  nature,  difficult  to  be  recognized,  or  difficult  to  be  carried  out,  and 
yet  the  opponents  of  Pestalozzi  find  more  than  all  this  in  it.  Pestalozzi's 
opponents  reproach  him  strongly  that  he  merely  speaks  of  this  obser- 
vation and  recognition. 

But  we  observe  with  all  our  senses,  and  how  could  Pestalozzi  believe 
that  any  one  would  accuse  him,  when  he  used  the  word  observation,  of 
meaning  simple  observation  with  the  eyes  ? 

The  Book  for  Mothers  is  to  teach  the  mother,  in  the  first  place,  to 
develop  and  to  cultivate  the  senses  of  the  child  both  singly  and  in  their 
harmonious  united  working.  In  the  second  place,  it  is  to  show  how  and 
in  what  natural  series  of  steps,  one  may  bring  the  objects  of  the  world 
in  which  he  lives  to  the  observation  and  recognition  of  the  child.  In  the 
third  place,  it  is  to  put  the  mothers  and  the  teachers  in  a  condition  to 
teach  the  child  the  use  and  destination  of  his  powers  and  capacities, 
as  well  as  the  use  and  design  of  the  objects  of  the  world  without ;  and 
to  bring  them  to  his  consciousness. 

And  in  all  this  they  accuse  Pestalozzi  of  expressing  one-sided  princi- 
ples and  methods  of  instruction,  although  it  is  surely  impossible  to 
fulfill  the  conditions  he  requires  without  developing  and  cultivating 
man  in  all  the  directions  of  his  great  powers. 

Others  came  forward  and  said,  Pestalozzi  would  have  dead  words  and 
repetitions ;  what  he  gives  is  dead  and  therefore  killing.  Still  others 
came  forward  and  said  what  Pestalozzi  wishes  the  child  to  know 
should  be  taught  him  earlier  and  better ;  they  point  to  the  number  of 
children's  books  that  have  appeared  for  every  age,  and  for  children  of 
all  conditions ;  to  the  books  that  have  been  written  on  natural  history, 
on  excursions,  journeys,  stories  and  picture  books  of  all  kinds,  etc. 

By  all  these  means  that  has  not  been  done  which  Pestalozzi  wishes 
to  have  done.  Everything  is  given  to  the  child  prepared  and  related, 
so  that  his  understanding  has  no  work  to  do. 

The  powers  of  the  child's  mind  are  not  rendered  active  and  self- 
working.  The  understanding  of  the  adult  has  already  prepared  every- 
thing so  that  the  activity  of  the  child's  understanding  and  recognition 
are  left  without  employment.  The  consequence  of  this  is  weakness 
of  mind  and  especially  of  the  self-acting  judgment  of  the  child,  and  his 
egress  out  of  his  own  inner  world  instead  of  making  him  at  home  in  it 
and  acquainted  with  it. 

They  have  also  reproached  Pestalozzi  for  the  form  of  his  Book  for 
Mothers.  But  when  he  wrote,  it  was  not  his  opinion  that  the  father, 


54  FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

mother,  teacher,  whose  hand-book  he  designed  it  to  be,  would  neces- 
sarily confine  himself  strictly  and  anxiously  to  his  representations.  He 
strove  only  to  represent  what  was  essential  in  general,  so  far  as  this  was 
possible  for  him  to  do  so,  and  to  touch  upon  all  parts  of  the  whole. 

Some  complained  in  regard  to  the  book  that  the  sequence  was  not 
logical  enough  ;  but  Pestalozzi  wished  neither  to  establish  a  strong  logi- 
cal sequence,  nor,  still  less,  to  confine  the  use  and  application  of  it. 

What  Pestalozzi  had  really  contemplated  was  in  the  opinion  of  others 
too  precise  and  stiff. 

Although  it  was  hardly  possible  that  Pestalozzi  should  not  begin  his 
list  of  the  parts  of  the  human  body  with  the  head,  he  did  not  say  that 
if  other  parts,  the  hand  for  example,  should  attract  the  attention  of  the 
child,  it  should  be  withdrawn  from  that  and  directed  to  the  head 
because  that  happened  to  stand  first  in  the  book.  Pestalozzi  says 
expressly,  the  peculiar  Book  for  Mothers  is  the  nature  of  the  child  in  its 
manifestations. 

I  know  a  mother  who  has  treated  her  child  now  two  and  a  quarter 
years  old  in  the  spirit  of  Pestalozzi,  and  according  to  his  meaning.  It 
is  delightful  and  exalting  to  the  heart  to  see  that  mother  and  child. 

And  surely  the  object  of  that  mother's  activity,  the  inner  life  of  her 
soul,  could  not  permit  her  through  her  love  for  her  child,  indeed,  would 
make  it  impossible  for  her,  to  follow  to  the  letter  the  directions  in 
Pestalozzi's  book  ;  yet  this  mother  did  not  find  his  writings  contrary  to 
nature,  nor  killing  to  the  mind  of  her  child ;  no  !  It  was  what  Pesta- 
lozzi wished  that  she  comprehended  in  her  inmost  soul.  It  is  a  joy  to 
see  that  child  with  his  angelic  voice,  his  childlike  innocence,  and  his 
love  not  only  for  his  mother,  but  for  everything  that  surrounds  him. 

It  is  the  highest  enjoyment  to  see  how  at  home  the  child  is  in  his 
world,  how  continually  active  and  occupied  he  is  in  it.  He  stands  now 
at  a  higher  point  of  knowledge  and  acquaintance  with  the  world  around 
him,  but  uninjured  in  his  innocent  childishness. 

This  child  lives  a  gentle  inner  life  ;  he  rejoices  inwardly  in  awaken- 
ing nature,  and  seizes  everything  with  attention  that  strikes  his  senses 
which  his  early  awakened  powers  of  body  and  mind  make  easily  pos- 
sible to  him.  The  mother  followed  Pestalozzi ;  what  she  did  she  did  by 
following  his  meaning.  It  is  not  possible  in  the  working  of  these  prin- 
ciples to  see  the  limits  of  the  culture  of  body,  soul  and  mind. 

Often  and  willingly  has  this  mother  said,  who  always  strove  to  do  her 
duty  before  she  knew  of  Pestalozzi,  that  from  Pestalozzi  she  had 
learned  how  to  be  a  mother. 

Pestalozzi's  Book  for  Mothers  would  have  been  much  less  unjustly 
judged  if  the  second  part  had  yet  appeared.  It  is  still  wanting,  alas  ! 
Pestalozzi  has  not  expressed  his  idea  fully  in  its  application  ;  this  is  an 
important  view  which  every  one  should  take  before  forming  a  judgment. 

As  much  and  even  more  should  be  taken  into  consideration  in  judg- 
ing of  the  book,  is  that  what  Pestalozzi  wishes  is  not  limited  to  the 


FKOEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI.  55 

time  when  the  faculty  of  speech  appears  in  the  child,  or  even  when  it 
actually  begins  to  speak ;  no !  it  begins  in  the  working  and  application 
at  the  moment  when  the  child  perceives  outward  impressions  decid- 
edly, that  is,  discriminates  between  light  and  darkness.  The  mother 
must  already  have  taught  the  child  to  observe  everything,  to  separate 
everything  which  comes  within  the  circle  of  his  life,  before  the  peculiar 
moment  of  time  when  the  development  of  language  begins. 

I  know  children  so  treated  who  were  a  year  and  a  half  old  before  they 
began  to  speak,  but  who  could  discriminate  between  all  things  that 
immediately  surrounded  them,  and  appeared  to  have  distinct  and  quite 
significant  conceptions  of  everything.  If  the  child  has  been  so  treated 
it  has  the  very  essential  and  useful  advantage,  when  it  does  begin  to 
speak,  of  knowing  well  the  objects  it  is  about  to  name,  and  hence  needs 
not  to  divide  its  powers  but  can  apply  them  unitedly  in  the  naming  of 
them.  It  can  now  make  important  progress  in  speaking,  and  this  is 
really  the  case  with  such  children. 

The  Book  for  Mothers  fir^t  gave  a  guide  for  teaching  the  child  to 
observe  that  language  is  the  medium  of  sympathy. 

The  mother  must  work  according  to  nature,  at  the  same  time  upon 
the  child's  capacity  for  language  and  its  development.  To  elevate  the 
social  life  between  mother,  father  and  child,  the  mother  widens  the 
child's  power  of  language.  The  father,  the  mother,  the  members  of 
the  family,  now  teach  the  child  the  meaning  of  the  language  they  speak, 
that  they  may  mutually  understand  each  other  more  easily,  and  sympa- 
thize about  everything  that  surrounds  them. 

But  Pestalozzi  not  only  wishes  that  everything  that  happens  uncon- 
sciously shall  be  brought  to  the  consciousness,  that  that  which  has  hap- 
pened shall  not  be  left  to  chance,  but  that  it  shall  happen  consecutively, 
all-sidedly  and  comprehensively,  and  in  conformity  with  the  developing 
progress  of  the  child. 

The  meaning  of  language  which  Pestalozzi  now  wishes  to  have  the 
child  learn  is  the  meaning  of  it  in  the  closest  sense,  the  special  mean- 
ing ;  for  only  from  the  knowledge  of  the  particular  and  individual 
thing  can  man  rise  to  the  knowledge  and  command  of  the  universal. 

The  child  is  taught  then  the  meaning  of  every  single  word,  every  sin- 
gle expression.  The  manner  in  which  this  is  done  lies  darkly  in  the 
demands  of  human  nature,  but  the  Book  for  Mothers  gives  this  guidance 
in  the  first  place. 

According  to  Pestalozzi  the  child  is  now  to  learn  by  observation,  for 
example,  the  meaning  of  contrasted  words  which  it  either  hears  or  even 
speaks  already  intelligibly ;  as  dark,  bright;  heavy,  light;  black,  white  ; 
transparent,  opaque  ;  there,  here ;  furniture,  tool ;  animal,  stone  ;  go, 
sit ;  run,  creep ;  coarse,  fine ;  more,  less ;  one,  many ;  living,  dead ; 
prick,  cut,  etc.  Pestalozzi  here  shows  particularly  how  contrast,  which 
he  always  designates  as  to  be  found  in  every  conception,  is  specially 
cultivating. 


56  FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

Thus  far  the  mother  has  developed  the  child's  capacity  of  language 
according  to  Pestalozzi's  method  ;  she  has  taught  it  to  speak.  But  now 
before  she  carries  it  farther,  she  and  other  members  of  her  family 
must  cultivate  this  capacity. 

The  speaking  of  the  child  rises  by  degrees  to  connected  language. 
The  child  knows  and  raises  itself  to  a  determined  knowledge  ot  the 
meaning  of  all  that  it  speaks. 

By  all  that  the  mother  has  hitherto  done  for  the  child,  it  is  now  in  a 
condition  to  know  precisely  the  objects  with  which  it  is  surrounded,  to 
observe  them  singly,  to  separate  them  from  each  other.  Its  power  to 
observe  is  perfectly  awakened,  and  in  full  activity.  The  circle  of  its 
knowledge  widens  as  its  world  widens ;  it  accompanies  its  mother 
wherever  her  employments  call  her.  It  is  continually  led  to  know  more 
objects  of  the  surrounding  world.  The  objects  themselves  stand  forth 
more  and  more  prominently. 

It  recognizes  intelligibly  what  was  hitherto  unknown  and  unsepa- 
rated,  and  still  lies  partly  so,  and  will  continue  to  be  more  or  less  so  un- 
til it  consciously  surveys  a  fixed  portion  of  the  outward  world,  and  free 
and  independent  of  that  world,  can  again  create  and  represent  it. 

To  raise  the  child  to  this  perfectly  conscious  recognition  of  the  out- 
ward world,  must  hence  be  the  object  of  its  mother's  striving.  The 
glorious  kingdom  of  nature  now  opens  by  degrees  to  the  child  ;  led  by 
its  mother's  hand  it  enters  that  glorious  kingdom.  Nature  is  now  its 
world ;  the  child  creates  nature  from  its  world. 

A  hundred  little  stones,  a  hundred  little  plants,  flowers,  leaves,  a  hun- 
dred little  animals,  innumerable  objects  of  nature  accompany  its  steps ; 
its  heart  beats  loudly.  It  finds  friends,  it  carries  about  and  takes  care 
of  objects  ;  but  it  does  not  know  why  it  is  happy,  why  it  carries  about 
and  takes  care  of  these  objects,  why  its  heart  beats  so  loudly.  Should 
these  impressions  be  allowed  to  vanish  without  having  been  firmly 
retained  ? 

According  to  Pestalozzi,  the  mother  now  teaches  the  child  to  perceive 
these  objects  on  all  sides,  to  recognize  all  their  qualities,  that  is,  with 
the  help  of  all  their  senses  ;  she  teaches  it  to  use  its  observation  upon 
the  whole  aspect  of  them,  and  to  give  an  account  of  them  to  others. 

The  child  now  holds  firm  points  to  which  it  can  fasten  its  joy, — 
sound,  motion,  shape,  form,  smoothness,  etc.  It  sees  the  connection  of 
these  qualities  and  a  hundred  others  to  qualities  partly  determinable,  or 
merely  supposable ;  so  that  the  child  is  now  first  conscious  of  its  joy. 

How  happy  is  the  child  now  whom  its  mother  has  made  conscious  of 
all  these  impressions,  so  that  he  possesses  a  firm  point  by  which  the 
outward  world  stands  in  contact  with  him,  so  that  he  does  not  remain 
in  the  dark  with  his  heart  oppressed  with  feeling  ;  so  that  he  does  not 
wander  in  a  mist  like  the  traveler  who  journeys  through  a  pleasing 
country  on  a  spring  morning  when  nature  is  partly  wrapped  in  vapor, 
and  shows  him  the  light  that  gleams  through^it,  promising  a  delightful 


FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI.  57 

view.  As  man  longingly  waits  for  the  dispersion  of  the  mist  by  the 
rays  of  the  sun,  so  that  the  objects  of  nature  may  appear  in  light  and 
clearness,  so  the  child  waits  for  the  guidance  of  the  loving  mother  who 
will  explain  to  him  the  rapture  of  his  heart  and  show  him  why  he  re- 
joices in  anticipation. 

What  a  calling  for  the  mother !  She  teaches  the  child  to  become 
conscious  of  his  joys,  of  the  objects  of  his  delight ;  she  teaches  it  how 
to  give  an  account  of  all  it  sees  and  feels,  to  express  it  in  words  and  to 
share  it  with  others. 

The  mother  thus  raises  the  child  into  a  creature  of  intelligence  and 
feeling ;  she  teaches  him  the  qualities  of  objects ;  she  listens  to  every 
remark,  every  discovery,  every  word  of  her  child ;  she  rejoices  when  he 
rejoices;  she  receives  his  love  and  sympathy  in  her  own  breast,  she 
reciprocates  it  and  guides  it  with  delight. 

As  the  nature  of  the  child  receives  life  and  significance  thus,  so  the  lan- 
guage which  the  child,  the  mother,  the  father,  the  family  speaks,  receives 
life  and  significance.  Every  word  becomes  an  object,  an  impression,  a 
picture ;  to  every  word  the  child  joins  a  world,  a  cycle  of  impressions  ; 
he  goes  in  his  remarks  upon  the  qualities  of  things,  from  the  easier  to 
the  more  difficult,  from  the  simple  to  the  complex ;  he  loves  to  seek  and 
find  it  all  himself ;  "  Dear  mother,  let  me  find  it  myself,"  he  says. 
Often  have  I  with  joy  and  light-heartedness  heard  children  make  this 
prayer  with  shining,  sparkling  eyes  ! 

Later,  the  mother  leads  her  child  to  classifying  similar  things  (which 
it  tends  to  do  of  itself  )  and  to  discriminating  between  different  things ; 
thus  the  child  learns  to  compare  what  it  sees. 

The  child  besides  observing,  also  imitates.  Imitation  betters  and 
perfects  his  observations.  The  mother  not  only  allows  this  imitation, 
she  not  only  rejoices  in  it,  but  she  aids  it. 

The  child  likes  above  all  things  to  imitate  the  sound  which  it  has 
evoked  from  some  inanimate  object  perhaps,  or  which  it  seems  to  him 
to  produce.  It  tries  to  imitate  the  sound  of  everything,  falling,  jump- 
ing, breathing,  moving.  All  the  objects  of  nature,  animate  and  inani- 
mate, seem  to  emit  sounds ;  they  speak  audibly  to  him.  The  mother 
rejoices  in  the  child's  delight  when  in  the  spring  it  imitates  the  sounds 
of  nature,  and  she  challenges  him  to  do  it ;  she  does  it  unconsciously 
when  her  impulse  to  do  it  is  not  disturbed.  Who  has  not  seen  a  poor 
mother  playing  with  her  child  or  heard  her  say,  "  What  does  the  sheep 
do?  What  does  the  dog  say,  the  ox,  the  bird?"  The  child's  imita- 
tions increase  ;  it  imitates  the  twittering  of  the  bird,  and  thus  its  own 
human  tone  is  awakened. 

If  the  mother  sings,  and  accompanies  the  song  of  the  birds  with  her 
human  tones,  he  will  imitate  this,  and  thus  will  not  only  his  feeling  be 
awakened  for  the  highest  human  expression,  song,  but  his  whole  being 
is  exalted,  from  the  humming  of  the  bees  to  the  representation  of  his 
own  feelings  by  simple,  connected  and  varied  human  tones. 


58  FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

The  outward  world  is  now  no  longer  to  the  child,  guided  by  Pestalozzi's 
method,  the  chaotic,  confused,  misty  mass,  which  it  was  earlier.  1.  It 
is  now  iudividualized.  2.  What  is  separated  it  can  name.  3.  It  can 
seize  it  at  a  glance  independent  of  other  relations,  and  according  to  its 
relation  to  himself  and  to  others.  4.  It  can  designate  what  it  observes 
and  all  its  relations  by  language ;  it  can  speak  and  knows  the  meaning 
of  the  language  of  its  parents.  5.  It  knows  an  object  not  only  on  one 
side  but  on  several  sides.  6.  It  can  take  an  object  in  at  a  glance  in 
many  relations.  7.  It  can  compare  one  object  with  another  and  recog- 
nize the  peculiar  qualities  of  each. 

Ideas  of  Number. 

The  first  general  quality  of  objects  is  their  computability.  Objects 
are  now  individually  separated  to  the  child's  mind,  consequently  follow- 
ing each  other  in  time  and  thus  appear  computable. 

The  mother  now  teaches  her  child  to  recognize  the  computability  of 
objects,  and  to  separate  the  qualities  and  relations  of  computable  objects 
in  nature,  with  real  objects  before  it,  and  not  first  by  counting  in  an 
abstract  manner. 

By  the  exercises  arranged  by  Pestalozzi  the  mother  brings  to  the 
consciousness  of  the  child  something  which  hitherto  was  merely  an 
obscure  presentiment,  scarcely  a  conscious  feeling ;  she  brings  the  con- 
ception of  number,  the  precise  knowledge  of  the  qualities  and  relations 
of  the  computable,  to  his  clear,  intelligible  consciousness. 

The  mother  teaches  the  child  that  one  stone  and  again  one  stone  are 
two  stones,  etc. 

Farther,  she  teaches  him  to  know  the  value  of  numbers  by  the  oppo- 
site process,  for  example,  ten  nuts  less  one  nut  are  nine  nuts. 

Already  this  little  exercise  has  brought  conversation  to  life  between 
mother  and  child,  when,  for  example,  in  the  first  case,  she  says  to  the 
child,  "  Lay  down  two  flowers  and  one  flower ;  how  many  flowers  have 
you?  how  many  times  one  flower  have  you?  how  many  times  two 
flowers  have  you  ?  "  etc. 

Or,  in  the  second  case,  for  the  solving  of  numbers,  she  says  to  the 
child,  "  Put  away  one  of  your  six  beans ;  now  how  many  have  you  ? 
how  many  times  one  bean  have  you  still  ?  " 

The  mother  goes  a  step  farther ;  she  now  lets  him  add  two,  three  and 
four  ;  for  example  :  "  One  stone  and  two  stones  are  three  stones." 

The  child  learns  by  observation  that  5  are  5  times  1,  are  4  and  1,  and 
3  and  2. 

Or,  1  and  3  are  4,  4  and  3  are  7,  7  and  3  are  10  objects. 

The  mother  then  goes  backwards  over  the  same  ground.  For  exam- 
ple :  if  you  take  2  from  15,  13  remain. 

Questions  enliven  and  elevate  conversation  between  the  mother  and 
child. 

The  mother  may  work  in  the  field  or  in  the  house ;  the  child  sits  near 


FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI.  59 

and  plays  with  stones  or  flowers.  The  mother  asks  :  "  When  you  put 
2  flowers  to  1,  how  many  have  you  ?  " 

All  this  is  play  to  the  child  ;  it  handles  its  favorite  objects  ;  it  moves 
them  about,  and  sees  a  purpose  in  doing  it,  for  in  all  its  plays  the  child 
gives  itself  a  problem.  The  child  is  with  its  mother,  so  it  is  happy, 
and  its  mind  and  feelings  are  awakened. 

When  the  child  knows  how  to  count  in  these  different  ways,  and 
knows  the  qualities  of  numbers  thus  represented,  it  will  soon  find  that 
the  pea  leaf  has  2  times  2  little  leaves,  and  the  rose  leaf  2  times  3  little 
leaves.  A  hint  to  the  mother,  and  she  carries  her  child  still  another 
step  in  the  knowledge  of  computation.  The  child  has  several  single 
objects  around  it.  "  Place  your  little  blocks,"  the  mother  says,  "  so 
that  2  will  lie  in  every  heap.  Have  you  done  it?  Count  how  many 
times  2  you  have."  The  child  will  count :  "  I  have  2  times  2,  3  times  2, 
or  I  have  1  time  2 ;"  or  it  will  say  perhaps  a  little  later,  "  I  have  1 
two  heap  ;  2  two  heaps,"  etc. 

The  mother  goes  farther  and  says  :  "  Place  your  things  so  that  3  or  4 
or  5  will  lie  together,  and  tell  me  how  many  times  3  or  4  or  5,  etc.,  you 
have."  [She  selects  one  of  these  numbers,  of  course.  We  omit  many 
similar  exercises  in  numbers  now  familiar  to  kindergartners.] 

FORM. 

So  Pestalozzi  would  have  the  mother  teach  the  child  form  in  its  play. 

"  Here  is  a  lath — it  is  straight ;  here  is  a  branch — it  is  crooked." 
The  child  remarks  the  laths  on  the  fence,  the  prongs  on  the  rake  ;  they 
are  at  equal  distances  from  each  other.  His  mother  tells  him  they  are 
parallel.  The  ribs  on  the  leaf  of  the  large  plantain  unite  in  a  point ; 
they  are  radiating.  The  child  goes  into  the  woods  with  its  mother ;  it 
sees  the  fir  trees  and  the  pines,  it  is  pleased  with  the  variety ;  and  it 
knows  how  to  describe  it.  The  needles  of  the  fir  tree  are  parallel,  those 
of  the  pine  unite  in  a  point. 

The  child  observes  the  relations  of  the  branches  to  the  stem.  Its 
mother  has  taught  it  to  observe  angles.  The  branches  and  the  stems 
form  angles,  but  these  joinings  of  branch  and  stem  make  in  one  tree 
quite  a  different  impression  upon  the  child  from  those  in  another  tree. 
How  delighted  it  now  is  to  recognize  this  variety,  so  that  it  has  a  firm 
point  to  which  it  can  fasten  its  impressions.  It  is  the  greater  or  less 
inclination  of  the  branch  to  the  stem.  So  in  the  surroundings  in  nature, 
which  is  its  world  it  recognizes,  led  by  its  mother,  it  sees  3  or  4,  or 
many  cornered  forms.  The  intersection  of  the  hemlock  twig  forms  a 
regular  pentagonal  (or  five  corners).  The  mother  leads  the  child  to  a 
regular  comparison  of  this  form  and  to  seek  its  variety. 

The  child  will  soon  pluck  leaves  and  find  other  objects  in  view  of  their 
forms,  and  with  childish  critical  senses  will  separate  them  from  the  ob- 
jects to  which  they  belong.  He  will  go  farther  than  I  venture  to  describe. 

"  See,  mother,  what  round  leaves  I  have  found,"  and  the  child  shows 


60  FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

the  mother  many  such  leaves,  of  larger  and  smaller  sizes,  which  he  has 
picked.  "  See  how  little  this  one  is,  and  how  big  this  one  is  !  "  he  thus 
leads  himself  to  the  contemplation  of  size.  A  hint,  a  word  from  the 
mother,  and  the  child  has  received  a  new  item  of  culture. 

He  selects  three  leaves,  lays  them  upon  each  other,  and  says  :  "  That 
is  the  largest  leaf,  that  is  smaller,  but  that  is  the  smallest." 

"  Mother,  look  at  this  long  stalk.  The  stalk  of  the  flax  is  only  half 
as  long,"  he  will  perhaps  say,  if  he  has  learned  the  meaning  of  the 
word  half.  Or,  after  the  mother  has  laid  the  flax  upon  the  corn  stalk, 
he  will  say,  "  this  is  2  times  as  long,"  or  perhaps  as  long  again  as  that 
one,  or  he  breaks  a  pear  leaf  in  the  middle,  lengthwise,  and  finds  both 
halves  equally  long ;  perhaps  he  cannot  describe  what  he  finds  and  his 
mother  tells  him  that  these  two  parts  of  a  whole  are  called  halves,  and 
thus  widens  the  circle  of  his  knowledge  again. 

Pestalozzi  wishes  to  make  known  intelligibly  in  small  things  the  at- 
tributes of  form  as  well  as  the  recognition  of  the  foundation  of  its 
qualities. 

The  child  will  lead  on  the  attentive  mother  and  father  still  farther. 

The  child  will  soon  come  to  the  consideration  of  large  equal  objects 
in  comparison  with  large  unequal  objects ;  he  will  find  that  a  part  is 
smaller  than  the  whole,  the  whole  is  larger  than  a  part. 

Objects  of  nature  as  well  as  of  art  will  lead  the  child  to  this  com- 
parison. 

Everything  in  his  circle,  in  his  world,  will  thus  become  means  of  in- 
formation, material  for  development. 

If  the  child  is  in  its  earliest  years  where  the  mother  is,  and  rightly 
guided,  it  costs  but  a  suggestion  from  her  and  it  can  busy  itself  many 
hours. 

It  accumulates  objects,  arranges  and  investigates  them ;  it  is  quiet 
and  happy. 

One  will  scarcely  realize  that  the  child  is  occupied,  and  yet  the  powers 
of  its  soul  and  mind  are  coming  forward  and  developing  themselves  by 
practice. 

In  this  way  all  the  capacities  and  powers  of  the  child  are  now  devel- 
oped according  to  Pestalozzi's  method ;  his  senses  cultivated,  his  inner 
and  outer  being  exalted  to  true  life  ;  he  errs  no  more  unconsciously  as 
one  enveloped  in  mist ;  the  way  is  open  for  every  kind  of  knowledge, 
every  shade  of  feeling.  Sympathy,  that  beautiful  attribute  of  man,  is 
possible  to  him  in  its  whole  scope ;  his  language  is  formed. 

With  deepest  love  he  hangs  upon  the  glance  of  his  mother,  his  father 
— the  parents  to  whom  he  owes  all  this  joy. 

All  which  has  thus  far  been  done  by  the  mother  was  the  object  of  the 
Book  for  Mothers,  and  suggested  by  it;  at  least  this  is  what  Pestalozzi 
wished  for  as  belonging  to  the  calling  of  the  mother. 

Pestalozzi  wishes  that  the  child  shall  live  in  this  manner  seven  happy, 
delightful  years. 


FROEBEL  OX  PESTALOZZI.  Q\ 

The  child  has  now,  thus  guided,  received  its  culture  through  the 
mother,  for  what  is  now  in  the  child,  what  now  transports  it  will  always 
live  in  it,  will  give  value  to  its  life,  dignity  to  its  being.  She  now  sur- 
renders it  fully  prepared  to  the  father,  the  parental  teacher,  or  to  his 
representative,  the  school-master,  for  definite  instruction,  definite 
teaching. 

The  instruction  which  the  father  or  school-master  will  now  give  to 
the  child  will  join  on  where  the  mother  ended. 

The  child  should  find  no  other  difference  between  this  teaching  and 
that  of  its  mother ;  now  every  object  stands  singly,  all  instruction  has 
a  determined  time.  The  manner  of  handling  the  subjects  of  instruc- 
tion must  be  in  harmony  with  that  of  its  mother. 

Man  as  a  Scholar. 

[The  next  division  of  this  article  upon  Pestalozzi  is  entitled  MAN  AS 
A  SCHOLAR,  and  in  it  Frb'bel  describes  minutely  Pestalozzi's  mode  of 
teaching  everything :] 

Language — the  mother  tongue  in  reference  to  its  meaning,  the  formal 
part  of  language ;  descriptions  of  nature,  of  the  products  of  art,  of  the 
earth's  surface.  Second  course  of  geographical  instruction,  the  knowl- 
edge of  numbers,  forms,  size,  singing,  drawing  (Schmidt's  method), 
reading,  writing. 

This  instruction  is  not  given  from  books,  but  from  life,  observation 
of  nature,  walks,  examination  of  works  of  art  and  use,  etc.,  etc. 

INTRODUCTION   OF    THIS    METHOD   INTO    THE    SCHOOLS. 

The  demands  which  Pestalozzi  makes  upon  the  teacher  are  simple  and 
natural ;  they  are  founded  in  the  nature  of  the  teacher  as  well  as  in  the 
nature  of  the  scholar.  Therefore  they  will  be  intelligible  and  easy  of 
execution  and  representation  to  every  teacher,  even  the  country  school- 
teacher, who  can  unite  good  will  with  power  and  understanding,  as  soon 
as  he  has  suitably  prepared  himself  in  the  method.  It  is  the  same  with 
the  subjects  which  Pestalozzi  wishes  to  have  taught.  They  go  from 
the  simple,  their  march  is  connected  in  a  determined  sequence  lying  in 
th'e  nature  of  every  subject  of  instruction.  If  the  teacher  has  been 
taught  only  the  first  point,  the  nature  and  essence  of  his  subject,  through 
observation  in  his  own  practice,  he  can  not  only  proceed  easily  according 
to  the  demand  of  that  subject,  but  even  instruct  the  scholar  in  it  con- 
secutively. 

The  teacher  with  good  will  and  the  impulse  to  perfect  himself  (and 
upon  what  teacher  who  wishes  to  perfect  others  would  not  this  requisi- 
tion be  made  ?)  will  very  soon  perceive  with  the  utmost  joy  the  glorious 
effects  of  the  Pestalozzian  method  upon  himself;  he  will  find  it 
grounded  in  his  nature.  The  Pestalozzian  principles  will  thus  become 
his  own  ;  they  will  flow  into  his  whole  life  ;  and  thus  he  will  express  it 
with  mind,  love,  warmth,  life  and  freedom  in  all  his  acts,  and  instruct 


62  FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

and  represent  it  to  his  scholars  according  to  their  needs,  as  to  his  own 
children  and  brethren. 

There  would  be  few  difficulties  in  introducing  Pestalozzi's  method 
into  the  schools,  if  teachers,  and  those  who  feel  it  their  destiny  to  be 
such,  should  make  themselves  familiar  at  his  institution  with  his  princi- 
ples, and  should  acquire  the  readiness  and  dexterity  in  applying  them, 
which  they  could  do  on  the  spot.  Supposing  that  they  know  and  honor 
the  duties  and  demands  of  their  calling,  strive  to  fulfill  them  with  all 
their  power,  and,  thinking  for  themselves,  not  act  mechanically,  their 
efforts  would  be  facilitated  by  the  Pestalozzian  method ;  in  the  first 
place  because  it  corresponds  to  their  natures  as  well  as  to  that  of  their 
pupils,  and  again  because  its  workings  will  fill  them  and  their  pupils 
with  inward  joy  and  exhilarating  pleasure ;  it  would  enable  them  to 
fulfill  their  calling  not  only  with  love  afld  joy,  but  with  power  and 
enthusiasm.  They  will  not  be  behindhand  in  their  own  self -perfecting 
when  they  teach  their  scholars,  even  the  lowly  among  the  people,  even 
the  preliminary  points  of  every  subject ;  they  will  have  the  opportunity 
for  thought  whereby  their  own  minds  will  be  farther  developed.  Their 
human  hearts,  their  loving  souls,  will  be  filled  with  nourishment.  They 
will  never  be  machines  even  when  they  are  teaching  the  simplest  thing ; 
for  they  will  never  depend  upon  arbitrarily  given  rules,  followed  every 
day  regularly  without  farther  thought.  Indeed,  if  they  wish  to  teach 
according  to  Pestalozzi's  principles,  it  will  be  necessary  to  think,  so  that 
what  they  teach  will  be  living  and  active  in  itself,  and  be  presented 
livingly  and  glowingly  so  as  to  awaken  fife  and  activity  in  others. 

By  their  knowledge  of  this  method,  the  teachers,  in  order  to  under- 
stand its  introduction,  will  make  it  not  only  possible  to  fulfill  their  duty 
far  more  comprehensively  and  better  than  before,  but  will  find  their 
work  much  facilitated  by  it,  for  by  its  conformity  to  nature  it  bears 
within  itself  the  quality  that  every  advanced  scholar  will  be  able  to 
teach  and  instruct  others.  Very  essential  and  many-sided  advantages 
will  arise  out  of  this  to  both  scholars  and  schools. 

1.  All  the  scholars  will  be,  according  to  their  needs  and  at  all  times, 
employed  under  a  teacher,  will  be  always  under  inspection,  and  never 
left  to  themselves  or  to  indolence,  a  thing  so  common  in  schools,  but 
will  be  at  all  times  engaged  in  their  development  and  culture. 

2.  For  the  instructed  and  assistant  pupils  will  themselves  penetrate 
deeper  into  the  method,  and  hence  be  better  able  to  comprehend  the 
teaching  they  will  receive.     Their  power  of  thought  and  judgment  will 
be  in  continual  exercise,  their  feelings  and  souls  will  have  the  opportu- 
nity to  practice  love  and  ready  service,  and  thus,  while  upon  one  side 
their  understandings  will  be  cultivated,  on  the  other  they  will  rise  to 
practical  humanity.      The  school  itself  will  thus  be  sustained  like  a 
family,  the  teacher  of  which  is  the  father,  the  pupils  of  which  are  the 
children ;  these  will  be  like  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  same  family,  in 
which  the  weaker  will  be  sustained  by  the  stronger. 


FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI.  x,3 

Whose  heart  does  not  beat  quickly  to  see  the  schools  of  his  beloved 
fatherland  thus  exalted? 

The  assistant  teacher  will  receive  thus  the  most  highly  essential 
advantage  ;  he  must  never  weaken  his  powers  by  frittering  them  away, 
that  he  may  always  be  able  to  devote  them  wholly  to  the  department 
taught  by  him. 

The  school  receives  this  essential  advantage — that  unity  reigns  in  the 
whole  instruction.  So  much  more  important  progress  will  the  pupils 
make.  The  school  can  thus  naturally  answer  perfectly  to  the  demands 
of  the  parents,  the  children  always  be  suitably  and  directly  employed, 
and  all  things  work  together  for  their  culture. 

The  instruction  will  thus  gain  in  life,  interest  and  variety  by  every 
class  of  the  pupils  being  occupied  specially  and  particularly  according 
to  their  ages. 

If  we  were  to  take  into  consideration  the  wants  of  the  people  in  the 
arrangement  and  application  of  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  people's 
schools  and  the  country  schools,  a  teacher  in  a  country  or  village  school, 
supported  by  some  of  his  most  capable  pupils,  could  fulfill  the  demands 
of  Pestalozzi  for  eighty  or  more  scholars  by  seven  hour's  of  daily  in- 
struction (two  afternoons  being  excepted). 

Since  the  child  is  first  capable  at  eight  years  of  age  of  being  treated 
as  a  scholar,  according  to  Pestalozzi's  principles,  if  hitherto  but  little 
has  been  done  for  his  development  by  his  parents  and  his  mother,  a 
fixed  time,  to  fall  between  the  sixth  and  seventh  year,  must  be  arranged 
by  local  conditions  to  receive  him  into  the  school  in  order  to  supply 
what  the  first  education  at  home  has  neglected. 

Therefore  at  first  all  the  children  who  go  to  the  school  will  be  divided 
ink)  two  principal  classes  or  divisions. 

The  first  division  will  constitute  the  children's  class,  and  these  pupils 
will  be  under  eight  years  of  age.  The  manner  of  their  treatment  will 
be  determined  by  their  age,  for  they  are  children  in  the  narrow  sense 
of  the  word;  they  have  not  emerged  from  the  circle  determined  by  the 
foregoing  representation  of  the  Book  for  Mothers. 

The  second  division  will  consist  of  the  school  classes,  and  the  pupils 
will  be  from  eight  years  up  to  the  age  in  which  they  usually  leave  school. 
The  manner  of  their  treatment  is  determined  by  Pestalozzi's  method  of 
instruction. 

This  second  division  must  be  divided  again  into  two  parts ;  into  the 
lower  class  in  which  the  pupils  are  at  all  events  from  eight  to  eleven 
years  old,  and  the  upper  class  which  contains  the  pupils  from  eleven 
years  of  age  to  the  end  of  the  school  time.  The  whole  school  would  be 
divided  then  into  three  classes  ;  the  first  or  child's  class ;  the  second  or 
lower  school  class  ;  the  third  or  upper  school  class. 

According  to  this  division  of  the  classes  the  following  subjects  of 
instruction  are  possible  : 

The  second  class  could  receive  two  hours'  instruction  in  the  descrip- 


£4  FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

tion  of  nature ;  the  third  class  two  hours  in  natural  history.  In  this 
way  the  pupils  become  acquainted  not  only  with  the  greater  part  of  the 
natural  products  of  their  fatherland,  particularly  of  the  region  in  which 
they  live,  but  also  of  the  foreign  natural  products  of  essential  impor- 
tance to  that  region. 

The  second  class  could  devote  two  hours  in  the  week  to  the  descrip- 
tion of  products  of  art ;  the  third  class  two  hours  to  technology.  And 
here  what  is  essential  to  the  pupils  in  the  circle  in  which  th,ey  live  is 
alone  necessary. 

Then  two  hours  of  description  of  the  earth  for  the  second  class,  and 
two  hours  of  knowledge  of  different  countries.  The  second  class  could 
give  one  of  these  hours  in  the  middle  of  the  week  to  a  walk.  Thus 
they  would  learn  to  know  Germany  (its  physical  limits)  and  especially 
the  Thuringian  valley  accurately,  and  have  a  general  view  of  Europe. 

In  the  description  of  other  countries,  they  are  taught  the  products  of 
nature  and  art  in  each  country,  the  manner  of  life  and  system  of  gov- 
ernment of  the  inhabitants,  and  the  relations  of  every  land  and  of  the 
inhabitants  of  each  to  the  territories  in  which  they  live. 

The  fatherland  of  the  pupils  stands  first  in  importance  in  all  these 
three  topics. 

The  second  class  can  have  six  hours  of  arithmetic.  The  third  class 
also  six  hours  of  the  same.  In  the  second  class  it  will  be  chiefly  men- 
tal arithmetic,  in  the  third  class  chiefly  ciphering  or  written  arithmetic 
(on  the  slate). 

The  second  class  can  have  four  hours  upon  the  theory  of  forms  and 
drawing ;  the  third  class  four  hours  in  geometry  and  drawing.  To  fix 
more  sharply  the  relation  of  the  hours  for  arithmetic,  theory  of  forms, 
geometry  and  drawing,  a  part  should  be  precise  local  knowledge,  a  part 
dependent  upon  what  knowledge  the  pupils  of  the  child's  class  in  the 
lower  school  class  already  have. 

The  second  class  can  have  six  hours  of  reading  and  mother  tongue  ; 
the  third  class  four  hours  of  the  formal  theory  of  language. 

The  exercises  in  beautiful  handwriting  can  be  connected  afterwards 
with  grammatical  exercises. 

The  third  class  needs  neither  special  hours  for  reading  or  writing, 
because  the  pupils  have  been  firmly  grounded  in  these  before  they 
passed  into  the  third  class.  To  practice  and  cultivate  themselves  more 
in  both,  they  find  sufficient  opportunity  in  writing  upon  the  other  topics. 

The  second  class  can  have  three  hours  in  singing,  and  the  third  class 
the  same. 

Lastly,  the  second  class  can  have  six  hours  of  religious  instruction, 
and  the  third  class  nine  hours.  In  the  third  class  this  consists  of  the 
reports  of  the  preaching,  passages  of  scripture  and  songs  ;  in  the  recita- 
tion of  Bible  texts  and  songs,  not  only  in  the  words  but  in  the  significa- 
tion which  the  pupil  has  given  to  both. 

The  particulars  of  the  instruction  in  the  first  or  child's  class  I  pass 


FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI.  65 

over,  since  the  subjects,  as  well  as  their  treatment,  are  designated  in  the 
way  in  which  they  are  represented. 

In  no  other  than  the  Pestalozzian  method  can  the  child  be  employed 
in  such  a  variety  of  ways,  or  in  so  few  hours  could  such  a  goal  be 
reached  on  every  topic. 

According  to  Pestalozzi's  meaning  and  principles,  no  topic  should 
stand  isolated  ;  only  in  organic  union  do  they  lead  to  the  desired  goal, 
which  is  the  cultivation  and  education  of  the  child  and  pupil. 

This  suggestion  for  the  assignment  of  hours  and  subjects  is  only 
made  for  the  country  schools  ;  for  the  city  schools,  there  are  generally 
three  regular  teachers  for  greater  perfection  of  instruction. 

But  the  organization  of  a  school  according  to  Pestalozzi's  principles 
makes  two  essential  requisitions  ;  first,  that  the  children  of  the  school 
age  can  only  be  received  into  the  school  at  two  fixed  seasons  ;  and  that 
all  school  children,  except  in  the  vacations,  shall  come  to  school  punctu- 
ally and  uninterruptedly.  If  a  single  hour  is  neglected  by  the  pupil,  it 
is  never  possible  to  make  it  wholly  up  without  great  disadvantage  to 
his  companions  in  that  topic,  since  this  method  makes  a  steady  advance 
and  is  characterized  by  a  continuous  progress. 

All  the  faults  which  hitherto  may  be  found  in  country  and  city 
schools  are  prevented  by  the  introduction  of  this  method. 

Order,  permanent  and  spontaneous  occupation,  taking  into  account 
both  mind  and  character,  gradual  progress  in  culture,  living  and  funda- 
mental knowledge  in  the  pupil,  love,  true  love  of  it  on  his  part,  love  for 
the  school  and  for  the  teacher,  contempt  for  all  superficial  knowledge 
in  the  schools  of  all  kinds,  or  among  the  people.  These  are  the  essen- 
tial consequences  of  schools  directed  on  Pestalozzi's  principles. 

To  every  one  who  relies  upon  the  school  for  his  circle  of  knowledge, 
he  has  marked  out  the  path  for  perfecting  and  ennobling  himself. 

Love  for  teachers  and  companions,  parents  and  family,  will  in  riper 
age  become  a  more  exalted  love  of  country,  deep  reverence  for  the 
princes  who  are  to  be  regarded  as  superior  fathers. 

The  many-sided  practical  power,  the  strength  of  mind  and  body  he 
has  acquired,  will  make  it  possible  for  every  one  so  trained  to  act  not 
only  with  power  for  the  welfare  of  his  own  family,  but  to  be  an  actively 
working  subject  for  the  good  of  the  people. 

Simplicity,  contentment  with  his  condition  of  firm  independence  of 
character,  thoughtful  action,  the  promotion  of  family  and  public  happi- 
ness, practical  virtue,  true  religion,  will  characterize  the  citizens  edu- 
cated according  to  Pestalozzi's  method. 

Upon  the  Possibility  of  introducing  Pestalozzi's  Method  among  the  Mothers 
and  Parents  of  the  People,  for  the  Natural  Education  and  Treatment  of 
their  Children  up  io  the  Sixth  Year. 

Even  the  introduction  of  Pestalozzi's  method  into  the  families  is  not 
so  difficult  as  it  is  thought  to  be,  for  every  mother  loves  her  child,  has 


66  FROEBEL  OX  PESTALOZZ1. 

him  with  her  most  of  the  time  up  to  a  certain  age,  and  willingly  con> 
verses  and  occupies  herself  with  him. 

It  needs  little  guidance,  therefore,  even  of  the  uncultivated  mother, 
in  order  to  teach  her  how  to  treat  her  child  according  to  its  nature  and 
to  lead  it  farther  on  than  usual ;  it  depends  upon  how  this  guidance  is 
given  to  her. 

Mere  words  will  work  quite  in  a  contrary  way,  but  every  mother 
likes  to  have  people  interested  in  her  child. 

Could  these  dispositions  of  the  mother  be  used  to  give  her  confidence 
in  Pestalozzi's  method  so  that  she  could  converse  with  her  child  and 
occupy  herself  with  it  in  an  intelligent  manner,  one  might  so  interest 
the  mother  herself  in  it  that  she  would  soon  perceive  the  benefit  and 
joy  of  the  child  in  her  occupation  with  it;  while  she  occupies  herself 
with  the  child  she  cultivates  herself  also. 

But  what  is  thus  naturally  given  must  not  go  beyond  her  power  of 
conception  and  representation.  The  more  simple,  easy  and  comprehen- 
sible what  is  given  her  the  better.  And  what  country  teacher  or 
country  clergyman  has  not  often  an  opportunity  so  to  influence  parents 
and  child  ! 

If  even  but  little  can  be  effected,  what  is  really  essential  might  be 
done  by  a  country  teacher  or  pastor,  with  the  help  of  a  few  members  of 
the  community,  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  a  better  nurture  of  little 
children,  one  more  conformable  to  nature.  By  the  direction  of  the 
schools  according  to  the  principles  of  Pestalozzi,  where  the  older  and 
more  advanced  pupils  teach  the  more  backward  ones,  the  introduction 
and  generalizing  of  the  above  mentioned  treatment  of  the  children 
would  surely  be  possible,  and  made  far  easier  because  the  older  mem- 
bers of  families  are  so  often  left  in  charge  of  the  younger  ones  by  their 
parents. 

By  such  direction  of  the  schools,  these  representatives  of  the  parents 
may  receive  the  material  with  which  they  can  develop  and  cultivate 
their  little  brothers  and  sisters  by  occupying  them  happily.  How 
many  evils  which  so  often  are  inflicted  upon  children  might  be  averted 
in  this  way ! 

The  child  so  guided  will  never  give  itself  by  way  of  pastime  to  evil 
habits  ;  it  will  become  accustomed  early  to  a  proper  way  of  thinking 
and  feeling  and  will  then  never  have  any  pleasure  in  idleness.  The 
number  of  children  deserving  of  compassion  who  run  about  under  the 
name  of  "  blackguards  "  and  do  not  know  what  to  do  with  their  time, 
would  vanish  out  of  sight  under  this  influence.  All  would  strive  con- 
sciously and  unconsciously  for  the  high  aim  of  becoming  productive 
and  estimable  citizens,  and  of  protecting  those  who  are  weaker  in  their 
endeavors  to  seek  the  same  goal. 

Honored  princess,  linger  a  moment  over  this  picture ;  find  in  it  the 
happiness  which  this  method  will  spread  abroad  over  all  conditions  of 
men. 


FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI.  67 

And  how  much  more  glorious  would  be  the  effect  of  such  schools, 
when  the  pupil  youth  so  guided  shall  become  a  father,  and  the  young 
woman  educated  on  these  principles  shall  once  be  a  mother.  She  will 
be  a  true  mother  ;  unconsciously  and  without  farther  guidance  she  will 
impart  to  her  child  what  is  in  herself ;  she  will  naturally  treat  and  edu- 
cate her  child  according  to  Pestalozzi.  Capable  young  people  who  feel 
the  calling  within  themselves  can  thus  cultivate  themselves  for  still 
higher  work,  and  be  useful  whether  as  husbands  or  fathers  by  their 
information,  counsel  and  acts. 

Let  them  unite  with  some  others  of  the  community  who  are  most 
active  for  its  welfare;  let  them  use  this  spirit  to  do  good  with. 

On  Sundays  and  feast-days  let  them  come  together,  if  only  a  few,  to 
gather  the  youths  and  maidens  around  them ;  let  them  invite  some  of 
the  fathers  and  mothers  to  make  it  more  agreeable. 

Let  the  knowledge  of  the  world  and  of  nature  be  the  subject  of  their 
conversation,  not  formally  or  discursively  ;  no,  let  it  proceed  from  their 
own  observation  and  examination  how  they  as  well  as  children  learn  to 
occupy  themselves  from  the  simplest  thing  to  the  most  complex.  At 
least  let  the  possibility  of  the  introduction  of  the  Pestalozzian  method 
among  the  people  be  shown.  By  its  introduction  to  the  schools  its  in- 
fluence among  the  people  will  be  so  much  the  more  secure  and  rich  in 
consequences. 

Upon  the  Connection  of  the  Elementary  Instruction  of  Pestalozzi  with 
higher  Scientific  Instruction. 

The  series  of  elementary  instruction  continues  uninterruptedly  into 
the  higher  and  scientific. 

To  represent  this  progress  in  detail  would  carry  me  too  far.  Permit 
me  simply  to  indicate  the  connection. 

Language  retains  as  higher  scientific  construction  both  the  directions 
it  had  taken  as  elementary  instruction. 

In  one  direction,  and  indeed  formally,  it  rises  to  the  philosophy  of 
language  (form  is  here  taken  in  a  wider  sense)  ;  in  the  other  direction 
it  rises  to  scientific  and  artistic  representation. 

Classification  or  system  proceeds  from  the  description  of  nature 
directly,  according  to  one  direction  ;  according  to  the  other,  the  history 
of  the  products  of  nature. 

Both  run  parallel.  As  the  description  of  nature  rises  to  individual 
classification,  so  from  natural  history  proceeds  the  individual  histories 
of  the  species. 

The  description  of  the  surface  of  the  earth  becomes  in  uninterrupted 
sequence  the  history  of  the  earth's  surface ;  afterwards  it  necessarily 
blends  with  ancient  geography.  Since  the  old  geography  proceeds 
according  to  its  elements  from  the  highest  point  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face, this  determines  the  biblical  geography  to  be  the  beginning  of  this 
topic. 


gg  FROEBEL  ON  PESTALOZZI. 

Description  of  men  becomes  anthropology,  physiology  and  psychol- 
ogy (which  must  come  out  of  history  and  through  which,  first  receives 
here  its  true  meaning)  and  at  last  human  history.  Here  first  comes 
the  history  of  individual  men,  then  their  history  as  fathers  of  families, 
then  the  history  of  the  whole  family  of  the  people  and  the  nation. 

Only  biblical  history  corresponds  to  this  natural  continuous  progress, 
since  it  ascends  from  the  individual  to  the  whole,  therefore  the  begin- 
ning would  be  made  with  it ;  in  it  lies  the  starting  point  for  farther 
progress.  Here  comes  in  the  study  and  learning  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages. History  and  ancient  geography  now  run  parallel. 

The  introduction  of  the  Pestalozzian  method  of  instruction  in  geog- 
raphy is  highly  essential  to  the  study  of  ancient  geography. 

Arithmetic  develops  without  a  break  into  the  mathematics  of  abstract 
computable  quantities  in  all  its  branches. 

Geometry  develops  in  a  similar  uninterrupted  succession  into  the 
mathematics  of  fixed  magnitudes  in  its  whole  extent  and  all  its  subdi- 
visions. Knowledge  of  the  elementary  powers  of  nature  develops  into 
natural  history  in  the  wider  sense  and  in  all  its  compass. 

The  description  of  the  products  of  art  becomes  the  history  of  the 
products  of  art  in  its  greatest  range. 

Elementary  drawing  rises  to  drawing  as  an  art  and  proceeds  to  plas- 
tic representation  of  different  kinds. 

The  theory  of  form  according  to  its  essence  must  stand  in  a  higher 
contact  with  the  aesthetic ;  their  connection  is  not  yet  found. 

Song  rises  to  art  and  founds  instrumental  music  in  its  various  forms. 

Thus,  according  to  Pestalozzi,  the  whole  is  carried  out  till  all  these 
sciences  and  arts  meet  again  in  one  point  from  which  they  all  issued — 
MAN. 

The  first  of  this  encounter  is  Philosophy  ;  to  recognize  it  makes  the 
scholar  a  learned  man.  When  he  finds  himself  at  this  point,  he  may 
determine  by  himself  the  direction  and  aim  of  his  life  with  clearness 
and  true  consciousness. 

And  thus  the  Pestalozzian  method  sets  man  forth'on  his  endless  path 
of  development  and  culture  on  the  way  to  knowledge,  bound  to  no  time 
and  no  space,  a  development  to  which  there  is  no  limit;  no  hindrance, 
no  bounds !  A.  FROEBEL. 


LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL 

Abridged  from  Dr.  Lauge's  "  For  the  Understanding  of  Frwbel"  by  Mrs.  MART  MANX. 


FR03BEL  AT  HAMBURG. 

WICHARD  LANGE  says  of  Froebel,  whom  he  saw  for  the  first  time  in 
1849,  on  the  evening  when  he  met  the  ladies  of  a  Hamburg  society  who 
had  invited  him  to  visit  them  and  speak  of  the  Kindergarten, — "  Out  of 
the  single  thoughts  of  Froebel  one  soon  sees,  as  I  saw  that  evening,  that 
the  question  '  How  can  one  contribute  to  the  happiness  of  mankind? '  had 
attained  in  his  mind  what  might  be  described  as  a  fearful  intensity.  In 
every  motion,  in  every  word,  in  every  gleam  of  his  eye,  the  burning 
desire  betrayed  itself  to  further  the  happiness  of  his  race.  The  essence  of 
humanity  is  God-like;  it  consists  in  thinking,  liviug,  and  willing.  The 
aim  of  all  life  is  to  live.  In  the  reaching  of  this  -aim  lies  happiness. 
Everything  is  happy  that  truly  lives,  that  is,  that  exists  according  to  its 
inner  nature.  This  purpose  impelled  Froebel  to  all  his  efforts.  What 
lives  must  develop  itself;  development  is  life;  the  cessation  of  develop- 
ment is  death.  In  unintelligent  creatures  development  is  the  necessity  of 
nature,  but  where  there  is  understanding  this  necessity  becomes  freedom, 
for  man  can  hinder  or  further  his  own  development  at  will.  The  funda- 
mental idea  of  Froebel  is  to  educate  man  to  freedom.  He  who  can  develop 
himself  unhindered  is  happy,  is  free.  A  people  to  whom  this  possibility 
is  given  may  be  called  a  happy  and  free  people.  To  make  the  individual 
free  he  must  be  brought  to  a  freedom  of  development  in  which  he  is  in  a 
condition  to  clear  away  all  hindrances  from  his  path.  But  this  is  only 
possible  through  education.  '  My  investigation  has  cost  me  much 
trouble,  much  expense,  many  plans,'  said  the  old  man  to  the  ladies.  'I 
have  had  to  wrestle,  aye,  to  fight,  and  my  associates  in  the  work  have  put  the 
greatest  hindrances  in  my  way.  A  correct  estimate  of  the  subject  was  pos- 
sible only  to  a  Diesterweg.  The  teachers  of  Meiningen  thought  Diester- 
weg  could  describe  my  cause  in  six  lines;  but  who  knows  how  many 
times  six  lines  he  has  written  upon  it!'*  'Now,'  he  added  with  much 
emotion,  '  I  hope  to  be  able  to  contribute  to  the  welfare  of  mankind.  If 
I  had  not  faith  that  I  can  do  it,  I  should  have  found  it  difficult  to  come  to 
Hamburg.  I  should  have  preferred  an  easier  life  in  my  narrower  home.' 
Stimulated  by  sympathetic  expressions,  such  as  that  of  Herr  Traun,  who 
regretted  that  he  had  not  made  his  acquaintance  ten  years  before,  he  grew 
more  and  more  eloquent,  and  let  his  attentive  audience  look  deeper  and 
deeper  into  his  thoughts.  '  That  man  must  of  necessity  be  brought  into  the 
path  of  development,  and  that  education  is  necessary  for  this,  he  spoke  of 
as  self-evident.  As  it  is  the  problem  of  the  worlcTs  spirit  to  conquer  and 

*  Deisterweg's  first  notice  of  Froebel  appeared  in  the  JaMbach  in  1851,  which  was  fol- 
lowed up  by  frequent  and  full  descriptions  in  the  Rhine  Bluttsr. 

69 


70  LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL. 

explain  matter,  so  it  is  the  problem  of  the  individual  spirit  to  make  all 
phenomena,  even  all  obstacles,  serviceable  to  the  aim  of  his  own  develop- 
ment in  the  arena  of  life.  For  this  is  necessary  an  exalted  enthusiasm  for 
the  God-like  and  noble,  a  developed  intelligence,  pleasure  in  thinking,  and 
a  will  full  of  the  germs  of  life.  The  aspiration  to  the  God-like  and  noble 
is  the  inner,  more  beautiful  nature  of  man,  and  this  must  be  fostered.  To 
foster  it  negatively,  injurious  material  influences  must  be  removed  from 
early  youth ;  to  be  fostered  positively,  religious  and  moral  feeling  must  be 
excited  by  the  contemplation  and  observation  of  nature.  Empty  words 
and  phrases  must  be  avoided  if  we  wish  to  develop  the  intelligence.  The 
pupil  must  be  led  to  observe  what  he  is  learning,  not  merely  to  look  at  it, 
but  to  look  into  it.  The  receptivity  of  the  mind  has  hitherto  been  culti- 
vated :  Froebel  would  cultivate  its  inborn  power  of  production.  He  would 
unfold,  not  mould ;  he  would  water,  guide,  and  support  the  tree,  not  prop 
or  force  it.  The  fostering  of  the  will  is  negative  when  it  is  guarded  on 
the  bad  side;  it  is  positive  when  the  innate  love  of  goodness  is  exalted  to 
an  unconquerable  habit  by  continuous  exercise,  by  marrying  it  to  the  enthu- 
siasm for  the  beautiful  and  true,  by  which  it  becomes  all-powerful.  This 
view  of  education,  as  well  as  his  insight  that  the  earliest  youth  is  the  most  im- 
portant season  of  life,  inevitably  led  Froebel  to  the  idea  of  the  Kindergarten, 
to  that  ideal  intercourse  of  dumb  innocence  which  must  be  guided  and 
find  its  unity  in  an  idealizing  human  breast.  Here  and  nowhere  else  is 
guaranteed  the  possibility  of  holding  off  injurious  influences.  But  the 
negative  as  well  as  the  positive  side  of  education  utilizes  the  child's  im- 
pulse to  activity.  Out  of  the  true  use  and  culture  of  this  impulse  all 
the  rest  follows  of  itself. 

"Man  must  not  be  instructed,  but  developed.  'I  separate  instruction 
from  development  very  sharply,'  Froebel  said  that  evening,  and  it  is  a 
discrimination  of  the  greatest  importance.  The  instructed  mind  may  be 
compared  to  a  river  which  flows  round  the  cliffs  and  impediments,  nar- 
rows and  widens  according  to  necessity,  crooks  and  bends,  and  skillfully 
and  smoothly  creeps  to  the  ocean.  Such  a  stream,  hedged  in  by  cliffs  and 
impeded  by  rocks,  is  not  adapted  to  commerce;  it  loses  its  idea,  its  aim, 
for  the  aim  of  the  living  flood  is  to  be  the  means  of  culture.  The  devel- 
oped man  is  like  a  stream  whose  powerful  rush  demolishes  the  rocks,  levels 
the  hills,  pulses  like  a  great  vein  through  the  earth,  drawing  thousands  of 
cities  to  its  brink,  and  tracing  out  the  highway  of  commerce  and  culture. 
What  is  destined  to  be  must  be  through  the  use  of  an  idea;  that  power  of 
being  is  thought  alone.  If  man  is  developed  like  the  last-mentioned 
stream  he  knows  but  one  goal  to  his  life,  and  that  is  to  develop  himself 
by  developing  humanity.  The  aim  of  humanity  is  development,  as  well 
as  the  aim  of  the  individual.  It  must  pass  on  to  the  human  ideal.  .  . 
Materialism  makes  the  earthly  the  aim;  I  know  no  more  decided  enemy 
of  materialism  than  Frederick  Froebel.  His  measures  will  in  their  last 
consequences  offer  the  means  of  destroying  materialism  and  idealizing  the 
world.  Even  selfishness  is  stupid,  that  it  has  not  more  decidedly  and 
powerfully  opposed  it.  'There  exists  no  other  power  than  that  of 
thought,  as  I  said  to  one  of  the  princes,'  said  the  old  man  that  evening. 
'  The  oneness  of  the  laws  of  the  universe  with  the  laws  of  the  spirit  must  be 


LAXGE'3  REMINISCENCES  OF  FKOEBEL.  71 

recognized, — everything  must  be  seized  as  bearer  of  the  idea;  every  man 
must  be  governed  by  ideas,  and  every  man  must  acknowledge  matter  to 
be  the  form  for  the  realizing  of  thought.'  Froebel  himself  often  doubts  if 
he  shall  reach  the  realization  of  this  idea,  which  is,  so  to  speak,  him- 
self. He  expressed  this  doubt  in  his  short  address  to  the  ladies: 
'  Ladies,  believe  me,  I  gratify  the  demands  of  my  heart  in  thanking  you 
for  your  invitation.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  an  idea 
which  is  great  and  holy;  an  idea  whose  realization  must  lead  to  the  happi- 
ness of  man.  If  it  is  not  salient  in  its  truth  and  its  might  before  your 
eyes  it  is  because  of  my  feeble  presentation,  and  I  beg  you  to  throw  the  fail- 
ure upon  me.  Fate  decided  upon  me  and  chose  me  for  its  bearer  with- 
out having  consulted  me  beforehand.  It  showed  me  the  importance  of  an 
education  conformable  to  nature  by  giving  me  bitter  experiences  and 
privations,  while  the  early  loss  of  my  mother  threw  me  upon  self-edu- 
cation. What  one  has  been  obliged  to  contend  with  bitterly  he  wishes 
to  soften  to  his  fellow-men.  Thus  the  necessity  of  self-education  led  me 
to  the  education  of  my  fellow  men.  To  strive  for  this  is  the  aim  of  my 
life,  and  will  be  my  occupation  to  the  grave.  Make  allowances  for  my 
personality,  and  cleave  to  the  cause,  for  the  cause  is  great  and  important.' 
After  his  brief  address,  he  conversed  with  Herr  Traun  upon  collateral 
subjects,  and  I  was  astonished  at  his  profound  love  of  fatherland,  his  deep 
knowledge  and  insight  into  our  language,  which  he  designated  as  "  the 
flower  of  all  Western  tongues."  Frau  Westenfeld  said  to  us  that  Froebel's 
appearance  had  repelled  many  ladies.  This  was  natural,  but  his  en- 
thusiasm will  yet  animate  and  excite  them. 

What  is  new  in  Froebel  f 

"  What  is  new  in  Froebel?  Froebel's  fundamental  idea  is  to  educate  man 
for  freedom.  Rousseau  rescued  individuality;  since  his  time  all  education 
has  rested  upon  the  recognition  of  the  individual  and  the  consciousness 
that  the  development  of  self  is  necessary.  The  one-sidedness  of  Rousseau's 
efforts  consisted  in  this,  that  he  would  cultivate  men  only  as  men,  without 
reference  to  society ;  therefore,  he  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  his  Emil. 
Pestalozzi  found  the  means  with  which  to  cultivate  the  intellectual  indi- 
vidual. Wrhoever  wishes  to  be  an  individual  must  work  and  produce,  not 
receive  only.  This  insight  awakened  in  Pestalozzi  the  principle  of  object- 
teaching—intuition;  '  for  nothing  is  in  the  mind  that  has  not  first  been  in 
the  senses.'  Self -activity  in  man,  from  childhood  up,  is  the  ground  and 
means  of  a  natural  unfolding.  But  if  education  is  to  lead  to  self-activity 
it  must  be  by  taking  into  consideration  the  nature  of  man,  for  only  what 
is  really  in  man  can  be  unfolded.  .  Does  not  the  worst  unbelief  come 
out  of  the  doubt  of  the  possibility  of  perfecting  and  ennobling  man?  The 
essence  of  man  is  not  of  necessity  recognized  in  history,  for  history  is  not 
a  definite  whole;  but  the  laws  of  the  spirit  are  recognized  in  their  totality 
in  the  affinities  of  nature.  .  .  First  in  our  time  has  the  identity  of  the 
laws  of  the  spirit  with  the  laws  of  the  universe  been  clearly  seen.  .  . 
The  mission  of  Froebel  is  to  give  to  education  not  a  one-sided  but  an  all- 
sided  foundation. 

"  With  the  use  of  the  humanistic  ideal  appeared  the  following  postulate: 


72  LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OP  FROEBEL. 

Study  the  being  of  man  in  history!  With  the  appearance  of  Pestalozzi 
came  another:  Study  the  being  of  man  in  its  manifestation  of  individuality; 
with  Froebel :  Ground  the  being  of  man  upon  the  macrocosmos.*  The  micro- 
cosmos  is  understood  to  be  in  perpetual  motion  toward  the  macrocosmos. 
The  path  of  this  movement  is  history, — what  has  already  been  done.  Out 
of  the  three — macrocosmos,  microcosmos,  and  history,  a  system  of  natural 
developing  education  unfolds  itself.  The  new  thing  which  Froebel  has 
done  is  that  he  has  taken  the  study  of  this  trinity  as  the  foundation  of 
the  science  of  education,  and  has  represented  the  necessity  of  starting 
from  the  laws  of  the  macrocosmos. 

"Upon  this  foundation  alone  can  a  Froebelian  school  be  founded.  Every 
system  that  has  any  meaning  contains  the  past  within  itself.  The  Froebe- 
lian pedagogy  differs  from  the  Pestalozzian  not  in  its  demands  but  in  its 
basis.  The  foundation  of  a  developing  education  conformable  to  nature  is 
first  presented  and  shown  in  its  full  meaning  by  Froebel,  and  only  through 
his  school  is  it  possible  to  raise  pedagogy  to  a  science  in  the  true  sense  of 
that  word.  It  is  possible  with  him  because  he  proceeds  upon  the  principle 
upon  which  all  science  rests, — the  laws  of  the  mind  are  identical  with  the 
laws  of  the  universe. 

"Pestalozzi  and  Froebel  differ  no  less  in  the  direction  of  their  efforts. 
When  the  call,  consider  individuality,  rang  up  the  Rhine,  it  was  natural 
the  new  education  created  by  Pestalozzi  took  with  the  poor  whom 
the  rich  had  utterly  ignored.  One  class  of  men  had  stamped  physical 
necessity  into  an  atomized  powder  and  thus  destroyed  individuality. 
Pestalozzi  would  suffer  no  smutty,  ignorant,  unskilled  man  to  be  de- 
prived of  his  right  to  express  his  will,  or  be  condemned  to  a  merely  animal 
existence.  He  would  create  for  the  proletariat  the  possibility  of  improve- 
ment and  independent  industrial  activity,  and  rouse  a  lawful,  protesting, 
hostile  voice  against  human  sway  by  brutality  and  vice.  To  this  end  he 
created  the  people's  school.  Pestalozzi  was,  if  the  appellation  will  not  be 
misunderstood,  the  pedagogic  socialist. 

"When,  in  the  year  of  the  French  domination,  the  death  of  all  German 
nationality  seemed  irremediable;  when  the  dastardly  hirelings  left  their 
standards  in  a  heap  on  the  field  of  battle,  Fichte  saw  that  for  the  redemption 
of  Germany  a  nation  must  be  educated.  '  Create  a  people  by  national  educa- 
tion,' he  cried  to  the  princes.  The  princes  appealed  to  the  people,  and  out- 
ward freedom  was  inaugurated.  It  was  not  Bliicher,  or  Scharnhoist,  etc.,  it 
was  Fichte  who  drove  the  French  out  of  the  land.  It  was  Fichte's  deepest 
conviction  that  the  idea  of  the  perfect  State  could  be  gained  only  by  edu- 
cation. He  said  '  the  State  cannot  be  constructed  intelligently  by  artificial 
measures  and  out  of  any  material  that  may  be  at  hand,  but  the  nation 
must  be  educated  and  cultivated  up  to  it.  Only  the  nation  which  shall 
first  have  solved  the  problem  of  education  to  perfected  manhood  through 
actual  practice,  will  solve  that  of  the  perfected  State.'  The  philosopher 
\>  as  the  creator  of  the  idea  of  national  education.  Fichte  was  the  pedagogic 
statesman. 

But  Frederich  Froebel  is  the  pedagogic  apostle  of  freedom.    He  resembles 

*  In  the  medieval  philosophy  macrocosm  expressed  the  great  world,  and  man  was  con- 
ceiverl  of  as  the  microcosm,  or  epitome  of  the  great  world. —  Tr. 


LANGE'S  REMIXI  CENCES  UF  FROEP.EL.  73 

Pestalozzi  in  so  far  as  he  has  established  the  universal  right  to  develop- 
ment, has  recognized  birth  or  wealth  no  longer  as  a  criterion  of  the  posi- 
tion of  man  in  society,  but  makes  the  inner  contents  of  the  man  the  deter- 
mining force.  He  resembles  Fichte  in  that,  like  that  truly  German  man, 
he  wishes  to  awaken  the  conviction  that  the  individual  has  importance 
and  significance  only  in  connection  with  society,  the  whole.  The  unity  of 
man  supposes  the  antecedent  necessity  of  the  limitation  of  the  individual. 
The  love  of  the  individual  will  waken  to  unity,  and  this  love  will  tear  up 
selfishness  by  the  roots.  He  resembles  Fichte  in  that  he  sees  that  humanity 
in  concrete  exists  only  in  the  form  of  nations,  and  thence  awakens  the 
national  consciousness,  holding  to  and  developing  the  peculiarities  of  our 
nation.  Froebel  is  in  this  respect  the  union  of  Pestalozzi  and  Fichte.  But 
he  separates  again  from  the  other  heroes  of  pedagogy  by  the  means  he  has 
discovered  for  teaching  the  end  he  has  in  view.  Pestalozzi  reopened  and 
utilized  the  school.  He'  saw  plainly  that  he  had  not  done  enough.  He 
recognized  the  importance  of  the  mother,  and  the  necessity  of  elevating 
domestic  education,  but  was  sure  no  other  means  would  help  the  latter 
object  than  the  study  of  two  books.  Fichte  hoped  for  nothing  from  the 
home,  where,  according  to  his  opinion,  rooted  selfishness  had  barricaded 
door  and  gate  against  rational  education,  and  therefore  he  wished  to  with- 
draw children  from  the  influence  of  the  mother  and  let  them  be  cultivated 
in  large  educational  establishments.  Froebel  stands  between  the  two.  He 
sees  the  '  too  little '  in  the  measures  of  Pestalozzi,  the  '  too  much '  in  the 
propositions  of  Fichte.  He  has  struck  the  medium  by  the  idea  of  the  Kin- 
dergarten. He  would  have  the  children  taken  from  home  for  a  time,  but 
only  with  a  view  of  coming  to  the  aid  of  the  mother.  He  would  have  edu- 
cation in  common  like  Fichte,  in  order  to  limit  the  feeling  of  individuality, 
and  then  let  it  have  its  play,  that  selfishness  may  not  spring  up,  or  that  it 
may  be  nipped  in  the  bud.  He  would  have  the  isolation  of  the  family, 
and  then  uproot  the  inactivity  and  vicious  propensities  often  engendered 
by  it  by  a  thoughtful,  systematic,  playing  system  of  occupation  for  the 
child.  He,  like  Pestalozzi,  wishes  for  the  improved  culture  of  the  mother, 
not  by  a  little  reading  of  books,  but  by  initiation  into  an  intelligent,  be- 
cause natural,  system  of  early  education.  The  new  thing  which  he  has 
here  brought  into  view  is  the  consecration  and  systematic  utilization  of 
play.  He  has  exalted  the  idea  of  the  mother,  for  the  mother  is  in  his  view 
the  one  who  feelingly  comprehends  and  fosters  the  being  of  the  child  in 
all  the  manifestations  of  the  different  periods  of  its  life.  He  also  gives 
unmarried  women  an  opportunity  to  be  mothers,  and  has  thus  given  back 
to  many  unhappy  beings  the  conditions  of  happiness.  He  has  laid  the  way 
for  the  true  emancipation  of  women  by  giving  them  the  possibility  of 
grasping  the  wheel  of  universal  development  independently,  and  making 
their  central  point  the  direction  of  the  education  of  the  future  race. 

Pestalozzi  brought  the  ideas  of  Rousseau  to  realization.  Diesterweg 
explained  and  purified  them.  In  the  Roman  states  the  idea  of  Rousseau 
took  no  root  because  education  remained  dependent  upon  the  church. 
Pestalozzi  could  not  annul  that  dependence,  but  Diesterweg  gave  it  its 
death-blow,  and  first  created  the  possibility  of  a  people's  school  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word.  Froebel  received  from  him  the  purified  idea  of  the 


74  LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL. 

people's  school  and  fused  it  with  the  idea  of  national  education.*  By  the 
fostering  of  Diesterweg  and  Froebel  the  first  people's  school  entered  upon 
a  new  step  of  development.  Both  men  will  find  their  new  Diesterweg, 
vho  will  explain  the  idea  and  purify  the  practice. 

Personal  Relations  of  Froebel. 

"Frederich  Froebel's  father  was  a  man  rich  in  insight,  truly  religious; 
and  he  turned  his  attention  with  the  greatest  solicitude  to  the  early  educa- 
tion of  this  youngest  son  of  his  beloved,  departed  wife.  He  understood 
how  to  unfold  mind  and  heart  in  the  promising  boy  by  a  judicious  train- 
ing. The  child  passed  ten  years  in  the  parental  house,  which  stood  at  the 
foot  of  the  Kirchberger,  one  of  the  highest  summits  of  the  Thuringian 
forest ;  separated  from  the  great  world  only  by  a  flower  and  fruit-garden 
and  a  church-yard ;  one  the  region  of  growth  and  bloom  and  ripe  life,  the 
other  the  abode  of  death.  These  ten  years  were  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance to  the  development  of  our  genius.  To  point  out  the  details  of  this 
unfolding  is  not  the  aim  of  these  lines.  A  fuller  treatment  can  only  prop- 
erly do  it. 

"  At  the  end  of  1792  the  father  acceded  to  the  wish  of  Froebel's  maternal 
uncle,  who  had  also  long  since  lost  his  wife,  and  soon  after  his  only  son, 
to  give  him  Frederich,  the  youngest  son  of  his  beloved  sister,  for  further 
education.  This  maternal  uncle  was  Superintendent  Hoffman  of  Stadt- 
ilm,  a  little  city  in  the  principality  of  Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.  Hoffman 
was  as  humane  as  he  was  distinguished,  and  as  gentle  as  he  was  earnest 
and  decided.  The  boy  who  had  been  shut  out  from  society  was  now  in  its 
full  tide,  among  the  numerous  friends  and  relatives  of  his  uncle.  It  was 
with  him  as  with  the  seed,  which,  plunged  into  the  earth  by  the  hand  of 
the  sower,  then  transplanted  to  the  manifold,  continuous,  and  persistent 
influences  of  universal  life,  unfolds  and  grows  into  the  powerful  tree.  He 
remained  four  /ears  in  his  uncle's  house,  receiving  instruction  during  that 
time  partly  from  him  and  his  father, — culture  partly  from  private  instruc- 
tion, or  in  the  public  school.  In  1796  he  returned  to  his  father's  house. 
The  time  had  now  come  when  he  must  think  of  the  choice  of  a  calling  for 
life.  The  boy  already  showed  the  disposition  to  comprehend  clearly  and 
thoroughly  everything  that  came  within  his  reach  for  his  culture,  but  also 
a  no  less  marked  tendency  to  a  practical  calling.  This  tendency,  as  well 
as  the  circumstances  of  his  father,  which  were  not  brilliant,  determined 
him  not  to  follow  the  example  of  his  elder  brother,  who  had  devoted  him- 
self to  purely  scientific  study,  but  to  take  up  forest -lore.  He  assumed  the 
calling  with  the  intention  of  grounding  himself  in  it  as  deeply  and  as  all- 
sidedly  as  possible.  In  1797  he  entered  upon  this  pursuit  under  the  direc- 
tion of  a  practical  forester.  The  young  Froebel,  in  his  unexampled  efforts 
to  learn  the  care  of  forest  growths  in  the  most  thorough  manner,  and  by 
his  zealous,  unassisted  study  of  practical  geometry,  earned  the  greatest 
admiration  of  his  teacher,  and  indeed  excited  his  astonishment  in  a  high 
degree.  He  had  passed  almost  two  years  thus,  when  suddenly  his  passion 
for  the  study  of  natuial  science  was  aroused.  The  physician  of  the  place 

»Note  by  the  translator :  Froebel's  Kindergarten  was  in  full  operation  before  Diester 
w eg  knew  him. 


LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL.  76 

where  he  then  resided  gave  him  a  scientific  work  upon  botany,  which  the 
young  forester  scarcely  laid  out  of  his  hands  till  he  had  made  its  contents 
completely  his  own.  From  this  time  nothing  could  hold  him  back  from 
devoting  himself  to  the  study  of  higher  mathematics  and  natural  science. 
In  the  autumn  of  1 797  he  entered  the  University  of  Jena  with  the  purpose 
of  studying  agriculture  in  the  most  comprehensive  sense,  and  also  financial 
mathematics.  A  little  property  from  his  mother  was  now  made  over  to 
him  by  his  father.  This  insignificant  sura  enabled  him  to  stay  a  year  and 
a  half  at  the  university.  After  this  he  again  studied  by  himself. 

"In  1802,  when  he  was  twenty  years  of  age,  his  father  died.  He  was 
now  left  quite  at  his  own  disposal.  A  combination  of  various  circum- 
stances induced  him  in  1804  to  take  the  place  of  private  secretary  to  a 
man  of  considerable  wealth  in  Mechlenburg.  .  .  In  this  place  his  prac- 
tical scientific  studies  flourished  as  never  before.  The  thought  now 
occurred  to  him  that  he  would  gratify  an  inward  desire  for  the  thorough 
study  of  architecture.  For  this  purpose,  in  1805,  he  yielded  to  the  urgency 
of  a  friend  to  come  to  Fraukfort-on-the-Main.  With  that  meeting  began 
a  new  era  in  his  life.  An  offer  of  private  pupils  enabled  him  to  fix  his 
residence  in  Frankfort.  His  teaching  made  an  impression  upon  the  prin- 
cipal of  a  newly-created  model  school,  Dr.  Gruner.  On  the  evening  of  his 
first  interview  with  this  gentleman,  who  greeted  him  in  the  most  friendly 
manner,  the  twenty-three  year  old  youth  spoke  upon  the  subject  that 
moved  his  soul  so  deeply, — the  whole  aim  of  his  life  and  his  strivings. 
After  the  lively  conversation  had  ended,  Gruner  said  to  his  young  friend, 
with  the  deepest  conviction:  'Froebel,  you  must  be  a  schoolmaster!'  At 
the  same  time  he  offered  him  a  vacant  position  in  the  model  school.  As 
Froebel  afterwards  expressed  it,  'the  scales  fell  from  his  eyes.'  It  was 
clear  to  him  in  a  moment  that  the  offered  reality  was  what  his  mind  and 
heart  had  so  long  unconsciously  sought  in  this  never-ending  struggle  for 
self -culture.  Offer  and  response  followed  in  the  same  moment,  and  Froe- 
bel became  a  teacher  in  the  model  school  of  Frankfort. 

EXPEKIENCE   IN   TEACHING. 

"We  can  readily  imagine  that  the  young  teacher  endeavored  to  satisfy 
the  demands  of  his  present  position  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  He  perceived 
very  soon  that  the  method  of  instruction  must  be  directed  by  the  laws  of 
development  of  the  human  mind  as  well  as  by  that  of  the  subject  to  be 
taught,  and  that  the  essence  of  the  method  is  the  art  of  adapting  the 
momentary  stage  of  development  in  the  scholar  to  the  corresponding  one 
of  the  subject.  This  law  of  development  he  carefully  sought ;  this  art  he 
endeavored  to  make  his  own.  Gruner  perceived  the  restless  striving  of 
his  young  friend,  and  gave  him  for  his  theoretic  outline  in  pedagogy  the 
writings  of  Pestalozzi.  This  awakened  in  Froebel  the  burning  desire  to 
know  personally  the  man  who  was  seeking  to  prepare  the  way  to  a  new 
education  conformable  to  nature.  He  went  to  Yverdun,  was  fourteen  days 
in  the  Pestalozzi  Institute,  and  returned  to  his  former  situation  with  the 
resolution  to  understand  precisely,  earlier  or  later,  by  practice,  the  efforts 
of  the  Swiss  schoolman. 

"He  was  soon  able  to  carry  out  his  resolution,  for  in  1807  a  very  esti- 


76  LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL. 

mable  family  in  Frankfort  gave  him  the  direction  of  their  children's  edu- 
cation, which  he  undertook  on  the  condition  that  after  a  time  he  should 
take  his  pupils  to  Yverdun,  in  order  to  put  himself  in  connection  with  Pes- 
talozzi's  Institute.  From  1808  to  1810  he  went  to  Yverdun  with  his  three 
pupils,  lived  quite  independently  of  the  Institute,  but  put  himself  in  living 
relation  with  it.  He  was  now  at  the  same  time  pupil  and  teacher.  Deeply 
penetrated  by  the  importance  of  the  Pestalozzian  efforts,  he  was  eager  to 
spread  his  principles  actively  in  his  own  country.  Yet  he  could  not  avoid 
seeing  that  the  principle  of  Pestalozzi  as  developed  did  not  reach  the  inner 
connection  of  the  child's  soul  with  the  mother  and  outward  things.  He 
conceived  the  purpose  of  improving  and  contributing  his  own  culture  to 
laying  a  deep  and  firm  foundation.  This  purpose  determined  him  in  1810 
to  leave  Pestalozzi  and  the  family  of  his  pupils  in  order  to  devote  himself 
in  Gottingen  to  the  deeper  study  of  the  natural  sciences.  In  1811  n 
entered  the  University  of  Berlin  for  the  same  purpose.  In  Berlin  'he  ~er- 
suasion  was  strengthened  to  ripeness  in  him  that  all  life,  that  is,  dev^lop- 
ment  into  the  whole,  was  founded  upon  one  law,  and  that  this  unity  must 
be  the  basis  of  all  principles  of  development,  its  beginning  and  "'ad.  This 
conviction  was  the  fruit  of  a  profound  study  of  nature  in  its  law  r  f  level- 
opment,  and  the  most  careful  contemplation  of  the  child.  He  gained  an 
opportunity  for  this  latter  observation  by  teaching,  while  he  was  studying 
in  Berlin,  in  Plamann's  famous  Pestalozzian  institution  for  boys. 

"In  the  spring  of  1813  the  extreme  need  of  the  fatherland  called  him 
into  the  ranks  of  the  volunteer  soldiers,  and  there  quite  early  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  his  later  companions  and  fellow-workers.  Langenthal  and 
Middendorff,  who  had  been  also  studying  in  Berlin.  During  the  war  he 
never  lost  sight  of  his  fundamental  thought,  and  he  utilized  all  its  phe- 
nomena to  illustrate  it.  The  rapid  progress  of  events  in  the  summer  of 
1814  left  him  free  to  go  back  to  his  former  relations.  He  soon  became,  by 
the  influence  of  higher  patrons,  assistant  and  inspector  in  the  "Royal 
Museum  of  Mineralogy,  under  Professor  Weiss. 

"  Froebel  was  now  truly  encompassed  by  the  treasures  of  nature.  When 
he  had  combined  the  results  of  his  unwearied  investigations  in  the  univer- 
sity, it  became  more  and  more  clear  to  him  that  the  recognition  of  the  con- 
formity to  law  and  the  harmony  of  nature  was  only  so  far  of  truth  as  it 
can  be  applied  to  human  life,  and  thus  effects  its  transformation.  The 
more  opportunity  our  investigator  had  to  watch  nature  in  its  development, 
the  more  he  was  impelled  to  compare  the  results  of  this  search  with  the 
conformity  to  law  in  the  development  of  humanity  in  the  child.  Ever 
clearer  to  him  was  the  identity  of  the  laws  of  development  of  the  macro- 
cosm with  those  of  the  microcosm;  more  and  more  important  did  this 
knowledge  appear  to  him  to  be  for  the  development  of  individual  men,  as 
well  as  for  the  race;  ever  anew  was  his  delight  kindled  in  putting  in  prac- 
tice an  education  conformable  to  nature.  He  resolved  to  give  up  his 
position  in  the  museum,  and  devote  himself  wholly  to  the  education  of 
men  and  children.  His  repeated  application  for  discharge  was  granted 
him,  after  friendly  and  urgent  remonstrance  from  Professor  Weiss. 
The  question  now  was  where  to  find  the  natural  and  vital  point  of  connec- 
tion with  his  new  undertaking.  This  soon  appeared  in  his  own  family, 


LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL.  ^7 

for  the  war  had  left  the  children  of  his  eldest  brother  fatherless.  To  begin 
his  educational  activity  with  these  children  was  his  plan  when  he  left  Ber- 
lin. He  took  leave  of  his  friends  Langenthal  and  Middendorff,  who  had 
returned  after  the  war  to  their  theological  studies,  and  with  whom  Froebel 
continued  in  the  closest  friendsliip.  He  did  not  tell  them  anything  about 
his  plan,  but  promised  to  inform  them  when  he  had  reached  something 
definite.  In  1816,  at  the  end  of  September,  he  left  Berlin  and  found  in 
Greisheim  five  of  his  sister's  children  assembled  for  education  and  care, 
and  there  and  with  them  his  great  educational  undertaking  began.  He 
had  no  outward  means  for  carrying  it  on,  nothing  but  this  inward  convic- 
tion and  firm  trust  in  its  result.  By  the  sale  of  a  collection  of  minerals  he 
realized  a  few  clowns,  which  he  used  for  the  adornment  of  his  Christmas 
festival  and  the  partial  re-building  of  his  little  house.  One  brother  took 
care  of  the  maintenance  of  his  two  sons,  who  received  education  and  care 
in  the  budding  institution,  and  also  for  the  maintenance  of  their  charge. 
The  mother,  who  in  the  beginning  lived  in  Greisheim,  took  care  of  the 
fatherless  nephews.  In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1817  Middendorff,  the 
youngest  friend  of  Froebel,  decided  to  aid  him  as  far  as  possible  in  the 
execution  of  his  purpose.  He  hastened,  accompanied  by  the  youngest 
brother  of  Langenthal,  who,  at  the  wish  of  this  friend,  joined  the  other 
pupils  to  Grieslieim  in  April  of  the  next  year.  The  expenses  of  the  young 
Langenthal  were  defrayed  by  a  responsible  family  in  which  the  brother 
was  house-tutor.  Middendorff  was  in  circumstances  that  enabled  him  to 
assist  in  the  plan  by  practicing  some  little  economy. 

Griosheim  was  not  long  the  place  of  the  new  institution.  The  widowed 
sister-in-law  of  Froebel  was  obliged  to  choose  for  her  place  of  abode,  the 
little  village  of  Keilhau,  which  lies  in  what  is  called  the  Schalathal,  an 
hour's  ride  from  Rudolstadt.  She  purchased  for  her  subsistence  a  little 
peasant's  property.  To  be  able  to  carry  on  the  education  of  her  children, 
Froebel  and  Middendorff  followed  her  to  Keilhau.  Both  men  occupied 
a  small  tenement  that  had  neither  window,  floor,  or  stove,  and,  with  nar- 
row means,  these  friends  of  youth  had  to  contend  with  the  greatest  obsta- 
cles. A  sketch  of  these  privations,  as  heard  from  the  lips  of  Middendorff, 
would  be  instructive  and  interesting. 

School  at  Keilhau. 

"In  October,  1817,  the  elder  Langenthal  joined  the  two  friends.  In 
November  of  that  year  a  school-building  was  put  up  in  the  widow's  yard, 
but  it  could  not  be  finished  immediately.  Towards  the  spring  of  1818,  the 
number  of  pupils  had  increased  to  twelve.  Froebel  was  now  thinking  of 
marrying,  that  his  pupils  might  have  a  loving  mother  and  superintendent 
•of  the  house-keeping.  It  was  his  wish  to  bring  home  a  motherly  woman, 
who  could  understand  him  and  appreciate  his  efforts.  Such  a  being  was 
his  now  dead  wife,  Wilhelmine,  Miss  Hofmeister  of  Berlin.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  a  royal  Prussian  counsellor  of  war.  She  was  full  of  enthu- 
siasm for  Froebel's  educational  idea.  As  inspector  of  the  Mineralogical 
Museum  of  Berlin,  he  had  often  in  confidential  conversations  imparted  to 
his  friend  Counsellor  Hofmeister,  and  his  daughter,  what  was  moving  in 
his  inmost  soul.  The  daughter  had  so  often  listened  to  the  outpourings  of 


78  LAKGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL. 

his  mind  and  heart  with  unspoken  enthusiasm  that  she  was  now  willing 
to  follow  him  out  of  the  throng  and  rush,  the  glittering  halls  and  refined 
society  of  the  great  city,  into  the  quiet  village  in  which  dwelt  the  man 
who  asked  her  to  give  him  her  hand  for  the  realizing  of  a  great  idea.  If 
it  had  not  been  for  her,  the  world  would  never  have  known  Frederich 
Froebel  as  the  originator  of  the  Kindergarten. 

"  On  the  20th  of  September,  accompanied  by  one  of  her  foster-daughters, 
Wilhelmine  Hofmeister  entered  the  Keilhau  circle  as  wife,  mother,  and 
house -keeper.  Shortly  before  his  marriage,  Froebel  came  into  possession 
of  the  yard  in  which  the  newly-built  school-house  stood.  In  1820  his 
eldest  brother,  father  of  his  first  two  pupils,  decided  to  give  up  domicile 
and  manufactory  in  Asterode  on  the  Nanz,  and  to  devote  the  activity  of 
his  family  and  his  outward  means  to  the  idea  of  his  brother.  He  had  so 
often  carried  his  brother  in  his  arms  when  a  child,  he  wished  now  to  live 
with  him  and  associate  himself  with  his  thought,  that  bond  which  holds 
the  world  together  most  firmly.  The  development  of  the  institution  now 
made  quiet,  secure,  and  continuous  progress. 

By  degrees  appeared  the  following  writings,  which  testified  of  this 

progress  to  the  world : 

PUBLICATIONS,  1819-1826. 

1.  Concerning  the  German  Educational  Institution  at  Rudolstadt,  1819. 

2.  Continued  information  of  the  German  Educational  Institution  at 
Keilhau;  Rudolsttidt,  1823. 

3.  Christmas  festival  in  the   Educational    Institution   at  Keilhau — a 
Christmas  gift  to  the  honored  parents  of  the  pupils,  the  friends  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Institution,  1824. 

"  Beautiful  family  festivals  cast  a  beneficent  light,  from  time  to  time,  like 
brilliant  sparks  of  illumination,  over  the  whole  lives  of  the  united  friends 
of  education.  Such  irradiation  shone  out  on  the  16th  of  September,  1825. 
On  that  day  were  betrothed  the  two  friends  of  Froebel,  Heinrich  Langen- 
thal  and  the  afore-mentioned  foster-daughter  of  Frau  Froebel,  Ernestine 
Crispine,  and  William  Middendorff  and  Albertine,  daughter  of  Froebel's 
eldest  brother.  The  pupils  of  the  Institute  had  made  a  path  on  the  cele- 
bration of  this  festival,  for  the  ascent  of  the  encircling  mountain,  that  the 
happy  couples,  in  the  beginning  of  this  most  important  era  of  their  lives, 
might  be  able  to  look  down  from  that  height  on  the  result  of  many  years 
of  effort.  There  was  inward  and  many-sided  joy  on  that  day  in  the  quiet, 
peaceful  valley  in  the  Thuringian  forest.  This  happy  day  was  followed 
by  a  second,  an  ascension-day  in  1826, — the  day  of  Laugenthal's  and  Mid- 
dendorff  s  marriage. 

"In  the  following  year,  1826,  appeased  two  books  by  Froebel: 

"  1.  The  Education  of  Man;  the  art  of  education,  instruction,  and  theory 
practiced  at  the  German  Educational  Institution  in  Keilhau,  by  the  author, 
founder,  and  superintendent,  Frederich  Froebel. 

"2.  Educational  Family  weekly  paper  for  Self -culture,  and  the  culture 
of  others.  Edited  by  Frederich  Froebel ;  Leipsic  and  Keilhau. 

"  One  work,  entitled  Ground  Principles  of  the  Education  of  Man,  whose 
contents  he  imparted  to  his  friends  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  before  their 
publication,  gave  the  latter  an  opportunity  for  a  longer  scientific  confer- 


LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL.  73 

ence  upon  the  subject  with  the  author  of  the  little  work.  Froebel  pro- 
posed to  visit  these  worthy  friends  in  order  to  prosecute  these  conversations 
by  word  of  mouth.  Before  Froebel  set  out  upon  his  visit  there  appeared 
another  powerful  fellow-worker  at  Keilhau  in  the  person  of  Johannes 
Arnold  Barop,  the  nephew  of  Middcndorff,  married  to  the  sister  of  Frau 
Middendorff  (Froebel's  niece).  After  he  had  finished  his  theological 
studies  in  Halle  he  became  a  zealous  cooperator  in  the  Institute  at  Keilhau. 

Experience  in  Switzerland. 

"  Froebel  made  his  visit  to  Frankfort  in  the  early  part  of  May,  1831.  It 
was  one  of  marked  importance  for  the  further  development  of  his  cause. 
He  met  in  Frankfort  with  the  famous  Xave  Schnyder  von  Wartensee, 
well  known  in  the  musical  world  as  a  critical  author  and  methodriker,  as 
well  as  an  opera  composer,  and  he  was  a  friend  and  cultivator  of  natural 
history.  Froebel  was  soon  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  him.  Schnyder 
von  Wartensee  was  often  a  witness  of  the  pedagogic  and  didactic  efforts 
of  his  friend.  Under  this  influence  he  asked  Froebel  to  found  an. institu- 
tion according  to  his  principles  at  his  family-seat,  the  castle  of  Wartensee, 
on  Sempacher  lake,  in  the  canton  of  Lucerne.  Froebel  joyfully  seized 
this  opportunity  to  spread  further  his  efforts  after  a  developing  education 
conformable  to  nature.  The  20th  of  July  of  that  year  found  him  in  Swit- 
zerland, and  on  the  12th  of  August  he  and  Schnyder,  with  the  requisite 
authorization,  founded  the  first  educational  institution  for  girls  in  Switzer- 
land. Schnyder  then  returned  to  his  old  occupation,  and  parted  from 
Froebel  with  these  words :  '  I  have  given  you  a  new  field  for  spreading 
your  views.  Now  win  the  love  of  men,  which  shall  never  fail  you.'*  The 
confidence,  indeed,  the  love  of  men,  soon  showed  itself.  Froebel  was 
obliged  to  invite  Ferdinand  Froebel,  his  first  pupil,  who  had  just  finished 
his  philosophical  studies  at  Jena,  to  come  to  his  aid;  a  call  which  Ferdi 
nand  joyfully  obeyed.  He  came  to  his  uncle  as  fellow  teacher  and  edu- 
cator on  the  fifteenth  anniversary  of  the  day  on  which  he  had  come  as 
a  pupil.  A  year  after,  1832,  late  in  the  autumn,  Froebel  was  requested  by 
a  society  of  fathers  to  plan  out  his  Institute  at  Willisau.  The  society 
offered  to  purchase  for  the  purpose  the  Upper  bailiwick's  Castle.  Nothing 
delayed  the  undertaking  but  the  want  of  the  grant  from  the  authorities. 
In  the  interval  Froebel  went  to  Germany,  there  to  prepare  for  its  estab- 
lishment. 

"Ferdinand  Froebel  and  Arnold  Barop,  who  had  come  on  a  visit  to 
Keilhau  in  1832,  went  with  him  to  the  Institute  at  Wartensee.  The  pleas- 
ure of  returning  to  the  old  circle  after  six  months'  absence  was  very  great 
to  Froebel.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival  his  beloved  nephew  William, 
brother  of  Ferdinand  Froebel,  died.  He  was  a  teacher  in  the  institution 
where  he  had  been  himself  educated.  His  uncle  specially  loved  our  Wil- 
liam Froebel,  and  was  plunged  into  the  deepest  grief  by  his  sudden  death. 
But  he  was  soon  called  out  of  the  quiet  valley  into  the  battle-ground  of 
life.  The  consent  of  the  Swiss  authorities  was  obtained  for  the  founding 
of  the  Institute  for  girls  at  Willisau. 

*  This  is  not  strictly  correct. 


80  LANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL. 

School  for  Girls  at  Willisau. 

In  the  beginning  of  1833  Froebel  returned  to  Switzerland,  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  ever  ready  to  sacrifice  herself,  but  with  health  much  shattered 
by  the  complication  of  circumstances  and  her  ceaseless  motherly  cares. 
On  the  1st  of  May  the  two  entered  Willisau,  and  on  the  2d  the  institution 
was  opened.  In  spite  of  storms  and  conflicts  which  were  occasioned  by  CatK 
olic  opposition,  the  tender  plant  grew  vigorously.  During  the  conflict  the 
neighboring  government  of  the  canton  of  Berne  had  been  attentively 
observing  the  Froebelian  Institute.  This  was  proved  in  1833,  for  the 
Berne  government  sent  men  of  sense  and  experience  to  pass  judgment  on 
the  results  of  the  examination.  Their  report  showed  that  out  of  five 
young  schoolmen  from  Berne,  who  for  the  most  part  belonged  to  a  certain 
sphere  of  active  work,  two  went  to  Willisau  for  a  year  and  a  half  of  cul- 
ture under  Froebel's  direction.  The  remote  consequence  of  this  was  that 
Froebel  was  obliged  to  have  a  course  of  instruction  at  Burgdorf,  in  con- 
nection with  several  others  for  teachers,  whose  number  increased  to  sixty. 
For  the  direction  of  this  course,  and  to  forward  his  institution  at  the  same 
time,  he  summoned  his  friend  Langenthal  to  Switzerland,  and  this  so  much 
the  more  readily,  that  Barop  had  returned  to  Keilhau  in  1833  in  order  to 
assist  Middendorff  in  the  mother  Institute.  In  the  same  year  the  institu- 
tion at  Willisau  received  another  co-laborer  in  the  person  of  Adolf  Franken- 
berg.  In  1834  Froebel  returned  from  Burgdorf  to  Willisau,  into  his  old  place, 
and  to  hold  his  second  autumnal  examination ;  but  he  soon  gave  a  hearing 
at  Burgdorf  to  a  call  from  the  State  authorities,  who  requested  him  to  found 
an  Educational  Orphan  Institute  in  the  newly-erected  orphan-house.  In 
the  summer  of  1835  he  entered  upon  his  new  field.  When  the  afore-men- 
tioned institution  was  again  opened,  Langenthal  went  with  him  as  assist- 
ant, and  his  wife  as  Frau  Froebel's  assistant.  The  loss  of  Langenthal  at 
Willisau  was  made  good  by  Middendorff,  who  willingly  left  wife  and 
children  in  Keilhau  in  order  to  help  forward  the  prosperity  of  the  daughter 
Institute.  The  tender  plant  at  Burgdorf  also  took  root  by  the  unceasing 
care  of  the  men  and  their  wives,  and  grew  apace.  Frau  Froebel,  especially, 
and  above  all  others,  worked  vigorously  and  unweariedly.  But  her  health 
had  been  much  shattered  by  the  former  journey  to  Switzerland,  as  mentioned 
above,  and  was  still  more  so  by  the  hard  labors  at  Willisau,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  trouble  and  care  which  the  commencement  of  house-keeping  at 
Burgdorf  had  required.  Her  body  and  mind  needed  rest  and  nursing,  and 
she  wished  to  go  back  to  Keilhau ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  she  wished  to  see 
once  more  her  beloved  aged  mother  in  Berlin.  A  journey  to  Keilhau  and 
Berlin  was  therefore  projected  for  the  early  part  of  1836,  for  the  unceasingly 
working  couple.  But  in  March  of  1836  came  the  news  of  the  sudden 
death  of  the  mother.  The  already  sick  woman,  Madame  Froebel,  was 
prostrated  by  this  blow,  so  that  the  physician  urged  her  to  return  to  Ger- 
many. Froebel  now  assigned  his  work  at  Burgdorf  to  Langenthal,  and 
left  for  Berlin  with  his  wife,  partly  to  adjust  the  matter  of  her  inheritance. 

Genesis  of  the  Kindergarten. 

During  Froebel's  residence  in  Berlin  the  fundamental  thought  of  his  edu- 
cational efforts  penetrated  his  soul  more  clearly  than  ever;  here  it  was 


RANGE'S  REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL.  81 

that  his  hours  of  musing  were  occupied  with  the  plan  that  was  forming 
within  him  for  the  early  instruction  of  little  children.  It  was  now  clear 
to  him  that  the  elevation  of  all  education,  that  of  the  earliest  childhood  as 
the  most  important  time  for  human  development  was  indispensable,  and 
that  in  its  behalf  piny,  as  the  first  activity  of  the  child,  mast  be  spiritualized 
and  systematically  treated.  The  idea  of  the  Kindergarten  rose  upon  him  ,* 
he  wrote  to  Berlin  for  his  first  materials  for  plays  and  occupations,  and 
immediately  formed  the  purpose  of  founding  an  institution  for  the  care  of 
the  earliest  childhood.  He  selected  for  this  new  institution  the  little  town 
of  Blankenburg,  on  the  Schwarze,  at  the  entrance  of  the  so-called  Thurin- 
gian-Switzerland — a  place  which,  on  account  of  its  healthy,  beautiful  situ- 
ation, was  particularly  suitable  for  his  sweet  wife.  In  1837  the  institution 
was  founded.  In  1838  Froebel  issued  from  Elankenberg  a  paper  entitled 
'Seeds,  Buds,  Flowers,  and  Fruits  out  of  Life,  for  Hie  Education  of  United 
Families.'  A  Sunday  issue  was  under  the  call:  'Come,  let  us  live  with 
our  children.' 

"This  year,  the  year  1838,  in  reference  to  the  system  of  Froebel  in 
general,  and  the  Kindergarten  in  particular,  is  a  classical  year,  and  should 
be  so  called,  and  the  paper  must  here  be  recommended  to  readers  to  whom 
it  is  destined  to  give  a  fundamental  conception  of  this  pedagogic  innova- 
tion. It  contains  an  exposition  of  the  great  principles  of  the  system,  and 
a  development  of  the  material  for  play  in  its  natural  necessity  and  its  har- 
monic connection.  The  new  idea  of  the  Kindergarten  drew  all  the  friends 
of  Froebel  again  around  him.  Langenthal  left  Ferdinand  Froebel  to  con- 
duct the  orphan  home  in  Burgdorf,  and  went  to  Blankenberg,  Middcn- 
dorf  left  Willisau  and  returned  to  Keilhau,  into  the  lap  of  his  family, 
which  had  long  missed  the  loving  father.  Froebel,  in  1839,  in  company 
with  Frankenberg,  responded  to  a  call  from  Dresden  to  speak  upon  his 
educational  principles,  especially  to  present  his  idea  of  the  Kindergarten. 
We  know  that  the  seed  fell  upon  good  ground  in  that  city.  During  his 
residence  in  Dresden  his  wife  died;  one  of  those  rare  women  who  served 
an  idea  at  the  greatest  possible  sacrifice,  that  of  her  life.  She  lived  to  see 
the  Kindergarten  idea  accepted  through  the  representations  of  her  hus- 
band, and  parted  from  him  satisfied.  After  this  deep  wound, — the  bitterest 
experience  to  him — had  done  bleeding,  the  veteran  worked  on  actively, 
and  repeated  at  Hamburg  what  he  had  said  in  Dresden.  A  great  purpose 
now  took  possession  of  his  soul.  He  had  not  as  yet  an  institution  in 
which  his  system  could  be  presented  in  its  whole  comprehensiveness,  and 
which  should  at  the  same  time  secure  the  further  development  of  his  work 
for  the  young.  Here  and  there  were  institutions  in  Froebel's  sense,  and 
also  Kindergartens;  but  a  central  point  was  wanting,  a  heart  from  which 
life  flows  into  all  the  limbs,  in  order  to  throw  it  back  again  to  the  source.' 

(To  be  con  tinned.) 

*  Prof.  Payne  presents  his  conception  of  the  genesis  of  the  Kindergarten  in  Froebel's 
meditations  and  experience,  very  happily  in  bis  Lecture.— Froebel  and  the  Kindergarten. 


82  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 


THE    KINDERGARTEN—  ITS   GENESIS   AND   NAME.* 

To  Frocbel,  the  friend  of  children,  to  whom  the  childish  nature  readily 
and  willingly  revealed  itself,  was  it  given  to  find,  in  the  very  growth 
of  the  child,  the  natural  way  of  development.  Long  years  of  loving 
observation  taught  him  that  the  individual  inner  life  of  the  child  reveals 
itself  nowhere  more  freely  and  perfectly  than  in  play.  He  wished  to 
apply  his  means  of  development  to  the  personality,  as  it  makes  its  appear- 
ance in  self -activity,  and  this  could  happen  only  in  play.  With  this  his 
problem  was  solved  at  once.  He  had  only  to  allow  the  child  to  play;  to 
give  him  suitable  materials  for  it;  to  find  proper  games  to  teach  the  child 
and  his  coiiv.mions,  and  to  prepare  them  by  degrees  for  useful  occupa- 
tions, and  eventually  for  real  work,  by  methodically  arranged  gradations. 
Of  this  we  will  hear  him  speak.  In  a  letter  to  Barop,  written  Feb.  18, 
1829,  he  says:  "During  the  short  time  employed  in  writing  these  lines 
the  thought  of  my  and  our  educational  work  has  essentially  unfolded 
itself,  while  it  has  gone  further  back  in  respect  to  its  application,  and 
grounded  itself  so  much  the  more  deeply.  The  education  and  training 
of  little  children  from  three  to  seven  years  old  has  occupied  my  mind  for 
a  long  time.  A  multitude  of  thoughts  and  influences  crowding  upon  me 
at  once  decided  me  to  establish  an  institution  for  the  care  and  develop- 
ment of  orphan  and  motherless  children  of  both  sexes,  of  the  ages  above- 
mentioned."  This  thought  appears  much  more  clearly  in  a  letter  from 
Burgdorf,  Switzerland,  written  March  1,  1836,  in  which  he  announces  to 
the  educational  circle  at  Keilhau  that  he  has  decided  to  found  an  institu- 
tion for  instruction  in  the  art  of  accurate  observation,  leading  to  self- 
improvement,  through  play  and  occupation.  In  the  course  of  the  letter 
he  says  further : 

"  For  a  long  time  I  have  cherished  the  thought  of  making  my  means  of 
facilitating  accurate  observation  for  culture  and  instruction  complete 
and  universal  by  a  multiplication  and  publication  of  the  same.  Only 
since  the  end  of  the  last  year,  and  especially  since  the  beginning  of  this, 
do  my  circumstances  and  relations  permit  the  canying  out  of  this  under- 
taking. I  consider  and  order  my  whole  life  in  reference  to  it  since  I 
have  taken  the  decided  resolution  and  formed  the  plan;  first  to  perfect  all 
my  methods  of  facilitating  accurate  observation,  of  teaching,  instruction, 
and  culture,  into  many  series  following  each  other,  separated  into  mem- 
bers, but  vitally  connected  in  the  form  of  children's  plays,  and  as  a  means 
of  self-occupation  and  self-information  through  observation  and  creation, 
through  a  varied  self-activity,  and  therefore  through  a  methodical  and 
legitimate  satisfaction  of  the  instinct  for  culture  in  the  child.  My  under- 
taking differs  very  essentially  from  all  similar  ones  already  introduced,  in 
its  spirit,  in  its  inner  qualities,  in  its  unity,  from  which  everything  pro 
ceeds,  and  in  conformity  to  the  laws  of  life,  according  to  which  all  mani- 
foldness  is  revealed,  in  its  inner  vital  coherence;  in  a  word,  in  the  many- 
sided  human  scientific,  as  well  as  practical,  foundation."  Then  follows 
the  further  presentation  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  system.  Soon  after 

*By  Ferdinand  Winther,  in  Diesterweg's  Wegweiser.-r-Edition  of  1876.     Translated  by 
Miss  Lucy  Wheelock,  of  the  Chauncy-Hall  Kindergarten,  Boston. 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  83 

this  private  announcement  there  followed,  in  the  Sonntagsblatt,  In  1838, 
a  public  request  that  families  should  unite  to  carry  out  the  motto  of  this 
paper,  "  Come,  let  us  live  with  our  children."  He  says  therein, 

"As  this  paper  is  designed,  first  of  all,  to  explain  and  introduce  the  pro- 
posed institution,  it  begins  immediately  with  the  foundation  of  the  whole. 
In  the  germ  of  every  human  being  lies  embedded  the  form  of  its  whole 
future  life.  On  the  proper  comprehension  and  care  of  this  beginning 
depends  solely  the  happy  unfolding  of  the  man  leading  to  perfection,  and 
the  ability  to  accomplish  his  destiny,  and  thus  to  win  the  true  joy  and 
peace  of  life.  The  active  and  creative,  living  and  life-producing  being 
of  man,  reveals  itself  in  the  creative  instinct  of  the  child.  All  human 
education  and  true  culture,  and  our  understanding  also,  is  bound  up  in 
the  quiet  and  conscientious  nurture  of  this  instinct  of  activity,  in  the 
family;  in  the  judicious  unfolding  of  the  child,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
same,  and  in  the  ability  of  the  child,  true  to  this  instinct,  to  be  active." 

Froebel's  practical  experiment  with  the  Kindergarten  in  Blankenburg 
was  received  at  first  with  doubtful  smiles.  But  when  the  people  saw 
with  what  joyful  zeal  children  of  every  age,  after  a  short  time,  pressed  to 
the  merry  sports,  in  the  invention  of  which  Froebel  was  inexhaustible, 
and  in  the  guidance  of  which  he  was  a  master;  when  the  children  took 
home  their  ornamental  sewing  and  weaving,  where,  contrary  to  their 
former  habits,  they  devoted  themselves,  of  their  own  free  will,  to  enter- 
taining occupations,  then,  with  their  growing  understanding  of  the  sys- 
tem, the  parents  began  to  appreciate  it,  and  doubt  changed  to  true  interest 
in  Froebel's  young  creation.  In  the  midst  of  this  activity,  full  of  life 
and  experience,  the  idea  of  the  Kindergarten  grew  clearer  and  fuller  in 
Froebel's  mind,  so  that  in  1840,  at  the  Guttenberg  festival,  which  the 
educational  institutions  for  children  and  youth  in  Blankenburg  and  Keil- 
hau  celebrated  in  common,  he  could  present  a  new  and  more  comprehen- 
sive plan,  which  he  hoped  to  call  into  life  with  the  help  and  participation 
of  the  German  people. 

Appeal  to  the  Women  of  Germany  in  1840. 

One  cannot  read  without  admiration  and  emotion  the  words  with  which, 
in  his  speech  at  the  festival,  he 'tried  to  win  the  German  women  for  his 
work.  "  Therefore,  I  dare,"  he  said,  toward  the  end  of  his  speech,  "  con- 
fidently to  invite  you  who  are  here  present,  honorable,  noble,  and  discreet 
matrons  and  maidens,  and  through  you,  and  with  you  all  women,  young 
and  old,  of  our  fatherland,  to  assist  by  your  subscription  in  the  founding 
of  an  educational  system  for  the  nurture  of  little  children,  which  shall  be 
named  Kindergarten,  on  account  of  its  inner  life  and  aim,  and  German 
Kindergarten,  on  account  of  its  spirit.  Do  not  be  alarmed  at  the  appar- 
ent cost  of  the  shares :  for  if  you,  in  your  housekeeping,  or  by  your  in- 
dustry, can  spare  only  five  pennies  daily,  from  the  presumptive  time  of 
the  first  payment  until  the  end,  the  ten  dollars  are  paid  at  the  last  payment. 
Do  not  let  yourselves  be  kept  from  the  actual  claims  of  the  plan  by  the 
contemptible  objection  '  Of  what  use  to  us  is  it  all? '  Already  the  idea  of 
furthering  the  proper  education  of  the  child  through  appropriate  foster- 
ing of  the  instinct  of  activity,  acts  like  light  and  warmth,  imperceptibly 
and  beneficently,  on  the  well-being  of  families  and  citizens;  how  much 


84  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

greater  then  are  the  possibilities  of  the  daily,  or  even  weekly,  or  monthly, 
attendance  at  such  an  institution.  Staying  here  for  a  few  hours  has  a 
good  and  blessed  influence  for  days,  weeks,  months,  and  years,,  for  good 
is  not  like  a  heavy  stone  which  only  acts,  and  is  perceived  where  it 
presses;  no — it  is  like  water,  air,  and  light,  which  invisibly  flow  from  one 
place  to  another,  awakening,  watering,  fertilizing,  nourishing  what  is 
concealed  from  the  searching  eye  of  man, — even  slumbers  in  our  own 
breasts  unsuspected  by  ourselves.  Good  is  like  a  spark  which  shines  far 
and  points  out  the  way  and  direction.  Therefore,  let  us  all,  each  in  his 
own  way,  advance  what  our  hearts  recognize  as  good — the  care  of  young 
children.  Do  you  ask  for  the  profits  of  your  investment;  in  technical 
language,  the  dividends  on  your  shares?  Open  your  eyes  impartially, 
your  hearts  also ;  there  is  more  in  it  than  we  have  represented  in  the  plan 
of  the  undertaking.  Or.is  the  beautiful  any  less  a  gift  and  a  red  value 
in  our  life  because  it  passes  away  easily?  Is  the  good  also  any  less  a  gift 
because  only  the  heart  perceives  it?  Is  the  true  any  less  a  gift  because  it 
is  unseen,  and  only  the  spirit  observes  it?  And  shall  we  count  for  noth- 
ing the  reaction  on  the  family  weal,  and  the  happiness  of  the  children,  in 
joy  of  heart  and  peace  of  mind?  You  can  enjoy  these  great  gifts  in  full 
measure;  for  they  are  the  fruit  of  your  cooperation,  the  fruits  of  the 
Garden  which  you  establish  and  care  for, — the  fruits  of  your  property. 
Besides,  is  it  not  almost  more  than  this  to  take  the  lead  and  stand  as 
models  for  a  whole  country,  to  advance  the  happiness  of  childhood  and 
the  well-being  of  families  throughout  an  entire  nation?" 

Universal  German  Institution. 

Froebel  was  not  deceived  in  his  deep,  unshaken  confidence.  Owing  to 
the  deeply-felt  need  of  suitable  training  for  children  before  their  entrance 
into  school,  the  Kindergarten  was  founded  as  a  Universal  German  Insti- 
tution at  the  Guttenberg  festival  in  1840,  a  day  which  pointed  to 
a  universal  breaking  of  the  light,  and  in  his  report  of  June,  1843,  which 
is  signed  by  the  burgomaster  Witz,  as  well  as  by  Middendorff  and  Barop, 
Froebel  could  announce  good  results  of  his  effort  and  a  general  and 
honorable  '  recognition.  In  order  to  kindle  the  sparks  of  appreciation 
glimmering  here  and  there  into  a  ckar  flame  by  the  breath  of  his  own 
never-failing  enthusiasm,  he  proposed  to  visit  all  the  larger  cities  of 
Germany.  He  succeeded,  especially  in  Hamburg  and  Dresden,  in  winning 
laborers  for  his  vineyard,  and  in  establishing  Kindergartens.  The  seed- 
corn  which  he  thus  scattered  fell  in  good  soil,  and  grew  to  flowering 
plants  through  the  faithful  care  of  his  pupils  and  adherents. 

Mother  Play  and  Nursery  Song.     Sonntagsblatt. 

Of  his  literary  works  of  this  time,  two,  devoted  to  the  pedagogics  of 
the  Kindergarten,  deserve  especial  mention.  Die  Mutter-  und  Koselieder 
is  so  called  from  the  little  rhymes  which  Froebel  gives  the  mother  to  sing 
or  repeat  in  order  to  occupy  and  entertain  profitably  her  child  from  one 
to  two  years  old,  with  all  kinds  of  sports  and  plays,  when  dressing  and 
undressing,  washing,  eating,  etc.  The  little  arms  and  legs,  hands  and 
fingers,  play  the  principal  part;  they  learn  to  do  little  feats,  to  manage 
and  move  themselves,  and  are  strengthened  by  exercise.  Many  occur- 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  85 

rences  also  of  domestic  life  or  those  nearly  allied,  are  judiciously 
illustrated  by  picture  and  song.  This  method  happily  discovered  by 
Froebel  has  since  received  the  highest  artistic  development  through 
Richter  and  Oscar  Pletsch.  The  Sonntagsblatt  (1838-1840)  has  a  special 
value  from  the  fact  that  Froebel  published  in  it  his  "play-gifts"  which 
characterized  the  Kindergarten  and  its  method  of  culture,  explained  their 
meaning,  and  described  their  use.  A  comparison  of  Froebel's  play-gifts 
with  those  which  from  year  to  year  competitive  industry  offers  so  richly — 
not  exactly  for  the  benefit  of  the  world  of  children — first  shows  them  in 
their  true  light.  Almost  all  the  playthings  which  we  buy  in  our  toy-shops 
filled  with  all  possible  expense,  are  finished  and  perfect  in  themselves,  often 
perfectly  constructed  objects  whose  beauty  cannot  be  denied.  Children 
stand  amazed  and  delighted  at  the  sight  of  a  Christmas  table  ornamented  • 
with  such  gifts.  But  how  long  does  the  joy  last?  After  a  short  time  it 
changes  first  to  indifference,  then  to  disgust;  and  economical  parents 
put  away  under  lock  and  key  for  a  later  time,  the  things  that  are  still 
tolerably  well  preserved.  What  can  the  child  do  with  playthings  on 
which  already  the  fancy  of  an  artist  has  worked  and  has  left  almost  noth- 
ing for  the  self  activity  of  the  child.  The  only  thing  it  can  do  with  these 
is  to  take  them  apart  and  destroy  them.  But  the  punishments  inflicted  on 
such  occasions,  show  how  many  parents  entirely  misunderstand  this 
expression  of  the  instinct  of  activity  so  worthy  of  recognition,  and  the 
desire  for  knowledge  and  learning  of  the  children.  If  one  give  to  an 
indulged  child  the  choice  of  his  play-material,  he  will  see  that  a  stick  of 
wood  will  be  the  dearest  doll,  mother's  foot-stool  the  coach  of  state,  a 
little  heap  of  sand  material  for  cooking,  baking,  building,  writing,  and 
drawing,  and  father's  cane  a  darling  pony.  According  to  these  experi- 
ences Froebel  was  anxious  to  make  his  gifts  for  play  as  simple  as  possible. 

Gifts  for  Play. 

First  Gift  for  Play.  The  Balls — three  balls  of  primary  and  three  of 
secondary  colors.  With  these  the  very  little  ones  practice  catching, 
swinging  on  a  string,  hopping,  rolling,  hide  and  seek,  etc.  With  advanc- 
ing age  all  known  ball-plays  come  in  succession. 

Second  Gift.  Sphere,  Cylinder,  and  Cube.  The  sphere,  a  solid  ball, 
movable,  but  in  every  position  the  same.  The  cube  stationary,  but  differ- 
ing according  to  the  position.  The  cylinder,  rolling  or  standing,  connect- 
ing the  other  two.  All  three  in  their  connection  leading  over  to  the  build- 
ing plays. 

Third  Gift.  The  cube,  divided  into  eight  equal  parts.  It  shows  the 
whole  and  its  parts,  outside  and  inside,  relations  of  size  and  number,  ar- 
rangement, and  direction. 

The  Fourth,  Fifth,  and  Sixth  Gifts  form  another  step  by  perpendicular, 
horizontal,  oblique  divisior-s  into  different  sizes.  The  variety  of  the  differ- 
ent forms  is  infinitely  great  and  is  classified  into— First,  forms  of  knowl- 
edge, in  which  the  laws  of  form,  magnitude,  and  number  are  used; 
second,  forms  of  beauty,  by  which  the  perception  of  what  is  pleasing  to 
the  eye  is  represented;  third,  forms  of  life,  in  which  objects  of  real 
life,  as  furniture,  implements,  buildings,  plants,  and  animals,  are  imitated. 


86  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

The  three  following  gifts,  Seventh,  Eighth,  and  Ninth,  are,  the  flat  or 
laying  tablets,  stick-laying,  and  ring-laying.  These  lead  the  child  who 
has  practiced  representation  with  the  building  boxes,  or  through  surface 
and  linear  forms,  to  drawing,  which  stands  in  relation  with  the  interesting 
pricking  and  sewing.  When  the  outlines  of  the  form  of  life  and  beauty 
drawn  on  the  paper  are  pricked  through  with  the  needle  so  that  they  show 
on  both  sides  of  the  paper,  then  drawing  in  colored  outline  is  again  rep- 
resented by  sewing  with  colored  threads.  Weaving  comes  in  here,  which 
is  first  practiced  with  colored  paper  strips,  and  later  vdth  the  most  diverse 
materials,  such  as  straw,  bast,  leather,  ribbon,  etc.,  and  intertwining  with 
thin,  pliable  wooden  sticks. 

As  these  occupations  lead  from  the  line  to  the  surface,  so  the  paper- 
folding,  which  follows,  goes  back  to  the  solid  imitating  such  things 
as  a  boat,  hat,  star,  bird,  etc.  The  hand  is  trained  to  skill,  and  the  eye  to 
careful  observation,  by  the  cutting  by  which  the  smallest  piece  of  paper 
is  changed  into  a  means  of  entertainment  and  culture;  and  still  more  by 
the  pease-work,  in  which  the  pointed  ends  of  fine  wooden  sticks  are  stuck 
into  soaked  pea's,  and  by  this  means  the  forms  laid  are  fixed.  When  they 
create  little  architectural  works,  the  objects  represented  appear  in  outline; 
they  are  transparent,  also,  and  explain  and  illustrate  perspective,  figurative 
representation.  Modeling  in  wax  and  clay  ranks  here  as  the  last  and 
highest  step  in  which  self-actiyity  is  given  the  fullest  play,  as  well  as  the 
opportunity  for  the  satisfaction  of  any  existing  artistic  talent. 

This  close  connection,  at  every  step,  with  life,  marks  the  standpoint 
from  which  Froebel  wished  to  consider  even  the  smallest  thing  in  the  life 
of  a  child.  It  is  not  the  least  excellence  of  the  succession  of  clay  mould- 
ing, pease-work,  cutting,  folding,  weaving,  building,  pasting,  pricking, 
sewing,  and  similar  employments,  which  pertain  to  the  first  exercises  in 
the  comprehension  of  form  and  in  training  the  eye,  and  form  a  necessary 
stepping-stone  to  geometry,  geography,  drawing,  and  writing,  that  they 
mingle  in  his  plays  and  amusements,  in  whatever  moves  and  animates 
childhood ;  and  thereby  satisfy  the  unity  of  the  consciousness. 

Movement  Plays,  and  Songs. 

The  "play-gifts"  mentioned  form  the  part  of  the  Kindergarten  occupa- 
tions which  Froebel  classed  under  the  name  of  "mental  plays."  He 
shows  quite  a  different  phase  of  its  workings  in  the  "movement  plays." 
They  have,  besides  the  common  aim  of  plays,  the  object  of  satisfying  the 
impulse  of  the  child  for  the  movement  of  its  limbs,  and  also  of  advanc- 
ing the  bodily  development.  For  a  gain  in  this  direction  should  not  only 
always  go  hand-in-hand  "with  mental  improvement,  but  in  the  Kinder- 
garten receives  a  prominent  place. 

The  Kindergarten  must  offer  fundamentally  what  most  dwellings  allow 
only  occasionally  from  lack  of  room,  and  the  grown-up  inhabitants  of 
them  from  desire  of  quiet ;  what  the  deplorable  lack  of  free  public  places 
given  up  to  the  young;  what  the  larger  cities,  with  their  foot-passengers, 
riders,  and  wagons,  make  almost  impossible  to  children — an  unchecked 
movement  of  their  limbs,  which  is  to  them  a  necessity  almost  as  pressing 
as  drawing  the  breath.  For,  besides  the  closed  room  or.  hall,  it  must 
have,  where  possible,  an  open  place  planted  with  trees — a  play-ground. 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  g7 

Here  in  the  fresh  air  the  little  ones  may  live  in  cheerful  activity  and  mo- 
tion, and  thus  bloom  merrily  like  the  flowers  of  a  garden.  From  the 
numberless  dancing  and  singing  plays  which  are  handed  down  to  the 
child's  world  from  age  to  age  by  tradition,  and  of  which  every  province 
and  evory  city  carefully  cherishes  special  ones  as  its  peculiar  property, 
Froebel  has  collected  the  best,  improved  many  of  them  by  stripping  off 
excrescences  marring  the  original,  and  made  them  serve  the  educational 
aim  of  the  Kindergarten.  He  has  also  added  to  them  by  his  own  inven- 
tion. Through  them  all  the  pupils  of  the  Kindergarten  are  first  brought 
into  living  intercourse  with  each  other,  and  share  in  the  beneficent  influ- 
ence which  living  with  his  equals  exerts  on  the  child.  Every  movement 
play  furthers  the  activity  of  all  participants  for  a  common  end,  which 
can  only  be  reached  when  law  and  order  rule.  The  Kindergartner  guid- 
ing the  play  suffers  no  arbitrariness,  no  rude  forwardness,  no  quarrelsome 
disputes,  no  domineering  of  the  stronger  and  crowding  of  the  weaker 
Every  one  must  do  his  part,  according  to  his  gifts  and  powers.  The 
timid  and  those  holding  back  must  be  encouraged,  the  forward  ones  in- 
structed and  reminded  of  their  bounds,  and  all  must  have  their  rights. 
Living  in  such  a  well-ordered  and  conducted  community  exerts  a  good 
influence  on  the  conduct  of  the  children  so  very  quickly  that  it  shows 
itself  in  the  family  sometimes  after  a  few  weeks,  in  greater  patience  and 
ready  willingness.  The  fear  that  a  watchful  guidance  will  disturb  the 
happy  little  ones  in  their  joy  is  quite  unfounded.  He  misunderstands 
children  who  thinks  that  they  prefer  to  play  senselessly  and  aimlessly. 
On  the  contrary,  when  they  are  sure  that  a  grown  person  will  enter  into 
their  ways  with  kindness,  they  will  invite  such  an  one  to  show  them  an 
orderly  play,  or  to  decide  how  it  must  be  properly  played,  or  to  bring  the 
right  order  into  that  already  begun. 

The  movement  plays  have  another  more  vital  center  of  union  in  the 
songs  which  accompany  them.  Every  play  has  its  song,  which  arises 
from  it  or  is  related  to  it,  and  which  is  sung  sometimes  by  an  individual, 
sometimes  by  the  chorus.  There  is  hardly  anything  which  so  claims  the 
entire  spiritual  life  of  children  and  so  irresistibly  invites  sympathy  as 
singing.  No  sense  lends  its  perceptions  so  directly  to  the  heart  as  that  of 
hearing.  No  activity  is  such  a  direct  and  almost  involuntary  expression 
of  inner  harmony  as  singing.  Rightly  then  did  Froebel  and  his  friends 
devote  to  it  an  especially  careful  attention,  and  direct  by  it  a  prominent 
part  in  the  plays.  If,  in  spite  of  the  many  words  and  melodies  given, 
one  cannot  repress  the  remark  that  neither  the  practical  nor  the  musical 
side  of  the  Kindergarten  appear  to  be  unfolded  in  the  same  degree  as  the 
educational,  still  he  must  think  fairly,  and  not  expect  everything  from 
one  man.  Many  a  roughness  in  Froebel's  often  extemporized  verses, 
which  often  digress  too  strongly  to  the  instructive  and  playful,  has  been 
polished  already  by  a  tender  hand.  In  our  folk-songs  there  yet  lie  con- 
cealed many  grains  of  gold  that  should  be  unearthed  and  polished. 

Intercourse  with  Nature. 

A  third  and  by  no  means  subordinate  direction  of  the  activity  of  the 
Kindergarten  is  devoted  to  the  intercourse  of  the  children  with  nature. 


88  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

It  i3  doubly  important  where  circumstances  render  this  intercourse  diffi- 
cult, where  they  embitter  to  man  the  feeling  of  his  kinship  Avith  nature, 
and  at  the  sams  time  spoil  the  life  at  many  points  by  too  much  art.  Chil- 
dren should  not  pass  by  unsympathetically  the  beauties'  which  nature 
everywhere  offers  in  rich  abundance;  their  sense  and  perception  of  them 
must  be  awakened  and  trained.  The  care,  under  judicious  guidance,  of 
plants  and  animals,  offers  the  best  means  for  this.  Whatever  grows  by 
the  child's  own  care  wins  his  deepest  interest.  The  contemplation  fur- 
nishes him  solid  knowledge  and  increases  his  sympathy  to  admiration  and 
love.  Therefore,  a  part  of  the  play-ground  should  be  reserved  for  a  gar- 
den, in  which  every  child  has  his  own  little  bed  which  he  cultivates  him- 
self. If  in  any  way  a  place  can  be  made  for  some  domestic  animals,  were 
it  only  a  canary  bird,  a  little  dove,  a  pair  of  hens,  or  some  gold-fish  in  a 
globe,  it  will  furnish  a  fuller  satisfaction  to  this  instinct.  If  the  fields 
can  be  reached  without  danger  of  too  great  exertion  on  the  part  of  the 
little  ones,  a  walk  should  be  taken  at  a  proper  time,  which  affords  num- 
berless opportunities,  not  only  for  the  observation  of  nature,  but  for  the 
entire  unfolding  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  child.  If  such  unsought  occa- 
sions are  used  with  tact  they  have  often  a  greater  influence  than  the 
methodical  instruction  imparted  by  the  best  system  of  teaching. 

In  the  Kindergarten,  after  a  quiet  occupation  and  the  general  play, 
there  should  also  be  pauses  to  be  devoted  to  unconstrained  oral  intercourse 
between  the  Kindergartner  in  charge  and  the  children,  and  which  are 
filled  up  most  suitably  by  stories.  A  little  story  often  does  more  than  a 
long  sermon.  But  it  is  difficult  to  tell  a  story  well,  and  the  art  must  be 
practiced.  More  difficult  still  is  the  choice  of  material  which  must  be 
adapted  to  the  children's  point  of  view. 

There  are  yet  wanting  good  Guides,  and  Manuals,  with  model  lessons  and 
exercises  ;*  but  with  the  means  of  occupation  and  play  already  spoken  of  the 
Kindergarten  is  in  a  condition  to  take  hold  of  the  child's  life,  rousing, 
animating,  and  unfolding  it  in  all  directions.  The  few  hours  of  the  day 
which  the  children  spend  there  will  echo  in  their  homes  through  the  rich- 
ness and  vividness  of  their  impressions.  The  never-resting  instinct  of  ac- 
tivity in  healthy  children  is  no  longer  at  loss  for  an  object.  The  child 
does  not  trouble  his  mother  so  much;  he  is  more  skilful,  happier;  his 
bad  angel,  wearisomeness,  is  banished. 

Improved  Domestic  Education. 

In  spite  of  all  this  the  Kindergarten,  according  to  Froebel's  intention, 
has  solved  only  half  of  its  problem,  and  stands  still  before  the  other 
half,  which  consists  in  this,  that  it  must  be  carried  on  by  a  bettering  of 
the  education  in  the  family.  This  higher  aim  cannot  be  considered  as 
reached  when  only  an  indirect  influence  is  exerted  on  the  family  life 
through  the  pupils  of  the  Kindergarten.  No,  quite  the  reverse.  Froebel 
created  the  Kindergarten  with  the  special  intention  of  perfecting  by 
practice  in  it,  united  with  theoretical  cultivation,  the  education  of 
woman  for  her  vocation,  which,  as  experience  teaches,  cannot  be  consid- 

*  Our  American  Kindergartners,  and  Mothers,  who  wish  to  adopt  the  Froebel  Material 
and  Methods  into  the  Nursery,  have  now  an  excellent  Manual  in  "The  Kindergarten 
Guide,  by  Maria  Kraus-Boelte  and  John  Kraus,"  published  by  E.  Steiger,  New  York. 


FROEBSL    AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  89 

ered  to  have  been  generally  accomplished  by  simple  theory  and  books  for 
mothers,  excellent  as  these  may  be  in  themselves.  This  aim,  however,  must 
not  be  lost  sight  of,  for  important  reasons.  For  since  the  mother's  influ- 
ence is  the  first,  and  therefore  the  strongest,  it  follows,  of  course,  that  it 
is  of  the  highest  importance  that  it  should  be  the  best.  And  since  it  is 
not  so  everywhere,  should  we  not  use  every  opportunity  to  bring  it  to 
this  ideal?  We  have  lower,  middle,  and  higher  girls'  schools.  Which 
of  these  has  made  a  specialty  of  training  young  maidens  for  housewives 
and  teachers  of  their  own  children?  Not  one!  And  they  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  But  this  problem  still  exists.  Surely  the  time  will 
come  for  the  young  girls  when  they  must  take  care  of  children,  wait  upon 
the  sick,  and  look  after  kitchen  and  store-room.  Is  it  to  be  supposed  that 
they  learn  everything  of  themselves?  The  theory  of  educating  little 
children,  for  which  most  young  girls  receive  their  only  preparation  in 
playing  with  dolls,  must  become  a  regular  and  essential  part  of  female 
education,  before  the  "experimenting  and  educating  by  hearsay"  cease. 
Nowhere  can  this  be  learned  better  than  in  the  closest  connection  with  the 
Kindergarten. 

Froebel  developed  this  in  the  first  detailed  plan  which  he  carried  out  in 
this  direction.  In  such  a  seminary  for  Kindergartners  and  nurse-maids, 
with  which  also  a  Kindergarten  must  be  connected,  young  maidens  can, 
in  a  year,  be  so  instructed  and  practically  trained  in  the  care  of  little 
children,  that  they  learn  to  avoid  grave  errors  and  gain  a  foundation, 
from  which  an  independent,  wider  culture  is  possible.  And  can  not 
one  in  this  way,  better  than  in  any  other,  come  nearer  a  satisfactory  solu- 
tion of  the  vexed  "Woman  question?"  Will  not  the  administration  of 
household  affairs  and  the  education  of  children  continue  to  be  the  occu- 
pation most  suited  to  woman's  nature,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  noblest 
aim  of  all  feminine  activity?  And  will  not  the  unmarried  young  women 
find  in  them  reconciliation  and  contentment  in  richer  measure  than  any 
'emancipation'  is  able  to  furnish?  There  have  been  already  women 
who  were  zealously  active  in  this  direction,  and  in  the  greater  cities  where 
the  need  is  the  most  urgent,  glorious  results  can  be  shown.  It  seems  to 
be  reserved  for  these  associations  of  women,  with  the  aid  of  all  the 
strength  active  in  this  direction,  to  smooth  the  way  for  a  more  compre- 
hensive organization.  The  seminaries  for  Kindergartners  in  Hamburg, 
Berlin,  Dresden,  Gotha,  and  other  places,  all  of  which  are  under  the 
direction  of  private  individuals  and  supported  by  voluntary  contribution, 
to  which  the  pupils  add  a  small  nominal  sum  for  instruction,  have  for  a 
number  of  years  sent  out  a  good  number  of  well  prepared  and  trained 
young  women  of  all  conditions,  who  are  much  in  demand  as  domestic 
assistants,  especially  for  educating  children,  and  help  to  a  more  universal 
appreciation  of  a  natural  method  of  treating  the  little  ones.  It  is  for  the 
interest  of  the  teacher  to  advance  this  work  in  every  way,  because  the 
Kindergarten,  which  does  not  seek  to  supply  the  family  education  (for 
this  is  by  all  means  the  best  and  generally  desirable),  but  only  wishes  to 
aid  the  parents  in  the  care  of  their  children  for  the  period  when  they  do  not 
devote  themselves  to  their  education  and  cannot  be  represented  by  teach- 


90  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

tsrs,  which  should  even  teach  all  parents  the  proper  discharge  of  their 
duties  as  educators,  is  a  preparation  for  the  elementary  school. 

Much  could  be  said  here  of  the  mental  helplessness  of  children  who, 
sent  to  school  in  their  sixth  or  seventh  year,  sometimes  bring  to*  the 
teacher  an  extraordinarily  small  number  of  impressions,  scarcely  any  cleai 
conceptions,  and  a  very  limited  use  of  the  mother  tongue. 

The  experiences  of  Froebel  in  Switzerland  are  repeated  in  different 
degrees  almost  everywhere,  and  are  not  new  to  the  teachers  of  the  lowest 
elementary  classes.  But  they  express  the  wish  to  establish  an  organic 
connection  between  the.  Kindergartens  and  the  school,  and  previously 
show  at  least,  theoretically,  their  possibilities  and  usefulness. 

The  "General  Union  for  family  education  and  that  of  the  people," 
has  repeatedly  offered  a  prize  for  an  essay  on  this  subject,  without  re- 
ceiving a  satisfactory  solution  of  it  according  to  their  ideas.  Recently, 
the  prize  was  adjudged  to  a  paper  of  Carl  Eichter,  a  teacher  in  Leipsic, 
the  author  of  the  "  Pedagogical  Library,"  and  of  another  work  '  On  Object- 
Teaching  in  Elementary  Schools,'  of  which  honorable  mention  is  made. 

The  hope  of  a  future  organic  connection  between  the  Kindergarten  and 
the  school,  as  well  as  the  wished-for  introduction  of  Froebel's  method 
into  charitable  institutions  for  little  children,  is  not  entirely  unfounded. 
There  are  hardly  any  serious  obstacles,  since  the  Kindergarten  in  no  way 
anticipates  the  real  school  instruction.  And  as  the  Gymnasium  has  rec- 
ognized it  as  useful  to  have  scholars  properly  prepared  for  its  Sexta,  by 
the  passing  through  some  elementary  classes  of  the  so-called  Vorschule 
or  preparatory  school,  so  in  the  future  perhaps  it  will  be  considered  nec- 
essary to  add  a  Kindergarten  to  every  elementary  school,  which  will  grow 
in  time  to  be  an  excellent  bond  between  the  school  arid  home. 

So  the  Kindergarten  shows  itself  on  every  side  as  an  institution  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  spirit  of  the  age  for  bettering  the  education,  of  which 
it  is  the  natural  foundation,  and  helping  to  restore  it  again  in  families. 
In  spite  of  the  obstacles  arising  at  first  from  misunderstanding  and  from 
the  feeble  support  of  the  public,  in  the  course  of  a  year  it  won  for  itself 
an  honorable  place  among  the  institutions  for  the  education  of  youth. 
This  was  owing  to  the  sound  strength  of  the  fundamental  idea  from  which 
it  proceeded,  to  a  need  arising  from  circumstances,  and  to  the  continuous 
exertions  of  enthusiastic  adherents,  especially  among  women.  Under 
their  guidance  the  Kindergarten  has  quietly  accomplished  a  great  work, 
in  giving  to  thousands  of  children  happy  hours  whose  stimulating  influ- 
ence is  felt  in  the  family. 

Although  it  has  not  yet  received  the  desired  recognition,  it  may  be,  per- 
haps, that  well-meant  but  mis-directed  zeal  has  contributed  as  much  to 
this  as  the  cool  reserve  of  those  who  scorned  it  under  the  form,  so  little 
like  a  school,  into  which  Froebel  poured  his  full  heart  to  nourish  the 
living  germ.  When  it  shall  be  developed  more  clearly  and  richly  by  the 
unwearied  zeal  of  intelligent  and  judicious  patrons,  it  will  then  remain 
an  integral  part  of  our  children's  education. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  SYSTEM. 


THE    KINDERGARTEN    SYSTEM.* 


01 


Froebel  first  gave  the  name  of  Kindergarten  about  the  year  1840  to  his  school 
of  young  children  between  three  and  seven  years  of  age  at  Blankenburg,  near 
Rudolstadt.  Its  purpose  is  thus  briefly  indicated  by  himself: — "To  take  the 
oversight  of  children  before  they  are  ready  for  school  life;  to  exert  an  influence 
over  their  whole  being  in  correspondence  with  its  nature;  to  strengthen  their 
bodily  powers;  to  exercise  their  senses;  to  employ  the  awakening  mind ;  to 
make  them  thoughtfully  acquainted  with  the  world  of  nature  and  of  man ;  to 
guide  their  heart  and  soul  in  a  right  direction,  and  lead  them  to  the  Origin  of 
all  life  and  to  union  with  Him."  To  secure  those  objects,  the  child  must  be 
placed  under  the  influence  of  a  properly  trained  governess  for  a  portion  of  the 
day  after  reaching  the  age  of  three. 

Frosbel  differs  from  Pestalozzi,  who  thought  that  the  mother,  as  the  natural 
educator  of  the  child,  ought  to  retain  the  sole  charge  up  to  the  sixth  or  seventh 
year.  This  necessarily  narrows  the  child's  experience  to  the  family  circle,  and 
excludes  in  many  cases  the  mutual  action  and  reaction  of  children  upon  each 
other — under  conditions  most  favorable  to  development.  Mr.  Payne  embodies 
the  genesis  of  Frosbel's  system  in  his  own  mind  as  follows : 

Let  us  imagine  Froebel  taking  his  place  amidst  a  number  of  children  disport- 
ing themselves  in  the  open  air  without  any  check  upon  their  movements.  After 
/looking  on  the  pleasant  scene  awhile,  he  breaks  out  into  a  soliloquy  : 

"  What  exuberant  life !  What  immeasurable  enjoyment !  What  unbounded 
activity  !  What  an  evolution  of  physical  forces  !  What  a  harmony  between  the 
inner  and  the  outer  life !  What  happiness,  health,  and  strength!  Let  me  look 
a  little  closer.  What  are  these  children  doing?  The  air  rings  musically  with 
their  shouts  and  joyous  laughter.  Some  are  running,  jumping,  or  bounding 
along,  with  eyes  like  the  eagle's  bent  upon  its  prey,  after  the  ball  which  a 
dexterous  hit  of  the  bat  sent  flying  among  them ;  others  are  bending  down 
towards  the  ring  filled  with  marbles,  and  endeavoring  to  dislodge  them  from 
their  position  ;  others  are  running  friendly  races  with  their  hoops  ;  others  again, 
with  arms  laid  across  each  other's  shoulders,  are  quietly  walking  and  talking 
together  upon  some  matter  in  which  they  evidently  have  a  common  interest. 
Their  natural  fun  gushes  out  from  eyes  and  lips.  1  hear  what  they  say.  It  is 
simply  expressed,  amusing,  generally  intelligent,  and  often  even  witty.  But 
there  is  a  small  group  of  children  yonder.  They  seem  eagerly  intent  on  some 
subject.  What  is  it  ?  I  see  one  of  them  has  taken  a  fruit  from  his  pocket.  He 
is  showing  it  to  his  fellows.  They  look  at  it  and  admire  it.  It  is  new  to  them. 
They  wish  to  know  more  about  it— to  handle,  smell,  and  taste  it.  The  owner 
gives  it  into  their  hands ;  they  feel  and  smell,  but  do  not  taste  it.  They  give  it 
back  to  the  owner,  his  right  to  it  being  generally  admitted.  He  bites  it,  the 
rest  looking  eagerly  on  to  watch  the  result.  His  face  shows  that  he  likes  the 
taste ;  his  eyes  grow  brighter  with  satisfaction.  The  rest  desire  to  make  his 
experience  th;-ir  own.  He  sees  their  desire,  breaks  or  cuts  the  fruit  in  pieces, 
which  he  distributes  among  them.  He  adds  to  his  own  pleasure  by  sharing  in 
theirs.  Suddenly  a  loud  shout  from  some  other  part  of  the  ground  attracts  the 
attention  of  the  group,  which  scatters  in  all  directions.  Let  me  now  consider. 
What  does  all  this  manifold  movement — this  exhibition  of  spontaneous  energy — 
really  mean?  To  me  it  seems  to  luive  a  profound  meaning. 

"  It  means — 

"  1.  That  there  is  an  immense  external  development  and  expansion  of 
energy  of  various  kinds — physic  il,  intellectual,  and  moral.  Limbs,  senses, 
lungs,  tongues,  minds,  hearts,  are  all  at  Avork — all  cooperating .  to  produce  the 
general  effect. 

*  Lecturo  delivered  at  the  College  of  Preceptors  at  London,  Feb.  25th,  1874,  by  Joseph  Payne, 
Professor  of  the  Science  and  Art  of  Education  to  the  College. 


g2  THE  KINDERGARTEN  SYSTEM. 

"2.  That  activity— doing — is  the  common  characteristic  of  this  development 
of  force. 

"3.  That  spontaneity — absolute  freedom  from  outward  control — appears  to 
be  both  impulse  and  law  to  the  activity. 

"4.  That  the  harmonious  combination  and  interaction  of  spontaneity  and 
activity  constitute. the  happiness  which  is  apparent.  The  will  to  do  prompts 
the  doing- ;  the  doing  reacts  on  the  will. 

"  5.  That  the  resulting  happiness  is  independent  of  the  absolute  value  of  the 
exciting  cause.  A  bit  of  stick,  a  stone,  an  apple,  a  marble,  a  hoop,  a  top,  as 
soon  as  they  become  objects  of  interest,  call  out  the  activities  of  the  whole  being 
quite  as  effectually  as  if  they  were  matters  of  the  greatest  intrinsic  value.  It  is 
the  action  upon  them — the  doing  something  with  them — that  invests  them  with 
interest. 

"  6.  That  this  spontaneous  activity  generates  happiness  because  the  result  is 
gained  by  the  children's  own  efforts,  without  external  interference.  What  they 
do  themselves  and  for  themselves,  involving  their  own  personal  experience,  and 
therefore  exactly  measured  by  their  own  capabilities,  interests  them.  What 
another,  of  trained  powers,  standing  on  a  different  platform  of  advancement, 
does  for  them,  is  comparatively  uninteresting.  If  such  a  person,  from  whatever 
motive,  interferes  with  their  spontaneous  activity,  he  arrests  the  movement  of 
their  forces,  quenches  their  interest,  at  least  for'the  moment;  and  they  resent 
the  interference. 

"  Such,  then,  appear  to  be  the  manifold  meanings  of  the  boundless  spontaneous 
activity  that  I  witness.  But  what  name,  after  all,  must  I  give  to  the  totality  of 
the  phenomena  exhibited  before  me?  I  must  call  them  Flay.  Play,  then,  is 
spontaneous  activity  ending  in  the  satisfaction  of  the  natural  desire  of  the  child 
for  pleasure — for  happiness.  Plnij  is  the  natural,  the  appropriate  business  and 
occupation  of  the  child  left  to  his  own  resources.  The  child  that  does  not  play,  is 
not  a  perfect  child.  He  wants  something — sense  organ,  limb,  or  generally  what 
we  imply  by  the  term  health — to  make  up  our  ideal  of  a  child.  The  healthy 
child  plays — plays  continually — cannot  but  play. 

"  But  has  this  instinct  for  play  no  deeper  significance  ?  Is  it  appointed  by  the 
Supreme  Being  merely  to  fill  up  time — merely  to  form  an  occasion  for  fruitless 
exercise? — merely  to  end  in  itself7  No!  I  see  now  that  it  is  th«  constituted 
means  for  the  unfolding  of  all  the  child's  powers.  It  is  through  play  that  he 
learns  the  use  of  his  limbs,  of  all  his  bodily  organs,  and  with  this  use  gains 
health  and  strength.  Through  play  he  comes  to  know  the  external  world,  the 
physical  qualities  of  the  objects  which  surround  him,  their  motions,  action,  and 
re-action  upon  each  other,  and  the  relation  of  these  phenomena  to  himself;  a 
knowledge  which  forms  the  basis  of  that  which  will  be  his  permanent  stock  for 
life.  Through  play,  involving  associateship  and  combined  action,  he  begins  to 
recognize  moral  relations,  to  feel  that  he  cannot  live  for  himself  alone,  that  he  is 
a  member  of  a  community,  whose  rights  he  must  acknowledge  if  his  own  are  to 
be  acknowledged.  In  and  through  play,  moreover,  he  learns  to  contrive  means 
for  securing  his  ends ;  to  invent,  construct,  discover,  investigate,  to  bring  by 
imagination  the  remote  near,  and,  further,  to  translate  the  language  of  facts 
into  the  language  of  words,  to  learn  the  conventionalities  of  his  mother  tongue. 
Play,  then,  I  see,  is  the  means  by  which  the  entire  being  of  the  child  develops 
and  grows  into  power,  and,  therefore,  does  not  end  in  itself. 

"  But  an  agency  which  effects  results  like  these  is  an  education  agency  ;  and 
P/a//,  therefore,  resolves  itself  into  education;  education  which  is  independent  of 
the  formal  teacher,  which  the  child  virtually  gains  for  and  by  himself.  This, 
then,  is  the  outcome  of  all  that  I  have  observed.  The  child,  through  the  spon- 
taneous activity  of  all  his  natural  forces,  is  really  developing  and  strengthening 
them  for  future  use ;  he  is  working  out  his  own  education. 

"  But  what  do  I,  who  am  constituted  by  the  demands  of  society  as  the  formal 
educator  of  these  children,  learn  from  the  insight  I  have  thus  gained  into  their 
nature?  I  learn  this — that  I  must  educate  them  in  conformity  with  that  nature. 
I  must  continue,  not  supersede,  the  course  already  begun ;  my  own  course  must 
be  based  upon  it.  I  must  recognize  and  adopt  the  principles  involved  in  it, 
and  frame  my  laws  of  action  accordingly.  Above  all,  I  must  not  neutralize  and 
deaden  that  spontaneity  which  is  the  mainspring  of  all  the  machinery  ;  I  must 
rather  encourage  it,  while  ever  opening  new  fields  for  its  exercise,  and  giving  it 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  SYSTEM.  93 

new  directions.  Play,  spontaneous  play,  is  the  education  of  little  children;  but 
it  is  not  the  whole  of  their  education.  Their  life  is  not  to  be  m;ide  up  of  play. 
C  in  I  not  then  even  now  gradually  transform  their  play  into  work,  but  work 
which  shall  look  like  play  ? — work  which  shall  originate  in  the  same  or  similar 
ijrmlse.s,  and  exercise  the  same  energies  as  I  see  employed  in  their  own  amuse- 
ments and  occupations?  Play,  however,  is  a  random,  desultory  education.  It 
lays  the  essential  basis;  but  it  does  not  raise  the  superstructure.  It  requires  to 
he  organized  for  this  purpose,  but  so  organized  that  the  superstructure  shall  be 
strictly  related  and  conformed  to  the  original  lines  of  th~  foundation. 

"/'see  that  these  children  delight  in  movement; — they  are  always  walking,  or 
running,  jumping,  hopping,  tossing  their  limbs  about,  and,  moreover,  they  are 
pleased  with  rythmical  movement.  I  can  contrive  motives  and  means  for  the 
same  exercise  of  the  limbs,  which  shall  result  in  increased  physical  power,  and 
consequently  in  health — shall  train  the  children  to  a  conscious  and  measured 
command  of  their  bodily  functions,  and  at  the  same  time  be  accompanied  by  the 
attraction  of  rythmical  sound  through  song  or  instrument. 

"/  see  that  they  use  their  senses;  but  merely  at  the  accidental  solicitation  of 
surrounding  circumstances,  and  therefore  imperfectly.  I  can  contrive  means  for 
a  definite  education  of  the  senses,  which  shall  result  in  increased  quickness  of 
vision,  hearing,  touch,  etc.  I  can  train  the  purblind  eye  to  take  note  of  delicate 
shades  of  color,  the  dull  ear  to  appreciate  the  minute  differences  of  sound. 

"/  see  that  the})  observe;  but  their  observations  are  for  the  most  part  transitory 
and  indefinite,  and  often,  therefore,  comparatively  tinfruitful.  I  can  contrive 
means  for  concentrating  their  attention  by  exciting  curiosity  and  interest,  and 
educate  them  in  the  art  of  observing.  They  will  thus  gain  clear  and  definite 
perceptions,  bright  images  in  the  place  of  blurred  ones, — will  learn  to  recognize 
the  difference  between  complete  and  incomplete  knowledge,  and  gradually 
advance  from  the  stage  of  merely  knowing  to  that  of  knowing  that  they  know. 

" I  see.  that  they  invent  and  construct;  but  often  awkwardly  and  aimlessly.  I 
can  avail  myself  of  this  instinct,  and  open  to  it  a  definite  field  of  action.  I 
shall  prompt  them  to  invention,  and  train  them  in  the  art  of  construction. 
The  materials  I  shall  use  for  this  end,  will  be  simple ;  but  in  combining  them 
together  for  a  purpose,  they  will  enjoy  not  only  their  knowledge  of  form,  but 
their  im  igination  of  the  capabilities  of  form.  In  various  ways  1  shall  prompt 
them  to  invent,  construct,  contrive,  imitate,  and. in  doing  so  develop  their  nascent 
taste  for  symmetry  and  beauty. 

"And  so  in  respect  to  other  domains  of  that  child-action  which  we  call  play,  I 
see  that  I  can  make  these  domains  also  my  own.  I  can  convert  children's  activi- 
ties, energies,  amusements,  occupations,  all  that  goes  by  the  name  of  play,  into 
instruments  for  my  purpose,  and,  therefore,  transform  play  into  work.  This 
work  will  be  education  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term.  The  conception  of  it  as 
such  I  have  gained  from  the  children  themselves.  They  have  taught  me  how  I 
am  to  teach  them. 

FRCEBEL'S  THEORY  IN  PRACTICE. 

I  must  endeavor  to  give  some  notion  of  the  manner  in  which  Froebel  reduced 
his  theory  to  practice.  In  doing  this,  the  instances  I  bring  forward  must  be 
considered  as  typical.  If  you  admit — and  you  can  hardly  do  otherwise — the 
reasonableness  of  the  theory,  as  founded  on  the  nature  of  things,  you  can  hardly 
doubt  that  there  is  some  method  of  carrying  it  out.  Now,  a  method  of  educa- 
tion involves  many  processes,  all  of  which  must  represent  more  or  less  the 
principles  which  form  the  basis  of  the  method.  It  is  quite  out  of  my  power,  for 
want  of  time,  to  describe  the  various  processes  which  exhibit  to  us  the  little  child 
pursuing  his  education  by  walking  to  rhythmic  measure,  by  gymnastic  exercises 
generally,  learning  songs  by  heart  and  singing  them,  practising  his  senses  with  a 
definite  purpose,  observing  the  properties  of  objects,  counting,  getting  notions  of 
color  and  form,  drawing,  building  with  cubical  blocks,  modeling  in  wax  or  clay, 
braiding  slips  of  various  colored  paper  after  a  pattern,  pricking  or  cutting  forms 
in  paper,  curving  wire  into  different  shapes,  folding  a  sheet  of  paper  -,iid  gaining 


94  THE  KINDERGARTEN  SYSTEM. 

elementary  notions  of  geometry,  learning  the  resources  of  the  mother-tongue  by 
hearing  and  relating  stories,  fables,  etc.,  dramatizing,  guessing  riddles,  working  in 
the  garden,  etc.,  etc.  These  are  only  some  of  the  activities  naturally  exhibited 
by  young  children,  and  these  the  teacher  of  young  children  is  to  employ  for  his 
purpose.  As,  however,  they  are  so  numerous,  I  may  well  be  excused  for  not 
even  attempting  to  enter  minutely  into  them.  But  there  is  one  series  of  objects 
and  exercises  therewith  connected,  expressly  devised  by  Frcebel  to  teach  the  art 
of  observing,  to  which,  as  being  typical,  I  will  now  direct  your  attention.  He 
calls  these  objects,  which  are  gradually  and  in  orderly  succession  introduced  to 
the  child's  notice,  Gifts, — a  pleasant  name,  which  is,  however,  a  mere  accident 
of  the  system :  they  might  equally  well  be  called  by  any  other  name. 

GIFTS    FOR   THE    CULTURE    OF    OBSERVATION. 

As  introductory  to  the  series,  a  ball  made  of  wool,  of  say  a  scarlet  color,  is 
placed  before  the  baby.  It  is  rolled  along  before  him  on  the  table,  thrown  along 
the  floor,  tossed  into  the  air,  suspended  from  a  string,  and  used  as  a  pendulum, 
or  spun  around  on  its  axis,  or  made  to  describe  a  circle  in  space,  etc.  It  is  then 
given  into  his  hand ;  he  attempts  to  grasp  it,  fails ;  tries  again,  succeeds ;  rolls 
it  along  the  floor  himself,  tries  to  throw  it,  and,  in  short,  exercises  every  power 
he  has  upon  it,  always  pleased,  never  wearied  in  doing  something  or  other  with 
it.  This  is  play,  but  it  is  play  which  resolves  itself  into  education.  He  is  gain- 
ing notions  of  color,  form,  motion,  action  and  re-action,  as  well  as  of  muscular 
sensibility.  And  all  the  while  the  teacher  associates  words  with  things  and 
actions,  and,  by  constantly  employing  words  in  their  proper  sense  and  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  facts,  initiates  the  child  in  the  use  of  his  mother-tongue. 
Thus,  in  a  thousand  ways,  the  scarlet  ball  furnishes  sensations  and  perceptions 
for  the  substratum  of  the  mind,  and  suggests  fitting  language  to  express  them ; 
and  even  the  baby  appears  before  us  as  an  observer,  learning  the  properties  of 
things  by  personal  experience. 

Then  comes  the  first  Gift.  It  consists  of  six  soft  woolen  balls  of  six  different 
colors,  three  primary  and  three  secondary.  One  of  these  is  recognized  as  like, 
the  others  as  unlike,  the  ball  first  known.  The  laws  of  similarity  and  dis- 
crimination are  called  into  action ;  sensation  and  perception  grow  clearer  and 
stronger.  I  cannot  particularize  the  numberless  exercises  that  are  to  be  got  out 
of  the  various  combinations  of  these  six  balls. 

The  second  Gift  consists  of  a  sphere,  cube,  and  cylinder,  made  of  hard  wood. 
"What  was  a  ball  before,  is  now  called  a  sphere.  The  different  material  gives 
rise  to  new  experiences ;  a  sensation,  that  of  hardness,  for  instance,  takes 
the  place  of  softness ;  while  varieties  of  form  suggest  resemblance  and  contrast. 
Similar  experiences  of  likeness  and  unlikeness  are  suggested  by  the  behavior  of 
these  different  objects.  The  easy  rolling  of  the  sphere,  the  sliding  of  the  cube, 
the  rolling  as  well  as  sliding  of  the  cylinder,  illustrate  this  point.  Then  the 
examination  of  the  cube,  especially  its  surfaces,  edges,  and  angles,  which  any 
child  can  observe  for  himself,  suggest  new  sensations  and  their  resulting  per- 
ceptions. At  the  same  time,  notions  of  space,  time,  form,  motion,  relativity 
in  general,  take  their  place  in  the  mind,  as  the  unshaped  blocks  which,  when 
fitly  compacted  together,  will  lay  the  firm  foundation  of  the  understanding. 
These  elementary  notions,  as  the  very  groundwork  of  mathematics,  will  be  seen 
to  have  their  use  as  time  goes  on. 

The  third  Gift  is  a  large  cube,  making  a  whole,  which  is  divisible  into  eight 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  SYSTEM. 


95 


small  ones.  The  form  is  recognized  as  that  of  the  cube  before  seen;  the  size  is 
diffei'ent.  But  the  new  experiences  consist  in  notions  of  relativity — of  the  whole 
in  its  relation  to  the  parts,  of  the  parts  in  their  relation  to  the  whole ;  and  thus 
the  child  acquires  the  notion  and  the  names,  and  both  in  immediate  connection 
with  the  sensible  objects,  of  halves,  quarters,  eighths,  and  of  how  many  of  the 
small  divisions  make  one  of  the  larger.  But  in  connection  with  the  third  Gift  a 
new  faculty  is  called  forth — imagination,  and  with  it  the  instinct  of  construction 
is  awakened.  The  cubes  are  mentally  transformed  into  blocks;  and  with  them 
building  commences.  The  constructive  faculty  suggests  imitation,  but  rests  not 
in  imitation.  It  invents,  it  creates.  Those  eight  cubes,  placed  in  a  certain 
relation  to  each  other,  make  a  long  seat,  or  a  seat  with  a  back,  or  a  throne  for 
the  Queen  ;  or  again,  a  cross,  a  doorway,  etc.  Thus  docs  even  play  exhibit  the 
characteristics  of  art,  and  "conforms  (to  use  Bacon's  words)  the  outward  show 
of  things  to  the  desires  of  the  mind  "  ;  and  thus  the  child,  as  I  said  before,  not 
merely  imitates,  but  creates.  And  here,  I  may  remark,  that  the  mind  of  the 
child  is  far  less  interested  in  that  which  another  mind  has  embodied  in  ready  pre- 
pared forms,  than  in  the  forms  which  he  conceives,  and  gives  outward  expression 
to,  himself.  He  wants  to  employ  his  own  mind,  and  his  whole  mind,  upon  the 
object,  and  does  not  thank  you  for  attempting  to  deprive  him  of  his  rights. 

The  fourth,  Jifth,  and  sixth  Gifts  consist  of  the  cube  variously  divided  into 
solid  parallelepipeds,  or  brick-shaped  forms,  and  into  smaller  cubes  and  prisms. 
Observation  is  called  on  with  increasing  strictness,  relativity  appreciated,  and 
the  opportunity  afforded  for  endless  manifestations  of  constructiveness.  And 
all  the  while  impressions  are  forming  in  the  mind,  which,  in  due  time,  will  bear 
geometrical  fruits,  and  fruits,  too,  of  aesthetic  culture.  The  dawning  sense  of 
the  beautiful,  as  well  as  of  the  true,  is  beginning  to  gain  consistency  and  power. 

I  cannot  further  dwell  on  the  numberless  modes  of  manipulation  of  which 
these  objects  are  capable,  nor  enter  further  into  the  groundwork  of  principles 
on  which  their  efficiency  depends. 

OBJECTIONS    TO   THE    SYSTEM   CONSIDERED. 

It  is  said,  for  instance,  without  proof,  that  we  demand  too  much  from  little 
children,  and,  with  the  best  intentions,  take  them  out  of  their  depth.  This 
might  be  true,  no  doubt,  if  the  system  of  means  adopted  had  any  other  basis 
than  the  nature  of  the  children  ;  if  we  attempted  theoretically,  and  without 
regard  to  that  nature,  to  determine  ourselves  what  they  can  and  what  they  can- 
not do ;  but  when  we  constitute  spontaneity  as  the  spring  of  action,  and  call 
on  them  to  do  that,  and  that  only,  which  they  can  do,  which  they  do  of  their 
own  accord  when  they  are  educating  themselves,  it  is  clear  that  the  objection 
falls  to  the  ground.  The  child  who  teaches  himself  never  can  go  out  of  his 
depth  ;  the  work  he  actually  does  is  that  which  he  has  strength  to  do  ;  the  load 
he  carries  cannot  but  be  fitted  to  the  shoulders  that  bear  it,  for  he  has  gradually 
accumulated  its  contents  by  his  own  repeated  exertions.  This  increasing  burden 
is,  in  short,  the  index  and  result  of  his  increasing  powers,  and  commensurate 
with  them.  The  objector  in  this  case,  in  order  to  gain  even  a  plausible  foothold 
for  his  objection,  must  first  overthrow  the  radical  principle,  that  the  activities, 
amusements,  and  occupations  of  the  child,  left  to  himself,  do  indeed  constitute 
his  earliest  education,  and  that  it  is  an  education  which  he  virtually  gives  himself. 

Another  side  of  this  objection,  which  is  not  unfrequently  presented  to  us, 
derives  its  plausibility  from  the  assumed  incapacity  of  children.  The  objector 
points  to  this  child  or  that,  and  denounces  him  as  stupid  and  incapable.  Can 


96  TIIE  KINDERGARTEN  SYSTEM. 

the  objector,  however,  take  upon  himself  to  declare  that  this  or  that  child  has 
not  been  made  stupid  even  by  the  very  means  employed  to  teach  him7  The 
test,  however,  is  a  practical  one  :  Can  the  child  play  ?  If  he  can  play,  in  the 
sense  which  I  have  given  to  the  word,  he  cannot  be  stupid.  In  his  play  he 
employs  the  very  faculties  which  are  required  for  his  formal  education.  "But 
he  is  stupid  at  his  books."  If  this  is  so,  then  the  logical  conclusion  is,  that  the 
books  have  made  him  stupid,  and  you,  the  objector,  who  have  misconceived  his 
nature,  and  acted  in  direct  contradiction  to  it,  are  yourself  responsible  for  this. 

"  But  he  has  no  memory.  He  cannot  learn  what  I  tell  him  to  learn."  No 
memory !  Cannot  learn !  Let  us  put  that  to  the  test.  Ask  him  about  the 
pleasant  holiday  a  month  ago,  when  he  went  nutting  in  the  woods.  Does  he 
remember  nothing  about  the  fresh  feel  of  the  morning  air,  the  joyous  walk  to 
the  wood,  the  sunshine  which  streamed  about  his  path,  the  agreeable  companions 
with  whom  he  chatted  on  the  way,  the  incidents  of  the  expedition,  the  climb  up 
the  trees,  the  bagging  of  the  plunder?  Are  all  these  matters  clean  gone  out  of 
his  mind  ?  "  Oh,  no,  he  remembers  things  like  these."  Then  he  has  a  memory, 
and  a  remarkably  good  one.  He  remembers  because  he  was  interested ;  and  if 
you  wish  him  to  remember  your  lessons,  you  must  make  them  interesting.  He 
will  certainly  learn  what  he  takes  an  interest  in. 

I  need  not  deal  with  other  objections.  They  all  resolve  themselves  into  the 
category  of  ignorance  of  the  nature  of  the  child.  When  public  opinion  shall 
demand  such  knowledge  from  teachers  as  the  essential  condition  of  their  taking 
in  hand  so  delicate  and  even  profound  an  art  as  that  of  training  children,  all 
these  objections  will  cease  to  have  any  meaning. 

My  close  acquaintance  with  Froebel's  theory,  and  especially  with  his  root-idea, 
is  comparatively  recent.  But  when  I  had  studied  it  as  a  theory,  and  witnessed 
something  of  its  practice,  I  could  not  but  see  at  once  that  I  had  been  throughout 
an  unconscious  disciple,  as  it  were,  of  the  eminent  teacher.  The  plan  of  my 
own  course  of  lectures  on  the  Science  and  Art  of  Education  was,  in  fact,  con- 
structed in  thought  before  I  had  at  all  grasped  the  Frobelian  idea ;  and  was,  in 
that  sense,  independent  of  it. 

The  Kindergarten  is  gradually  making  its  way  in  England,  without  the 
achievement  as  yet  of  any  eminent  success;  but  in  Switzerland,  Holland,  Italy, 
and  the  United  States,  as  well  as  in  Germany,  it  is  rapidly  advancing.  Wher- 
ever the  principles  of  education,  as  distinguished  from  its  practice,  are  a  matter 
of  study  and  thought,  there  it  prospers.  Wherever,  as  in  England  for  the  most 
part,  the  practical  alone  is  considered,  and  where  teaching  is  thought  to  be  "  as 
easy  as  lying,"  any  system  of  education  founded  on  psychological  laws  must  be 
tardy  in  its  progress. 

"The  Kindergarten  has  not  only  to  supply  the  proper  materials  and  oppor- 
tunities for  the  innate  mental  powers,  which,  like  leaves  and  blossoms  in  the 
bud,  press  forward  and  impel  the  children  to  activity,  with  so  much  the  more 
energy  the  better  they  are  supplied.  It  has  also  to  preserve  children  from  the  liarm 
of  civilization,  which  furnishes  poison  as  well  as  food,  temptations  as  well  as 
salvation;  and  children  must  be  kept  from  this  trial  till  their  mental  powers 
have  grown  equal  to  its  dangers,  Much  of  the  success  of  the  Kindergarten 
(invisible  at  the  time)  is  negative,  and  consists  in  preventing  harm.  Its  posi- 
tive success,  again,  is  so  simple,  that  it  cannot  be  expected  to  attract  more  notice 
than,  for  instance,  does  fresh  air,  pure  water,  or  the  merit  of  a  physician  who 
keeps  a  family  in  health." — Karl  Froebel. 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  97 


CRITICAL   MOMENTS  IN  THE   LIFE  OP   FROEBEL,    BY  BAROP. 

"  At  the  end  of  twenty  years,"  said  Barop,  when  we  were  talking  of  the 
early  history  of  Keilhau,  "we  were  in  a  very  critical  position.  You 
know  we  had  little  outward  means  at  our  command  when  we  began  our 
enterprise.  Later,  Middendorfl  offered  his  paternal  inheritance;  but  the 
acquisition  of  the  land,  and  the  erection  of  the  necessary  buildings, 
required  considerable  funds,  so  that  Middendorff's  contribution  soon  van- 
ished like  drops  of  water  that  fall  on  a  hot  stove.  My  father-in  law, 
Christian  Ludwig  Froebel,  stepped  in  and  gave  what  he  could  into  the 
hands  of  his  brother,  without  any  conditions;  but  even  his  offerings  could 
not  hold  at  bay  care  and  want.  My  father  was  a  wealthy  man,  but  he  was 
so  displeased  at  my  joining  the  Frocbelian  circle  and  settling  at  Keilhau 
that  he  afforded  me  no  support  of  any  kind.  Distrust  surrounded  us  on 
all  sides  in  those  first  years;  both  open  and  secret  enmities  from  far  and 
near  tried  to  embitter  our  life  and  check  our  efforts  in  the  germ.  Not 
the  less  did  the  institution  bloom  out  quickly  and  gloriously,  but  was 
brought  later  to  the  verge  of  ruin  by  the  well  directed  persecutions 
against  the  Burschenschaftcn  (an  association  of  students  for  patriotic  pur 
poses);  for  the  spirit  of  1815  was  incarnated  in  the  institution,  and  just 
that  spirit  was  exposed  to  the  most  extreme  opposition.  It  would  carry 
me  too  far' if  I  were  to  describe  this  fully.  It  seemed  to  me  at  that  time 
as  if  the  enemy  would  really  conquer.  The  number  of  our  pupils  (origi- 
nally thirty)  had  diminished  to  five  or  six,  and,  consequently,  the  vanish- 
ing little  revenue  increased  the  burden  of  debts  to  a  height  that  made  us 
dizzy.  From  all  sides  the  creditors  rushed  in,  urged  on  by  the  attorneys, 
who  washed  their  hands  in  our  misery.  Froebel  vanished  through  the 
back  door  up  the  mountain  when  the  duns  appeared,  and  it  was  left  to 
Middendorff  to  quiet  most  of  them,  in  a  degree  which  only  he  can  believe 
possible  who  has  been  acquainted  with  Middendorff's  influence  over  men. 
On  the  side  of  the  workmen  who  had  to  ask  for  money,  there  were 
touching  scenes  of  resignation,  confidence,  and  magnanimity.  A  lock- 
smith, for  instance,  was  required  by  an  attorney  to  '  bring  a  suit  against 
the  churls,'  since  nothing  was  to  be  got  from  them  and  their  destruction. 
The  locksmith,  enraged,  refused  to  assault  our  persons,  and  retorted  that 
he  had  rather  lose  his  hardly  earned  money  than  to  doubt  our  honorable 
intentions,  and  that  nothing  was  further  from  his  purpose  than  to  increase 
our  troubles.  Ah!  and  this  trouble  was  hard  to  bear,  for  Middendorff 
was  already  married,  and  I  was  following  his  example.  When  I  asked 
my  wife  for  her  hand,  my  father  and  mother  in  law  asked:  'but  you  will 
not  remain  at  Keilhau?'  '  Yes,'  I  replied.  '  The  thought  for  which  we 
are  living  appears  to  me  important  and  suited  to  the  times,  and  I  do  not 
doubt  that  men  will  be  found  who  will  trust  us  to  carry  out  the  idea  cor- 
rectly, as  we  trust  the  Invisible  One.'  In  fact,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  we- 
have  never  for  a  moment  lost  faith  in  our  educational  mission,  and  even 
the  worst  dilemma  at  that  time  saw  no  wavering  band  of  men  in  thin 
valley.  7 


98  FKOEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK, 

[I  will  insert  here  a  note  which  I  find  in  a  Wichard  Lauge's  edition 
of  MiddendoriTs  writings,  for  if  more  than  justice  is  done  to  one  man,  it 
is  probable  that  less  than  justice  will  be  done  to  another,  or  to  others.] 

"  In  the  last  years  of  his  life  Froebel  lived  at  Marienthal,  apart  from  the 
family  circle  of  Keilhau,  and  here  founded  his  training  school.  Here 
he  had  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  housekeeping  and  other  inconveniences, 
and  he  determined  to  marry  again,  to  give  his  pupils  motherly  care  and 
sympathy.  He  married  a  trusted  pupil,  who  had  endeared  herself  to  him, 
and  who  had  accompanied  him  to  Marienthal  from  the  beginning.  He 
stood  at  the  marriage  altar  again,  then  in  his  seventieth  year,  for  the 
second  time,  and  sometime  before  he  had  said  to  me  that  it  was  in  fact  '  a 
living  union.'  The  marriage  excited  bad  blood  in  the  beginning  among 
the  members  of  the  family,  and  made  a  quarrel,  which  had  already  arisen, 
much  worse.  This  difference  between  him  and  those  (Mieldendorff  ex- 
cepted)  who  had  worked  with  him  in  earlier  tunes,  indeed,  at  his  call,  had 
willingly  shown  themselves  capable  of  the  greatest  self- sacrifice  and  devo- 
tion, was  easily  explained.  Once  for  all,  Froebel's  brother,  Christian 
Lewis,  Middendorff,  and  Barop,  had  one  attribute  of  character  which  was 
wanting  in  Froebel, — a  stern  consciousness  in  the  fulfillment  of  past  obli- 
gations. But  Froebel  turned  away  from  all  the  obstacles  and  difficulties 
that  obstructed  his  activity  with  an  ingenious  facility,  was  often  highly 
unpractical  and  thoughtless,  and  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  essentially 
disturbed  by  the  pressure  upon  his  creditors.  If  this  had  not  been  com- 
pensated by  the  opposite  quality  in  his  fellow-workers,  both  men  and 
women,  he  must,  in  my  opinion,  have  been  wrecked  very  early  upon 
the  hard,  inflexible  rock  of  reality.  But  the  others  held  on  to  him,  and 
desired  for  the  progressing  old  man  that  there  should  be  a  limit  set  to  the 
eternal,  restless  life  and  striving  at  various  points  in  Germany  and  Swit- 
zerland, which  was  not  unlike  one  kind  of  vagabondage,  and  something 
whole  and  perfected  in  itself  should  be  done  at  one  point.  The  care  for 
his  own  increasing  troop  of  children  called  for  foresight  and  economy. 
As  he  had  contempt  for  every  other  kind  of  opposition,  so  he  also  had  for 
those  which  grew  up  in  his  family;  indeed,  in  the  resentment  which 
opposing  difficulties  always  excited  in  him,  he  was  fabulously  unjust  to 
the  persons  from  whom  they  sprung.  His  expressions  against  his  own 
brother,  who  was  simple  human  greatness  personified,  a  living  magna- 
nimity, and  against  my  mother-in-law,  who  had  stood  by  him  from  early 
youth,  were  often  of  so  revolting  a  kind  that  I  could  not  refrain  from 
opposing  him  in  the  most  decided  manner.  Middcndorff  suffered  infi- 
nitely on  these  occasions.  He  could  not  blame  the  actions  of  his  own 
family,  but  he  tried  as  faithfully  to  turn  aside  the  slightest  aspersion 
against  the  man  whose  personality,  life,  and  action,  fettered  him  with 
magic  power.  They  both  rest  under  grassy  mounds;  the  inseparable 
ones, — Froebel  and  Middendorff.  Diesterweg  apostrophized  the  latter, — 
pia  anima,  anima  Candida;  never- to  bc-forgotten  friend!  Great  men 
have  great  weaknesses ;  the  shady  side,  belonging  to  their  finite  nature, 
dies  with  them;  but  what  they  have  thought,  lived,  and  striven  for 
remains  for  posterity.  Froebel  himself  often  acknowledged  with  deep 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  99 

regret  that  he  knew  himself  to  be  full  of  faults  and  weaknesses.  Indeed, 
he  even  thought  the  eternal  Spirit  had  selected  so  miserable  an  instru- 
ment for  the  bearer  of  his  idea  in  order  that  it  might  be  clearly  seen  that 
it  is  the  idea  and  not  the  man  by  which  what  is  lasting  and  blessed  for 
humanity  is  offered. 

"  The  institution  at  Marienthal  made  its  beautiful  and  sacred  progress, 
and  the  second  wife  ofJTrocbel  fulfilled  her  task  excellently.  Every  one 
who  has  seen  Marienthal,  and  realized  the  impulse  given  there,  will  have 
wondered  at  her  judicious  and  fervent  and  inspiring  life  among  her  pupils, 
as  well  as  at  that  attractive  power  which  the  Froebelian  cause  may  exert 
upon  the  unspoiled  womanly  feelings.  The  direct  personal  influence  of 
Froebel  was  astonishingly  great.  He  knew  how  to  penetrate  to  the  deep- 
est depths  of  the  souls  of  his  hearers:  he  could  transform  and  make  them 
young  again,  root  out  the  taste  for  external  things,  and  thoroughly  banish 
trifling  from  the  life,  and  in  their  place  set  a  deeply-moral,  earnest,  and 
enthusiastic  striving.  When  I  saw  him  speaking  and  working  among 
his  pupils  the  following  thought  possessed  me:  One  may  think  this  or 
that  upon  the  activity  and  efficiency  of  Froebel,  ascribe  to  this  or  that 
correctness,  discover  in  it  greater  or  less  influence,— one  thing  stands  fast ; 
he  is  the  apostle  of  women,  the  reformer  of  home  education." 

"  When  our  trouble  was  greatest,  new  prospects  opened  upon  us.  At 
the  instigation  of  several  influential  friends  who  stood  by  us,  the  attention 
of  the  Duke  of  Meiningen  was  fixed  upon  us.  He  became  acquainted 
with  Froebel.  and  asked  him  about  his  plans.  Froebel  laid  before  him 
the  plan  of  an  educational  institution  worked  out  and  agreed  upon  by  us 
in  common,  in  which  should  be  taught  not  only  the  usual  things,  but 
manual  labor,  joiner's  work,  basket  work,  book-binding,  tillage,  etc.,  etc., 
should  be  used  as  means  of  culture.  During  half  the  school-time  there 
was  to  be  study,  and  during  the  other  half,  with  the  limbs.  This  work 
was  to  give  direct  material  for  instruction,  and,  above  all  thing's,  excite  in 
the  mind  of  the  child  the  desire  for  learning  r.nd  explanation,  so  as  to 
stimulate  and  strengthen  the  mind  for  invention  and  practical  work.  The 
awakening  of  this  desire,  this  impulse  to  learn  and  to  create,  was  one  of 
the  fundamental  thoughts  of  Frederick  Froebel.  Illustration,  in  the  Pes- 
talozzian  sense,  was  not  far  reaching  and  deep  reaching  enough,  and  he 
endeavored  to  look  upon  man  radically  as  a  creative,  not  merely  receptive, 
but  chiefly  as  a  productive  being.  We  had  not  been  able  to  realize  the 
thought  at  Keilhau,  because  the  means  for  working  out  technical  instruc- 
tion were  specially  wanting  to  the  pupils.  But  with  the  help  of  the  Duke 
of  Meiningen  the  boldest  of  our  hopes  seemed  likely  to  be  satisfied.  The 
preparation  of  the  above-mentioned  plan  led  to  many  technical  construc- 
tions which  already  contained  the.1  elements  of  the  Kindergarten  plays. 
They  are  mostly  lost  and  destroyed,  but  the  plan  has  remained.  I  will 
look  it  up  for  the  use  and  advantage  of  the  cause,  when  wanted.  The 
Duke  of  Meiningen  was  very  well  satisfied  with  Froebel's  explanations, 
and  particularly  with  the  straightforward  and  open  hearted  way  in  which 
they  were  given.  There  was  an  agreement  by  which  Froebel  was 
promised  for  educational  purposes  the  estate  at  Helba,  with  thirty  acres 
of  land,  and  an  annual  grant  of  l.COO  gulden.  It  may  be  incidentally 


100  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

mentioned  that  the  duke  consulted  Froebel  about  the  education  of  his 
heir.  Froebel  told  him  frankly  that  nothing  would  coine  out  of  the 
future  ruler  \f  he  was  not  educated  in  companionship  with  others.  The 
duke  followed  his  advice.  The  prince  was  taught  and  disciplined  in 
common  with  other  boys. 

"  When  Froebel  returned  from  Meiningen,  the  whole  circle  was  highly 
pleased,  but  the  joy  was  not  to  last  long.  A  prominent  man  in  the 
Meiningen  region,  the  autocrat,  as  it  were,  in  educational  matters,  because  he 
was  on  that  subject  the  right  hand  of  the  prince,— a  man  who  also  had  his 
merits  in  literary  respects,  and  who  had  not  been  taken  into  consultation, 
was  afraid  of  losing  his  commanding  influence  by  the  springing  up  of 
Froebel.  We  were  suddenly  again  beset  with  the  most  degrading  and 
hateful  public  and  secret  accusations,  to  which  our  precarious  position  in 
Keilhau  offered  welcome,  and,  alas!  more  than  sufficient  plausibility. 
The  duke  had  secretly  a  flea  put  into  his  ear.  He  began  to  waver;  turnec 
suddenly  upon  Froebel,  and  demanded  a  proviso  of  about  twenty  pupil* 
for  an  indefinite  time.  Froebel  saw  the  design  of  this,  and  was  put  out 
of  tune;  for  where  he  scented  mistrust  he  immediately  gave  up  all  hope, 
and  he  dashed  out  of  his  mind  what  had  a  few  hours  before  filled  him- 
with  enthusiasm.  He  broke  off  all  negotiations,  and  started  off  to  Frank 
fort -on  the  Main  in  order  to  impart  to  his  friends  of  former  times  there 
the  results  of  his  action,  for  he  had  become  perplexed  by  the  many  obsta- 
cles. Here  he  luckily  met.  the  well-known  musical  composer,  Sclmydei 
von  Wartensee.  He  told  this  man  of  his  recent  experiences  and  his  plans, 
and  exercised  over  that  artist  those  electrifying  and  inspiring  influences 
peculiar  to  his  creative  nature.  Schnyder  knew  how  to  estimate  his 
efforts,  and  offered  him  his  castle  of  Wartensee,  in  Switzerland,  for  an 
educational  institution.  Froebel  eagerly  and  joyfully  grasped  the  hand 
which  was  offered  him,  and  set  out  for  Wartensee  with  his  nephew  Fer- 
dinand, my  brother  in  law. 

"There  Frederich  and  Ferdinand  Froebel  resided  and  worked  a  long 
time,  when  I  (B.)  was  asked  by  my  fellow  members  of  the  (.'ducat ional 
circle  to  inform  myself  precisely  of  the  situation  of  things  in  Switzerland. 
With  ten  dollars  in  my  pocket,  and  an  old  summer  coat,  which  I  wore, 
and  a  threadbare  dress-coat,  which  I  carried  with  me,  I  trudged  off  on 
foot.  Should  1  tell  you  how  I  fought  my  way,  I  should  probably  excite 
in  you  a  suspicion  of  stark  exaggeration.  Enough;  I  arrived,  inquired  in 
the  surrounding  regions  about  my  friends  and  their  activity,  and  heard  that 
nothing  further  had  been  charged  to  the  'heretics'  than  that  they  were 
'  heretics.'  Some  peasant  children  of  the  neighboring  regions  had  been 
found;  but  they  did  not  meet  the  strangers  whom  they  had  judged  in  the 
beginning  by  their  outward  condition.  The  agitation  of  the  clergy,  which 
began  as  soon  as  the  institution  could  be  called  such,  and  which  became 
the  greater  the  more  our  friends  stood  firmly  on  their  feet,  had  its  effect, 
and  prevented  a  quick  growth  of  our  enterprise.  Besides,  the  ground 
for  our  enterprise  was  not  found  at  Wartensee.  Schnyder  had,  with  a 
generosity  which  cannot  be  too  much  praised,  not  only  placed  his  castle 
at  our  disposal,  but  even  the  inventory  of  its  contents, — his  silver  plate, 
his  glorious  library,  in  short,  everything  that  was  in  and  about  the  castle; 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  101 

but  lie  would  permit  no  building  of  any  kind  to  be  erected,  and,  as  the 
room  was  in  no  way  sufficient  for  us,  we  could  only  make  a  temporary 
and  passing  use  of  bis  support. 

"We  saw  tbe  precariousness of  our  position  in  its  wbole  sbarpness,  but 
knew  of  no  escape  from  it 

"In  a  wonderful  way  new  prospects  opened  before  us  at  a  moment 
wben  we  least  expected  it.  We  were  sitting  in  a  hotel  near  Wartensee, 
and  conversing  with  the  strangers  who  were  there  about  our  efforts. 
Three  travelers  were  quite  transfixed  by  our  representations.  They  said 
they  were  merchants  known  at  Willisau,  and  declared  expressly  that  they 
were  disposed  to  work  for  us  and  our  efforts  in  Willisau,  and  to  make  a  set- 
tlement there  themselves,  and  carry  out  our  plans  to  a  greater  extent.  The 
company  had  traded  in  the  cantonal  government,  and  had  for  that  reason 
moved,  provisionally,  into  a  castle-like  building.  About  forty  pupils  out 
of  the  canton  irnmediata'y  entered,  and  we  seemed  at  least  to  have  found 
what  we  were  seeking.  But  the  enraged  pastors  rose  now  with  truly 
devilish  power  against  us.  Our  lives  were  not  safe,  and  we  were  warned 
several  times  by  compassionate  souls,  if  we  thought  of  taking  a  solitary 
walk,  or  struck  out  into  a  road  over  the  mountain.  To  what  fearful 
measures  the  bigotry  extended,  the  following  occurrence  shows: 

"  In  Willisau,  every  year,  a  church  festival  lakes  place,  in  which  a  host 
spotted  with  blood  is  shown.  The  drops  of  blood,  according  to  the  pop- 
ular belief,  were  drawn  out  by  two  gamblers,  who,  cursing  Jesus,  drew 
their  swords  upon  him,  and  who,  in  consequence  of  this  crime,  were 
caught  by  the  devil.  When  the  '  God  be  with  us '  seized  the  miscreant  by 
the  throat,  a  few  drops  oozed  from  Jesus's  wounds.  Now,  in  order  that 
other  drops  should  not  fall  in  a  similar  manner  from  the  miscreant,  a 
thanksgiving  festival  is  celebrated  every  year,  and  the  host  shown,  for  a 
warning,  to  the  worshipping  people,  who  stream  in  in  troops  from  the 
whole  country  to  join  the  procession.  We  were  obliged  to  attend  the  fes- 
tival, and,  in  order  to  have  something  to  do,  we  had  undertaken  the 
musical  direction  of  it.  I  anticipated  a  storm,  and  had  urged  my  friends 
to  keep  quiet  under  all  circumstances,  and  to  show  no  trace  of  embarrass- 
ment. The  singing  was  finished,  and,  in  place  of  the  expected  clergyman, 
there  appeared  suddenly  a  boisterous,  fanatical  Capuchin  monk  He 
entered  into  complaint  of  the  godlessness  and  wickedness  of  the  present 
generation,  painted  in  glowing  colors  the  stripes  of  hell  which  would  hit 
the  cursed  race,  then  turned  to  the  terrified  Willisauers  and  explained 
pointedly  as  one  of  the  evil  deeds  of  that  people,  that,  by  calling  in  tbe 
heretics,  meaning  us,  of  course,  they  had  brought  ruin  into  their  midst. 
More  and  more  violent  were  his  words,  more  and  more  ghastly  his  curses 
upon  us  and  our  abettors,  more  and  more  terrific  his  descriptions  of  the 
stripes  of  hell  prepared  for  the  Willisauers  for  their  abhorrent  deed. 
Froebel  stood  benumbed,  without  moving  a  limb  or  withdrawing  his  gaze 
from  the  Capuchin  just  opposite  to  him,  standing  in  the  midst  of  the 
people;  and  tbe  rest  of  us  looked  on  motionless.  The  parents,  our  pupils, 
and  many  others,  had  already  fled  in  the  midst  of  this  Jeremiad  We 
expected  the  worst  for  ourselves,  and  had  already  taken  precautions  for 
our  protection,  and  measures  to  overcome  the  brawler.  But  we  stood 


102  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK 

quietly  in  our  places  and  heard  the  closing  words  of  the  Capuchin  '  Then, 
if  you  would  earn  eternal  treasures  in  heaven,  make  an  end  to  the  griev 
ance,  and  suffer  the  wretches  no  longer  in  your  midst  Hunt  the  wolves 
out  of  the  country,  to  the  honor  of  God  and  the  confusion  of  the  devil! 
Then  peace  and  blessing  will  return,  and  great  joy  will  be  with  God  in 
heaven  and  with  those  who  serve  Him  and  His  holy  One  from  their 
hearts!  Amen! '  Scarcely  had  he  spoken  the  last  word  when  he  vanished 
through  a  side  door,  and  was  not  seen  again.  But  we  passed  quietly 
through  the  gaping  and  threatening  crowd.  No  hand  was  raised  at  the 
moment;  but  mischief  lowered  upon  us  from  all  sides,  and  it  was  not 
pleasant  to  see  the  sword  of  Damocles  already  suspended  over  our  heads. 
With  this  painful  feeling  of  insecurity  they  sent  me  to  the  government  of 
the  canton,  and  especially  to  the  Abbe  Girard,  and  the  justice  of  the 
peace,  Edward  Pfyffer,  with  a  petition  that  he  would  protect  our  safety 
to  the  best  of  his  power.  On  the  way  I  was  known  at  a  tavern  as  one  of 
the  lately-oppressed  band  of  heretics,  by  a  clergyman.  They  whispered 
about  me,  and  cast  threatening  and  contemptuous  glances  at  me  from  all 
sides.  At  last  the  priest  became  more  and  more  audacious,  and  accused 
me  aloud  of  being  an  abominable  heretic.  I  arose  slowly,  advanced  with 
a  firm  step  toward  the  black-coat,  and  asked  him:  'Do  you  know  who 
Jesus  Christ  was,  sir?'  and,  'Do  you  hold  anything  from  Him?' 
'Surely;  He  is  God — the  Son,  and  we  must  honor  Him  and  believe  in 
Him,  if  we  do  not  wish  to  be  eternally  damned!'  1  continued, — 'You 
can,  perhaps,  tell  me  whether  Christ  was  a  Catholic  or  a  Protestant?' 
The  priest  was  silent ;  the  crowd  gaped  and  soon  applauded  me.  The 
priest  left,  and  they  let  me  alone.  The  question  had  effected  more  than 
a  whole  speech  would  have  done.  In  Edward  Pfyffer  I  learned  to  know 
a  man  of  humane  and  firm  character,  of  sterling  worth,  and  worthy  of  all 
respect.  He  goes  upon  the  principle  that  it  is  not  of  much  use  to  take 
this  or  that  superstition  from  the  people,  but  that  one  must  work  against 
sluggishness  of  thought  and  want  of  independence  from  the  foundation 
through  an  intelligent  education.  For  that  reason  he  esteemed  our  under- 
taking highly.  When  I  gave  him  an  outline  of  our  griefs,  and  the  danger 
we  incurred  in  our  lives,  he  replied:  'There  is  only  oneway  to  make 
yourselves  secure, — you  must  win  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Work  on  for 
a  long  time,  and  then  invite  all  the  people  from  far  and  near  to  a  public 
examination.  If  you  pass  through  that  trial  and  win  the  multitude,  then, 
and  only  then,  will  you  be  secure.'  I  went  back,  and  we  followed  his 
counsel.  A  great  crowd  of  people  from  the  various  cantons  streamed  in 
to  the  examination,  and  delegates  from  Zurich,  Berne,  etc.  Our  battle 
with  the  clergy,  particularly,  was  an  occurrence  that  was  spoken  of  in 
most  of  the  Swiss  papers,  and  the  general  attention  had  been  directed  to 
it.  We  conquered  perfectly  at  the  examination.  The  boys  developed  a 
happy  state  of  mind  and  a  warmth  of  zeal;  indeed,  they  answered  in 
such  an  unembarrassed  and  inoffensive  manner  that  all  present  were 
delightedly  surprised  and  gave  us  loud  applauses.  The  examination 
lasted  from  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  seven  in  the  evening,  and 
closed  with  social  plays  and  gymnastic  exercises.  We  rejoiced  inwardly, 
for  our  cause  was  now  to  be  considered  established.  The  thing  came  to 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  1Q3 

public  action,  to  public  notice,  and  the  most  brilliant  speeches  were  made 
in  our  favor  by  Pfyffer,  Amryu,  and  others.  The  assembly  made  a  decree 
that  the  castle-like  educational  building  should  be  given  to  us  at  a  reason- 
able price,  and  that  the  Capuchins,  who  had  publicly  made  such  an  uproar 
against  us,  should  be  showed  out  of  the  canton. " 

"  Some  time  after  the  above-mentioned  examination  appeared  a  deputation 
from  the  canton  of  Berne,  and  invited  Froebel  to  undertake  the  erection 
of  an  orphan-house  in  Burgdorf.  Froebel  proposed  that  the  instruction 
in  the  newly-founded  orphan-house  should  not  be  restricted  to  the  orphan 
children,  gained  his  object,  and  followed  the  summons. 

"  Now  I  looked  upon  my  mission  as  providentially  closed,  and  I  desired 
to  go  back  to  Keilhau,  for  my  eldest  son  was  already  a  year  old,  and  I  had 
never  yet  seen  him.  Middendorff,  therefore,  left  his  family  and  took  my 
place;  he  lived  four  years  in  Willisau  away  from  his  wife  and  child.  In 
Keilhau  things  had,  in  the  meantime,  worked  more  favorably,  and  the 
attendance  had  increased  in  a  joyful  manner.  I  resolved  now  to  raise  the 
mother  institution  out  of  its  economical  swamp.  I  set  in  motion  an 
express,  even  if  a  permitted  swindle,  borrowed  a  sum  here  to  discharge  a 
creditor  there,  and  covered  up  one  debt  by  another.  In  this  manner  I 
restored  the  lost  credit,  and,  as  the  revenues  increased  to  our  delight,  I  soon 
acquired  land,  and  from  that  time  have  been  able  to  support  the  under- 
taking of  the  others  more  and  more,  and  create  for  the  whole  circle  a  grati- 
fying and  increasing  sense  of  stability,  and  a  refuge  from  all  chances. 

"  In  Switzerland  the  cause  did  not  develop  according  to  our  wishes,  in 
spite  of  the  decree  of  the  legislative  assembly.  The  institution  in  Willisau 
enjoyed  unlimited  confidence,  but  the  opposing  agitation  of  the  priesthood 
bloomed  in  secret  afterwards  as  well  as  before,  and  drew  much 
animadversion  upon  the  institution  from  a  distance.  For  this  reason  we 
could  not  reach  what,  under  other  circumstances,  with  the  activity  and 
capacity  of  self-sacrifice  of  our  circle,  might  certainly  have  been  possible. 

"Ferdinand  Froebel  and  Middendorff  remained  in  Willisau;  Froebel 
went  to  Burgdorf  with  his  wife,  and,  a  little  after,  was  appointed  director 
of  the  orphan-house  by  the  government.  In  that  capacity  he  had  to  con- 
duct a  so-called  repetition-course  for  teachers.  In  that  canton  was  the 
following  excellent  arrangement:  every  two  years  the  teachers  had  a  fur- 
lough of  a  quarter  of  a  year.  During  this  time  they  assembled  in 
Burgdorf  ;:nd  exchanged  their  experiences  and  worked  at  their  further 
cultivation.  Froebel  had  to  conduct  the  proceedings  and  associated  studies. 
His  own  personal  experience,  and  the  communications  of  the  teachers, 
led  him  anew  to  the  conviction  that  school  education  is  wanting  in  the 
correct  and  indispensable  foundation,  until  the  reformation  of  home 
education  shall  be  kept  in  view  and  made  preliminary.  The  necessity 
of  building  up  wise  mothers  came  into  the  foreground  in  his  soul,  and  the 
importance  of  the  earliest  education  seemed  to  him  more  significant  than 
ever.  He  determined  to  employ  his  educational  thoughts,  whose  intelli- 
gent working  out  a  thousand  obstacles  had  prevented,  at  least  to  the  guid- 
ance of  the  earliest  childhood  upon  all  sides,  and  to  enlist  the  woman - 
world  for  this  idea  and  its  efficient  working.  He  would  supplement  the 
'Book  for  Mothers'  (Pestalozzi's)  by  a  theoretico-pVactical  guide  for 


104  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

women.  Something  occurred  from  without  which  urged  him  forward. 
His  wife  became  very  dangerously  ill,  and  the  physicians  required  a  total 
change  from  the  rough  mountain  air  of  Switzerland.  Then  he  determined 
to  give  up  his  situation  and  go  to  Berlin.  The  institution  at  Willisau, 
which  flourished  outwardly,  but  was  more  and  more  hampered  in  its 
organic  development  by  the  bigotry  of  the  priests,  was  obliged  to  be  given 
up,,  for  the  government  went  into  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits.  Langethal 
and  Ferdinand  Froebel  were  appointed  teachers  of  the  institution  in  Burg- 
dorf.  Later,  Langethal  separated  himself  from  the  whole,  and  undertook 
the  direction  of  a  girls'  school  in  Berne  which  the  well-known  Frohlich 
now  conducts';  in  so  doing  took  a  step  which  Froebel  never  pardoned.  Fer- 
dinand Froebel  remained  director  of  the  orphan-house  in  Burgdorf  until 
his  sudden  and  unexpected  death.  The  general  mourning,  which  had  never 
known  its  equal  in  Burgdorf,  showed  what  his  efforts  had  been  and  how 
well  they  had  been  understood  there. 

"When  Frederich  Froebel  went  back  from  Berlin,  the  idea  of  an  insti- 
tution for  little  children  wras  already  fully  formed  in  him.  I  rented  him  a 
locality  in  the  neighboring  Blaukenburg.  For  a  long  time  he  could  not 
iind  a  name  for  his  cause.  Middendorff  and  I  walked  over  the  mountain 
with  him  to  Blankenburg.  He  exclaimed,  repeatedly,  '  If  I  could  only 
find  a  name  for  my  youngest  child! '  Suddenly  he  stood  still,  as  if  trans- 
fixed, and  his  eye  took  an  almost  transfigured  expression.  Then  he  called 
out  to  the  mountain,  and  called  again  to  all  the  four  winds:  'EupjjKal 
Eureka!  KINDERGARTEN  the  institution  shall  be  named! ' " 

So  far  Barop,  He  is  the  only  one  who  now  [1861]  enjoys  the  blossoming 
out  of  the  mother  institution.  He  has  become  wealthy,*  and  has  enjoyed 
many  honors.  The  University  of  Jena  bestowed  upon  him  a  doctor's 
diploma  at  its  jubilee,  and  the  Prince  of  Rudolstadt  appointed  him  Coun- 
cilor of  Education.  Froebel  sleeps  in  Liebenstein,  and  Middendorff  at 
the  foot  of  Kirschberg  in  Keilhau.  They  sowed  and  did  not  reap;  it  may 
be,  then,  that  the  enjoyment  which  lies  in  sowing  exceeds  that  of  reaping. 
Certainly  it  was  glorious  that  Froebel,  shortly  before  his  death,  was  highly 
honored  by  the  Teachers'  Convention  in  Gotha.  When  he  appeared,  the 
whole  assembly  rose  like  one  man;  and  Middendorff  also,  shortly  before 
his  death,  had  the  joy  of  hearing  the  same  assembly  at  Salzungen  declare 
the  Froebel  cause  to  be  one  of  universal  importance,  and  a  subject  for 
their  special  attention  and  continued  experiment. 

*  By  inheritance. 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  1Q5 


The  Year  1825. 

KEILHAD. — OFFICIAL   TESTIMONY   OF   SUCCESS.* 

In  the  article  called  "Critical  moments  in  the  life  of  Frederick  Frcebel," 
I  mentioned  that  the  "  Universal  German  Educational  Institution  "  nearly 
came  to  its  complete  ruin,  in  its  twentieth  year.  In  another  article, 
entitled  "  Unity  of  life,"  I  have  given  some  internal  causes  hy  which  the 
institution,  which  had  once  been  flourishing,  came  to  the  verge  of  ruin. 
But  there  were  other  causes,  which  perhaps  in  and  by  themselves  would 
not  have  been  able  to  bring  about  such  disastrous  effects.  First,  the  cross- 
lire  of  the  enemy  in  the  camp  and  outside  of  it  had  that  melancholy 
effect.  Every  one  well  informed  in  history  knows  the  demagogery  of  a 
certain  Herr  von  Karnpz,  the  persecutions  of  the  Biirgenschaften,  which 
culminated  in  the  death  of  Kotsebue,  in  the  midst  of  that  twenty 
years.  Johannes  Arnold  Barop  was  especially  the  subject  of  these  perse- 
cutions, and  as  he  was  already  in  Keilhau,  even  if  not  considered  a  fellow- 
worker  there,  when  his  papers  were  taken  into  custody,  yet  his  presence 
there  might  pass  as  an  excuse  for  the  suspicion  entertained  of  Keilhau. 
Keilhau  was  represented  openly  and  in  secret  as  the  brooding  nest  of  dema- 
gogism,  and  they  stormed  from  Prussia,  and  on  the  day  appointed  for  the 
meeting  of  the  confederates  of  the  Schwarzburg  Iludolstadt  government, 
they  demanded  the  breaking  up  of  the  institution.  The  government  sent 
the  then  Superintendent  Zeh  as  a  committee  of  inquiry  to  Keilhau,  and 
met  the  oppressors  with  the  subsequent  report.  The  government  left  the 
institution  unshorn,  and  only  made  the  famous  requisition  that  the  pupils 
of  the  institution  should  cut  their  hair  short.  But  the  persecutions  none 
the  less  had  their  intended  effect.  A  part  of  the  terrified  parents,  partic- 
ularly the  nobles,  took  their  children  away,  and  the  institution  was  crip- 
pled on  all  sides  by  the  crafty  and  barefaced  agitation  of  its  enemies.  In 
1829  the  number  of  pupils  diminished,  as  has  already  been  mentioned, 
from  sixty  to  five.  Similar  machinations  against  Keilhau  took  place  at  a 
later  time,  when  the  general  reaction  followed  the  flare  up  of  1848.  At 
that  time  there  was  as  little  occasion  for  enmity  towards  Keilhau  as  in  any 
part  of  the  twenty  years. 

It  scarcely  needs  to  be  affirmed  in  this  place  that  there  was  not.  the  most 
distant  trace  of  political  agitation  there.  They  were  only  trying  to  culti- 
vate men  in  the  way  which  is  pointed  out  quite  correctly  in  the  following 
report.  The  old  fighters  for  freedom,  Froebel,  Middendorff,  and  Lange- 
thal,  who  had  learned  to  esteem  each  other  more  and  more  as  Liilzow's  fol- 
lowers in  the  war,  naturally  hung  with  great  love  upon  our  nation,  and 
were  trying  to  cultivate  German  children.  That  their  efforts  were  directed 
to  building  up  men  in  the  children,  and  Germans  in  the  men,  constituted 
their  whole  crime,  but  still  more,  that  the  spirit  of  1813-15  had  found  a 
sort  of  refuge  in  Keilhau. 

Tho  devoted  teachers  were  as  far  from  using  their  efforts  at  education 


*  A  Public  Voice  iu  1825  upon  the  efforts  of  Frederick  Froebel,  from  W.  Lauge,  Vol.  I, 
p.  22. 


106 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 


for  political  purposes  as  Sirius  is  from  the  earth.  But  from  the  year  1819, 
which  the  ^ffigitt  (a  newspaper),  justly  called  the  "  mad  year,"  begins  a 
period  of  German  degradation  and  shame  to  which  the  "  Universal  Ger- 
man Educational  Institution"  almost  fell  a  sacrifice.  The  expressions  of 
Froebel  arc  interesting  which  he  addressed  to  Barop  in  March,  1828,  at 
that  time.  They  show  that  he  neither  lost  courage  nor  his  spirits,  and  that 
his  chief  fellow-workers  wavered  not  a  moment.  "  The  outer  life  stands 
quite  at  the  same  point  of  its  development,  and  at  this  time  surrounded 
by  a  dark  night,  pregnant  with  storms,  out  of  whose  black  clouds  every 
moment  annihilating  lightning  threatens  to  flash.  But  God  has  thus  far  held 
his  protecting  shield  over  us  with  His  almighty  arm,  and  so  we  have  lived 
like  the  little  chickens  in  the  thunder  storm,  under  the  protecting  wing  of 
their  mother;  we  have  reposed  like  the  child  in  the  tempest  in  the  lap  of 
the  living,  careful,  true  mother."  And  at  the  close  he  says:  "What  you 
tell  me  of  the  Berlin  opinion  of  Keilhau  I  well  know,  but  I  have  nothing 
to  say  about  it.  Act  firmly  on  your  convictions;  you  can  do  it.  for  more 
and  more  everything  unites  and  reveals  itself  to  me,  and  what  I  believed 
earlier,  indeed  was  convinced  of,  and  was  founded  only  partially  on  my 
own  intuitions,  I  see  now  in  all  creation,  in  the  being  of  things,  in  nature, 
and  in  the  ordering  of  the  world,  and  the  progressive  culture  of  humanity; 
God  in  creation,  in  the  order  of  nature  and  the  world,  in  the  progressive  cul- 
ture of  humanity,  is  the  source  of  human  education; — this  is  the  funda- 
mental thought  of  my  spiritual  inward  and  outward  educational  life.  On 
this  foundation,  you  as  well  as  I  can,  with  more  than  Lutheran  firmness, 
affirm  the  rights  of  nature  in  education,  and  so  come  forward  as  fighters 
for  our  educational  progress."  And  as  one  fellow  worker,  Ilerr  Carl  (who 
afterwards,  to  the  great  distress  of  his  associates,  was  drowned  in  the 
Saale)  was  once  wavering,  he  expressed  himself  sadly  in  a  letter  to  Barop, 
dated  the  18th  of  February,  1829:  "Man  is  but  a  weak  being;  he  must 
always  rest  upon  something  out  of  himself,  and  can  so  rarely  depend  upon 
himself;  and  if  he  needs  to  be  tried,  punished,  and  strengthened  to  carry 
out  a  great  thought,  he  sees  the  means  of  trial,  purification,  and  strength 
ening  are  destined  to  be  the  destruction  of  his  personality  and  of  himself, 
and  then  comes  back  to  the  original  feeling;  life  is  dearer  to  him  than  the 
thought;  he  cannot  sacrifice  his  own  little  life,  his  own  little  personality 
to  it;  or  rather,  the  show  of  existence  is  dearer  to  him  than  really,  livingly 
to  exist." 

So  Froebel  laid  out  new  plans,  excited  by  the  offers  of  the  Duke  of 
Meiningen,  and  expresses  himself  thus  in  his  last  letter:  "During  the 
short  time  I  have  been  in  writing  these  lines,  the  thought  of  my  and  your 
educational  effort  has  unfolded  essentially,  while  in  reference  to  carrying 
out  and  representing  it,  it  has  receded  more  and  more  and  grounded 
itself  more  and  more  deeply.  For  a  long  time  the  education  and  handling 
of  little  children  from  the  third  to  the  seventh  year  of  age  has  occupied 
my  thoughts.  A  unity  in  a  moment  of  consecutive  thought,  together 
with  circumstances  and  other  influences  has  now  brought  me  to  the  con- 
clusion to  erect  in  Helba,  together  with  the  People's  Educational  Institu- 
tion, an  institution  for  the  care  and  development  of  children  of  both 
sexes  from  three  to  seven  years  of  age,  either  orphans  or  motherless,  and 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  10} 

of  the  middle  class.  I  do  not  call  this  institution  by  the  name  which  is 
now  given  to  similar  institutions,  (that  is,  little  infant  children's  schools) 
because  it  is  not  to  be  a  xchool,  for  the  children  in  it  will  not  be  schooled, 
but  freely  developed,  because  so  far  as  it  is  possible  for  men  who  arc 
themselves  no  angels,  the  God  like  in  man  must  be  truly  guarded  and  fos- 
tered. I  would  have  orphans,  or  at  least  motherless  children,  because  the 
injurious  influence  of  half -cultured  parents  and  of  generally  uncultivated 
mothers  is  thus  done  away  with  by  the  very  condition  of  things.  I  take 
children  of  both  sexes,  because  children  of  that  age  have  no  sex,  and 
because  the  reciprocal  influence  at  that  age  beautifully  develops  mind  and 
heart.  I  choose  children  of  the  middle  class  that  we  may  be  able  to  carry 
out  the  work  we  shall  undertake." 

OFFICIAL   REPORT   ON   THE   FROEBEL   EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTION. 

To  the  Princely  Cousistoritim  at  Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt,  1825. 

In  conformity  with  instructions  received  on  the  9th  of  September  ol  last 
year  (1824)  from  the  princely  Consistorium,  to  visit  the  Froebel  institution 
in  Keilhau  and  report  on  the  same,  I  visited  Keilhau  for  this  purpose  on 
the  23d  of  November  of  last  year,  and  remained  there  from  half -past 
eight  in  the  morning  till  five  o'clock  in  the  evening.  But  to  get  a  deeper 
insight  into  its  true  life  and  spirit,  and  ascertain  wherein  the  peculiarity 
of  this  institution  consists,  as  on  a  first  visit  only  the  fundamental  instruc- 
tion in  its  very  various  modifications  could  be  laid  before  me,  I  passed  a 
second  day  there  on  the  1st  of  March  of  this  year,  in  order  to  look  at  the 
higher  classical  instruction,  the  methods  of  the  teachers,  and  the  attain- 
ments and  development  of  the  pupils. 

The  principal  teachers  at  that  time,  and  also  at  present,  were  Froebel, 
Langethal,  and  Middendorff,  which  three  are  considered  the  founders  of 
the  institution.  Froebel  has  undertaken  the  oversight  of  the  whole  from 
the  beginning,  and  with  invincible  courage  has  carried  it  on  happily  to  the 
present  day  with  incessant  struggles,  heavy  cares,  and  the  extremest  needs. 

Two  years  ago  were  added  to  the  founders  (in  order,  as  it  seems,  not  to 
separate  so  soon  again)  Herzog,  a  Swiss,  and  Schonbeiu,  a  Wurtemberger, 
as  upper  teachers,  the  last-mentioned  one  for  the  department  of  the  nat- 
ural sciences,  the  first-mentioned  for  history  and  German  literature.  An 
elocutionist,  Herr  Monnet,  and  Hanen  Schmidt,  and  Bromel,  workers  in 
the  present  princely  chapel,  preside  a  few  days  every  week  at  the  institu- 
tion, and  teach  respectively  French  and  instrumental  music. 

The  pupils  numbered  fifty  at  the  time  of  my  last  visit,  from  among 
whom  George  Luther  has  gone  to  the  University  to  study  theology. 

Both  days  that  I  passed  at  the  institution,  and  so  intimately  with  it,  were 
agreeable  to  me  in  every  respect,  highly  interesting  and  instructive,  ami 
have  heightened  and  confirmed  my  esteem  for  the  whole  and  for  the 
founder,  who  in  the  midst  of  the  storms  of  want  and  care,  has  carried  it  on 
and  sustained  it  with  the  warmest  and  most  unselfish  zeal.  It  was  vc.-ry 
delightful  to  be  breathed  upon  by  the  fresh,  vital,  free,  and  yet  self-con- 
tained spirit  which  hovers  over  this  institution  in  and  out  of  the  hours  of 
study.  What  life  never  and  nowhere  represents  in  its  actual  phase,  one 
finds  here — a  family  of  at  least  sixty  pupils  living  in  heartfelt  quite  mil- 


108  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

tual  understanding,  all  of  whom  do  willingly  what  they  have  to  do,  each 
in  their  different  places — a  family  in  which  because  the  strong  bond  of  con- 
fidence unites  them  and  every  member  strives  for  the  whole,  everything 
prospers  of  itself  in  an  atmosphere  of  enjoyment  and  love.  With  great 
esteem  and  hearty  affection  all  greet  their  director,  and  w^hile  the  five- 
years-old  little  ones  climb  upon  his  knee,  his  friends  and  associates  hear  and 
honor  his  counselling  words  with  the  confidence  that  his  insight,  experi- 
ence, and  unwearying  zeal  for  the  good  of  the  whole  deserve  ;  while  he 
has  bound  himself  with  brotherly  love  and  friendship  to  his  fellow  work- 
ers as  to  the  supports  and  bearers  of  his  truly  holy  life  work.  That  this 
close  union,  we  may  say  this  brotherhood  of  teachers,  has  the  most  benefi- 
cent influence  upon  the  instructions  given,  and  upon  the  pupils  them- 
selves in  every  respect,  is  self-evident.  The  care  and  esteem  with  which 
the  latter  embrace  all  their  teachers  is  expressed  by  an  attention  and  obe- 
dience which  makes  all  discipline  of  rules  unnecessary.  In  the  two  days 
I  was  there,  in  and  out  of  the  buildings,  in  the  merriment  out  of  school 
hours  as  during  the  time  of  instruction,  I  did  not  hear  a  corrective  word 
from  the  mouths  of  the  teachers.  In  the  lieartfwt  gaycty  with  which  as 
soon  as  they  emerge  from  school  hours  into  the  fresh  air,  all  spring  and 
frolic  together,  I  saw  no  real  ill  breeding,  no  rough,  unmannerly,  still 
less  immoral  conduct.  The  pupils  live  on  an  equality  among  themselves, 
without  reference  to  condition,  or  birth,  or  dress,  nor  even  the  name  by 
which  they  are  called,  because  each  one  bears  only  his  baptismal  name,  or 
some  characteristic  nickname  given  him.  Great  and  little  ones  mix  cheer- 
full}r  and  happily  as  if  each  obeyed  but  one  law,  as  brothers  m  their 
father's  home,  and  while  all  seern  free  to  use  their  powers  and  form  their 
plays,  they  are  under  the  continual  superintendence  of  the  teachers,  of 
wrhom  now  this  one,  now  that  one,  overlooks  their  games  and  exercises, 
some  of  them  almost  always  mixing  with  them,  and  joining  sympathetic- 
ally, all  on  an  equality  before  the  law  of  the  play. 

But  how  joyously  united  !  with  what  delight  this  scene  is  to  be  contem- 
plated, each  one  in  free,  vigorous  process  of  formation  in  a  child  world 
not  be  ruled  by  the  sway  of  the  whip,  a  world  in  which  every  one  secures 
his  place  by  outward  or  inward  power;  how  its  effect  is  at  the  same  time  to 
educate  and  cultivate  the  circle  of  teachers !  No  slumbering  faculty  remains 
unwakened,  each  finds  the  stimulus  it  needs  in  so  large  and  closely 
united  a  family,  and  also  the  place,  small  though  it  may  be,  where  it  can  ex- 
press itself ;  every  feeling  of  curiosity  shows  itself  freely,  and  meets  an  equal 
or  similar  feeling  which  may  express  itself  openly,  and  in  which  the  germ- 
inating faculty  stands  forth  distinctly;  on  this  account  an  impropriety  can 
never  make  headway,  for  every  individual  who  goes  to  excess  is  punished 
forthwith;  he  is  asked  to  step  out  of  the  circle  or  to  sit  down;  if  he  wishes 
to  come  into  it  again  he  must  yield  and  learn  to  be  humble  and  to  improve. 
Thus  the  boys  rule,  reprove,  furnish,  educate,  and  cultivate  each  other 
without  knowing  it  by  the  many-sided  stimulus,  as  well  as  the  opposing 
restraints,  if  on  this  side  one  cannot  contemplate  the  movement  and  life 
of  this  institution  otherwise  than  with  pleasure,  so  the  agreeable  impres- 
sion which  a  glance  over  the  whole  makes  upon  the  visitor  is  increased  by 
the  visible  order  of  the  house,  whose  law  alone  can  keep  so  large  a  whole 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK  109 

together,  by  the  punctuality  which  savors  of  nothing  like  pedantry,  and  by 
a  cleanliness  which  is  rare  to  be  seen  to  such  a  degree  in  an  educational 
institution. 

To  this  vigorous  and  freely  moving,  and  yet  well-ordered  outward  life, 
corresponds  perfectly  the  inner  life  of  mind  and  heart,  which  is  here  awak- 
ened and  fostered.  It  would  involve  too  much  detail  and  it  is  therefore 
impossible  to  represent  the  instruction  according  to  its  subject  or  its  form  in 
each  single  department.  In  order  to  give  an  idea  of  its  compass,  I  give 
the  substance  of  the  last  study  plan  sent  to  me  from  the  institution. 

The  instruction  begins  in  the  fifth  year  of  the  child's  life,  by  teaching  it 
to  get  the  command  of  its  senses  by  observation  of  external  things,  and  then 
to  distinguish  these  from  each  other,  and  at  the  same  time  to  designate 
them  by  the  right  words,  and  to  learn  also  to  rejoice  in  this  first  knowl- 
edge, which  is  the  first  little  item  for  the  future  spiritual  treasure.  Inde- 
pendence of  mind  is  the  first  law  of  this  instruction,  therefore  the  manner 
of  instruction  pursued  here  does  not  make  the  young  mind  a  strong  box 
into  which  as  early  as  possible,  all  kinds  of  coins  of  the  most  different  val- 
ues and  coinage,  as  they  are  estimated  in  the  world,  are  stuffed;  but  slowly, 
constantly,  gradually,  and  always  inwardly,  that  is,  according  to  connec- 
tion in  nature,  founded  on.  the  nature  of  the  human  mind,  the  instruction 
goes  on  earnestly,  without  the  tricks  and  trying  of  the  old  philanthropists 
who  let  the  letters  be  baked  in  sugar,  but  going  from  the  simple  to  the 
complex,  from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract,  so  well  adapted  to  the  child 
and  its  needs,  that  it  goes  as  happily  to  its  learning  as  to  its  play;  indeed,  I 
was  a  witness  of  the  little  ones,  whose  study  hours  were  pushed  ahead 
somewhat  for  my  convenience,  crying  for  the  superintendent,  and  want- 
ing to  know  whether  they  must  play  all  day  and  not  learn,  or  whether  the 
great  boys  alone  were  to  have  a  session. 

In  the  upper  grade  of  the  classical  instruction  stands  those  who  were  to 
take  "  Selecta  "  according  to  the  usual  arrangement  in  gymnasiums.  In 
the  winter  previous  they  read  Horace,  Plato,  Phcedrus,  and  Demosthenes, 
and  translated  Cornelius  Nepos  into  Greek.  If  on  the  day  of  my  first  visit, 
on  which  I  had  learned  the  plan  of  the  fundamental  instruction  nearer,  I 
had  not  been  able  to  suppress  the  wish  that  the  instruction  might  be  such 
as  this  in  all  the  lower  schools,  so  now  in  the  classical  instruction  which 
was  first  begun  in  1820,  in  its  whole  compass,  I  could  not  but  be  astonished 
at  the  progress  which  had  been  made  in  that  short  time,  and  its  profound 
accuracy  (and  afterwards,  so  far  as  the  time  permitted,  all  had  gone  on 
from  the  minimum  of  elementary  instruction  to  the  maximum  of  classical 
instruction);  I  felt  as  perfectly  satisfied  with  regard  to  the  instruction,  as 
I  had  been  with  regard  to  the  education.  I  had  met  with  nothing  else  before 
than  what  every  impartial  examiner  has  experienced.  From  all  the  stran- 
gers whose  judgment  I  have  taken  after  they  had  become  acquainted  with 
the  institution  at  Keilhau,  I  have  not  found  one  who  was  not  satisfied,  but 
many  whom  I  consider  highly  intellectual,  who  have  come  away  enthusias 
tic,  and  with  full  recognition  and  acknowledgment  of  the  highest  aim 
which  the  institution  had  set  for  itself,  and  the  perfectly  natural  way 
which  it  has  struck  out  to  reach  that  aim  as  surely  and  completely  as  pos- 
sible. This  aim  is  by  no  means  knowledge  and  science,  but  free,  inde- 


HO  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

pendent  culture  of  mind  from  within,  whereby  nothing  is  fastened  upon 
the  pupil  from  without,  of  which  he  has  not  formed  a  clear  conception, 
and  which,  therefore,  like  tinsel,  in  no  way  elevates  his  intensive  powers, 
and  by  which  the  scholar  is  never  made  happy  because  only  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  growing  power  gives  him  true  joy.  Inspired  by  what  is  noble, 
which  the  man  who  is  developed  on  all  sides  considers  the  essence  of  rea- 
son and  feeling,  and  by  the  elevation  of  his  purpose,  the  superintendent 
of  the  institution  has  made  it  his  goal  to  develop  in  each  pupil  the 
whole  man,  whose  inner  being  reposes  between  the  two  poles  of  true  en- 
lightenment and  genuine  religion,  in  such  a  way  that  he  may  unfold  him- 
self and  realize  by  clearer  consciousness  of  the  power  bestowed  upon  him, 
what  he  can  be  according  to  its  measure.  Science  is  held  in  no  worth  at 
Keilhau,  except  as  it  becomes  a  more  universal  means  of  awakening  the 
mind,  of  strengthening  the  individual,  and  guiding  him  to  his  highest  des- 
tiny; and  it  is  only  fostered  there  specially  because  in  the  limited  time, 
and  according  to  the  nature  of  the  human  mind,  there  is  no  more  certain 
means  of  culture.  But  that  all  knowledge  truly  serves  and  is  made  useful 
to  the  pupils  of  the  institution  for  so  high  an  aim,  one  soon  observes  in 
the  various  stages  of  their  acquisition  What  they  know  is  not  a  dead 
mass,  but  has  form  and  life,  and  is  converted  into  life  as  soon  as  possible. 
Each  one  is,  so  to  speak,  at  home  within  himself,  and  neither  the  small  nor 
the  large  pupils  have  any  conception  of  a  thoughtless  parrot-like  imitation,  or 
of  any  knowledge  that  is  not  clear  to  their  understandings.  What  they  speak 
of  they  have  observed  intuitively,  and  it  comes  from  them  like  an  inner 
necessity  and  with  decision  and  discrimination,  and  which  do  not  waver 
by  the  objections  of  the  teachers  until  they  have  themselves  been  persuaded 
that  they  are  in  error. 

Every  thing  must  be  thought  out ;  therefore  they  cannot  think  of  anything 
that  they  do  not  improve  upon  it;  even  the  dead  grammar  with  its  mass  of 
rules  becomes  living  before  them,  for  they  arc  incited  to  take  hold  of  every 
language  according  to  the  history,  manners,  and  character  of  the  people 
who  speak  it.  Thus  looked  upon,  the  institution  is  really  an  intellectual 
gymnasium,  for  every  individual  study  that  is  pursued  is  a  true  gymaastic 
of  the  mind.  Happy  the  children  who  are  educated  here  from  their  sixth 
year!  Could  all  schools  be  changed  into  such  educational  institutions, 
after  a  few  generations  a  more  intellectually  powerful,  and  in  spite  of 
earthly  sins,  a  purer,  nobler  people  must  be  formed.  Of  this  I  am  so  firmly 
convinced,  that  I  congratulate  my  fatherland  for  possessing  within  its 
borders  an  institution  that  even  in  its  present  development,  can  measure 
itself  with  the  best  in  our  borders,  and  whose  reputation  will  spread  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  Germany. 

With  deep  respect  for  the  Princely  Consislorium, 

Your  most  obedient  subject, 

May  6,  1825.  CHRISTIAN  ZEH. 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  m 

THE  UNITY  OF  LIFE. 

From  Dr.  W.  Lange's  Aids  to  the  Understanding  of  Froebel. 
This  word  (LebffMeiniffung)  was  always  in  Froebel's  mouth;  indeed,  he 
not  rarely  named  his  method  of  education  "the  culture  of  man  for  all- 
sided  unity  of  life  by  a  developing  education."  His  philosophy  set  out 
from  life  and  ended  with  life.  As  I  have  already  previously  endeavored 
to  explain,  he  looked  upon  the  universe  as  a  great  organic  whole,  which  is 
"pervaded  and  penetrated,"  "lightened  and  illuminated,"  upheld  and 
taken  care  of  by  the  spirit  of  God.  He  did  not  exactly  identify  the 
Divine  Spirit  with  the  life  of  nature;  nevertheless  the  immanency  stood 
out  more  distinctly  than  the  transcendency,  in  his  conception  of  God,  as 
Johann  Heinrich  Deinhardt  has  very  justly  remarked.  The  tree,  "tho 
rector  in  his  Gymnasium,"  had  taught  him  that  the  essence  of  an  organic 
whole  is  found  also  in  each  member  of  that  whole,  and  that  a  member 
must  be  comprehended  in  a  two-fold  manner:  once  in  its  independence, 
self-sufficiency,  and  exclusiveness,  and  then  in  its  dependence  upon  the 
whole.  Accordingly,  the  life  of  nature  and  of  man  was  to  him  the  life 
of  God  in  individual  form ;  in  the  life  of  the  people  he  saw  the  individ- 
ualized life  of  men,  in  the  life  of  the  family  carried  on  in  the  right  spirit 
he  saw  the  individualized  life  of  the  people,  and  the  individual  man 
appeared  to  him,  as  to  Schleiermacher,  a  "representative  of  humanity  in 
a  specific  combination  of  its  elements."  God,  as  the  final  unity  of  all 
living  things,  is  a  creative  being,  and  unfolds  the  infinite  contents  of  his 
being  by  the  stream  of  growth  and  self-development  which  continues 
to  infinity.  Development  is  the  outcoming  of  a  being  from  unity  into 
manifoldness.  The  child,  as  a  bud  on  the  everlasting  tree  of  life,  must, 
like  the  first  cause  of  his  existence,  shape  his  being  out  of  himself  by 
creative  activity,  and  must  be  so  guided  that  the  bud  may  throw  out  roots 
which  will  strike  into  the  everlasting  life,  so  that  stem,  leaf,  and  blossom 
may  arise,  and  so  that  in  the  fruit  of  his  doing  and  living  the  divine  and 
human  may  appear  again  in  its  unity,  that  is  to  say,  that  his  deeds  may 
spring  from  his  inner  being  to  the  honor  of  God  and  the  use  and  advant- 
age of  man.  Education  has  to  guide  him  so  that  he  may  be  conscious  in 
all  his  doing  and  striving  of  the  purest  motives  and  principles,  and,  above 
all,  so  that  he  may  feel  the  unity  of  his  disposition  to  will  with  that  of 
God,  who  can  only  will  the  good,  that  is,  education  has  to  lead  him  upon 
the  road  to  "union  with  God"  (Gotteinigung);  it  has  further  to  implant 
in  him  most  deeply  the  feeling  that  he  is  a  member  of  humanity  and 
can  only  truly  unfold  his  being  in  disinterested  service  to  it;  it  has  to 
give  him  the  impulse  for  the  process  of  "  union  with  the  world"  (Weltein- 
igung]  •  in  the  third  place,  it  has  to  guide  him  so  that  he  may  endeavor  to 
put  an  end  to  the  dualism  in  himself,  the  opposition  between  "flesh  and 
spirit,"  between  sensitiveness  and  sensibleness,  between  willing  and  per- 
forming, and  so  that  the  "law  in  his  limbs"  may  come  into  agreement 
with  the  "law  in  his  mind,"  that  is,  it  has  to  incite  him  to  "union  with 
himself"  (Selbsteinigung).  But  that  only  comes  about  by  his  being 
steeped  by  education  as  deeply  as  possible  in  the  life  of  nature  and  in 
truly  human  life,  that  is,  in  human  life  which  is  wholly  and  disinterestedly 
devoted  to  the  whole. 


1  12  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

In  order  to  expose  the  child  to  the  influence  of  nature  on  as  many  sides 
as  possible,  he  chose  the  different  mountain  valleys  of  Thuringia  for  the 
basis  and  ground  of  his  institution,  and  it  often  sounded  mystical  and 
strange  when  he  founded  his  choice  of  a  place  in  reference  to  the  pecu- 
liarities of  the  child's  life.  The  Schalathal  surrounded  by  the  dark,  rigid 
mountain  with  its  pine  woods  and  sterile  soil,  appeared  to  him  particularly 
suited  for  the  education  of  boys;  the  lovely  Marienthal  near  Liebenstein 
with  its  rich  vegetatfon  and  soft  heights  for  the  education  of  girls.  He 
often  exclaimed,  enthusiastically,  when  he  spoke  of  Marienthal,  "I  have 
now  found  the  place  for  working  out  the  last  consequence  of  my  funda- 
mental thought.  An  institution  for  the  culture  of  women  could  never 
have  succeeded  in  Keilhau.  Look  at  the  mountain  and  country  around 
and  feel  with  me  that  nature  will  not  have  them  there." 

And  how  he  appealed  to  the  life  of  nature  in  Keilhau,  from  the  begin- 
ning, as  a  co-educator  for  his  institution  for  boys!  He  opened  his  "  Uni- 
versal German  Educational  Institution  "  on  the  13th  of  September,  1816, 
in  Griesheim,  seizing  the  opportunity  which  was  offered  him  by  the  widow 
of  his  brother  and  three  orphan  nephews,  his  brother's  children,  requiring 
his  help.  In  June,  1817,  he  was  obliged  by  circumstances  to  transplant 
himself  to  Keilhau,  with  his  fellow-worker  and  bosom  friend,  William 
Middendorff,  who  had  already  come  to  his  side  in  Griesheim. 

But  this  pressure  of  circumstances  seemed  to  him,  according  to  his  own 
words,  the  expression  of  the  will  of  Providence,  for  nature  here  harmon- 
ized with  the  demands  of  his  ideal.  A  miserable  peasant's  hut  scarcely 
afforded  room  to  the  inseparable  ones,  and  they  were  obliged  to  help  them- 
selves in  this  respect  in  a  way  which  touches  upon  the  comical ;  but  nature 
opened  her  arms  to  them  joyfully.  With  the  little  band  of  five  nephews 
and  one  brother  of  their  later  true  fellow-worker,  Langethal,  they  ram- 
bled over  mountain  and  plain,  and  the  mountain-spirit  may  have  groaned 
when  Middendorff  bestowed  new  names  on  the  heights  and  fountains, 
names  of  the  first  impression  made  upon  him,  and  which  afterwards  really 
and  completely  thrust  aside  the  historic  names.  Indeed,  this  bold  troop 
cultivated  ground  and  soil,  smoothed  the  way  over  rugged  heights,  and 
created  mountain  resorts  which  afford  the  most  various,  the  most  charm- 
ing, and  the  most  magnificent  landscapes.  This  spirit  of  cherishing  nature, 
and  of  life  in  nature,  and  of  unity  with  nature  developed  in  consequence, 
Keilhau  has  retained;  and  if  a  malicious  critic  could  discover  nothing 
else  peculiar  in  the  institution,  this  spirit  will  breathe  upon  him, 
fetter  him,  and  inspire  him  under  all  circumstances.  So  a  short 
time  ago  a  Schiller  festival  was  celebrated  all  over  the  world ;  but  has  the 
"ideal  man  of  Weimar"  been  honored  anywhere  more  beautifully  than 
by  the  troop  of  boys  at  Keilhau?  They  were  obliged  with  great  trouble 
to  make  a  new  path  over  the  stoniest  part  of  the  Kirschberg,  to  cast  away 
fragments  of  rock  in  order  to  reach  a  beautiful,  quiet  place  which  lies  just 
opposite  the  Schiller  height  in  Volkstadt.  They  planted  flowers  of  many 
kinds,  in  the  newly-won  place,  and  at  last  the  Schillerlinde,  which  now 
grows  lustily  out  of  a  rocky  world ;  and  when  the  day  of  the  festival  had 
at  last  come,  they  ascended  the  newly-smoothed  path,  rejoicing  and  sing- 
ing songs  of  freedom,  and  the  youthful  band  heard,  in  view  of  the  favor- 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  j  j  3 

ite  seat  of  our  immortal  poet,  what  Schiller  had  been  to  the  German  peo- 
ple. Then  there  were  bonfires  and  mirth  of  all  kinds,  so  that  even  the 
gloomy  owl  thrust  out  a  friendly  face.  Indeed  and  in  fact,  nature  did  her 
duty  in  Keilhau  and  does  it  to  this  day,  and  it  has  always  been  felt  to  be 
true  what,  the  last  brave  associate  of  the  Froebel  Circle  said  to  me  as  an 
experience  of  life:  "Nature  first  wins  us  lovingly  and  exercises  its  full 
influence  on  us  when  we  take  it  under  our  care,  and  in  its  service  learn 
how  to  strengthen  our  muscles  and  nerves."  Froebel  certainly  carried  out 
what  he  knew  to  be  necessary ;  he  knew  how  to  steep  his  pupils  deeply  in 
the  life  of  nature. 

But  he  also  wanted  a  truly  human  life,  that  is,  one  which  is  wholly 
and  disinterestedly  devoted  to  the  whole,  to  have  its  influence,  so  he  first 
connected  himself  with  Middendorif,  then  with  Langethal,  men  whom 
he  had  learned  to  know  and  love  in  the  war,  to  whom  he  opened  his 
"  Idea,"  and  in  whom  he  found  a  ready  sympathy  and  genuine  enthusiasm 
for  the  cause.  They  were  willing  to  sacrifice  everything  to  the  cause,  and 
gain  only  so  much  earthly  good  from  it  as  appeared  necessary,  indispensa- 
bly necessary  for  a  frugal  life.  For  that  reason  the  number  of  pupils  was 
fixed  at  twenty,  and  upon  that  the  plan  of  the  educational  building  was 
drawn  up.  The  chest,  in  spite  of  this  small  number  of  pupils,  was  to  be 
open  to  all,  and  each  worker  was  to  take  from  it  according  to  his  need.  It 
could  almost  be  said  of  them  as  of  the  first  Christians:  no  one  had  any 
wealth,  but  everything  was  held  in  common.  But  alas,  in  this  circle  there 
was  far  less  of  the  "worldling's  lookout  "  than  of  the  "  enthusiast's  ear- 
nestness;" there  was  wanting  a  necessary  element,  which  first  came  later 
with  Barop's  entrance  into  it.  Even  the  delicately  cultivated  and  noble 
Henriette  Wilhelmine,  from  Berlin,  whom  Froebel  chose  for  his  wife  in 
1818,  was  not  able  to  supply  the  deficiency  that  existed,  but  rather  stood 
completely  on  that  side,  and  was  in  no  way  fitted  to  make  allowance  for 
the  practical  needs.  They  had  forgotten  in  drawing  up  the  original  plan, 
that  capital  was  necessary  for  building  houses,  and  that  with  their  very 
limited  resources,  the  moderate  income  could  neither  cover  nor  pay  an 
increasing  burden  of  debt.  In  this  way  they  soon  came  into  straits  which 
paralyzed  their  ideal  flight.  They  had  also  forgotten  that  a  time  would 
come  in  which  the  fellow  workers  must  think  of  founding  families.  They 
had  sacrificed  the  most  brilliant  prospects,  and  were  ready  for  every  other 
sacrifice,  but  not  ready  for  celibacy.  It  was  also  part  of  Froebel's  plan  to 
connect  families  with  his  educational  aims. 

The  increasing  distress  of  the  circle  seemed,  in  spite  of  the  worm  which 
\rfir<  gnawing  the  heart  of  the  tree,  to  be  ready  to  come  to  an  end  in  1820. 
At  that  time,  Christian  Ludwig  Froebel,  the  third  brother  of  Friedrich, 
left  his  lucrative  manufactory  at  Osterode,  in  the  Harz,  and  placed  him- 
self, his  family,  and  his  means  at  the  disposal  of  his  brother.  The  heroic 
deed  of  this  man  was  explained  by  the  fabulous  power  of  attraction  which 
Froebel  exercised  over  all  those  whose  inner  life  touched  his,  even  in  a  meas- 
uie;  also  by  the  character  of  Christian,  who  was  a  true  Cato  in  sentiment, 
and  dominated  by  the  most  ideal  striving.  He  was  now  to  manage  and 
to  supply  the  externals,  which  all  darkly  knew  to  be  a  great  need.  But 
a  personal  weakness  of  Froebel  allowed  this  experiment  to  be  wrecked. 
8 


J14  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

He  was  conscious  of  his  originality,  he  expected  in  all  the  same 
susceptibilty  for  that  which  animated  him,  and  therefore  looked  into  the 
future  in  the  most  pressing  circumstances  intoxicated  with  victory,  but 
alas!  he  did  not  recognize  himself  as  autocrat  in  reference  to  the  thought 
alone,  but  also  in  points  of  its  application.  He  did  not  give  himself  the 
trouble  to  inquire  into  the  peculiarities  of  his  fellow  workers,  and  to  make 
the  best  of  them  for  the  service  of  the  whole.  Differences  of  opinion 
often  appeared  to  him  as  the  promptings  of  self-seeking,  he  took  just 
blame  for  abuse.  Froebel,  who  sought  to  develop  independence  in  his 
pupils,  and  really  developed  it  in  them,  could  neither  recognize  nor  esteem, 
in  his  fellow  workers,  this  grand  attribute  of  character,  which  first  makes 
the  individual  a  real  man.  Thence  it  came  that  nothing  essenlial  was 
changed  by  the  entrance  into  the  family  of  his  brother,  who  soon  cast  his 
economical  superintendence  at  his  feet;  that  Henriette  Wilhelmine  still 
managed  unpractically  in  the  house,  while  the  family  of  her  brother-in-law, 
who  afterwards  made  Keilhau  great,  were  obliged  to  lay  their  hands  in 
their  laps;  hence  came  the  gradual  sinking  of  the  institution,  which  at  the 
end  of  twenty  years  reached  its  utmost  limits,  but  did  not  go  completely  to 
ruin.  For  in  spite  of  all  the  disappointments,  the  men  of  the  circle,  Mid- 
dendorff,  Langethal,  Christian  Ludwig,  lost  not  a  moment  in  their  endeav- 
ors, and  never  repented  of  refusing  the  most  glittering  prospects  and  all 
material  well-being  in  order  to  serve  the  "  Idea." 

The  "truly  human  life"  of  the  circle  was  thus  saddened  in  many 
ways,  and  Froebel  did  not  reach  in  this  regard  what  he  was  striving  for. 
Happily  for  Keilhau,  new  prospects  opened  upon  him.  He  went  forth 
into  the  world.  Middendorff  seized  the  helm,  and  when  he,  unshakably 
true  till  death,  was  called  to  Switzerland,  the  work  of  Barop  began,  who 
had  the  goal  firmly  in  view,  and  firmly  followed  it,  and  lifted  Keilhau 
completely  from  its  economical  abyss.  The  documents  upon  the  work  of 
this  man,  who  is  still  in  the  midst  of  a  far-reaching  activity,  and  was 
now  recognized  and  praised  highly  by  Froebel,  now  formally  abjured,  are 
not  yet  finished,  and  cannot  yet  be  finished.  Certain  it  is  that  he  and 
Middendorff  were  the  only  ones  who  practically  held  a  curb  over  Froebel, 
and  that  out  of  the  whole  circle  three  human  stars,  Froebel,  Midden- 
dorff, and  Barop,  take  the  precedence  as  Pestalozzi  did  far  above  all  other 
phenomena  of  their  educational  circle;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  these 
men  not  only  consecrated  their  own  powers,  but  their  whole  families  to  the 
service  of  the  idea;  for  Middendorff  and  Langethal  married  in  1826,  and 
Barop  in  1831.  They  also  left  wife  and  child,  as  I  have  remarked  in  my 
description  of  the  work  in  Switzerland,  without  murmuring,  whenever  it 
was  required  by  circumstances.  Truly  such  lives,  such  capacity  of  sacri- 
fice, are  hardly  to  be  conceived  of  in  the  present  times ;  the  sense  of  it  has 
been  lost. 

If  then  the  "unity  of  life"  of  the  families  of  Keilhau  found  imperfect 
expression,  it  still  existed,  and  alone  made  possible  the  work  of  Friedrich 
Froebel,  who,  great  in  creative  power,  was  small  in  administration  and 
government.  And  certainly  at  least  three  of  the  united  families  stood 
quite  out  of  range,  when  Froebel  complained  at  Blankenburg  on  the 
7th  of  January,  1838,  "  My  whole  life  is  a  battleground  between  the  uni- 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  ^5 

versal  and  pure  elements  of  humanity  and  the  special  disturbed  human 
element,  the  personal,  individual,  and  truly  selfish  striving  of  individual 
men."  This  battle  must  be  met  with  in  life,  and  must  be  fought  out;  but 
since  pure  humanity  has  its  source  and  its  sanctuary  in  the  inmost  recesses 
of  family  life,  that  battle  had,  of  necessity,  to  take  place  in  the  in- 
most recesses  of  a  family  which  is  striving  to  preserve  unity  within  itself 
and  to  manifest  outwardly  the  purest  humanity. 

In  spite  of  these  drawbacks,  the  Keilhau  circle  were  all  one  in  reference 
to  the  principles  of  education  and  instruction.  The  children  enjoyed  the 
greatest  free -lorn.  A  continuous,  intimate  communion  between  teachers 
and  pupils  exerted  a  deep  influence.  Love  and  self-sacrifice,  as  well  as 
independence  in  knowledge  and  action,  were  developed  and  strengthened, 
and  the  individuality  of  each  was  fostered. 

The  instruction  aimed  at  an  all-sided  stimulation  to  human  activity, 
receptive  and  productive,  especially  the  latter.  The  curiosity  of  the 
children  was  excited  by  giving  them  ideas  of  things,  and  bodily  labor 
was  called  into  play.  Thus  the  need  and  desire  for  explanation  and  in- 
struction were  awakened.  For  this  purpose  the  children  were  not  only 
kept  cultivating  nature,  but  taken  into  all  kinds  of  workshops  and  kept 
at  all  kinds  of  technical  representations.  It  would  be  out  of  place  here 
to  describe  this  kind  of  instruction  fully.  The  elements  of  many  things 
were  there  brought  to  light,  which  were  carried  out  later  by  other  persons 
who  now  have  the  credit  of  them.  For  instance,  Spiess,  the  reformer  of 
the  gymnastics,  got  his  fundamental  ideas  from  Froebel  at  Burgdorf, 
though  he  improved  upon  them.  Froebel's  one-sided  traits  prevented 
many  buds  and  blossoms  from  unfolding,  and  in  the  domain  of  instruc- 
tion even  came  forward  often  in  the  most  disturbing  manner.  When  the 
first  pupils  grew  up,  the  need  of  higher  scientific  instruction  showed  itself, 
but  almost  too  late.  Important  men,  Bauer,  fo  •  example,  later  Professor 
at  the  Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasiuni  in  Berlin,  whom  Froebel  had 
already  learned  to  know  in  the  war,  Michaelis,  and  others,  offered  their 
services,  and  wanted  to  devote  themselves,  like  Middendorff  and  Lange thai, 
to  the  united  efforts.  But  Froebel  would  even  interfere  where  he  had  no 
positive  insight,  and  in  this  way,  as  well  as  by  his  vehemence,  which 
hardly  bore  contradiction,  he  so  offended  these  scientifically  versed  men 
that  they  either  went  right  away  or  did  so  very  soon.  Middendorf  always, 
and  Langethal  for  a  long  time,  had  the  self-control  to  bear  many  griev- 
ances from  Froebel,  to  overlook  his  weak  sides,  and  in  the  service  of  the 
Idea  to  keep  constantly  in  view  his  mission  as  the  creator  of  the  spirit  of 
the  circle.  But  Barop  was,  after  all,  the  most  prudent;  he  accepted  his 
ideas,  and  then  acted  according  to  his  own  judgment  and  conscience, 
without  allowing  himself  to  be  disturbed  by  contradiction,  mourning 
inwardly  that  Froebel  was  not  always  in  a  condition  to  respect  and  sup- 
port what  was  individual  in  his  fellow-workers. 

I  have  already  told  what  was  accomplished  in  Switzerland  by  the  "unity 
of  life  "  of  that  one  family,  and  how  gradually  the  idea  of  the  Kindergar- 
ten arose.  But  there  was  need  of  a  greater  number  of  suitable  families  to 
carry  out  the  idea  which,  as  soon  as  Froebel  perceived,  he  immediately 
turned  to  the  community. 


116  FROEI3EL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

Progress — Interdict  in  1851. 

Owing  to  his  restle?s  and  itinerating  habits  of  work,  Frocbel's  institu- 
tions of  education  did  not  attain  to  any  considerable  local  reputation,  s%> 
as  to  attract  visitors  or  Press  notoriety,  nor  did  bis  own  publications,  set- 
ting forth  his  peculiar  principles  and  methods  in  didactic  form  or  in  an 
nual  programmes,  wake  much  discussion,  or  even  win,  by  their  style  or 
novelty,  the  attention  of  educators.  But,  in  spite  of  embarrassments 
inevitable  to  inadequate  resources  and  insufficient  assistance,  with  a  few 
staunch  and  appreciative  disciples  he  did  succeed,  after  thirty  years'  study 
and  experimentation,  in  concentrating  his  energies  and  developing  his 
educational  views  in  two  institutions — one  of  which  was  a  place  of 
domestic  and  general  education,  and  the  other  of  special  child  culture, 
with  much  prominence  given  to  training  young  women  for  the  manage- 
ment of  similar  institutions  elsewhere.  His  own  presence  and  that  of  his 
gifted  and  devoted  associate,  William  Middendorf,  was  welcomed  to 
Dresden  and  Hamburg,  and  other  places,  to  establish  Kindergartens  and 
interest  women  in  their  own  self -improvement. 

In  this  condition  of  affairs,  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  attract  the  atten- 
tion and  win  the  friendship  of  the  Baroness  Yon  Marenholtz-Biilow, 
whose  social  position  and  personal  influence  soon  brought  him  and  his 
work  to  the  notice  of  eminent  educators  and  government  officials  ;  and, 
in  1850,  it  seemed  as  if  henceforward  his  last  days  would  not  only  be  his 
best  days,  but  that  the  calm  serenity  of  assured  success  would  crown  a 
life  of  restless  and  apparently  unproductive  activity.  The  great  popular 
educator  of  Germany,  after  much  distrust  arising  from  imperfect  knowl- 
edge, had  endorsed  the  originality  and  immense  practical  value  of  Froe- 
bel's  Idea  and  Methods,  and  secured  for  him  and  them  recognition  in  peda- 
gogical journals,  circles,  and  conventions.  The  governing  families  of  Thur- 
ingia  had  manifested  their  interest  in  him  personally,  and  were  ready  to 
adopt  the  Kindergarten  in  the  early  training  of  their  own  children. 

In  the  midst  of  this  peaceful  and  successful  work  and  such  brightening 
prospects,  the  interdict  of  the  Prussian  Minister  of  Education  fell  with 
stunning  effect  on  the  Froebelian  circle,  shortening  the  life  of  its  founder, 
and  bringing  the  Kindergarten  into  a  disrepute  with  the  conservative 
classes  in  Germany,  from  which  it  has  not  yet  recovered.  The  Baroness 
Marenholtz-Bulow  has  told  the  story  with  simple  pathos  in  her  admirable 
Reminiscenses  of  the  last  days  of  Froebel — the  sharp  surprise  on  read- 
ing the  ordinance  of  August  7th,  1851 — the  haste  to  clear  up  an  evident 
mistake  of  person  and  aim — the  indignation  at  the  perverse  misunder- 
standing of  the  Minister — the  sickness  of  the  heart  wThich  comes  from 
hope  deferred  in  spite  of  the  tender  appreciation  of  those  who  knew  the 
whole  truth,  and  the  sublime  reliance  in  which  he  resigns  himself  to  tem- 
porary misconstruction  and  obloquy,  in  the  faith  of  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  the  right. 

The  ordinance  was  revoked  by  the  new  Minister  in  1861,  but  the  in- 
telligence could  not  reach  the  dull  cold  ear  of  death,  or  soothe  the 
which  had  ceased  to  beat  on  the  21st  of  June  1852. 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  117 


LAST   DAYS   OF   FROEBEL.* 

At  Whitsuntide  of  1852,  Frobel  attended  by  invitation,  the  Teachers' 
Convention  in  Gotha.  When  he  entered  the  hall  in  the  midst  of  a  dis- 
course, the  whole  assembly  rose.  At  the  end  of  the  discourse  the  presi- 
dent of  the  meeting  gave  him  a  hearty  welcome,  followed  by  three 
cheers  from  the  whole  assembly.  Frobel  thanked  them  in  a  few  simple 
words,  and  immediately  taking  up  the  subject  in  hand,  which  was 
"  Instruction  in  the  Natural  Sciences,"  was  listened  to  with  profound 
attention. 

After  the  Convention,  Frobel  was  made  specially  happy  in  the  garden 
of  a  friend  of  nature  in  Gotha,  where  he  examined  almost  every  group 
of  flowers,  and  happily  and  gratefully  acknowledged  all  the  good  things 
that  were  offered  him. 

In  the  kindergarten  of  Gotha  he  explained  the  intellectual  signifi- 
cance of  some  of  his  occupation-materials.  In  the  evening  he  took  part 
in  a  reunion  of  the  friends  of  his  cause,  although  he  was  somewhat 
exhausted  by  the  excitement  of  the  day ;  he  spoke  of  the  importance 
of  the  kindergarten  for  the  female  sex,  and  the  duty  of  teachers  to 
learn  to  understand  it  on  its  own  theory,  and  prepare  for  its  introduction 
into  the  schools. 

During  his  last  illness  (June  6),  his  repose  and  cheerfulness  never  left 
him  for  a  moment,  and  he  took  part  in  and  enjoyed  everything,  particu- 
larly when  flowers  were  brought  him.  He  once  said  on  such  an  occa- 
sion, "  I  love  flowers,  men,  children,  God  1  I  love  everything !  " 

The  highest  peace,  the  most  cheerful  resignation,  were  expressed,  not 
only  in  his  words,  but  in  his  face.  The  former  anxious  care  to  be  active 
in  his  life-task  resolved  itself  into  trust  in  Providence,  and  his  spirit 
looked  joyfully  in  advance  for  the  fulfillment  of  his  life's  idea. 

On  the  Sunday  before  his  death,  a  favorite  child  came  to  bring  him 
flowers ;  he  greeted  her  with  unbounded  delight.  Although  it  was  diffi- 
cult for  him  to  lift  his  hand,  he  reached  it  out  to  her,  and  drew  the 
child's  little  hand  to  his  lips. 

The  care  of  his  flowers  he  recommended  in  these  words :  "  Take  care 
of  my  flowers  and  spare  my  weeds ;  I  have  learned  much  from  them." 
And  in  his  very  last  hours  he  asked  again  for  flowers.  The  window 
must  be  opened  frequently,  and  he  brightened  up  visibly  at  the  aspect 
of  nature,  and  often  repeated  the  words,  "  pure,  vigorous  nature  " ;  and 
at  another  time,  "  Always  hold  me  dear,"  also,  "  I  am  not  going  away, 
I  shall  hover  round  in  the  midst  of  you."  He  spoke  much  about  truth 
to  Barop,  who  had  come  with  the  teacher  Clemens,  saying,  among  other 
things,  "  Remain  true  to  God." 

He  then  asked  them  to  read  his  godfather's  letter,  which  in  Thuringia, 
according  to  old  custom,  was  given  to  the  baptized  child  by  the  god- 

*  Reminiscences  of  Friedrich  Frobel,  by  Baroness  von  Marenholz-Bulow.  Trans- 
lated by  Mrs.  Horace  Mann.  359  pages.  Boston  :  Lee  &  Shepard.  Price,  $1.50. 


118  LAST  DATS  OF  FROEBEL. 

father,  and  contained  the  confession  of  Christian  faith.  In  some  places 
he  exclaimed,  "  My  credentials  !  my  credentials,  Barop  !  "  especially  at 
the  passage  in  the  confession,  "from  this  time  forth  our  Savior  will 
confide  in  thee  in  justice,  grace,  and  mercy."  For  the  third  time  he 
cried  out  aloud,  "  My  credentials !  "  at  the  words,  "  Let  my  son  hear  ! 
look  upon  and  hold  with  immovable  truth  to  thy  soul's  best  friend,  who 
is  now  thine."  It  was  as  if  he  would  say,  "  To  him  have  I  been  conse- 
crated from  the  beginning  of  my  life,  and  I  have  never  in  my  life  neg- 
lected this  bond." 

One  could  see  how  earnestly  his  Christianity  dwelt  within  him,  little 
as  he  was  ordinarily  accustomed  to  speak  of  it.  Thus  he  said  in  the 
Teachers'  Convention  at  Rudolstadt :  "  I  work  that  Christianity  may 
become  realized."  Another  time  he  said  :  "  Who  knows  Christ  ?  But 
I  know  him,  and  he  knows  me.  I  will  what  he  wills.  But  we  must 
hold  to  his  testament,  the  promise  of  the  Spirit."  He  repeatedly  admon- 
ished the  friends  around  him  in  Keilhau  "  to  preserve  unity,  concord, 
and  peace ;  to  lead  a  model  life,  as  one  family,  in  a  united  striving. 
Have  trust  in  God ;  be  true  to  life ! "  And  ever  and  again  he  ex- 
pressed love  and  thanks  to  those  around  him.  At  midnight  of  the  21st 
of  June  the  last  moment  approached.  His  eyes,  which  had  been  closed 
for  rest,  were  partially  open.  He  was  in  a  sitting  posture,  as  if  his 
wish  to  find  his  last  rest  sitting  up  was  to  be  fulfilled.  His  breathing 
became  .  shorter  and  shorter,  till,  at  half -past  six,  he  drew  two  long 
breaths,  and  all  was  still. 

So  quietly,  without  a  struggle  and  without  a  death-throe,  ended  a  life 
which  had  at  no  moment  served  selfish  interests,  but  was  devoted 
wholly  and  completely  to  humanity,  and  to  childhood  in  humanity. 

Middendorif  added  to  his  communication  about  Frobel's  last  mo- 
ments :  "  It  involuntarily  drew  us  who  stood  around  the  death-bed  to  our 
knees.  We  felt  near  the  consecrated  one.  Never  was  the  awe  of  death 
so  effaced  to  me.  I  had  felt  something  similar  to  it  at  the  death  of  a 
beloved  child.  Nature  made  her  last  struggling  efforts,  and  then  stood 
still  untroubled.  The  mind,  clear  to  the  last,  fervent,  joyful  and  lov- 
ing, went  home  like  a  child  to  its  pure  source ;  a  life  well-ordered  in 
all  directions,  united  within  and  without,  was  fulfilled  and  closed. 
What  he  loved  so  much,  and  so  often  gazed  upon  on  a  clear  evening, — 
the  going-down  of  the  sun, — he  himself  represented.  As  the  sun  sinks 
to  our  eyes,  so  sinks  to  our  eyes  the  light  of  his  being;  and  as,  at  sun- 
set, I  have  no  thought  of  its  passing  away,  but  only  of  its  receding 
from  view,  and  thereby  know  the  certainty  of  its  return,  so  I  felt  here 
in  sorrow  the  certainty  of  the  eternal  duration  of  life.  Yes,  true  is  the 
promise,  '  Death  and  lamentation  shall  be  no  more.'  As  he  often, 
when  plunged  in  meditation,  penetrated  to  the  light  of  a  new  thought, 
so  his  mind,  freed  from  all  limitations  and  absorbed  in  his  inmost  soul, 
in  his  own  being  and  life,  penetrated  to  a  new  existence, — to  the  light 
of  another  day. 


LAST  DAYS  OF  FROEBEL.  119 

"O,  what  stillness,  what  deep  stillness,  now!  Consecration  and 
holiness  breathed  around  me.  I  felt  joy  in  the  midst  of  my  pain  1  He 
who  stood  so  near  to  nature,  and  not  only  saw,  contemplated,  and  in- 
vestigated it,  but  who  was  sunk  in  it  as  a  child  in  purest  love  on  the 
breast  of  a  mother,— he  had  followed  its  teachings,  trusted  implicitly 
its  laws  and  holy  commands,  had  not  been  deceived  in  his  hopes ;  and 
how  it  had  rewarded  his  love.  In  his  illness,  he  had  been  as  quiet  and 
gentle  as  a  lamb.  He  scarcely  allowed  an  expression  of  pain  to  be 
heard ;  no  murmuring,  no  unwillingness,  was  perceived.  True  son  as 
he  was  to  Nature,  so  was  she  his  true  mother,  who  took  him  softly  and 
lovingly  into  her  arms. 

"  But  how  could  he  have  trusted  her  so  well,  if  he  had  not  clearly 
known  who  she  was, — if  he  had  not  known  who  inspired  her  and  pene- 
trated her,  who  governed  her  and  wrote  her  laws,  held  her  together  in 
unity  and  self-consciousness,  and  kindled  intelligence  of  her  in  the  hu- 
man mind?  How  could  he  have  been  so  serene,  if  he  had  not  known 
himself  to  be  a  son  of  that  Almighty  One, — if  he  had  not  recognized 
and  known  the  first  of  men  who  lived  this  unity  of  the  Son  with  the 
Father,  and  had  not  felt  himself  one  with  him  in  all  his  striving?  How 
could  he  have  been  so  cheerful,  if  he  had  not  carried  within  himself  the 
knowledge  that  the  consciousness  of  the  Sonship  of  this  only  One 
would  break  forth  by  degrees  in  all  sentient  beings,  arid  thus  the  con- 
scious unity  and  salvation  of  the  minds  for  which  he  lived  and  strug- 
gled would  surely  and  certainly  appear?  Therefore  were  his  last  words 
to  his  friends  the  prayer  with  which  he  closed  his  work  upon  earth, — 
'  God,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  Amen.' 

"  My  soul  was  full  of  thanksgiving  for  the  favor  vouchsafed  to  me 
that  I  could  close  the  eyes  and  bestow  the  last  cares  upon  him  to  whom 
my  dying  father  had  commended  me,  and  who  had  received  me  upon 
his  breast.  How  grateful  it  was  to  my  heart  that  it  was  my  duty  to  be 
so  near,  at  his  last  moment,  in  his  last  battle,  to  him  whom  I  had  ac- 
companied so  long  in  life,  with  whom  I  had  fought  the  battle,  with 
whom  I  had,  for  a  time,  worked  and  suffered  the  heaviest  trials! 
Chiefly  was  I  thankful  because  I  saw  this  life  end  as  it  had  begun, — 
because  I  saw  that  he  was  what  I  had  heard  and  believed  him  to  be, 
and  that  he  remained  wholly  in  unison  with  himself;  for  to  the  last 
moment  was  revealed  this  repose  springing  from  inward  concord, — this 
clearness,  truth,  and  unity.  As  he  himself  characterized  it,  '  One  must 
himself  perfect  his  life  to  a  ripe  fruit.'  And  so  his  life  dropped  as  a 
ripe  fruit  from  the  tree  of  the  life  of  humanity.  So  can  and  also  will 
be  fulfilled  what  he  said  :  '  The  age  of  ripeness  is  coming.'  And  again  : 
'  The  fragrant  flower  has  withered,  but  the  fruit  has  set  which  will  now 
ripen.  Behold  in  it  three  in  one, — the  connection  with  the  earlier 
time,  the  steady  advance  in  the  present,  and  the  seed  of  the  future.' " 

Of  the  burial-service  Middendorff  said :  "  The  bier,  adorned  with 
garlands  of  flowers  and  a  laurel  crown  made  by  the  wife  and  pupils. 


120  LAST  DAYS  OF  FROEBEL. 

stood  in  the  place  where  lately  Frobel's  bed  had  stood.  All  gathered 
round  to  look  once  more  upon  the  beloved  friend,  and  to  gain  an  inef- 
faceable impression  of  the  dear  features.  No  trace  of  pain  was  to  be 
found  upon  the  countenance ;  a  holy  earnestness  and  inward  cheerful- 
ness shone  forth  from  it.  It  was  a  look  of  introspection  united  with  a 
light,  blissful  smile.  The  countenance  showed  an  extraordinary  ten- 
derness. The  lips  were  slightly  open,  as  if  his  mouth  would  pronounce 
the  secret  of  the  other  world, — as  if  it  said,  '  I  see  in  light  what  I  have 
here  seen  darkly.  Believe,  follow  the  truth;  it  leads  to  freedom,  to 
bliss.'  There  is  something  striking  in  standing  before  such  a  counte- 
nance; the  soul  becomes  a  prayer.  We  sank  upon  our  knees.  'O 
might  we  all  die  like  him,  and  rest  in  the  grave  with  such  a  certainty  ! ' 
was  the  expression  of  one  of  the  bystanders.  The  bier  was  carried  out 
first  through  his  work-room,  where  he  had  labored  with  unwearied  in- 
dustry, often  half  through  the  night,  for  those  near  and  far,  under  the 
impulse  of  the  living  idea  in  himself  and  his  all-encompassing  love  for 
humanity ;  past  his  beloved  flowers,  of  which  he  took  such  care,  and 
which,  as  if  from  gratitude,  made  plain  to  him  che  highest  truths,  like 
his  yet  dearer  pupils,  the  children;  then  through  the  sitting-room, 
where  Pestalozzi  seemed  to  call  to  him  from  his  portrait, — '  Slowly,  step 
by  step,  will  be  laid  the  sure  foundation  for  the  temple  of  pure  human- 
ity,'— and  the  divine  Madonna  looked  at  him  as  with  thanks  that  he 
had  so  deeply  divined  her  heart's  desire,  and  shaped  it  into  deed  and 
love  for  all;  and  finally  through  the  lecture-hall,  where  his  scholars  had 
listened  with  rapt  attention  to  his  words,  w'hich  kindled  them  to  their 
high  calling, — where  strangers  from  north  and  south  had  thronged  to- 
gether, and  from  whence  they  had  gone  possessed  by  the  might  of 
truth.  As  one  said,  'He  does  not  preach  like  the  learned,  but  his 
speech  is  powerful ; '  and  many  of  these  have  widely  borne  the  seed 
with  his  motto,  '  Come,  let  us  live  with  our  children ! ' 

"  The  garlanded  bier  was  set  down  in  the  spacious  vestibule,  to  be 
strewn  with  wreaths  and  flowers  by  the  numerous  children.  All,  even 
the  smallest,  tried  to  show  their  love  and  gratitude  to  him  once  more. 

"But  not  only  children  carne;  friends,  known  and  unknown,  pressed 
forward  to  show  their  esteem  and  reverence ;  the  teachers  of  the  coun- 
try round  about,  one  and  all,  kindergartners  and  those  he  had  be- 
friended, came  even  from  a  great  distance,  invited  by  their  own  hearts 
to  that  solemn  day. 

"  The  teachers  united  in  a  solemn  song,  in  moving  tones.  Then  the 
train  was  set  in  motion  towards  the  churchyard  of  the  village  of 
Schweina. 

"A  heavy  shower  fell  while  it  was  on  the  way,  so  that  we  were 
obliged  to  stand  under  shelter  for  a  long  time.  Parson  Riicket  re- 
marked, '  Even  his  last  journey  is  through  storm  and  tempest.' 

"  When  the  procession  was  again  set  in  motion,  and  passed  over  the 
bridge  of  the  brook,  Ernst  Luther,  a  descendant  of  the  great  reformer, 


LAST  DAYS  OF  FROEBEL.  121 

whom  Frdbel  and  his  brother  had  educated  gratuitously  in  Keilhau,  out 
of  regard  for  his  ancestor,  said,  '  Thirty-five  years  ago  to-day  he  here 
led  me  by  the  hand  through  Schweiua.' 

"  The  bells  of  the  village  church  began  to  toll ;  it  was  so  earnest  and 
sacred,  as  if  these  solemn  peals  called  him  to  come  up  into  the  land  of 
the  blessed,  and  said  with  their  voices  that  the  night  had  passed,  that 
we  should  hasten  to  follow  his  onward,  conquering  banner,  and  build 
the  new  world  by  means  of  the  children  !  At  the  gate  of  the  church- 
yard the  teachers  took  the  bier  upon  their  shoulders,  to  carry  it  to  the 
place  prepared  for  it. 

"  The  newly  laid  out  churchyard,  situated  outside  the  village  upon 
an  eminence,  has  a  singularly  beautiful  location.  The  town  lies  half 
concealed  in  verdure,  at  the  foot  of  a  tower  which  rises  up  a'one,  like  a 
finger-post  pointing  to  heaven  ;  the  whole  glorious  country  lies  spread 
out  before  the  eye  like  a  living  picture.  At  the  left,  Altenstein,  with 
the  summer  dwellings  of  the  ducal  family,  stretches  out  its  high  hand 
with  noble  grace,  as  if  protecting  the  young  colony,  showing  by  its  act 
that  it  truly  reverences  the  cross  which  is  erected  in  memory  of  Boni- 
facius,  the  earliest  promulgator  of  Christianity  here.  Directly  in  front 
stands  the  old  castle  of  Liebenstein,  whose  name  has  a  good  sound  near 
and  far  for  its  healing  springs  ;  and  on  the  right,  shaded  with  iofty  pop- 
lars and  surrounded  by  green  meadows  and  waving  fields  of  grain,  with 
the  murmur  of  clear  waters  sti earning  from  the  rock  of  Altenstein,  the 
quiet,  lovely  Marienthal,  the  seat  of  peace,  of  untiring  work  for  the 
worthiness  and  the  unity  of  life,  consecrated  by  him  who  had  now 
come  to  this  spot  for  undisturbed  rest  and  harmony. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  storrn  and  the  rain  which  still  continued,  a 
large  part  of  the  community  had  assembled,  and  mothers  and  fathers, 
maidens  and  youths,  and  numerous  children  stood  around  the  open 
grave.  The  venerable  old  burial-hymn,  'Jerusalem,  thou  lofty  city,' 
was  sung.  Then  Pastor  Riicket  began  his  address  at  the  grave,  and  at 
that  moment  the  rain  ceased.  The  address  began  with  the  following 
words  : — 

" '  Up  to  the  lofty  city  of  God  soars  the  spirit  of  the  man  whom  we 
now,  grieving,  gaze  after ;  far  above  mountain  and  valley  it  soars  over 
all  and  hastens  from  this  world.  Loved,  honored,  admired,  praised  by 
some,  misunderstood,  misapprehended,  calumniated,  condemned  by 
others,  he  soars  over  all.  The  body  which  for  seventy  years  served  this 
rare  spirit  as  a  vigorous  instrument,  after  the  last  spark  of  this  richly 
active  and  remarkable  life  has  gone  out,  shall  now  rest  here  in  the 
churchyard  of  our  community,  which  with  pride  counted  the  great  man 
among  its  citizens ;  in  sight  of  this  mountain  which  he  not  long  ago 
climbed  with  eagerness,  of  this  house  of  God  where  he  celebrated  with 
us  piously  the  feast  of  Pentecost,  of  the  lovely  Marienthal  where  the 
noble  old  man  had  found  in  the  evening  of  his  days  a  peaceful  refuge 
for  his  philanthropic  activity. 


122  LAST  DAYS  OF  FROEBEL. 

<;  *  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord  from  henceforth,  saith 
the  spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors  ;  and  their  works  do 
follow  them.'  These  words  belong  to  our  dead  also.  ....  Yes,  this  is 
one  who  died  in  the  Lord.  He  has  lived  in  the  Lord,  therefore  he  has 
also  died  in  the  Lord,  sweetly  and  happily.' " 

The  following  passages  from  this  discourse  may  be  added  here : — 

"  The  fame  of  knowledge  was  not  his  ambition.  Glowing  love  for 
mankind,  for  the  people,  left  him  neither  rest  nor  quiet.  After  he  had 
offered  his  life  for  his  native  land  in  the  wars  of  freedom,  he  turned 
with  the  same  enthusiasm  which  surrenders  and  sacrifices  for  the  high- 
est thought,  to  the  aim  of  cultivating  the  people  and  youth,  founded 
the  celebrated  institution  at  Keilhau  among  his  native  mountains,  and 
talked,  and  planted  in  the  domain  of  men's  hearts.  And  how  many 
brave  men  has  he  educated,  who  honor  his  memory  and  bless  his  name  ! 
....  But  then  the  thought  came  to  him  that  the  educators  of  men 
must  imitate  the  creative  and  productive  divinity  in  nature,  which  pre- 
figures and  determines  the  future  plant  in  the  tenderest  germ,  shields 
and  protects  it  carefully,  out  of  the  smallest  and  simplest,  gradually 
and  step  by  step  develops  the  highest  and  the  noblest ;  that  the  body 
and  soul  of  the  tender  little  one  shall  be  brought  from  the  earliest  child- 
hood under  a  more  intelligent  and  more  careful  nurture  than  has  been 
done  heretofore,  when  children  were  sent  to  school  already  corrupted  in 
body  and  soul ;  and  that,  above  all,  this  loving  nurture  should  be  trusted 
to  the  tender  hand  of  women,  whom  the  heavenly  Father  has  created 
for  this  maternal  calling;  and  to  found  such  kindergartens,  and  to 
train  such  kindergartners,  was  henceforth  his  whole  endeavor,  from 
which  he  hoped  with  full  confidence  for  the  future  salvation  of  human- 
ity, and  the  deliverance  from  manifold  bodily  and  spiritual  ills 

"  To  this  high  aim  he  now  sacrificed  all  his  powers,  his  property,  his 
time,  his  repose.  And  perhaps  children  of  his  own  were  denied  him  by 
the  decree  of  the  Eternal  Wisdom,  that  he  might  not  be  bound  and 
limited  by  the  cares  for  his  own,  that  he  might  see  and  love  in  the 
poorest  human  child  the  child  of  God,  and  in  the  eye  of  every  child 
might  read  the  command,  '  Thou  shalt  take  care  with  all  thy  strength 
that  the  divine  image  be  not  defaced  or  distorted ;  thou  shalt,  with  all 
thy  gifts,  work  and  help  that  it  be  preserved  and  shaped  more  purely 
and  beautifully,  and  that  not  the  least  of  these  be  lost.' 

"  For  this  he  labored  now ;  he  moved  about  unceasingly  teaching 
and  working,  imitating  the  Master,  who  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head ; 
gathered  unto  himself  little  children,  and  laid  his  hand  upon  their 
heads  and  said,  '  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  For  this  he  labored  into  the  late  evening  of 
his  life,  and  thereby  the  venerable  old  man  himself  was  made  young 
again  amongst  the  playing  children.  For  this  he  lived,  for  this  he  suf- 
fered, and  regardless  of  the  cry  '  Hosanna,'  or  'Crucify  him,'  he  took 
his  cross  patiently,  and  bore  it  after  his  Master,  and  submitted  trust- 


LAST  DAYS  OF  FROEBEL.  A23 

ingly  to  abuse,  calumny,  and  persecution,  and  Christ-like,  pardoned  the 
deluded  ones  who  knew  not  what  they  did,  since  he  knew  well  that  the 
disciple  was  not  above  his  Master.  However,  the  mental  excitement 
and  effort  which  these  struggles  cost  him  contributed  to  break  up  the 

vitality  of  the  vigorous  old  man So  have  we  too,  among  whom 

he  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life,  learned  to  know  and  to  love  this 
guileless  soul,  this  pure,  childlike  nature ;  you  will  all  bear  witness, 
even  if  you  did  not  hear  his  last  pious  words,  this  our  dead  died  in  the 
Lord,  for  he  lived  for  the  Lord.  Henceforth,  lack  of  understanding 
and  misunderstanding  will  no  more  afflict  thee.  Just  souls  are  in  the 
hands  of  God,  and  no  pains  touch  them.  Thou  hast  now  found  peace, 
and  heaven,  which  thou  didst  foreshadow  among  thy  dear  little  ones  in 
the  vale  of  earth,  now  surrounds  thee  with  its  purified  indwellers, 

whose  image  our  innocent  children  are The  fruits  of  thy  toil 

wilt  thou  there  enjoy ;  from  the  abode  of  holy  spirits  thou  wilt  look 
with  transport  upon  the  plantation  which  thou  hast  founded  upon 
earth.  And  here  too  shall  thy  works  not  perish.  Works  like  these, 
instituted  out  of  pure  love  to  God  and  to  man,  without  selfishness  and 
ambition,  are  wrought  in  God  and  cannot  perish.  Thy  work  will  be 
continued.  If  thou  art  now  laid  to  rest,  others  will  rise  up  and  carry 
on  the  work.  The  seed  which  thou  hast  sown  will,  ripening  in  quiet, 
always  bring  richer  and  richer  harvest  for  the  salvation  of  mankind. 
May  the  earth  which  rises  over  thy  grave,  pious  soul,  rest  lightly  upon 
thee,  and  when  moss  and  turf  grow  gieen,  and  flowers  bloom  over  this 
heart  which  beat  so  warmly  for  its  brothers  ;  when  the  little  ones  with 
whom  thou  didst  play  shall  have  grown  gray,  then  will  posterity  bend 
its  steps  to  this  pleasant  burial-spot,  and  crown  it  with  garlands,  and 
some  strong  man  will  tarry  here  thoughtfully,  thanking  and  blessing 
thee,  and  the  spirit  within  him  will  say,  '  Here  a  great,  noble  heart 
rests  from  its  work ;  it  has  labored  for  the  earliest  childhood  and  for 
the  latest  future ;  labored  in  hope,  and  its  hope  was  not  lost, — his 
works  follow  after  him.'  " 

I  quote  again  from  Middendorff's  letter  : 

"  The  teachers  sang  the  song,  «  Rest  softly,'  etc.  Then  the  coffin  was 
lowered  into  the  grave,  which  was  filled  with  flowers.  The  heavens 
had  withdrawn  their  dark  curtain,  and  the  sun  shone  down  into  the 
open  grave.  I  stepped  forward  and  said  :  *  If  thy  ear  were  not  closed 
and  thy  mouth  not  dumb,  thy  lips  would  now  open  and  thou  wouldst 
exult  over  what  thou  hast  heard,  that  that  of  which  thou  wert  so  cer- 
tain has  already  been  fulfilled,  even  though  in  a  small  circle, — the 
acknowledgment  of  the  truth  proclaimed  by  thee.  .  .  .  Even  thy  last 
journey  was  through  storm  and  tempest,  as  has  been  already  said. 
Thou  hast  taken  the  storm  and  the  heavy  way  for  thy  companions,  and 
hast  reminded  us  what  journeys  thou  didst  make  through  thy  whole 
life  in  night  and  tempest,  and  what  heavy  ways  thou  hast  traveled  for 
us.  Thou  permittest  us  now  to  proclaim  the  not-to-ba-forgotten  truth 


124  LAST  DAYS  OF  FROEBEL. 

that  he  who  is  with  thee,  and  will  follow  thee,  must  be  ready  to  follow 
thee  through  storm  and  through  toil  and  hardship ;  must  be  ready  for 
what  thy  life  has  taught,  'Through  conflict  to  victory !'  Thou  hadst  not 
merely  the  courage  to  pledge  thy  life  in  war,  in  peace  also  hast  thou 
pledged  it  again  and  again,  and  joyfully  hast  sacrificed  all  to  thy  cause. 

"  Thou  didst  often  say,  '  I  like  the  storm  ;  it  brings  new  life ; '  the 
lightning  which  on  our  way  here  flashed  out  of  the  cloud  t-hall  remind 
us  that  the  darkness  which  still  obscures  the  time  can  be  rent  and 
illuminated  by  a  mighty  ray  ;  it  reminds  us  how  thy  words,  thy  in- 
spired action,  fell  like  a  fire-flame  into  the  dark  heart,  summoned  the 
sleeping  conscience  to  awake,  and  made  clear  to  itself  the  darkened 
mind.  Does  not  one  (the  descendant  of  Luther)  stand  here  by  my 
side,  who  feels  now  in  his  heart,  with  burning  thanks,  how  thou  didst 
lead  him  many  years  ago  in  the  path  of  a  worthy  existence?  Will  not 
many  of  those  present  confess  that  thou  hast  thrown  into  their  minds  a 
kindling  and  illuminating  torch,  hast  opened  up  to  them  new  ways  of 
culture,  and  hast  furnished  them  the  .means  of  turning  the  kindled 
thought  into  act?  and  for  how  many  maidens  in  the  night  of  an  embit- 
tered existence  hast  thou  lighted  the  star  of  a  better  hope,  and  cast  the 
saving  rope  into  the  dangerous  breakers  and  drawn  them  to  the  green 
shore  of  child-nurture  ?  .  .  .  . 

"Thou  callest  upon  us :  'You  are  my  last  witnesses,  be  my  true  dis- 
ciples and  heralds ;  be  the  true  little  band  which  shall  always  increase, 
and  which  the  greater  one  shall  join.  Think  of  me  and  my  words ;  He 
who  was  with  me  will  be  with  you,  and  will  give  you  courage  and 

strength  as  he  has  vouchsafed  it  to  me,  even  to  the  grave Thank 

me  by  silence  and  action,  by  a  deeply  penetrating  insight  and  a  united 
creative  practice.'  ....  There  stand  the  mothers  with  their  nurslings 
in  their  arms,  their  children  by  their  sides,  who  bear  witness  that  thou 
hast  smoothed  the  way  to  the  minds  of  men  not  only  by  the  fire  of  thy 
speech,  but  also  by  the  tones  of  song  with  which,  like  the  delicious, 
caressing  wind  and  the  fresh  morning  breeze,  thou  hast  imbued  the 
hearts  of  the  mothers. 

"  Now  a  song  I  had  written  for  the  occasion  was  sung,  which  was 
followed  by  the  sacred  hymn,  *  Rise  again,  thou  shalt  rise  again.'  The 
pastor  said,  as  he  threw  a  handful  of  earth  into  the  grave,  '  May  God 
grant  to  each  of  us  such  an  end  as  that  of  this  just-man.' 

"  As  the  bystanders  repeated  this  act,  Luther  cried  with  a  loud  and 
agitated  voice  into  the  grave,  '  I  thank  thee,  too.' 

"  The  scholars  threw  flowers  upon  flowers  into  the  grave  ;  one  took 
her  bouquet  from  her  breast  and  threw  it  in  ;  then  I  cast  in  my  song 
also,  as  the  last  gift. 

"  Mutually  consoled,  we  separated  quietly,  and  with  inward  confi- 
dence, to  go  in  our  various  directions  ;  and  over  the  minds  and  feelings 
of  all  spread  the  wings  of  an  exalted  peace." 


FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  125 

CONTENTS  OF  LANQE'S  COLLECTED  WRITINGS  OP  FROEBEL. 

VOLUME  I.—  Frederick  Froebel  and  his  Development, 1-642 

1.  Introduction  by  the  Editor, 1 

A.  Chronological  View  of  Principal  Events  in  Life  of  Froebel, 1 

B.  Critical  Moments  in  the  Froebelian  Circle, 4 

C.  Unityof  Life 14 

D.  Report  on  the  Efforts  of  the  Froebelian  Circle 22 

2.  Autobiographical  Letters, 32-153 

A.  Letter  to  Dnke  of  Meiningen, 32 

B.  Letter  to  K.  Ch.  Fr.  Krause, 119 

8.  Froebel's  View  of  Pestalozzi, 154-213 

4.  An  Appeal  to  our  German  People  from  Keilhau, 204 

5.  Principles,  Aim,  and  Inner  Life  of  the  Universal  German  Educational  Institu- 

tion at  Keilhan, 242 

0.  Aphorisms,  1821,  with  Preface  by  the  Editor, 

7.  Concerning  the  Universal  German  Educational  Institution  at  Keilhau, 284 

8.  Upon  German  Education  in  general,  and  the  Institution  at  Keilhau  in  particular,  291 
Appendix  of  Krause1  s  Judgment  on  the  foregoing  Essay, 311 

9.  Report  on  Institution  at  Keilhau,  with  Plan  of  Study, 322 

10.  The  Christmas  Festival  at  Keilhau,  1817,  364 

11.  Announcement  of  the  People's  Educational  Institution  at  Helba, 399 

12.  Froebel  at  the  grave  of  Wilhelm  Carl,  1830 418 

13.  Announcement  of  the  Institution  at  Wartensee, 423 

14.  Ground  Principles  of  the  Education  of  Man,  with  a  Study— Plan  of  the  Insti- 

tution at  Willisan, 428 

15.  Plan  of  Educational  Institution  for  the  Poor  in  the  Canton  of  Berne, 456 

16.  Plan  of  the  Elementary  School  and  Educational  Institution  in  the  Orphan 

House  in  Burgdorf,  1833, , 479 

APPENDIX.— Letter  to  Christopher  Froebel  in  1807, 524 

VOLUME  II.,  PART  ONE.— Education  of  Man,  and  other  Essays, 1-561 

EDUCATION  OF  MAN.— 

I.  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  WHOLE, 27 

II.  MAN  IN  EARLIEST  CHILDHOOD, 27 

III.  MAN  AS  A  EOT, 64 

IV.  MAN  AS  A  SCHOLAR, 89 

1.  Whatisa  School? 89 

2.  What  Should  Schools  Teach 96 

8.  Chief  Group  of  Subjects  of  Instruction,     98 

A.  Religion  and  Religious  Instruction, 98 

B.  Natural  Science,  and  Mathematics 108 

C.  Language,  and  Instructions  in  Language,  with  Reading  and  Writ- 

ing in  Connection, 158 

D.  Art,  and  Subjects  of  Art 178 

4.  The  Connection  between  Family  and  School,  and  the  Subjects  of  Instruc- 
tion Conditioned  upon  it, 182 

A.  General  Survey, 182 

B.  Special  Survey  of  Single  Subjects, 182 

a.  Culture  of  the  Religious  Sense, 190 

J.  Culture  of  the  Body, 200 

&  Contemplation  of  Nature,  and  the  External  World, 203 

d.  Union  of  Poetry  and  Song, 225 

e.  Exercises  in  Language, 233 

/.  Pictorial  Illustrations, .  245 

g.  Drawing  in  the  Net, 250 

h.  Comprehension  of  Colors, 266 

I.  Play 275 

*.  Story-telling, 277 

1.  Short  Journeys  and  Long  Walks, 282 


126  FROEBEL'fe  COLLECTED  WRITINGS. 

EDUCATION  or  MAN—  Continued 283 

m.  Science  of  Numbers, 289 

n.  Science  of  Forms, 303 

0.  Exercises  in  Utterance, 307 

p.  Writing, 319 

q.  Reading, ,  328 

r.  Review  and  Close  of  the  Whole 330 

APPENDIX  TO  PART  ONE.— Treatises  Upon  Different  Subjects, 337 

I.  ESSAYS  OP  THE  YEAR  1826, 

A.  The  Being  and  Destiny  ~f  Man, 340 

B.  Betrothal 341 

C.  Children's  Plays  and  Festivals, 353 

D.  Walking  and  Riding 358 

E.  The  Little  Child,  or  the  Significance  of  Its  Various  Activity, 384 

F.  Gnt  of  Child-life, 897 

G.  The  Science  of  Forms  and  its  Higher  Significance 413 

n.  Instructions  in  Science  of  the  Earth,  with  a  Chart  of  Schale  Valley,  462 

II.  THE  YEAR  1836  REQUIRES  THE  RENEWING  OP  LIFE, 499-56J 

VOLUME  II.,  PART  Two.— Papers  by  Froebelin  Different  Periods, 1-683 

1.  The  Double  Glance,  or  a  New  Year's  Meditation, 1 

2.  Plan  of  an  Institution  for  the  Fostering  of  Inventive  Activity, 11 

8.  The  Child's  Life— The  First  Act  of  the  Child, 18 

4.  The  Ball  the  first  Plaything  of  the  Child, 25 

5.  The  Seed  com  and  the  Child ;  a  Comparison, 47 

6.  Play  and  the  Playing  of  the  Child, 48 

7.  The  Sphere  and  the  Cube  the  Second  Plaything, 58 

8.  First  Oversight  of  Playing, 79 

9.  The  Third  Play  and  a  Cradle  Song, 82 

10.  Progressive  Development  of  the  Child,  and  Play  Developing  with  the  Ball, 110 

11.  The  Fourth  Play  of  the  Child, 127 

12.  Second  Oversight  of  Play, 150 

13.  The  Fifth  G'ft 154 

14.  Movement  Plays, 182 

15.  A  Speech  made  before  the  Queen  in  1839, , 223 

16.  Frederich  Froebel,  in  Relation  to  the  Efforts  of  the  Time  and  its  Demands,...  239 

17.  The  Children's  Garden  in  the  Kindergarten, 271 

18.  How  Lina  Learns  to  Read  and  Write 278 

19.  Spirit  of  the  Developing  Educating  Human  Culture, 320 

20.  The  Child's  Pleasure  in  Drawing, , 351 

21.  Directions  for  Paper-folding, ( 371 

22.  The  Laying  of  Strips, 389 

23.  The  22d  of  June,  1840, 415 

24.  Plan  for  the  Founding  of  a  Kindergarten,  and  Report  upon  the  Expense, 456 

25.  Appeal  for  an  Educational  Union,  with  the  Statutes  of 'such  a  Union, 484 

26.  Plan  of  an  Institution  for  Kindergartners,  and  Kindergarten  Nurses, 4C3 

27.  The  Intermediate  School, 501 

28.  Speech  at  the  Opening  of  the  first  Bflrger  Kindergarten  in  Hamburg, 523 

29.  The  Play  Festival  at  Altenstcin, 627 

43.  An  Intelligible  Brief  Description  of  the  Materials  for  Play  in  the  Kindergarten,  659 


WALTER'S  FROE3ELIAN  LITERATURE.  127 

PUBLICATIONS  RELATING  TO  FROEBEL  AND  HIS  SYSTEM. 

Under  the  title  of  "  The  Froebel  Literature"  Mr.  Louis  Walter,  teacher  in 
Dresden,  has  issued  a  pamphlet  of  197  pages  devoted  to  the  publications 
which  Froebel's  system  has  called  forth  in  elucidation,  attack,  or  defence 
since  Froebel  issued  the  Sonntagsblatt  in  1838. 

The  author  does  not  claim  to  have  exhausted  the  list  of  contributions, 
although  it  is  evident  he  must  have  had  in  the  Baroness  v.  Marenholtz- 
Bulow  the  best  informed  individual  and  in  her  own  library  access  to  the 
best  collection  in  the  world  relating  to  the  subject.  The  title  page  of  each 
publication  is  given  in  full,  with  brief  notice  of  the  contents  which  enables 
Mr.  Walter  to  classify  these  contributions  as  follows : 

1.  Written  from  the  medical  standpoint  to  the  number  of  16; 

2.  Do.  from  the  Philosophical,  17? 

3.  Do.  from  the  Theological,  8; 

4.  Do.  from  the  Scientific  and  Official,  8; 

5.  Do.  from  the  Pedagogic,  138; 

6.  Do.  from  the  Journalistic,  47; 

7.  Do.  by  women,  or  women  associated  with  men,  46; 

making  an  aggregate  of  335  treatises.  Under  the  5th  classification  is  the 
names  of  11  authors  who  are  connected  with  gymnasiums  or  Real  Schools; 
17  with  Teachers'  Seminaries;  30  with  the  Common  Schools;  6  with  In- 
stitutions for  feeble-minded  children;  and  24  with  practical  Kindergart- 
ners. 

In  addition  to  this  classification  Mr.  Walter  brings  together  the  authors 
who  treat  of  (1)  Froebel's  Life  and  Educational  Work;  (2)  FroebeVs 
System  of  Education ;  (3)  the  Kindergarten,  its  special  aim  and  field ;  (4) 
Manuals  of  Method;  (5)  Material  and  Equipment;  (6)  Music  and  Songs; 
(7)  Relation  of  Kindergarten  to  the  School,  School-garden,  and  School 
Shop;  (8)  Special  Features  of  the  New  Education;  (9)  Related  subjects. 

Mr.  Walter  gives  the  address  where  the  best  Kindergarten  Material  and 
Manuals  and  Froebelian  Literature  can  be  had  in  different  countries. 

The  last  chapter  is  devoted  to  a  list  of  authors  arranged  chronologically 
each  year  from  1838,  the  date  of  Froebel's  first  issue  of  the  Sonntagsblatt. 
This  list,  with  some  modifications,  or  else  a  new  bibliography,  arranged 
alphabetically,  we  hope  to  print  before  we  close  our  "Kindergarten  and 
Child  Culture  Papers  "  in  this  Journal. 

The  interest  in  Froebel's  system,  judged  from  the  publication  standpoint, 
does  not  die  out,  there  being  more  issues  (30)  in  1879-80,  than  there  was 
from  1838  to  1850. 

We  give  elsewhere  a  List  of  Publications  relating  to  Froebel  and  the  Kin- 
dergarten, which  are  accessible  to  American  students,  and  hope  hereafter, 
as  is  intimated  above,  to  make  that  list  complete  up  to  the  date  of  its 
publication. 

*  DIE  FROEBEL  LITERATTJR,  Znsammen  etellung,  Inhalts-Angabe  und  Kritik  derselben, 
von  Louis  Walter.  Dresden:  Verlag  von  Alwin  Huhle,  1881,  S.  xi  +  197. 

Mr.  Walter  is  also  the  author  of  an  interesting  volume  of  156  pages  devoted  to  the 
Baroness  von  Marenholtz-Bfllow's  labors  for  the  dissemination  of  Froebel's  System  of 
Education  and  Kindergarten. 

Other  works  are  announced  by  him : 

"  On  Diesterweg  and  Froebel"  ;  "Development  of  the  Froebel  Idea  in  different  Coun- 
tries "  ;  "  Froebefs  Place  iu  the  History  of  Pedagogy." 


BARNARD'S   CHILD   CULTURE. 

KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD  CULTUEE  PAPERS 

AND  SUGGESTIONS  BY  FBCEBEL,  PESTALOZZI,  FICHTB,  MONTAIGNE,  ROUSSEAU, 
BUSHNELL.  PAYNE,  AND  OTHERS.    800  pages,  $3.50. 

Contents. 

KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD  CULTURE  PAPERS, 1-800 

I.    Introduction  —  Miss  E.  P.  Peabody, 1-16 

Development  of  the  Kindergarten, 5 

II.  Frcebel  and  his  Educational  Work, 17-128 

1.  Memoir, 17 

2.  Autobiographical  Sketch  of  Home  and  School  Training, 21 

3.  Aids  lo  the  Understanding  of  Frfebel,  by  Lange,  Middendorf,  Barop,  Payne,  65 

4.  Genesis  and  Characteristics  of  the  Kindergarten, 81 

5.  Publications  relating  to  Frcebel  and  his  System, 127 

III.  Midde'mlorf  >s  Labors   for  the  Kindergarten, 129-144 

Memoir  by  Diestenveg, 129 

IV.  Marenholtz-Bulow  —  Labors  in  behalf  of  Froebe],  .    .    .    .145-280 

Memoirs;  Labors  in  Germany,  France,  Belgium,  Holland,  Italy, 145 

THE  CHILD  —  Nature  and  Nurture  according  to  Frcebel, 181 

V.    Ficlite  and  tlac  Congress  of  Philosophers  in  1869,    .    .    .  §89-336 

FroBbel's  system  and  Popular  Education, 291 

YL    International  Congress  and  the  Kindergarten,  1S8O,    .    .  337-368 

Papers  by  Fischer  and  Guilliauine 339 

Extension  of  Frcebel's  system  to  Primary  Schools, 333 

VIL    Child  Culture  — Early  Manuals  and  Methods, 369-400 

1.  ABC,  Horn  Book  and  Primers, 369 

2.  The  New  England  Primer  and  Saying  the  Catechism 375 

Fac-Similo  of  Edition  of  1776  — U  ebster's  Reprint,  1844, ?75 

3.  The  Petty  Schools  of  England  in  1659, 401-416 

Subjects  and  Methods  with  Little  Children, 401 

VIII.    Object  Teaching  — In  Gcrruan'Pedagogy, 417-448 

Historical  Development  and  Existing  Manuals, 417 

IX.    Kindergarten  WorCt  and  Papers  In  Different  Countries,  449-560 

L     FrcDbelian  Institute  —  Berlin, 451 

Schrader  —  Aldrich  —  Lyschinska, 451 

2.  Extension  of  Frcobel's  Sybtem  in  Switzerland, 473 

Madame  do  Portugall's  Paper, 473 

3.  Child  Culture  in  France  and  Belgium, 481-512 

Cradle  and  Day  Nursing  —  Infant  Asylums  —  Kindergarten, 481 

Intuitional  Instruction  in  Model  School,  Brussels, 497 

4.  Kindergarten  Mo^elnentin  England, 513-528 

5.  Kindergarten  Work  in  United  States 529-560 

X.    Reminiscences  of  Early  Kindergarten  Work, 537-560 

Maria  Boelto-Krause  — Autobiography, 539 

XI.    Frocbel's  Principles  in  the  Nursery, 561-576 

Miss  Peabody's  Lecture  to  Mothers  and  Teachers, 561 

Miss  Blow's  Lectures  to  Teachers  of  St.  Louis, 577 

XIL    Mother  Play  and  Nursery  Songs, 577-616 

Some  Aspects  of  the  Kindergarten, 598 

XIII.    Fr rebel's  Principles  and  Methods  in  Public  Schools,  .    .  617-652 

1.  Miss  Peabody, 617 

2.  W.  T.  Harris., „         625 

3.  Mrs.  Louise  Pollock, , 643 

XIV.    Kindergarten  and  Homes  of  the  Poor, 657-672 

1.  Mrs.  Horace  Mann, 657 

2.  Mrs.  Quincy  Shavi  's  Charity  Kindergartens, 657 

XV.    Kindergarten  Training  for  Artist  and  Artisan, 673-690 

Misj  Peabody  — E.  A.  Spring  — Felix  Adler, 673 

XVI.    Dse  of  Colors  in  Musical  Notation  — JD.  SatcJiellor,  ....  691-704 
XVII.    Free  Kindergarten  in  Church  and  Charity  WorK,  .    .    .     705-736 

Rev.  Heber  Newton  — Mrs.  Cooper— Miss  Vankirk, 

XVIII.    Hints    on  Early  Training, 737-764 

Bushnell,  Channing,  Montaigne,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Goethe,  and  others,     .         737 

XIX.    Building,   Grounds,    Equipment, 765-784 

SUPPLEMENTARY  PAPERS  issued  as  called  for. 


MIDDENDORFF   AND   DIESTERWEG. 


WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF  AND  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

Compiled  from  Lange'e  and  Diesterweg's  Notices  in  Pedagogisches  Jahrbuchfor  1855. 


MEMOIR. 

WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF,  who  in  all  his  working  days  was  associated 
with  Frederick  Froebel,  and  whose  name  should  not  be  divorced  from 
his  in  any  historical  development  of  the  Kindergarten,  was  born  in 
Brechten  on  the  20th  of  September,  1793.  He  was  the  youngest  child, 
and  only  son  of  six  children  born  to  a  peasant  family  in  Westphalia. 
The  local  surroundings  and  family  occupations  were  rural,  and  his 
were  all  the  inherited  traditions  of  genii  and  other  inspirations  of  such 
locality  and  homes. 

These  Genii  brake  the  woodland  paths 

And  speak  the  language  of  the  trees  ; 

Startle  the  birds  in  their  green  shades, 

And  watch  in  meads  the  browzing  kine. 

They  know  where  broods?  the  little  birds 

That  guard  their  fledglings  till  they  fly ; 

They  brown  themselves  in  sun  and  storm, 

And  know  not  human  speech  nor  love.—  Thleme. 

The  father  had  an  intense  desire  that  his  darling  son  should  be  qual- 
ified by  education  to  rise  into  a  position  of  higher  culture  and  influence 
than  his  own,  and  to  this  end  should  become  a  preacher.  He  soon  had 
caught  the  brightness  and  sweetness  of  the  natural  scenery  round  him 
as  he  tended  the  flocks  on  the  hills  and  followed  or  watched  the  kine 
as  they  browzed,  or  wended  to  and  from  their  wickered  sheds  night  and 
morning,  and  all  things  conspired  to  develope  the  poetical  side  of  his 
nature.  In  his  solitary  musings  on  the  impressions  which  streamed  in 
through  eye  and  ear,  "presentments  of  a  life  of  his  own,  and  of  the 
connection  and  union  of  all  things"  were  his,  and  in  this  ideal  he  ever 
afterwards  acted.  The  fields  and  the  uplands  and  hill-tops  were 
always  full  of  enjoyment  to  himself,  and  themes  for  the  instruction 
of  others. 

At  the  age  often  Middendorif  attended  the  gymnasium  of  Dortmund, 
and  resided  in  the  family  of  his  uncle,  the  father  of  Arnold  Barop.  A 
school  comrade  of  that  period  writes:  "He  took  rank  before  all 
others,  and  was  a  model  to  us  all — somewhat  formal  in  manner,  and 
terribly  orderly  and  conscientious."  His  uncle  had  destined  him  for 
the  university  of  Jena,  but  his  inward  promptings  (his  demon)  insisted 
on  his  going  to  Berlin,  and  go  he  did,  and  there  listened  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Fichte,  Neander,  and  Schleiermaeker,  and  ever  after  held  them 
all,  and  especially  the  latter,  in  the  deepest  reverence. 

In  Berlin  he  was  on  very  friendly  terms  with  Justinus  Kerner,  and 
especially  with  Gustav  Schwab.  He  was  introduced  by  a  countryman 


132  WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF. 

to  the  Counsellor  of  War,  Hoffmeister,  the  father  of  Froebel's  first 
wife.  In  the  Spring  of  1813  he  joined  Lutzow's  free  corps  in  Dresden. 
While  in  service  he  became  acquainted  with  Friederick  Froebel  and 
Heinrich  Langethal — the  former,  "that  strange  owl,  who  goes  his 
solitary  way  and  reads  something  strange  in  stones  and  plants."  He 
was  in  military  service  for  a  year.  Then  he  was  discharged  with  a 
reversionary  into  the  Iron  Cross  and  the  place  of  an  officer  in  case  he 
should  be  called  upon  again.  When  Napoleon  came  back  from  Elba, 
he  offered  himself  again  to  the  corps,  but  was  sent  back  to  his  studies 
by  the  influence  of  others.  He  returned  to  Berlin  and  became  private 
teacher  in  the  family  of  a  banker.  Langethal  was  at  the  same  time 
private  teacher  in  the  family  of  the  brother.  Friederick  Froebel 
received  an  appointment  to  the  Mineralogical  Museum  of  Berlin ;  he 
was  an  assistant  of  the  well-known  mineralogist,  Weiss.  The  friendlv 
relation  between  the  three  men  was  a  very  intimate  one.  The  plan  of 
founding  an  educational  institution  had  been  discussed  by  them  while 
in  service.  But  on  account  of  outside  obstacles  the  thought  still  slum- 
bered in  their  minds.  Then  Froebel  suddenly  vanished,  as  he  had 
received  a  call  to  Stockholm  as  Professor  of  Mineralogy.  His  friends 
knew  nothing  of  him  for  a  long  time.  At  last  he  wrote  to  them  from 
Griesheim  and  asked  them  to  come  to  him.  Middendorif  did  this  in 
1817,  against  the  wish  and  in  spite  of  the  weeping  prayers  of  his 
parents,  who  at  last,  calming  their  feelings,  dismissed  him  with  these 
words:  "Heaven  has  richly  blessed  us,  one  must  be  sacrificed  to  the 
Lord !  "  Langethal  soon  followed,  the  example  of  his  friend,  and  thus 
began  the  life  drama  at  Keilhau,  which,  in  its  trials,  had  a  closer 
resemblance  to  a  tragedy  than  a  comedy. 

In  1826  Middendorff  was  married,  and  was  blessed  with  seven  chil- 
dren. His  family  life  was  simple  and  earnest,  but  cheerful.  He  exacted 
from  all  its  members  an  unselfish  devotion  to  the  idea  which  the  found- 
ers of  the  Universal  German  Educational  Institution  were  striving  to 
realize,  and  would  tolerate  nothing  useless  or  self-indulgent,  not  even 
in  the  days  and  weeks  of  customary  reckless  recreation.  To  his  wife 
he  was  always  tender,  frank,  and  considerate;  and  his  children,  with 
W'hom  he  was  strict,  but  not  harsh,  he  put  into  the  path  of  free  devel- 
opment, and  they  always  regarded  him  with  great  filial  piety  and  tender 
reverence.  He  was  a  friend  and  example  of  order  and  neatness;  and 
diligent  and  earnest,  even  to  overworking,  in  his  eftbrts  to  realize  in 
the  institution  the  idea,  or  disseminate  a  knowledge  of  its  principles. 

He  was  intensely  patriotic  and  national,  and  to  the  German  Parlia- 
ment of  1848,  he  dedicated  his  treatise  "  The  Kindergarten — the  need  of 
the  present  time;"  and  when  the  scarcely  risen  sun  set  again,  he  did 
not  lose  courage  and  hope.  "Come  let  us  live  with  our  children,"  he 
cried  so  much  the  louder,  with  his  friend  Froebel,  and  when  that  friend 
departed  this  life,'  in  1852,  he  exclaimed,  "  Now  I  must  be  born !  " 

In  the  struggle  precipitated  by  the  Positivists,  he  declared  himself 


WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF.  133 

attached  to  that  which,  although  unseen  and  spiritual,  still  was  solid 
as  the  rock.  "Faith  sees  the  Infinite  as  the  Being  out  of  which  every- 
thing that  is,  was,  or  will  be,  proceeds,  even  our  own  spirits.  Faith  ia 
sensibility  to  the  spirit  of  creation,  and  holds  firmly  and  unchangeably 
to  the  Infinite,  which  is  an  immediate  intuition,  and  manifests  itself  to 
the  soul  as  the  architype  of  the  true,  the  right,  and  the  good.  Those 
who  would  imprison  the  spirit  of  Christianity  in  crystalized  forms  are 
the  worst  sort  of  Positivists." 

On  the  26th  of  November,  1853,  Middendorff  stepped  to  the  window 
to  look  out  on  the  fields  and  woods,  while  a  deep  snow  was  falling— 
"  Oh,  how  the  snow  enchants  me  !  "  and  then  returned  to  the  group  to 
which  he  was  giving  religious  instruction,  which  having  finished,  he 
stepped  again  to  the  window  and  said  :  "  See  how  nature  lets  everything 
apparently  decay  and  fall,  and  seem  to  die;  but  it  hides  the  new  buds 
and  the  new  life  for  the  coming  spring,  only  we  cannot  see  them.  So 
it  is  with  human  life."  He  then  played  cheerfully  with  the  children, 
and  spoke  in  his  last  instruction  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  sug- 
gested by  his  last  look  on  the  outer  world.  He  died  in  the  night  of  a 
nervous  spasm,  and  his  eyes  were  closed  forever. 

Middendorff 's  motto  was :     Be  transparent,  true,  and  faithful. 

SERVICES    FOR   KINDERGARTEN. 

I 

Middendorff  s  great  service  to  the  Froebel  idea,  was  in  his  unselfish 
devotion  of  himself  for  life  to  its  realization  in  practical  methods,  and 
the  magnetic  influence  of  his  oral  exposition  of  its  principles  in  private, 
and  occasionally  in  public.  His  few  printed  thoughts  are  not  of  much 
pedagogical  value. 

In  1848  Middendorff  published  his  "  Thouc/?tts  on  the  Kindergarten" 
which  he  dedicated  to  the  German  Parliament  (to  which  many  appeals 
had  gone  up  from  the  people  for  the  improvement  of  the  schools  and  of 
educational  institutions  generally),  and  to  the  beloved  children,  "  the 
budding  hope  of  the  people"  to  whom  his  whole  life  has  been  devoted. 

To  the  inquiry  "Why  must  the  Kindergarten  be?"  Middendorff 
shows  that  parents  generally  have  neither  the  knowledge  or  the  leisure 
to  look  after  the  early  development  of  the  child's  physical  and  mental 
faculties,  and  which  will  grow  in  some  direction  in  spite  of  the  indiffer- 
ence, ignorance,  or  perversity  of  parents  or  nuises.  Intelligent  parents 
gladly  welcome  the  trained  kindergartner. 

To  the  inquiry,  "  How  is  a  Kindergarten  carried  on,"  the  author  de- 
scribes briefly  the  whole  process  of  child  culture  from  the  baby  play 
and  song  to  the  later  occupations  and  the  Christmas  festival. 

To  the  inquiry,  "What  does  the  Kindergarten  effect  in  the  Child?" 
Middendorff  appeals  to  parents  to  come  :;iid  see  the  real  development  of 
the  whole  being.  Seeing  is  here — belit  ving. 

In  the  last  division  of  his  little  treat  ist«,  the  author  unfolds  the  necessity 
and  ways  of  meeting  the  higher  and  deeeper  social  and  moral  wants  of 


134  WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFP. 

the  poorer  classes  of  society,  in  the  right  beginnings  of  child  culture 
which  the  Kindergarten  offers  in  its  plays  and  occupations. 

First  Beginning  in  Hamburg. 

Out  of  the  stirring  year,  1848,  issued  numerous  projects  of  social 
and  national  reform,  in  some  of  which  German  women  participated, 
particularly  in  the  commercial  city  of  Hamburg.  Among  other  forms 
of  this  activity  was  the  German  Catholic  Congregation,  to  which 
George  Weigert  was  attached  as  the  religious  teacher.  This  society 
had  turned  its  attention  to  Friederich  Froebel,  who  had,  in  various 
ways,  appealed  to  women  as  the  true  educators  of  the  race,  whose 
mission  it  was  to  clear  the  path  for  their  own  emancipation,  and  the 
elevation  of  humanity  by  a  new  education  which  should  take  hold  of 
the  child  in  the  cradle  and  in  the  age  of  impressions  when  impressions 
are  deepest  and  most  lasting.  To  Froebel  an  invitation  was  extended 
to  spend  six  months  in  Hamburg  to  give  lectures,  found  Kindergartens, 
and  train  suitable  persons  to  conduct  the  same. 

In  some  complication  of  affairs  growing  out  of  the  engagement  with 
Carl  Froebel,  to  establish  a  Girl's  High  School  in  Hamburg,  Miclden- 
dorff  became  personally  known  to  the  committee  charged  with  that 
movement,  and  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to  his  daughter,  in  September, 
1849,  was  invited  to  address  the  "Woman's  Union,  to  which  known 
friends,  doubters,  and  opposers  of  the  new  education  were  invited. 
When  he  closed  his  address  all  present  were  fused  by  his  fervid  elo- 
quence, and — borne  on  the  stream  of  his  flowing  narrative  of  work  done 
at  Keilhau,  and  clear  statement  of  principles  and  glowing  anticipations 
of  good  from  the  general  and  earnest  enlistment  of  women  in  the 
work  of  their  own  emancipation,  the  ennobling  of  the  family  state,  and 
the  elevation  of  humanity — were  united  in  a  common  feeling  and  pur- 
pose. On  the  evening  of  the  23d  following  Middendorff  spoke  again 
for  two  hours  on  the  same  themes  to  a  numerous  audience,  with  the 
same  results,  and  when  Froebel  came,  the  way  was  open  for  him  to 
begin  his  work. 

If  the  immediate  results  in  founding  Kindergartens  were  not  as 
marked  as  was  anticipated  by  some  of  the  original  movers,  this  may 
l)e  attributed  partly  to  the  absorption  of  a  portion  of  the  interest 
awakened  by  Middendorf  which  was  personal  to  himself,  by  the  Girl's 
High  School  movement;  and  partly  to  the  delays  in  the  growth  of  any 
institution,  which  depends  on  the  cooperation  of  many  independent 
agencies  acting  from  different  standpoints,  and  to  the  conflicting  claims 
of  other  interests.  One  thing  is  certain,  out  of  this  purely  accidental 
but  always  identically  harmonious  aimed  labor  of  the  two  friends,  the 
Kindergarten  work  was  begun  in  Hamburg,  and  out  of  that  beginning 
in  1849  has  flowed  a  mighty  stream  of  influence  which  has  disseminated 
the  Froebel  idea  to  many  countries. 


WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF.  135 

CHARACTERISTIC  TRAITS.     BY  DR.  DIESTERWEG. 

The  loved  and  lost  we  see  no  more, 
But  their  glorious  light  we  &ee, 
Shining  from  the  other  shore. 

With  these  words  of  Goethe*  I  introduce  the  following  tribute  to 
the  characteristic  traits  of  William  Middendorff.  Whoever  knew 
him  will  not  soon  forget  him ;  whoever  came  into  his  sphere  was 
illuminated  by  the  warmth  and  light  which  radiated  from  him; 
from  many  the  benign  influence  has  not  yet  passed  away.  To  speak 
figuratively,  he  was  a  star  that  gratefully  absorbed  into  itself  the 
light  of  other  stars ;  but  he  shone  also  with  his  own  radiance. 

A  monument  to  Friedrich  Froebel  has  been  placed  upon  his 
grave,  on  the  hill  above  Marienthal,  in  the  beautiful  church-yard  that 
stands  over  the  little  city  of  Schweina,  where  the  view  of  the  castle 
of  Altenstein  and  the  ruins  of  Liebenstein  enchants  the  traveler. 
The  monument  represents  the  cube,  cylinder,  and  ball,  the  ground 
symbol  of  Froebel's  intuition — and  is  hewn  out  of  sandstone.  A  per- 
ishable monument !  still  it  was  excellently  devised  by  Middendorff. 
But  what  need  have  men  of  the  inner  being  of  outward  tokens  of 
honor  during  their  life  time,  or  outward  monuments  after  their  death  ? 
Monuments  are  erected  to  the  heroes  of  war ;  these  men  have  made 
themselves  an  imperishable  monument — if  anything  is  imperishable 
in  this  world — in  the  hearts  of  men.  The  divine  discovery  of  Johann 
Guttenberg  offers  itself  as  a  fitting  means  of  relating  to  their  co- 
temporaries  and  successors  the  life  of  these  noble  friends  of  men. 
These  words  have  this  aim.  May  they  find  a  receptive  ear  and  heart ! 

As,  according  to  Niebuhr's  remarks,  at  the  death  of  an  honorable 
man  in  old  Rome,  there  was  not  a  sorrowful  voice,  but  all  took  pains 
to  honor  his  memory  and  to  make  known  to  a  wide  circle  his  services 
to  his  country  and  to  life,  together  with  his  other  virtues,  so  we,  late 
minstrels  of  the  dead  (Epigoni),  will  do  with  our  dead.  An  hon- 
orable remembrance  is  all  we  have  to  offer  them.  If  further  we  are 
excited  to  emulate  them,  their  influence  extends  beyond  the  limits  of 
their  immediate  activity.  I  have  nothing  to  say  of  Middendorff  but 
what  is  good  and  noble.  Indifferent  readers  might  suspect  that  I  am 
covering  up  or  concealing  weaknesses,  exaggerating  virtues,  and, 
instead  of  giving  historical  traits,  delivering  a  panegyric.  It  is 
not  so ;  the  truth  is  everything  with  me,  but  I  have  perceived  nothing 
blameworthy  in  Middendorff.  I  do  not  think  it  useful  to  create 

*Was  vergangen,  kehrt  nicht  wieder ; 
Doch  was  leuchtend  ging  hernieder, 
Letichtet  langc  noch  zuriick.— Gothe. 

Dieeterweg's  Piidagogisches  Jahrbuch  for  1855. 


136  WILLIAM  MIDDEXDORFF. 

beings  of  ideal  perfection  at  the  expense  of  truth ;  but  it  would  be 
still  more  objectionable  to  hunt  up  weaknesses,  if  they  did  not  pre- 
sent themselves.  Of  Middendorff  it  may  truly  be  said,  "  He  was  a 
man  whose  steps  may  be  followed,  but  whose  place  no  man  can  fill." 

Lange,  in  his  representation,  does  not  disclaim  the  sentiment  of  a 
son-in-law,  or  daughter's  husband,  but  far  from  falling  into  the  rhe- 
torical tone  of  the  flatterer,  he  speaks  only  the  language  of  a  grate- 
ful son  and  of  just  veneration  for  a  man  who  was  not  only  his 
father,  but  his  friend  and  teacher.  Indeed,  I  am  sure  that  he  is  so 
careful  not  to  excite  the  opinion  that  he  has  said  too  much,  that  he 
holds  back  some  information  which  I,  who  was  not  connected  with 
Middendorff  by  the  ties  of  relationship,  but  only  (only,  do  I  say  ?) 
of  spiritual  friendship,  have  undertaken  to  add.  I  speak,  of  course, 
not  in  the  name  of  another,  but  in  my  own  name. 

But  before  I  proceed  I  must,  for  the  right  estimate  of  the  stand- 
point which  I  take  in  such  a  representation  of  another's  life,  repeat 
a  saying  of  Wieland's,  which  he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Diogenes  of 
Synope:  "A  small  mind  perceives,  in  the  narrow  circle  which  he 
describes  with  his  nose,  the  smallest  motes.  Hence  the  readiness 
with  which  Lilliputian  minds  are  so  much  too  active  in  perceiving 
little  spots  or  little  faults,  while  they  are  incapable  of  being  touched 
by  the  beauty  of  a  whole  character.  They  do  not  consider  that  this 
sharp-sightedness  for  trifles  is  nothing  but  a  childish  trait,  and  that 
through  their  own  inability  to  take  in  a  whole  and  judge  it  correctly, 
they  lack  one  of  the  most  essential  advantages  by  which  a  man  may 
be  discriminated  from  a  creature  in  leading-strings." 

Unquestionably  Froebel  and  Middendorff  were  both  interest'ng  men 
and  belonged  to  this  category.  Both  friends,  whose  friendship  began  in 
Liizow's  free  corps  and  lasted  through  life,  were  pupils,  esteemed  dis- 
ciples of  Pestalozzi;  Froebel  was  his  immediate  pupil.  *•  The  disciple 
is  not  above  the  master,"  but  the  disciple  works  in  the  spirit  of  the 
master,  else  he  does  not  deserve  that  title  of  honor.  Rich  is  the  creative 
power  of  the  master  of  the  world,  but  yet  it  seems,  at  times,  that  this 
power — ceases  to  act,  who  could  think  that ! — manifests  itself  in  other 
ways.  Thus  the  spirit  of  Pestalozzi  seems  to  vanish.  Perhaps  the 
men  named  were  the  last  of  his  true  pupils.  That  would  be  a  matter 
of  regret,  for  the  spirit  of  Pestalozzi  was  the  spirit  of  true  ideality, 
and  yet  (or  was  it  just  for  that  reason)  the  spirit  of  true  love  for 
the  people,  the  lowly-born  and  the  poor,  the  spirit  of  true  pedagogy. 
We  have,  as  teachers,  the  same  right  as  other  professions.  There- 
fore, in  modesty,  we  call  the  last  century  pedagogically  the  century 
of  Pestalozzi,  just  as  men  in  general  speak  of  the  century  of  Alex- 


WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF.  j  3  7 

ander,  of  Charles  the  Great,  of  Frederick  II.  With  Pestalozzi,  our 
two  friends  shaved  a  similar  fate,  poverty  and  misunderstanding. 
Like  him,  they  fought  all  their  lives  with  the  want  of  surfi.  ient 
means,  arid  their  purest  purposes  were  not  spared  mistrust  and  con- 
tempt. Whoever  is  desirous  of  material  treasures  mu.-t  not  choose 
the  path  of  the  teacher,  who  verifies  the  proverb  uttered  three  thou- 
sand years  ago,  "  Whoever  will  teach  much,  must  suffer  mu-h." 
The  pedagogue  must  net  expect  to  see  outward  results  but  so  much 
more  is  it  our  duty  to  acknowledge  what  the  true  pedagogue  h-ts 
done,  to  support  him  with  aU  our  power,,  and  be  true  to  his  memory 
i'i  our  hearts.  Good  men  often  shake  off  the  gra'eful  memory  of 
men  to  whom  they  owe  their  knowledge  and  ins:ght 

In  the  spring  of  1849  I  met  with  Froebel ;  in  ihe  autumn  of  the 
same  year  with  Middendorff.  The  meeting  wiih  these  two  closely- 
united  friends  I  look  upon  as  the  la>t  happy  event  of  my  teaching 
life.  Like  the  dew-drops,  in  every  one  of  which  the  corporeal  eye 
of  creation,  the  sun,  mirrors  itself,  but  each  in  its  own  way:  so  the 
spirit  of  true  prdagogy  mirrored  itself  in  those  men,  characteristically 
in  each  (which  is  a  token  of  their  truth  to  nature). 

I  have  spoken  of  Froebel  in  the  "Pedagogic  year-book  for  1851,'' 
and  often  in  the  "-Rhein.  Blatter  ;"  but  one  cannot  speak  of  Mid- 
dendorff without  speaking  of  Froebel ;  they  belong  together.  But 
here  Middendorff  stands  in  the  foreground. 

What  I  have  to  say  of  him  I  write  with  renewed  deep  sorrow 
over  the  unexpected  loss  of  that  man,  I  say,  although  the  word  is 
not  satisfactory ;  but  alas !  I  know  of  no  word  that  will  distinctly 
express  the  nature  of  Middendorff's  being.  There  is  no  word,  as 
there  are  no  symbols  for  a  richly-endowed  nature,  a  manifoldly-culti- 
vated personality,  for  a  uniform  combination  of  rare  excellences. 
These  peculiarities  present  themselves  to  every  one  who  knew  Mid- 
dendorff. I  shall  be  accused  of  extravagance  in  what  I  shall  say 
further  of  him,  but  it  cannot  be  help-  d.  I  must  rather  add  that  my 
words  do  not  satisfy  me;  the  impression  I  carry  away  of  him  is  not 
to  be  represented  in  words,  so  I  do  not  think  of  trying  for  any;  I 
write  unsatisfactory,  cold  words  of  the  man  in  whom  has  appeared 
to  me  thus  far  the  noblest,  most  rounded  personality  that  I  have  had 
the  happiness  of  beholding.  Middendorff  was  a  God-like  man. 

If  one  wishes  to  praise  a  teacher,  one  ascribes  these  and  those 
qualities  to  him,  and  rejoices  in  them ;  and  if  one  is  praising  a  man, 
one  will  say  that  he  is  sincere  and  true,  upright  and  without  blemish, 
friendly  and  grateful,  and  worthy  of  recognition,  but,  thank  God,  not 
of  uncommon  virtue;  but  these  and  those  qualities  do  not  reach 


]38  WILLIAM  MIDDENDORPP. 

Middendorff.  He  stood  outside  the  limits  of  every  thing  common. 
He  moved  like  an  ordinary  man  among  ordinary  men ;  there  was 
nothing  peculiar  in  his  manners,  but  what  and  how  he  was  was  a 
thing  of  the  rarest  kind.  Of  the  men  I  have  known  in  life  I  can 
place  no  one  by  the  side  of  him  in  respect  to  the  oneness  and  indi- 
vidually-personal perfection  of  his  nature.  TVhoever  reads  this  will 
think  of  Friedrich  Froebel,  and  will  perhaps  remember  what  I  have 
said  of  him.  I  remember  how  Middendorff  looked  up  to  him  as 
already  far  superior  to  himself,  and  it  is  true  he  was  more  rich  in 
invention,  more  creative,  more  full  of  genius,  than  Middendorff;  but 
in  respect  to  the  oneness  of  the  whole  being,  to  visible,  palpable, 
obvious  ingenuousness  and  devoiion,  and  purity  of  heart  and  soul,  I 
place  no  one  over — I  place  no  one  near  Middendorff. 

He  is  gone,  he  is  lost  to  us ;  and  therefore  1  can  speak  of  him, 
What  would  the  man  say,  if  here,  in  his — what  shall  I  say  ?  in  his 
innocence,  in  his  simplicity,  in  his  maiden  modesty,  if  he  should 
know  that  any  one  spoke  of  him  thus  ?  He  would  glow  with  anger, 
as  I  have  seen  him  do,  but  the  capacity  for  that  I  look  upon  in  him 
as  a  high  one ;  he  was  a  chiM,  and  apain  no  child ;  a  child  in  inno- 
cence and  purity  of  heart,  but  al-o  a  man,  and  at  the  right  time  a 
most  commanding  and  powerful  man.  But  I  cannot  go  on  thus ;  I 
must  control  myself ;  I  must  relate  individual  traits. 

There  is  a  science  of  physiognomy ;  one  can  recognize  the  essen- 
tial nature  of  a  man  in  the  build  of  his  body,  in  his  walk,  his  atti- 
tudes, in  the  shape  (f  his  head,  in  his  mien — I  mean  the  incommun- 
icable, direct  conception  of  the  most  profound  and  peculiar  quality 
of  a  man.  The  capacity  for  it  is  peculiar  only  to  men  of  simple 
and  sincere  nature ;  only  in  a  pure  mirror  can  be  seen  a  true  picture 
of  objects.  So-called  connoisseurs  of  men,  the  worldly-wise  men,  are 
far  removed  from  it.  They  deceive  themselves  in  all  the  routine  of 
which  they  boast ;  they  have  no  touchstone  for  simple,  grand  natures. 

By  such  natures  we  can  test,  exalt,  and  strengthen  the  degiee 
which  we  have  had  the  happin  ss  to  po-sess  of  this  touch>toi;e  of 
character.  Middendorff  was  pecularly  fitted  for  this.  His  appear- 
ance wholly  and  purely  proclaimed  l.is  nature,  the  very  es-ence  of 
the  man.  Other  men,  too,  have  an  expression  of  spirituality  and 
sensibility  in  their  countenances.  Middendorff's  face  was  transfig- 
ured. In  his  eye  there  lay  something  win  h  it  is  difficult  to  describe; 
H  can  only  be  indicated  when  I  say  there  was  something  supernatural 
in  it.  In  his  daughter's  eye  it  is  found  again.  If  one  should  say  a 
large,  beaming  eye,  of  spiritual  yet  mild  brilliancy,  expressive  of 
greatness  of  soul,  showing  love,  devotion,  friendship,  ai.d  trust,  all 


WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF.  139 

that  is  true  of  him,  but  still  it  does  not  indicate  the  peculiar  quality. 
We  come  nearer  to  it  if  we  remember  a  wide-open  pupil  yielding 
itself  to  a  pure  conception  of  the  world,  and  of  men — who  has  seen 
it  otherwise — when  he  thinks  of  and  portrays  to  himself  the  spirit- 
uality of  expression  in  pictures  of  prophets  and  s»  ers,  as — to  mention 
no  higher  example — Socrates  must  have  looked  when  he  received 
communications  from  his  demon. 

That  Middendorflf,  like  every  man  penetrated  with  deep  sensibility 
to  the  inner  meaning  of  things,  aod  to  the  understanding  of  himself 
and  the  recognition  of  the  duties  of  life  obligatory  upon  him,  had 
his  demon,  and  received  communications  from  it  and  followed  its 
warnings,  was  certain.  Lange  has  expressed  it  already.  It  was 
seen  in  the  mirror  of  his  eye ;  the  intrinsic  tone  of  his  voice  pro- 
claimed it  to  every  one  who  had  the  ear  for  it ;  the  confessions  which 
his  intimate  fiiends  received  from  him  in  confidential  conversation 
confirmed  it  (his  voice  then  took  a  peculiar  elevated  tone,  and  yet  a 
lower  key)  ;  and  this  peculiarity  of  the  man  drew  children  to  him 
with  an  indescribab'e  charm,  and  fettered  them  to  his  side. 

He  was,  like  Salzmann,  certain  of  the  immediate  guiding  of  a 
power,  not  incompatible  with  freedom,  swaying  the  fate  of  the  world 
at  large  and  the  affairs  of  individual  men,  and  this  inward  assurance, 
confirmed  by  the  whole  course  of  his  life  and  experience,  gave  him, 
when  he  became  aware  of  it,  what  was  expected  of  him  in  emergen- 
cies, self-command,  self-conquest,  and  self-sacrifice,  of  which  latter 
he  was  capable  in  the  highest  degree,  as  Lange  gives  us  proof. 
Among  a  thousand  men,  how  many  are  there  who  can  conceive  of  a 
man,  destitute  of  favorab'e  circumstance*,  working  for  years  in  a 
remote  region,  resolved  upon  a  kind  of  vagabond  life,  subjected  to 
privations  of  all  kinds,  and  in  spite  of  all  this,  and  of  misconception 
and  unkind  judgments,  greeting  every  day's  work  joyfully?  So 
felt,  thought,  and  acted  MiddendorfF. 

He  lived  in  the  world  among  men  as  they  are,  but  he  did  not 
belong  to  the  world ;  he  scarcely  knew  it ;  yet  he  was  a  man  who 
understood  human  existence,  the  inmost  soul  of  the  whole  race  and 
of  individuals,  as  few  do.  It  w  as  possible  to  overlook  him,  but  who- 
ever once  knew  him  could  never  forget  him.  It  is  conceivable  also 
because  of  that  quality  which  can  be  designated  as  deep  inwardness 
of  mind  and  sensibility,  that  he  was  specially  attracted  by  little 
children  and  by  womanly  natures,  and  also  attracted  them.  Com- 
pared with  men  he  had  a  soft,  tender,  womanly  nature.  The  im- 
pression he  made  immediately  was  such  that  one  felt  it  to  be  impos- 
sible in  his  presence  to  undertake  or  to  say  anything  coarse  and 


140  WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF. 

uncouth,  impure  or  vulgar.  His  mere  presence  ennobled  and  brought 
out  the  best  in  every  one.  In  spite  of  this  purity  and  loftiness,  no 
one  felt  oppressed  or  constrained,  but  freed  and  exalted. 

And  in  spite  of  this  effect  of  the  nature  born  with  him,  he  was  a 
man,  a  whole  man,  adorned  with  all  manly  attributes,  with  delight  in 
all  that  was  powerful  and  virtuous,  with  energy  of  character  and  with 
the  strongest  feelings,  full  of  earnestness  and  anger  against  every 
thing  mean  and  unworthy.  Endowed  with  the  deepest  sensibility,  he 
was  anything  but  what  is  usually  called  in  these  effeminate  time?, 
in  the  favorite  sense  of  the  word,  a  "  charming  man."  He  was  much 
too  conscientious  and  earnest  for  that,  and  the  lofty,  inspiring  idea 
of  his  life  left  no  room  for  weak  sentimentality.  He  made  the  most 
earnest  demands  of  those  around  him  as  well  as  of  himself.  A  man 
was  put  into  that  tenderly-built  body  ;  he  had  steeled  himself  early, 
he  had  fought  at  twenty  in  Liitzow's  corps,  and  I  learned  to  know 
him  in  the  last  five  years  as  a  robust  mountain-traveler  in  the 
Thuringian  forests.  He  knew  nothing  of  what  men  think  belongs  to 
advanced  years,  or  what  self-indulgence  means. 

This  man  had  to  be  seen  among  the  girls  or  young  ladies  who  were 
in  Froebel's  institute  at  Marienthal,  near  Lieben-tein,  which  he 
carried  on  after  Froebel's  death ;  had  to  be  seen  in  the  kindergarten 
at  Liebenstein,  to  form  a  conception  of  the  attachment  not  only  of  the 
young  ladle-,  but  of  the  smallest  children  for  him.  Froebel  sur- 
passed him  in  the  conceptions  of  his  genius,  but  he  surpassed  Froebel 
in  clearness  and  direct  fruitfulness  of  representation.  The  purity  of 
mind,  the  enthusiasm  for  the  idea  which  had  captivated  them,  their 
magic  powers  over  receptive  feelings,  they  shared  in  common.  Two 
hearts  and  one  thought,  two  souls  and  one  feeling,  Orestes  and 
Pylades,  Castor  and  Pollux,  Damon  and  Pythias,  Froebel  arid  Mid- 
den dorff!  Froebel  knew  what  he  had  in  MiddendorfF,  and  Midden- 
dorff.  when  old,  still  looked  with  wondering  eyes  up  to  Froebel.  Both 
were  united  by  their  ideal  of  education,  both  were  nourished  and 
greatly  attracted  by  the  spirit  of  Pestalozzi,  whom  they  honored  as 
long  as  they  lived,  without  losing  their  own  individuality. 

The  world  of  to-day  has  lost  the  power  of  comprehending  this. 
The  leaders  and  guides  of  pedagogy  have  missed  it  all  or  they  have 
never  learnt  to  know  it.  They  have  had  no  idea  of  its  existence  or 
its  possibility,  and  the  endless  majority  of  teachers  know  nothing  of 
it.  We  ask,  with  the  'deepest  pain,  where  has  the  enthusiasm  for 
youth  and  the  public  weal  gone  ?  Is  there  not  discontent,  despond- 
ency, mediocrity,  in  its  place  ?  Does  anything  else  proceed  from 
those  who  consider  themselves  the  reformers  of  the  time,  and 
declare  themselves  such,  but  wordy  exhortations  for  a  faith  that  does 


WILLIAM  MIDDJSXDORFF 


141 


not  rouse  the  spiritual  powers  of  man,  but  paralyzes  them?  And  do 
they  not  seek  for  the  salvation  of  the  teachers  and  their  pupils  in 
stupefying  morning  and  evening  devotions,  in  liturgies  and  songs,  and 
in  other  measures  for  the  limiting  of  knowledge  and  ability  ? 

How  it  is  amongst  the  teachers  of  the  present  time,  as  to  the 
enthusiasm,  the  aspiring,  cheerful  feeling,  the  inner  enjoyment  of 
their  calling,  which  without  these  is  a  badly-rewarded,  hireling  ser- 
vice ;  how  it  is  as  to  the  pleasure  with  which  they  once  looked  for- 
ward to  the  teachers'  conventions :  he  knows  who  can  compare  past 
times  and  the  present.  He  also  knows  what  spirit  predominated 
among  the  young  people  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  teachers' 
calling  in  the  institutions  which  were  animated  by  the  youth-restor- 
ing Pestalozzian  spirit;  and  what  is  it  now?  The  whole  world 
knows  that  men  of  the  purest  enthusiasm,  of  the  noblest  strivings,  of 
the  highest  capacity  of  self  sacrifice — that  Friedrich  Froebel,  and 
all  who  adhered  to  him,  especially  Middendorff,  were  suspected  of 
communism,  of  socialism,  of  atheism  and  free-thinking ! 

Was  Middeudorff  also  a  Christian? 

I  hold  it  to  be  a  disgrace,  after  such  a  man  was  found  by  expe- 
rience to  be  what  he  was,  that  such  a  question  should  arise.  It  pro- 
ceeds from  those  who  seek  for  the  essence  of  Christianity  in  externals, 
and  who  never  have  shared  its  spirit.  Such  low  fellows,  who  now 
have  an  opportunity  to  show  themselves  off,  but  who  are  an  abomi- 
nation to  the  more  profound  and  modest  men  who  dislike  to  cast  the 
pearls  of  their  souls  before  swine  and  to  boast  of  their  faith, — deserve 
no  answer.  It  has,  therefore,  struck  me  unpleasantly  that  even 
Lange  notices  the  question  and  answers  it.  I  know  very  well 
whence  the  impulse  came ;  it  lies  very  near ;  but  in  spite  of  that  we 
must  not  gratify  the  men  of  words  and  show,  by  recognizing  the  title 
to  such  a  questioning.  For  what  but  vanity,  spiritual  pride,  spite 
for  the  popularity  of  their  superiors,  what  else  but  absorption  in 
palpable  externals  and  immeasurable  arrogance  in  spite  of  their 
humble  words,  lies  at  the  bottom  of  it  ? 

Middendorff  a  Christian  ?  That  St.  John's-soul  a  Christian  ?  Thus 
ask  those  who  presume  to  measure  with  their  wooden  rule  the  infinite 
diversity  of  minds  ?  Would  these  men,  who  think  themselves  alone 
good  and  pious — (the  question  is  allowable  in  view  of  the  well-known 
deeds  of  our  day),  would  they  have  found  Christ  himself  correct 
according  to  their  system  ?  Hardly  ;  he  was  in  his  time  declared  by 
the  scribes  and  creed-followers  to  be  an  adversary  and  a  heretic.  A 
feeling  seizes  me  of  mixed  disgust  and  abhorrence  when  I  think  that 
such  presumption  even  enters  into  the  teachers'  institutes,  where  it  is 
looked  upon  as  faith  well  pleasing  to  God,  and  is  filtered  into  the 


142  WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF. 

young  teachers.  A  dark,  mournful  spirit  rests  upon  the  schools.  A 
fearful  mistrust  spreads  over  the  teachers ;  fear  arises  when  a 
hundred  or  fifty  of  them  meet  together  without  superintendence  ; 
they  have  ceased  "to  believe  in  love  and  faith  " ;  even  a  Midden- 
dorff  could  not  escape  their  suspicion,  that  pure,  white  human  soul, 
in  which,  with  a  microscope,  no  trace  of  falsehood  and  deception  could 
be  discovered,  who  fought  in  youth  for  German  life,  German  freedom 
and  unity,  and  devoted  his  whole  existence  to  the  development  and 
education  of  German  youth  ! 

What  could  this  man  as  well  as  Froebel  not  have  done  for  the 
creation  of  the  most  intrinsic  devotion  and  love  to  our  children, 
those  rarest  qualities  in  teachers,  and  of  the  equally  rare  knowledge  of 
children,  so  peculiar  to  them,  if  the  powers  and  qualities  of  the^e 
men,  who  do  not  return  to  us — for  when  will  another  Pestalozzian 
time  come  ? — if  they  had  been  used  in  suitable  places  ?  In  vain 
they  made  life-long  exertions  to  find  a  quite  suitable  and  permanent 
asylum  and  sufficient  means  for  their  object,  which  was  a  pedagogic, 
central  point,  unifying  and  acting  in  all  directions ;  they  tried  in 
foreign  lands,  and  even  there  did  not  find  the  right  place  ;  the  time 
was  past  when  thousands  flocked  to  Basedow,  and  a  noble  prince 
received  him ;  "  faith  in  love  and  truth  "  had  vam>hed,  and  even  the 
hope  of  seeing  a  living  central  institution  for  the  intellectual  culture 
of  the  nation  blooming  out  at  Weimar  in  Goethe's  centennial  jubilee, 
proved  to  be  a  delusion.  They  laughed  at  and  derided  our  plan  in 
Berlin  as  well  as  in  Weimar,  and  what  have  they  now  reached  ? 
One  statue  more  instead  of  a  living  institution,  an  increase  of  the 
dead  treasures  of  their  closed  museum,  instead  of  a  factor  taking 
hold  of  the  present  time.  Froebel  mourned  over  it  on  his  death-bed. 
and  Middendorff  was  grieved. 

I  pass  over  a  great  deal,  and  mention  but  one  thing  more.  Mid- 
dendorff was  no  writer ;  writing  was  disagreeable  to  him  ;  the  rush 
of  his  thoughts  hindered  a  systematic  arrangement  of  them ;  yet  he 
wrote  as  he  could  not  help  doing,  intellectually  and  subjectively  ;  but 
his  greatest  power  was  not  in  that,  it  was  shown  in  the  living  word ; 
he  was  an  orator.  He  showed  that  in  Hamburg,  in  Liebenstein,  and 
in  Salzungen.  In  the  aufumn  of  1850  the  friends  of  Froebel  held 
a  meeting  in  the  Liebenstein  '  Kurhause/  at  the  well-known 
'  Erdfalle.'  On  the  second  day  was  the  exhibition  of  the  fruits  of  the 
efforts  made  for  little  children  in  the  spirit  of  Froebel.  The  teachers 
told  this,  the  kindergartners  that.  At  last  came  Middendorff,  who 
told  what  he  had  observed  in  the  children  of  the  peasantry  and  iheir 
mothers  in  the  region  around  Keilhau,  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
visiting  on  Sundays.  It  went  home  to  all  hearts. 


WILLIAM  MIDDENDORFF.  143 

And  how  he  spoke  in  May,  1853,  at  Salzungen,  at  the  fifth  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  German  teachers !  I  do  not  deny  that  there  as 
well  as  here  I  trembled  with  joyful  exultation.  This  extraordinary 
effect  of  the  appearance  of  Middendorff  I  ascribe  essentially  to  his 
sincerity.  Everything  was  in  harmony  in  him,  bodily  as  well  as 
spiritually.  One  always  knew  where  to  find  him.  A  true,  beautiful, 
beneficent  image  of  him  is  left  to  his  friends.  He  stands  before  their 
recollection  in  the  perfected  harmony  of  his  being.  In  a  man  of 
this  kind  one  cannot  ask  after  this  or  that  peculiarity,  whether  he 
possessed  this  or  that  quality ;  that  would  be  impertinent. 

He  was  not  this  or  that ;  he  did  not  make  himself  this  or  that ;  he 
was  a  unit,  and  therefore  he  was  everything  that  he  had  the  capacity 
of  being.  The  pygmies  and  Lilliputians  of  the  pedagogues  of  to-day 
wish  to  produce  this  and  that;  they  wish  to  make  everything,  to 
make,  that  is  to  pervert  and  train,  but  they  produce  nothing,  because 
they  will  not  let  nature,  which  is  God-given,  exist  or  grow.  How 
far  removed  wert  thou,  noble  friend,  from  this  old-new  "  wisdom !" 
Who  of  those  present  at  the  Liebenstein  meeting  will  not  remember 
how  he  dealt  with  the  man  who  wanted  to  subordinate  everything  to 
the  model  of  "  Christian  orthodoxy,"  and  was  not  willing  to  recognize 
the  right  of  each  individual  to  his  own  natural  development. 

He,  the  single-minded,  harmoniously-cultivated,  perfect  man  of 
his  kind,  felt,  as  others  did,  a  detestation  of  the  thought  of  what 
must  yet  become  of  the  world  which  he  found  so  glorious  and  beauti- 
ful in  the  manifoldness  of  its  manifestations,  if  the  priests  of  all  sects 
should  succeed,  like  shepherds,  in  casting  the  net  of  their  faith,  as 
the  only  saving  one,  over  the  heads  of  their  flocks !  At  this  idea  a 
terror  seized  the  pure  soul  which  knew  so  well  what  it  owed  to  a 
natural,  free  development.  How  this  man  clung  to  nature,  how  he 
worshiped  the  hand  of  the  Creator,  when  he  dwelt  upon  the  laws  of 
man's  nature  !  His  soul  soared  into  God's  free  heaven,  where  he 
felt  at  home;  there  he  was  nearer  to  his  God,  there  he  understood 
the  decrees  of  his  genius.  It  moves  me  when  I  think  of  the 
expression  of  his  face,  the  glory  of  his  eyes,  and  the  tone  of  his 
voice,  as  he  poured  out  his  inmost  soul  upon  the  top  of  the  island 
mountain  !  He  was  convinced  of  the  immortal  existence  of  the  human 
soul,  and  of  its  progressive  development  as  the  source  of  blessedness. 

Where  does  that  pure,  transfigured  human  soul  linger  now  ?  To 
see  and  enjoy  thee  again,  released  from  earthly  tribulations,  would 
alone  be  a  heaven,  an  unspeakable  rapture  ! 

Have  pia  anima,  anima  Candida, 
Never-to-be-forgotten  frieiid ! 


144  DIESTERWEG  AND  FROEBEL. 

It  was  by  such  hearty  characterizations  as  this  of  Middendorff,  and 
his  earlier  notices  of  Froebel  and  the  Kindergarten  in  the  Rheinische 
Blatter,  and  Pddagogishes  JahrlwcJi,  as  soon  as  he  became  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  them,  that  Diesterweg  rendered  such  essential  service 
to  the  New  Education.  Until  its  principles  and  methods,  its  founder 
and  co-laborers  were  recognized  by  Diesterweg,  the  ablest  champion  of 
a  broad  liberal  elementary  education  for  the  whole  people,  and  whose 
voice  was  potential  in  spite  of  the  disfavor  of  the  court,  the  Kinder- 
garten had  not  arrested  the  attention  of  pedagogical  circles  in  Germany. 
Diesterweg,  though  late  in  the  field,  was  the  first  to  proclaim  the  full 
significance  of  play,  Froebel's  addition  to  pedagogical  science,  as  the 
firm  foundation  in  the  child's  earliest  instruction,  for  his  own  Prussian- 
Pestalozzian  system  of  intuitional  teaching.*  The  Baroness  Marenholtz 
Billow,  in  all  her  great  and  varied  and  ubiquitous  service  to  the  Frobe- 
lian  cause,  never  did  a  better  day's  work  than  when  she  persuaded  the 
great  master,  in  spite  of  his  prejudices  "  against  all  fooling  in  educational 
matters,"  to  go  and  listen  and  see  what  Froebel  had  to  say  and  do,  on  the 
15th  of  July,  1849,  in  his  little  modest  farm  house  in  Liebenstein.  He 
went,  was  charmed,  and  was  satisfied  that  Froebel  "  had  actually  some- 
thing of  a  seer  and  looked  into  the  inmost  nature  of  the  child  as  no 
one  else  had  done."  From  that  day  he  went  every  day  for  weeks  after- 
wards, with  the  "  Mother  and  Cosset  Songs"  under  his  arm,  to  learn 
more  of  the  Kindergarten  and  converse  with  Froebel. 

Both  Diosterweg  and  Froebel  were  pupils  of  Pestalozzi,  and  both 
found,  in  the  instinctive  activity  of  the  child,  the  impulse  and  method 
of  mental  development ;  but  Froebel  was  the  first  to  formulate  these 
methods  in  the  Nursery  and  Kindergarten  for  the  full  development  of 
the  entire  human  being,  and  furnish  the  basis  of  the  intuitional  instruc- 
tion which  Pestalozzi  was  the  first  to  discover,  and  Diesterweg  and  other 
Directors  of  Teachers'  Seminaries  to  develop  into  a  system  of  elementary 
education  for  the  people. 

The  Prussian-Pestalozzian  system  of  elementary  instruction,  as  de- 
scribed by  Stowe,  Bache  and  Mann,  before  the  restrictions  of  the 
"Regulativ"  of  1854  were  applied  to  the  currriculum  and  methods  of 
the  Primary  Teachers'  Seminaries,  was  the  creation  of  such  Directors  of 
Seminaries  as  Harnisch,  Diesterweg,  and  others  of  the  Pestalozzian 
school. 

In  the  original  issue  of  the  Wegweisser  we  find  no  special  recognition 
of  the  Kindergarten.  In  the  latest  edition,  there  is  a  very  valuable 
paper  on  both  Froebel  and  the  Kindergarten  by  Ferdinand  "Winthur.t 

*  For  the  contents  of  this  model  Guide  for  German  teachers,  see  Barnard's  Journal  of 
Education,  vol.  vii,  p.  312.  In  the  same  connection  will  be  found  a  brief  memoir  of  this 
preat  teacher  and  popular  educator.  Diesterweg's  chapter  in  edition  of  1854,  on  Intui- 
tional and  Speaking  Exercises,  as  published  in  same  Journal  (Vol  xii,  p.  411-430),  and  Dr. 
Bute's  article  in  edition  of  1876,  republished  in  Vol.  xxx,  p.  417-450,  are  in  the  true 
spirit  and  method  of  Froebel  applied  to  children  after  leaving  the  Kindergarten. 

t  This  paper  will  be  found  in  Barnard's  Journal  xxxi,  p.  82-90. 


FRIEDRICH  ADOLF  WILHELM  DIESTERWEG. 


FRIEDRICH  ADOLF  WILHELM  DIESTERWEG,  an  eminent  educator, 
and  efficient  promoter  of  the  general  principles  of  Pestalozzi,  was 
born  in  the  then  Rhine  provinces  of  Prussia,  at  Seigen,  in  Nassau, 
October  29th,  1790.  His  first  education  was  received  at  the 
Latin  school  of  his  native  place.  Thence  he  went  to  the  univers- 
ity of  Herborn,  intending  to  devote  himself  to  the  study  of  theol- 
ogy ;  but  his  academic  course  was  finished  at  Tubingen.  At  first  a 
private  tutor  in  Manheim,  he  was  afterward  second  teacher  in  the 
secondary  school  at  Worms;  and  in  1811  entered  the  model  school 
at  Frankfort-on-the-Mayne,  where  his  holy  zeal  accomplished  much 
good.  Having  become  known  as  a  scientifically-trained  and  well- 
practiced  educator,  he  was  chosen  second  rector  of  the  Latin  school 
at  Elberfeld.  From  this  place  he  was  called,  in  1820,  to  be  director 
of  the  teachers'  seminary  at  Meurs.  In  this  place  he  labored  with 
intelligence,  energy,  and  singleness  of  purpose,  during  a  series  of 
years,  for  the  cause  of  elementary  instruction,  which,  under  the 
French  domination,  had  been  entirely  neglected  on  the  Rhine.  He 
was,  moreover,  very  useful  as  a  writer  — discussing  more  particularly 
mathematics  and  the  German  language.  In  1827,  he  commenced 
publishing  (by  Schwerz,  in  Schwelin,)  the  ""Rhenish  Gazette -of 
Education  and  Instruction  "  (Rheinische  Blatter  fur  Erziebung  und 
(Jnterricht,)  with  especial  reference  to  the  common  schools.  The  first 
volume  contained  much  valuable  matter,  much  condensed  ;  and  the 
succeeding  volumes  (to  1859,)  have  not  fallen  beneath  it  in  excel- 
lence. Through  this  periodical,  the  educationists  of  the  Rhine  prov- 
inces were  afforded  a  good  opportunity  for  discussing  pedagogical 
subjects;  upon  which  much  interest  was  then  beginning  to  appear. 

In  1833,  Diesterweg  was  appointed  director  of  the  royal  seminary 
for  city  teachers,  at  Berlin.  Here  he  labored  for  eighteen  years  ;  his 
eyes  fixed  fast  and  unvarying  upon  his 'object — exposing  all  sorts  o*' 
pedagogical  faults  and  weaknesses,  seeking  in  every  way  to  raise  the 
position  of  teachers,  and  pursuing  his  work  without  any  fear  of  men. 
The  meetings  of  the  Pedagogical  Society  of  Berlin  were  set  on  foot 
by  him.  In  1849,  his  connection  with  the  seminary  was  terminated 
by  the  government,  in  consequence  of  his  popular  sympathies  in 
10 


146  FRIEDRICH  ADOLF  WILHELM  DIESTERWEG. 

1848.  During  this  period,  Diesterweg  published  "  Autobiographies 
of  Distinguished  Educators"  "  Education  of  the  Lower  Classes" 
"  Degeneracy  of  our  Universities"  "  Education  for  Patriotism,  dc." 
"  Controversial  Inquiries  on  Educational  Subjects."  In  these  writ- 
ings, Diesterweg  appears  as  a  man  of  progress ;  as  one  who  seeks  to 
reconcile  the  existing  discrepancy  between  actual  life  and  learning ; 
between  living  practice  and  dead  scholastic  knowledge ;  between 
civilization  and  learning.  The  works  contain  true  and  striking 
thoughts.  In  his  zeal  for  good  objects,  the  author  sometimes  over- 
passed the  bounds  of  moderation,  and  assailed  the  objects  of  his 
opposition  with  too  much  severity. 

His  " Pedagogical  Travels  through  the  Danish  Territories"  (Pdd- 
agogische  Reise  Nachden  Ddnischen  Stouten,)  1836,  involved  him  in 
an  active  controversy  with  several  Danish  literati,  and  especially  with 
Zerrenner,  of  Magdeburg.  Diesterweg's  objections  to  the  monitorial 
system  of  instruction,  which  prevails  in  the  schools  of  Denmark, 
are  : — That  it  modifies,  decreases,  or  destroys  the  teacher's  influence 
upon  his  scholars  ;  that  it  is  disadvantageous  to  their  outward  and 
inward  intercourse ;  reduces  to  a  minimum  the  precious  period  of 
close  intercourse  between  the  ripe  man  and  the  future  men  ;  and 
sinks  the  school,  in  by  far  the  majority  of  cases,  into  a  mere  mindless 
mechanism,  by  which  the  children,  it  is  true,  acquire  facility  in 
reading  and  writing,  and  in  a  manner  outwardly  vivid  and  active, 
but  in  reality  altogether  unintelligent;  but  become  intellectually 
active  not  at  all.  That  Diesterweg  is  in  the  right  in  this  matter,  is 
daily  more  extensively  believed. 

In  1846,  Dr.  Diesterweg  took  an  early  and  influential  part  in  the 
celebration  by  German  teachers  of  the  centennial  birthday  of  Pes- 
talozzi,  and  in  founding  an  institution  for  orphans,  as  a  living  and 
appropriate  monument  to  the  great  regenerator  of  modern  popular 
education. 

His  "  Year  Book"  or  "Almanac"  (Jahrbach,)  which  commenced 
in  1851,  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  current  discussion  of  educa- 
tional topics,  and  to  the  history  of  the  literature  and  biography  of 
education. 

Diesterwesfs  "  Guide  for  German  Teachers"  ( Wegweiser  fur 
Deutscher  Schrer,)  of  which  -a  third  enlarged  and  improved  edition 
appeared  in  1854,  in  two  large  volumes,  is  one  of  the  best  existing 
manuals  for  teachers,  of  both  elementary  and  high  schools,  and  has 
been  made  a  text-book  in  several  teachers'  seminaries.  We  give  the 
contents  of  this  valuable  "  Guide" 


UN? 


DIESTERWEG'S  WEGWEISER.  ^47 

DIESTERWEG,  F.  A.  "W.,  "  Guide  for  German  Teachers,"  Wegweis&r  fur  Deuiacher 
Schrer.     2  vols.  pp.  675  and  700. 

CONTENTS.   VOL.   I. 

PA«» 
INTRODUCTION I. 

1.  Dedication  to  F.  FrObel III. 

2.  Preface  to  Third  and  Fourth  editions VII. 

3.  From  the  address  to  Denzel,  in  the  Second  edition XIV 

4.  From  Preface  to  First  edition XIX. 

5.  From  Preface  to  Second  edition XXIV. 

6.  Conclusion XXXII 

PART    I. 
GENERAL   VIEWS. 

I.  Purpose  and  problem  of  human  life,  and  the  teacher's  life 3 

II.  What  are  the  condition*  of  success  in  endeavoring  to  secure,  by  means  of  books,  intellect- 
ual culture,  insight,  and  knowledge 19 

III.  Introduction  to  the  study  of  elements  of  pedagogy,  didactics  and  methodology 49 

1.  To  whom  these  studies  are  especially  recommended,  and  to  whom  not 49 

2.  What  has  hitherto  been  accomplished  in  such  books  as  have  been  devoted  to  peda- 

gogy, didactics,  and  methodology  in  general,  or  with  special  reference  to  the  element- 
ary schools ." 52 

3.  The  chief  constituents  of  the  ideas  of  pedagogy,  didactics,  and  methodology 58 

4.  The  best  works  on  the  elements  of  pedagogy,  didactics,  and  methodology 60 

(1.)  On  education  (and  instruction,)  generally 62 

(2.)  On  the  whole  subject  of  school  education  and  instruction 82 

(3.)  On  school  discipline 99 

(4.)  Psychology  and  logic 104 

(5.)  Training  of  teachers  (seminaries) 107 

(6.)  Education  of  girls Ill 

(7.)  Relations  of  school  to  state  and  church 119 

(8.)  School  inspection QOQ 

(9.)  Social  pedagogy,  (social  reforms,  temperance,  &c.) 124 

(10.)  Infant  schools 129 

(11.)  Mutual  system  of  school  organization 135 

(12.)  Higher  burgher  schools 138 

(13.)  Bibliography 143 

(14.)  Works  which  include  biographies 145 

(15.)  Popular  writings 151 

(16.)  School  laws 156 

(17.)  School  reform 157 

(18.)  School  organization  in  1848 162 

(19.)  Periodicals 168 

fV    Human  faculties,  and  didactics 172 

1.  Rules  for  instruction,  as  to  the  scholar  (the  subject). 204 

2.  Rules  as  to  what  is  taught  (the  object) 254 

3.  Rules  as  to  external  relations 268 

4    Rules  as  to  the  teacher 278 

PART   II. 

SPECIAL    DEPARTMEIfTS. 

I.  Intuitional  instruction;  exercises  in  language. .. 302 

II.  Religious  instruction  ;  by  K.  Bormann,  of  Berlin 33 

III.  Reading 38 

IV.  German  language 45 

V.  Writin^ ;  by  Prof.  Dr.  Madler,  and  C.  Reinbott,  of  Berlin 532 

VI.  Singing;  by  Hentschel,  of  Weissenfels 559 

VII.  Drawing;  by  Heutschel 672 

VOL.    II. 

VIII.  Geography;  by  K.  Bormann 

IX.  History ;  by  W.  Prange,  of  Bunzlau 40 

X.  Natural  History;  by  A.  Liiben,  of  Merseburg 25 

XI.  Natural  Science,  mathematical  geography,  astronomy 306 

XII.  Arithmetic 343 

XIII.  Geometry 395 

XIV.  French  ;  by  Dr.  Knebel,  of  (Koln)  Cologne 436 

XV.  English;  by  Dr.  Schmitz,  of  Berlin 477 

XVI.  Genetic  method  in  foreign  languages;  by  Dr.  Mnger,  of  Eisenach 492 

XVII.  Instruction  of  the  blind;  by  J.  G.  Knie,  of  Breslau 5fi 

XVIII.  Instruction  of  the  deaf-mutes;  by  Hill,  of  Weissenfels 6C 

XIX.  Love  of  country,  patriotism,  and  connected  subjects 6< 

XX.  External  situation  of  the  German  common  school  teachers <S 

XXI.  School  discipline— plan  of  teaching  and  of  work 7! 

APPENDIX  ;  by  G.  Hentschel 791 

List  of  authors  mentioned ~ '** 


148  DIESTERWEG  ON  FKOEBEL. 

In  his  notice  of  Froebel  and  the  kindergarten,  in  the  Jalir~buch  for  1851, 
Diesterweg  sums  up  his  estimate  of  the  former  as  "  a  man  of  uncommon 
power  and  original  views."  Like  Comenius  and  Ratich  and  Pestalozzi. 
he  could  not  rest,  with  the  inspiration  of  new  ideas  in  his  soul.  He 
must  go  on,  from  one  portion  of  the  field  to  another — from  one  institu- 
tion to  another — under  an  irrepressible  impulse  to  break  the  path  for 
new  truths.  Age  with  him  did  not  deaden  his  interest  in  children,  and 
the  older  he  grew  the  deeper  was  his  fondness  for  the  youngest,  whose 
restless  activity  found  in  his  sympathy  and  devices  its  freshest  satisfac- 
tion. A  student  of  Pestalozzi,  to  whom  in  taste,  vocation,  and  fate  he 
had  great  resemblance,  he  carried  his  investigations  into  the  philoso- 
phy of  education  still  deeper,  and  evolved  methods  of  development  out 
of  the  child's  activity,  in  harmony  with  the  nature  of  the  infant  mind, 
which  his  master  sought  in  vain  at  later  stages  of  the  child's  growth. 
Like  Pestalozzi,  he  strove  to  attach  to  his  work  the  agency  and  influ- 
ence of  women — Pestalozzi  limiting  his  efforts  to  mothers,  while  Froebel 
organized  young  women  into  classes  for  special  training  for  his  kinder- 
garten, and  everywhere  proclaiming  women  to  be  the  true  educators  of 
the  race,  and  that  in  fitting  themselves  for  their  mission  as  teachers 
they  would  most  directly  and  effectively  improve  and  elevate  themselves. 

Froebel  differs  from  Pestalozzi  in  attaching  less  importance  to  books, 
and,  indeed,  would  dispense  with  all  printed  manuals  to  a  later  stage 
of  development,  and  finds  in  the  natural  activity — the  play-impulse, 
the  motive  and  method  of  mental  and  moral,  as  well  as  of  physical 
growth.  While  he  believes,  with  Pestalozzi,  that  home  and  the  mother 
are  the  God-indicated  place  and  protector  of  the  infant.  Froebel  believes, 
and  acted  on  the  idea,  that  the  child  has  a  social  nature,  which  seeks 
and  profits  by  companionship  with  other  children,  and  that  for  short 
periods  in  each  day  such  companionship  should  be  provided  and  regu- 
lated. Hence  the  kindergarten  gradually  rose  in  his  conception,  as  the 
play-place  of  children,  and  that  in  the  growing  and  most  impressionable 
period  of  their  lives  everything  should  be  shaped  to  foster  a  healthy 
growth,  and  make  and  deepen  the  right  impressions. 

In  devising  and  improving  plays  and  occupations  for  children  in 
his  kindergarten,  Froebel  has  shown  the  genius  of  a  poet  and  an  in- 
ventor; and,  although  he  may  not  have  exhausted  the  subject,  his 
Mother  Play  and  Nursery  Songs  is  an  original  and  most  valuable  contri- 
bution to  our  manuals  of  education. 

Like  Pestalozzi,  Froebel  relies  on  the  intuitive  method  in  teaching 
anything  new — and  goes  beyond  mere  inspection  and  handling,  where 
the  case  will  admit  of  it,  and  resorts  to  actual  doing,  to  real  experience 
of  knowledge.  In  the  field  of  occupations  he  utilizes  the  child's  in- 
stinct of  motion  and  construction,  and  develops  those  aptitudes  into 
habits  which  afterwards  distinguish  the  artist  and  artisan.  In  this 
direction  the  kindergarten  prepares  as  well  for  life  as  for  the  school, 
and,  without  any  forced,  unnatural  methods,  a  habit  of  productive  labor 
is  formed  unconsciously  in  play. 


BEETH1  YON  MAKENHOLTZ-BULOW 

AND  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 


MEMOIR.* 

The  Baroness  von  Marenholtz-Biilow,  whose  life  work  is  insepa- 
rably associated  with  the  di-semination  of  FroebePs  system  of  child- 
culture  in  different  countries,  belongs  to  the  Redum  line  of  a 
princely  family  whose  name  appears  in  the  time  of  Charles  the 
Great.  Her  father,  Baron  Frederick  von  Biilow-Wendhausen,  the 
owner  of  the  fine  estate  of  Kiiblingen  in  the  Duchy  of  Brunswick, 
was  president  of  the  Ducal  Chamber  and  member  of  the  regency 
charged  with  the  administration  of  affairs  during  the  long  minority 
of  the  Duke.  Her  mother  was  the  imperial  Countess  von  Wartens- 
leben,  of  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg. 

The  Baroness  Bertha  was  born  in  Brunswick,  March  15,  1816, 
the  second  of  eight  sisters.  Not  yet  twenty  years  old,  she  was  mar- 
ried to  Baron  v.  Marenholtz,  lord  by  primo-geniture  of  Gross- 
Schwulper  and  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council  in  Brunswick,  and 
afterwards  Court  Marshal  in  Hanover.  By  this  marriage  she  had 
one  son,  whose  education  till  his  death  at  the  age  of  twenty,  with 
that  of  several  children  of  her  husband  by  a  prior  marriage,  was 
superintended  in  all  its  details  by  the  Baroness,  who,  in  addition  to 
the  training  which  the  best  private  teachers  could  impart  to  herself 
and  her  own  sisters,  had  the  higher  educative  advantage  of  practical 
work,  by  which  her  own  thoughtful  mind  was  always  accustomed  to 
the  consideration  of  pedagogical  problems.  Her  own  reflections  on 
what  she  read  and  did,  and  what  she  saw  done  by  her  teachers  in 
her  own  and  her  father's  family,  were  recorded  by  her  in  a  book, 
and  which  she  afterwards  found  were  in  singular  accord1  with  the 
principles  and  metho  Is  which  Friedrich  Froebel  had  worked  out  in 
his  profounder  study  of  child-nature  and  nurture. 

When  free  to  act  for  her.-elf,  the  Baroness  broke  away  from  the 
brilliant  but  narrow  circle  of  court  life  to  which  she  was  born,  and 
without  entering  the  field  of  social  reform,  as  the  avowed  champion 
of  certain  ideas,  she  sought  in  every  way  to  acquaint  herself  with 

*  We  are  indebted  mainly  for  the  facts  of  this  Memoir  to  a  pamphlet  of  150  pauo  by 
Lous  Walter,  printed  in  Dresden  in  1881  by  Berlag  von  Ahvin  Huahe,  with  the  title  Berths 
•j.  Mwenholtz  JRulow  in  ihrer  Bedeutungfiir  das  Werk  of  Fr.  Froebel. 


150  BERTHA  VON  MARENHOLTZ-BULOW. 

the  best  methods  of  education ;  and  in  this  spirit  in  the  summer  of 
1849,  while  sojourning  at  the  Ba  hs  of  Liebenstein  in  Thuringia, 
introduced  herself  to  Froebel,  who  had  quite  recently  settled  down 
on  a  small  farm  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Springs,  and  was  train- 
ing a  class  of  young  women  to  become  Kindergartners.  She  has 
told  the  story  of  this  interview  and  of  their  intercourse,  which  con- 
tinued during  that  and  her  subsequent  visits  to  the  Baths,  in  her 
charming  and  instructive  volume  of  "  Reminiscences."* 

In  these  personal  interviews  she  became  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  principle  of  the  Kindergarten  and  its  application,  both  to 
the  actual  development  of  young  children,  and  in  the  training  of 
young  Kindergartners,  by  the  great  master  himself.  To  these  op- 
portunities  of  educational  study  were  added  elaborate  discussions  of 
the  philosophy  and  practice  of  the  new  education  between  its  first 
expounder  and  Dr.  Diesterweg,  the  acknowledged  head  of  ihe  Pes- 
talozzian  method  in  Germany,  and  several  experienced  men  of  scien- 
tific and  practicalt  ability  who  were  concerned  with  actual  teaching, 
and  with  the  administration  of  systems  of  public  instruction,  so  ad- 
mirably described  by  herself.* 

With  every  advantage  for  reaching  cultivated  people  which  bright 
and  solid  mental  endowments,  improved  by  the  best  private  teaching 
and  select  social  experience,  could  give, — with  a  loving  acceptance 
of  the  doctrine  of  human  development,  by  rational  methods  applied 
to  the  earliest  conscious  action  of  the  child  by  agencies  which  nec- 
essarily belong  to  the  nurture  period  of  the  human  being,  and  ex- 
tend into  school  and  self-activity,  which  the  insight  and  expprience 
of  such  born  educators  as  Pestalozzi,  Froebel,  and  Diesterweg  have 
brought  to  a  good  degree  of  practical  efficiency, — thus  equipped  by 
nature,  study,  and  observation  added  to  home  experience,  the  Bar- 
oness von  Marenholtz-Biilow  has  not  only  given  to  the  world,  and 
especially  to  her  sex,  a  beautiful  example  of  a  broadly  beneficent  life- 
work,  but  the  results  of  that  personal  work  has  already  entered  into 
the  educational  institutions  and  literature  of  nations,  to  an  extent 
not  yet  recorded  of  any  other  woman  in  the  annals  of  education.  Of 
this,  her  personal  services  to  the  Frocbelian  Education  in  different 
countries,  we  shall  speak  elsewhere.  We  close  this  brief  introduction 
to  a  fuller  treatment  of  her  own  understanding  of  FYoel  el's  idea  of 
the  Child,  with  a  List  of  her  Publications  (see  page  127,  128),  made 
up  from  Mr.  Walter's  pamphlet. 

*  Reminiscences  of  Fnednch  Froebel.    Translated  by  Mrs.  Horace  Maun,  and  published 
by  Lee  &  Shepard,  Boston,  1877,  p.  359. 


BEIITIIA  VON    ilAHENIIOLTZ-BL'LOW. 


1.  Personal  Services  for 
The  Baroness  became  acquainted  with  Froebel  in  May,  1849,  arid  once, 
thoroughly  possessed  of  his  aims  and  methods,  she  began  in  that  summer  a 
work  of  dissemination,  which  she  still  con!  imics  (ia  1881)  with  unabated 
zeal,  and  with  still  widening  influence.  In  July,  1849,  she  had  brought 
one  of  the  be,  t  practical  educators  of  Germany  into  a  personal  knowl- 
edge of  Froebel's  work,  and  thus  secured  a  medium  of  communication 
with  the  pedagogic  world.  Diesterweg,  before  the  close  of  the  year, 
in  a  holiday  book  for  young  people,  his  Kheinische  Blatter,  and  his 
Pedagogical  Year  Book,  had  set  teachers  and  children  to  reading  aboui 
the  new  education  going  on  at  the  Baths  of  Liebensteiu.  In  the  year 
following,  another  seminary  director  and  school  official  (Dr.  Konnann 
of  Berlin),  through  her  introduction,  had  become  interested  in  Frocbel's 
original  views  of  the  child's  activity,  and  proclaimed  their  importance 
through  the  Brandenburg  School  Journal. 

It  was  by  her  womanly  tact  that  Froebel  and  MiddendorlT  were  introduced 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  court  circles  of  Weimar  and  Meiningen,  and  thus 
secured  an  opportunity  of  making  the  system  known  to  people  who  set 
as  well  as  those  who  follow  the  fashion,  in  schools  as  well  as  in  dress  and 
manners.  In  this  way  his  little  children  and  young  kindergartners  were 
transferred  from  the  narrow  limits  of  an  unsuitable  farmhouse,  to  the 
spacious  apartments  of  the  "Hunting  Box"  of  the  Duke  of  Meiningcn. 
with  the  use  of  the  grass  plot,  with  its  shrubbery  and  lindens  for  his  out- 
of  door  morning  lessons  and  movement  plays.  The  attractions  of  this 
spot  helped  the  Baroness  in  her  efforts  to  bring  thoughtful  and  influential 
persons  to  witness  the  methods,  and  listen  to  the  explanations  given  by 
Froebel  of  their  educating  aim  in  the  development  of  the  child. 

In  the  winter  of  I8f)0,  which  she  spent  in  Weimar,  she  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  the  first  kindergarten  there,  interested  the  Grand  Duchess  of 
Russia  to  introduce  Froebel's  methods  into  the  orphan  asylums  of  St. 
Petersburg,  and  the  Countess  of  Hesse  to  employ  one  of  Froebel's  pupils, 
Miss  Kramer,  in  the  early  education  of  her  son,  tl;e  future  prince.  In  the 
summer  of  that  year  she  brought  the  Minister  of  Education  in  thePrinci 
pality  of  Saxe-  Weimar  (Von  Wydenbrugk)  and  Froebel  into  conference, 
and  several  men  of  science,  and  teachers,  who  afterwards  became  advo- 
cates of  the  system  in  special  treatises,  or  in  periodicals. 

In  the  winter  of  18">0  51,  both  the  Baroness  and  Diesterweg  were  busy 
in  making  the  system  known  in  Berlin,  and  in  the  following  summer  the 
pen  of  many  writers  were  employed  in  making  known  the  educative 
value  of  the  kindergarten  festivals,  such  as  was  given  at  the  castle  of 
Altenstein.  The  article  by  Herr  Borman,  then  director  of  the  Berlin 
seminary  for  the  preparation  of  female  teachers,  in  the  Brandenburg 
School  Journal,  should  have  shielded  Froebel  and  his  kindergarten  from 
the  cruel  interdict  of  the  Prussian  minister  of  education,  which  was 
published  in  August  7,  1851.  That  interdict  damaged  the  kindergarten 
in  court  circles  for  a  life  time,  and  although  it  was  officially  canceled  in 
1860,  the  progress  of  the  work  has  been  slow  in  Prussia. 

In  1854,  the  Baroness  visited  London  in  the  interest  of  the  kindergarten, 
where  the  good  work  had  been  begun  by  Madame  Ronge,  the  details 
of  which  will  be  found  elsewhere.  She  thus  writes  of  her  Paris  work' 


152  EINDELlGAkTEN  IN  FRANCE. 

jftirenhoUz-Bulow's  Labors  in  Paris. 

"When  I  went  to  Paris  in  January,  1855,  Froebel's  name  was  wholly 
unknown  there.  Nor  did  I  know  a  single  person  in  that  great  city, 
whither  I  went  without  a  letter  of  introduction,  from  London,  where  1 
had  been  spending  half  a  year,  not  without  results,  in  the  propagation  of 
Froebel's  cause.  My  decision  to  go  was  so  suddenly  taken  that  there 
was  no  time  to  procure  introductions  or  recommendations.  My  confi- 
dence in  the  intrinsic  truth  of  the  cause  induced  me  to  venture  the  exper- 
iment, whose  success  certainly  proves  the  justice,  the  appropriateness, 
and  even  the  necessity  of  introducing  the  Froebelian  education  to  the 
French.  It  not  only  found  acceptance  wherever  I  spoke  of  it,  but  re- 
sulted many  times  in  the  immediate  establishment  of  Kindergartens.  My 
wish  that  the  votaries  of  Froebel's  method  would  work  for  its  spread  in 
foreign  lands,  induced  me  to  show  that  even  a  foreigner  in  a  foreign 
laud  may  do  this.  The  chief  conditions  are:  a  full  knowledge  of  the 
fundamental  thoughts  of  Froebel,  and  consequently  a  deep  conviction  of 
the  worth  of  the  cause;  aj.so  the  knowledge  of  the  practical  use  of  the 
Kindergarten  occupations,  and  ability  to  speak  currently  the  language 
of  the  country.  Recommendations  to  influential  people  are  obviously  of 
the  greatest  use.  I  therefore  addressed  myself,  although  without  recom- 
mendations, to  influential  persons,  in  order  to  secure  the  necessary  sup- 
port of  their  presence  at  my  lectures.  Now  that  Froebel  and  his  cause 
are  so  well  known,  and  many  prejudices  and  much  ill-will  are  overcome, 
infinitely  less  difficulty  in  spreading  the  cause  is  met  with  than  at  that 
time,  almost  twenty  years  ago.  This  difficulty  is  not  to  be  denied,  and 
can  only  be  understood  in  its  whole  scope  by  those  who  have  undertaken 
to  introduce  a  new  cause  into  the  great  cities  of  foreign  lands.  For  a 
woman,  who  undertook  this  work  alone,  it  was  obviously  a  far  greater 
task  than  it  would  have  been  for  a  man.  By  the  publicity  alone  of  the 
necessary  discourses  to  be  pronounced,  the  latter  would  have  been  able 
to  secure  a  more  rapid  spread  of  it.  But  experience  in  different  countries 
has  convinced  me  that  it  is  far  easier,  for  a  woman  to  gain  a  hearing  in 
intelligent  circles,  in  other  countries  than  in  Germany,  where  the  public 
action  of  women  is  limited  to  a  very  narrow  range. 

That  time  of  my  activity  in  Paris  was  very  favorable  for  the  opposition. 
People  were  afraid  of  all  associations,  without  which,  in  our  days,  the 
realization  of  an  idea  is  scarcely  possible;  and  society  was  also  dejected 
about  political  matters.  And  apart  from  many  other  causes  was  the  mis. 
trust  of  anything  new  that  came  from  another  country. 

The  majority  of  those  who  showed  the  liveliest  interest  and  the  best 
understanding  of  that  dde  of  the  cause,  were  almost  always  disciples  of 
Fourrier,  or  at  least  those  acquainted  with  his  doctrine.  They  were  fully 
penetrated  with  the  importance  of  educational  influences  upon  the  first, 
earliest  age,  and  were  striving  to  cure  the  mistakes  of  society  upon  that 
subject.  Among  the  men  of  this  direction  of  thought  Froebel's  methoc 
found  the  most  support,  but  the  exception  to  this,  even  among  that  class 
were  the  quite  exclusive  votaries  of  Fourrier.  They  said  the  whole  o* 
this  system  was  given  by  their  master,  and  some  of  them  strove  to  dis 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  FRANCE.  153 

criminate  between  tlie  ideas  of  Froebel  and  those  of  Fourrier,  even  before 
they  had  seen  the  fundamental  difference  in  the  ground  principles  of  the 
two  thinkers,  especially  the  positively  religious  side  in  Froebel's  views. 

Every  thinker  in  France,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  who  has  any  interest  in 
the  progress  of  humanity,  and  who  sees  the  necessity  of  new  conditions 
to  bring  about  that  end,  wishes  for  a  new  education,  in  order  to  see  new 
men  come  forward.  Nowhere  else — and  least  in  Germany,  where  the 
prophet  of  method  is  at  home — have  I  found  such  ready  sympathy,  so 
much  comprehension  and  profound  penetration  into  Froebel's  ideas,  as 
in  Paris.  That  .the  reason  of  this  is  to  be  sought  in  the  intellectual  life 
of  great  centers,  as  well  as  in  the  circumstance  that  many  circles  of  intel- 
ligent people  were  opened  to  me,  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  the  fact  is 
very  striking  that  the  votaries  won  there  belonged  to  the  most  various 
and  opposing  parties  of  France,  politically,  religiously,  and  socially. 

In  no  case  have  I  found  the  often-expressed  view  confirmed  that  it  is 
more  difficult  to  break  the  way  for  the  cause  in  catholic  than  in  prote^tant 
countries.  The  distrust  excited  in  Germany  by  the  religious  side  of  the 
cause  I  have  seldom  met  with  in  foreign  countries,  and  always  in  less 
measure.  Indeed,  they  have  received  the  cause  more  free  from  prejudice, 
since,  on  account  of  its  novelty,  no  accusation  of  heresy  had  been  brought. 

In  the  lower  classes  I  have  never  and  nowhere  found  so  much  true  and 
intellectual  agreement  in  the  practical  side  of  Froebel's  method  as  in 
Paris.  The  handicraftsmen  recognized  the  importance  of  it  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  all  work,  and  often  with  surprising  sharpsightedness. 

As  the  Empress  was  the  titular  President  of  the  Central  Committee  of 
the  Salles  d'Asyle,  and  the  Cardinal  de  Tours,  Morlot  (afterwards  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris),  was  acting  President,  the  introduction  of  the  method 
into  the  public  asylums  was  reached  only  by  direct  application  to  these 
two  authorities.  My  application  to  the  Empress  was  immediately  con- 
sidered, and  the  Minister  of  Instruction  (de  Fortoul)  was  asked  to  look 
into  the  cause.  In  audience  with  him,  I  expressed  the  wish  that  he 
would  name  a  committee  for  the  practical  exa?nination  of  it,  which  was 
appointed  in  the  State  Normal  School,  rue  L  rsuline  No.  10,  under  the 
conduct  of  Mad.  Pape-Carpentier.  This  was  done. 

After  this,  for  three  months,  under  my  guidance,  the  children  of  the 
institution  were  occupied  according  to  Froebel's  method,  and  the  above- 
named  commission,  after  the  official  examination,  declared  itself  not  only 
satisfied  with  the  desired  result,  but  even  the  Ministry  of  Instruction  rec- 
ommended, in  its  official  report,  "that  the  Kindergarten  method  be  intro- 
duced into  existing  institutions,  and  that  the  Kindergartens  be  connected 
with  the  elementary  schools  as  soon  as  possible."  With  the  permanent 
introduction  of  the  Fre^belian  occupations  into  her  institute,  Mad.  Pape- 
Carpentier,  a  very  deserving  lad}*,  was  requested,  and  the  order  issued, 
for  the  improvement  of  the  asylum,  to  instruct  the  pupils  of  her  normal 
school  to  be  conductors  of  the  method  in  asylums.  To  describe  the  com- 
munications made  in  the  course  of  the  first  introduction  of  the  cause 
into  France  would  carry  me  too  far.  The  following  instances  are  suf.lc  lent. 
A  protestant  lady,  Mad.  Andre  Kftchlin,  built  a  hall  in  rue  de  la  Pepin- 
iere,  No  81,  for  the  introduction  of  Froebel's  method.  By  the  support 


154  KINDERGARTEN  IN  FRANCE. 

of  Mad.  Jules  Mallet  (a  well-known  philanthropist  in  Paris),  I  also  intro 
dnced  it  to  the  sisters  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  whom  I  instructed  in  the 
method  in  the  Little  Orphan  Asylum,  Chausse  Munilmontant,  119.  Also 
in  the  Asylum  of  the  Deacon  nesses,  95  rue  de  Neuilly,  and  iu  the  protest- 
ant  school,  11)  rue  St.  Genevieve.  The  introduction  of  single  occupa 
tions  was  effected  in  vaiiotis  institutions. 

A  practical  course  of  instruction  in  the  method  was  introduced  into 
an  institution  for  young  ladies,  rue  St.  Etienne,  40.  In  the  Cloister 
CAsaompiion,  the  directress  of  the  asylum.  Sister  Marie,  a  very  intelligent 
nun,  was  so  interested  in  the  method  and  learnt  it  so  industriously  with 
my  help,  that  they  would  have  introduced  it  into  her  institution  at  her 
earnest  request,  if  she  had  not  been  called  to  Spain  by  the  order  of  the 
Superior  of  hef  order,  when  we  were  in  the  midst  of  our  activity.  The 
nuns  of  the  cloister  are  very  unjustly  charged  with  being  narrow  and 
one-sided,  in  consequence  of  the  passive  obedience  to  which  they  are 
bound.  In  some  cloisters,  I  found  many  intellectual  women  who  were 
truly  waked  up  to  the  appreciation  of  Froebel's  system. 

The  great  injury  done  by  the  one-sided  spiritual  education  given  in 
catholic  countries,  in  the  institutions  conducted  by  nuns,  cannot  be  denied. 
The  unmistakable  traces  of  it  are  seen  everywhere.  The  mechanical 
instruction  in  the  schools  of  protestant  countries  is  in  full  tide  also. 
Everywhere,  even  in  the  earliest  childhood,  we  find  the  levelling  and 
breaking  down  of  the  mind  instead  of  free  and  fresh  development  and 
awakening.  These  institutions  make  the  impression  that  they  are  waiting 
for  the  magic  word  which  will  dispel  the  bann  and  create  for  child-nature 
the  free  motion  and  gay  carelessness  suited  to  it.  Would  that  every- 
where the  right  formula  could  soon  be  recognized  in  Froebel's  idea,  and 
the  present  mechanical  and  repressing  system  even  of  existing  Kindergart- 
ens, be  banished  forever. 

The  present  want  of  training-schools  for  Kindergartners  in  foreign 
countries  makes  the  quick  spread  of  Kindergartens  impossible.  Those 
educated  in  Germany  are  rarely  sufficiently  versed  in  foreign  languages, 
and  very  unwillingly  leave  home.  The  present  incapacity  of  the  majority 
of  those  who  are  active  abroad  destroys  very  much  the  good  opinion  that 
has  been  gained  of  the  cause.  On  the  other  side,  the  ignorance  of  the 
German  language,  as  well  as  the  frequent  lack  of  means  for  distant  jour- 
neys, prevents  the  foreign  women  from  using  the  German  training  insti- 
tutions. Only  when  each  country  possesses  a  training-school  for  Kinder- 
gartners (and  consequently  a  normal  school  for  teachers),  will  the  present 
occupants  of  these  positions  be  able  to  be  supplanted. 

This  was  my  repeated  experience  in  the  various  countries  in  which  I 
made  known  the  cause;  the  contemplated  founding  of  institutions  was 
again  and  again  prevented  by  the  want  of  directors  to  carry  the  plans 
into  execution. 

Even  in  France  the  above-mentioned  beginnings  could  not  have  been 
made,  if  I  had  not  been  able  to  procure  Kindergartners  from  Germany 
who  could  speak  French.  It  is  true  that  many  other  hindrances  have 
been  in  the  way  of  increasing  such  institutions  during  my  presence  there; 
hindrances  which  are  palpable  to  the  intelligent.  At  that  time  I  sent 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  FRANCE.  155 

three  ladies  from  Paris  to  Germany,  to  learn  what  was  necessary  for  the 
conduct  of  Kindergartens.  One  of  these,  Miss  Chevalier,  is  at  present 
at  the  head  of  a  Kindergarten  in  Orleans,  and  is  intrusted  by  the  author- 
ities with  the  instruction  of  directresses  of  asylums.  Another  is  iii 
Mulhausen,  in  Alsace,  where  I  made  the  cause  known  in  1857.  A  Kin- 
dergarten was  established  there  for  the  well-to-do  classes,  which  is  con- 
ducted by  a  Kiridergartner  from  Hamburg. 

Various  beginnings  of  similar  Kindergartens  went  down,  after  my 
departure,  on  account  of  personal  relations,  and  in  consequence  of  the 
dissolution  of  a  society  which  I  had  founded.  The  favorable  moment 
for  the  full  introduction  of  the  cause  into  Paris  has  not  yet  arrived.  The 
future  will  bring  it  yet,  and  then  there  will  be  a  quick  and  universal 
acceptance  of  it  after  the  first  foundation  has  been  laid. 

One  of  the  numerous  proofs  of  the  recognition  of  the  cause  in  Pans 
was  the  offer  of  100,000  francs  from  the  Countess  of  Noailles  for  a  per- 
manent Kindergarten,  in  case  the  Emperor  would  grant  the  use  of  a  part 
of  the  Park  of  Ronceaux.  I  had  obtained  more  than  a  hundred  signa- 
tures to  my  appeal  for  it  on  the  part  of  well-known  and  influential  per- 
sons. The  good  reception  which  this  met  with  in  higher  places  was 
prevented  by  local  and  personal  interests  from  bringing  the  desired  result. 
Perhaps  ten  years  hence  we  shall  everywhere  find  Kindergartens  in  the 
great  parks  and  gardens  of  cities.  Nowhere  else  but  in  Paris  have  the 
journals  responded  so  readily  and  willingly  to  the  Kindergarten  caust. 

La  Presse  (in  1855  and  1856)  edited  by  Mr.  G.  de  Girardin,  Journal  de 
debats,  Gazette  de  France,  Sie"cle,  La  Revue  Britaniquc,  La  Revue  de 
deux  Mondes,  La  Revue  de  Paris,  Le  disciple  de  Jesus  Christ,  Le  Journal 
de  la  Jeunesse,  La  vie  humaine,  Le  Monde,  L'ami  del  eufance,  Le  Bul- 
letin des  Cre'ches,  L'ami  des  sciences,  etc.,  representing  all  parties. 

Mr.  Riche-Gardon,  editor  of  La  me  Humaine,  founded  a  journal  specially 
for  the  support  of  the  Kindergarten  cause. 

In  Tours,  I  could  only  make  a  little  beginning  for  the  cause  In 
Montpelier,  Mad.  Mare's  placed  a  German  Kindergartner  over  an 
asylum,  but  she  did  not  answer  her  expectations.  Mad.  Mares  had  heard 
my  lectures  in  Paris.  Froebel's  occupations,  however,  were  introduced. 

The  want  of  works  by  French  authors  upon  this  subject  was  one  of 
the  greatest  obstacles  to  the  spread  of  the  cause  in  France,  and  in  coun- 
tries where  the  French  language  is  spoken.  This  is  what  obliged  me  to 
publish  my  first  little  treatises  in  French,  for  which  I  was  often  blamed 
in  German  circles.  This  is  the  reason  why  we  have  a  French  manual 
and  no  German  one.  As  they  could  use  in  Germany  Froebel's  own  first 
pupils,  the  need  of  one  was  less  felt  there  than  ir  foreign  lands,  and  I 
was  obliged  to  create  one  for  instruction  in  the  method.  Its  contents  are 
the  foundation  of  the  manual  published  by  H.  Goldhammer. 

It  was  also  necessary  to  have  the  materials  for  play  manufactured  in 
each  country.  To  be  obliged  to  pay  the  duties  upon  these  is  always  an 
obstacle.  In  France,  Belgium,  Holland,  Switzerland,  and  England  I 
found  handicraftsmen  who  prepared  them  very  well  after  patterns  given. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  many  French  letters  addressed  to  me, 
from  1855  to  1859.  See  page  — 


156  BERTHA  VON  MARENIIOLTZ-BULOW. 

The  following  citations  from  letters  addressed  to  the  Baroness,  and 
published  in  the  appendix  to  her  "Education  by  Doing"  (Die.  Arbeit), 
show  the  impressions  produced  on  some  of  the  first  minds  of  France  by 
her  exposition  of  Froebel's  S}rstem  in  185o-57. 

CARDINAL  AKCHBISHOP  MERLOT  writes:  "I  am  astonished  at  the 
far-sightedness  of  Froebel,  who  has  found  means  to  exercise  each  one  of 
the  child's  organs." 

"Froebel's  methods  offer  ju^t  what  is  wanting  in  our  asylums,  which 
are  only  nurseries — nothing  more." 

"As  president  of  the  Commission  of  Asylums,  I  will  see  that  the 
methods  of  Froebel  are  properly  tested  by  tfctual  trial,  in  the  model  and 
training  institution  of  Madame  Papc-Carpeutier. " 

M.  MA  ii  HE  AIT,  Founder  of  the  Creche,  and  President  of  the  Inter- 
national Society  of  Charity,  writes: 

"I  feel  the  liveliest  interest  in  your  Froebelian  method,  and  earnestly 
wish  for  its  introduction  into  France.  We  shall  draw  nourishment  for 
future  generations  from  Froebel's  discoveries.  I  will  speak  on  the  subject 
at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Society  of  Charity." 

BUCIIET  DE  CUBIERE,  an  eminent  mathematician,  writes: 

"I  shall  never  forget  the  evening  on  which  you  explained  for  three 

hours  Froebel's  great  thoughts  on  the  education  of  the  race,  and  the  rich, 

material  which  you  showed  he  had  created  for  the  young  of  the  future. 

He  is  one  of  the   most  eminent  men   that   Germany   has  produced  in 

this  century. 

M.  GUEPIEN,  physician  and  naturalist  of  Nantes,  and  author  of  the 
Encyclopedia  of  the  Philosophy  of  the  IDth  Century,  writes: 

"Froebel's educational  method  is  the  most  complete  and  rational  that  I 
am  acquainted  with.  On  my  return  from  Paris  I  took  steps  to  have 
a  paper  prepared  for  the  Academic  Society  of  Nantes.  My  wife  will 
write  to  several  ladies  to  interest  themselves  practically  in  the  establish- 
ment of  societies  and  Kindergartens.  I  will  write  to  friends  in  Barce- 
lona and  Madrid,  where  your  treatise  wrill  be  printed  in  Spanish.  Our 
newspapers  will  insert  articles — the  Courier,  the  Journal  of  the  Loire. 
Journal  of  Commerce,  etc." 

MADAME  MALLET,  author  of  the  treatise  on  Prisons  for  Women, 
crowned  by  the  Academy,  writes : 

"  I  agree  with  you,  we  must  go  into  families  and  teach  the  mothers  how 
to  develop  aright  the  first  germs  of  observation  and  intelligence.  We 
must  induce  them  to  go  to  the  Kindergarten  to  see  and  feel  the  right  way 
of  treating  their  own  children." 

Dr.  LAVERDANT,  physician  and  author,  writes: 

"Froebel's  method,  as  expounded  by  you,  develops  the  universal,  the 
creative,  and  th«  artistic  faculties  in  harmony.  In  your  next  conference, 
which  will  be  composed  of  representatives  of  all  shades  of  religious  and 
social  thought — Catholics,  half-catholics,  and  non-catholics,  fourrierites, 
phalansterists,  Protestants,  rationalists,  etc.,  I  hope  you  will  dwell  on 
the  relations  of  women  as  mothers  and  members  of  society  to  this  work 
of  child-culture,  and  on  the  utilitarian  element  which  enters  into  the 
Kindergarten  method. 

ABBE  MITRAUD,  author  of  La  Democratic  et  la  Catholicisme,  writes: 
"I  accept  Froebel's  idea,  theory,  and  method,  in  all  its  magnitude  and 
fruitfulness.     Its   tendencies  to   pantheism  will  be   modified   by   sound 
Catholicism,  to  which  I  give  my  faith  and  understanding.     You  must 
visit  Italy  and  Rome.     I  will  cooperate  with  you." 

M.  MICETELET,  the  historian: 

"  By  a  stroke  of  genius  Froebel  has  found  what  the  wise  of  all  time 
have  sought  in  vain — the  solution  of  the  problem  of  human  education/' 


BERTHA  VON  MARENIIOLTZ-BULOW  157 

While  achieving  this  mighty  conquest  in  the  field  of  official,  literary, 
and  scientific  influence  in  Paris,  and  preparing  the  way  for  a  silent  and 
gradual  change  in  the  methods  of  child  culture  in  the  asylums  and  infant 
schools  of  Paris,*  the  Baroness  did  not  leave  other  portions  of  France 
and  adjacent  countries  unvisited  and  untouched  by  her  magnetic  presence. 

In  the  summer  of  1857  she  attended  the  International  Congress  of 
Beneficence  in  Frankfort,  and  by  her  lectures  in  German  and  French 
interested  some  of  the  best  minds  in  Europe  in  Froebel's  system  of  educ;* 
tion — and  particularly  the  founders  and  conductors  of  Farm  Schools  tind 
Asylums  for  neglected  children.  In  December  of  the  same  year,  on  the 
invitation  of  the  Prime  Minister  Tlogier,  who  had  become  interested  in 
her  work  at  Frankfort,  she  visited  Brussels,  and  addressed  conferences  of 
inspectors,  teachers,  directors  of  ganliennes  or  infant  schools,  who  came 
together  on  invitation  of  the  Minister.  Out  of  this  work,  which  was,  con- 
tinued for  five  months,  kindergartens  were  established  in  all  the  chief  cities 
of  Belgium,  the  methods  were  introduced  into  infant  schools,  and  by  a 
decree  of  the  government,  "instruction  in  the  system  of  the  great  German 
pedagogue"  was  given  in  all  the  Normal  schools  and  Training  classes  for 
primary  school  teachers.  The  kindergarten  is  now  recognized  as  the  firs*- 
grade  of  all  formal  instruction — both  public  and  private. 

In  the  summer  of  1858  and  the  two  years  following  this  indefatigable 
worker  was  in  Holland.  Switzerland,  and  France  helping  to  found  societies 
in  which  earnest  women  could  work  together  for  the  promoaon  of  the 
Froebelian  system, — in  Amsterdam,  the  Hague,  and  other  cities  in  Hol- 
land; in  Mulhausen ;  in  Zurich,  ISTeuclritel,  Berne,  and  other  large  cities 
in  Switzerland,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Swiss  Society  of  Public  Utility. 
In  th:s  way  a  public  interest  was  awakened,  and  the  public  intelligence 
was  cultivated,  until  in  several  cantons  the  kindergarten  directly  by  name, 
or  as  infant  school,  is  now  a  recognized  grade  in  the  system  of  public 
instruction.  In  the  canton  of  Geneva,  Madam  de  Portugal  is  inspcctress  of 
all  the  institutions  of  this  grade,  and  a  regular  normal  course  of  training 
is  conducted  by  Miss  Progler. 

She  had  previously  conferred  with  advanced  schoolmen  in  Bohemia, 
Hungary,  and  Austria  proper,  by  whom  the  Kindergarten  was  earlier 
than  elsewhere  recognized  by  the  highest  ministerial  authorities  of 
education  as  essential  to  true  pedagogical  progress.  The  Minister  von 
Stremayr,  in  1857,  induced  several  municipal  authorities  to  convert  their 
Children's  Asylums  into  Infant  Schools,  with  Froebel's  methods;  and 
subsequently  at  Vienna  and  Gratz,  to  establish  Kindergartens  "  to 
strengthen  and  complete  the  family  education  for  the  youngest  children, 
and  prepare  them  for  the  school  instruction  which  is  to  follow  after  the 
sixth  year."  It  is  now  made  obligatory  on  all  directors  of  Normnl 
Schools  and  Training  classes,  to  give  instruction  in  the  principles  and 
practice  of  Froebel's  System. 

*  According  to  the  report  of  Mr.  GrSard,  Director  of  Primary  Schools  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Seine,  the  Saltes  d'a*ile  of  this  Department  have  been  divided  into  two 
classes :  the  Salles  cTasile  proper,  or  Asylums  for  the  nurture  of  children,  from  2  to  4  years 
of  a</e,  and  the  Froebel  da.--s  for  children  from  4  to  6  years  of  age.  The  Fioehel  rla^s  ia 
preparatory  for  the  Public  Primary  School.  Abont  65  per  cent,  of  all  the  children 
1)  i  ween  the  ages  of  2  and  6,  in  Paris  and  the  suburbs,  are  in  the  Salles  d'axilea  and  the 
Froebel  classes. 


158  BERTHA  VON  MAREXIIOLTZ-BULOW. 

In  Bavaria,  Baden,  and  Wirtemburg,  through  her  personal  visits  and 
correspondence,  Froebel  Unions  of  efficient  women,  and  Model  Kinder- 
gartens were  established  in  1857.  The  Munich  Society  was  established  in 
18G8,  and  in  1873  it  had  seven  Kindergartens  with  2,890  children. 

In  1861  and  the  years  immediately  following  we  find  her  organizing  in 
Berlin  a  "Union  for  Family  and  Popular  Education,"  and  superin- 
tending a  course  of  practical  instructions  in  kindergarten  plays  for  nurses. 

In  the  pedagogical  section  of  the  Congress  of  Philosophers,  called 
and  sustained  marnly  by  Professor  Leonhardi  of  Prague,  the  Baroness 
t<>'  ':  an  active  interest,  and  it  was  through  her  influence  that  Prof.  Von 
Ficlite  of  Tubingen  expressed  the  views  of  the  section  in  his 'report  sub- 
mitted to  the  Congress  at  Frankfort,  in  18(59,  in  which  Froebd's  solution 
of  the  problem  of  the  popular  education  demanded  by  the  age,  is  ablv  set 
forth.  During  the  session  at  Frankfort,  she  delivered,  on  special  invita- 
tion, public  lectures  in  exposition  of  Froebel's  system,  and^took  the 
initiatory  steps  for  the  establishment  of  the  General  Educational  Union, 
vtfiicli  was  organized  at  Dresden  in  1871,  by  the  election  of  Prof.  Ficlite 
as  President.  Among  the  members  we  noiice  the  names  of  Dr.  Barop 
of  Keilhau,  Dr.  Wichard  Lange,  Dr.  Langthal,  Slate  Councillor  Ileub- 
ncr,  Baron  von  Teubern,  Dr.  Hohlfeld,  Prof.  Leonhardi,  Dir.  Mar- 
quard,  and  m-iny  excellent  teachers  who  are  coming  to  the  front  in 
pedagogical  work.  To  the  periodic;)!  established  by  this  union,  and  the 
Normal  Class,  the  Baroness  devotes  much  time,  having  since  the  opening 
of  the  latter  assisted  in  the  training  of  over  1,000  kindergai  tners.  In  the 
organ  of  the  Union,  Die  Erziehnng  der  Gefffiiurart,  she  has  first  published 
her  educational  views.  AVe  have  enumerated  in  another  place  the  various 
publications  issued  by  the  Baroness  in  elucidation  of  Froebel's  s}rstem. 

In  the  winter  of  1871,  she  visited  Italy,  delivered  lectures  in  Florence, 
and  assisted  in  conferences  and  by  letters  in  the  establishing  of  kinder- 
gartens in  Venice,  Rome,  and  Naples.  The  lectures  delivered  by  her 
were  republished  by  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  in  1872. 

Out  of  her  labors  in  Florence  originated  one  feature  of  Madame  Sa'is- 
Schwabo's  great  institution  at  Naples  in  the  old  Medical  College  buildings, 
placed  at  her  disposal  by  the  Italian  Government. 

This  noble  woman  still  lives,  and  denying  her  years  the  peaceful  hours 
of  rest,  still  works  on  for  the  furtherance  of  the  same  cause  which  has 
been  so  blest  at  her  hands.  May  the  evening  of  her  busy  and  useful  life 
be  long  cheered  by  the  grateful  voices  of  thousands  of  women  whom  she 
has  inspired  and  trained  to  lives  of  beneficent  activity,  and  of  tens  of  thou- 
sands more  to  whom  her  works  or  teaching  secured  the  priceless  inheri- 
tance of  a  happy  childhood,  and  brought  light,  sweetness,  and  strength  to 
their  widely  separated  homes.  It  is  the  privilege  of  only  a  few  in  any 
one  or  many  generations,  so  to  live;  and  living,  to  see  the  work  of  their 
hands  still  progressing  to  large,  and  still  larger  results,  in  every  civilized 
country.  One  who  knew  by  experience  something  of  such  work  says: 

"The  pood  begun  by  .yon  f»hnll  onward  flow 

In  many  a  branching  stream  and  wider  grow; 

Tlie  t»eed8  that  in  thei*e  few  and  fleeiiiigthonra, 

Your  hande  unsparing  and  unwearied  s«\v, 

Shall  deck  your  grave  with  amaranthine  flowers, 

And'yield  you  fruit?  divine  in  heaven's*  immortal  bowers.** 


FROEBELIAN  LITERATURE. 


Publications  ly  Bertha  V.  Marenholtz  Bulow. 


159 


1.  EINE   FUAUKNSTIMME   aus    dem    Bade   Liebenstein  im    Juli  1849   [A 
woman's  voice  from  the  Liebenstein  Bath  in  July,  1849]. 

Contained  in  the  pamphlet :  "  Eiuiges  ttber  die  Nothwendigkeit  und  Wirk 
samkeit  der  Frob.  Kindergarten.  Stimmen  aus  dem  Bade  Liebenstein,  1849 
im  Juli "  [Something  upon  the  necessity  and  effect  of  the  Froebelian  Kinder- 
gartens. Voices  from  the  Liebenstein  Bath  in  July,  1849]. 

Also  in :  "  Rlu-inische  Blatter,"  1849,  pt.  2,  p.  325 — . 

2.  FR.  FROBEL  und  die  Kindergarten.  .  .  .     [Fr.  Froebel  and  the  Kinder- 
gartens.    Reply  to  an  accusing  article  in  No.  21  of  the  Hannov.  Zeitung,  1852]. 

Contained  in  :  "  Zeitschrift  fiir  Frobels  Bestrebungen,  1852,  No.  5,  p.  3, 3-[18?]. 

3.  WlLHELM    MlDDENDORFF. 

Contained  in  :  "  Rheinische  Blatter,"  1854,  Sept  — Oct.  No.,  p.  142-149. 

4.  EIN  ZTJSAMMENHANGENDES  G.VNZES  von  Spielen  und  Beschaftigungen 
fiir  die  erste  Kindheit  von  Fr.  Frobel  [A  connected  whole  of  plays  and  occupa- 
tions for  the  earliest  childhood,  by  Fr.  Froebel].     Dresden,  Fischers  Druckerei 
1854.    12  p. 

•*•  Engl.  transl. :  "  A  CONNECTED  series  of  playthings  and  occupations  for  early 
childhood  by  Fr.  Frobel,  Dresden,  Fischers  Printing  Office,  1854." 

5.  DIE  ERSTE  ERZIEHUNG  durch  die  Mutter  nach  Fr.  Frobels  Grundsatzen 
[The  first   education    by  the   mother,  according   to   Fr.  Froebel's   principles]. 
Leipzig,  Gust.  Mayer,  1854.     32  p.,  with  2  lith.  pi. 

6.  AUFFORDERUNG   an  die  Frauen  zur  Griindung  von  Erziehungsvereinen 
[Demand  upon  women  for  the  establishment  of  educational  unions]. 

Separate  from  Dr.  Georgens  and  II.  Klemm's  "  fllustrirten  Monatsheften 
fiir  Familicnleben,  weibliche  Bildung  und  Humanitatsbestrebungen "  [Illus- 
trated monthly  for  family  life,  culture  of  women,  and  strivings  of  humanity]. 
Dresden,  Klemm,  1854,  No.  6,  p.  187-191. 

7.  WOMAN'S  EDUCATIONAL  mission,  being  an  explanation  of  Fr.  Frobel's 
system  of  infant  gardens.     London,  Darton,  1854.     (Published  with  the  Coun- 
tess Krockow. ) 

8.  DER  KINDERGARTEN,  des  Kindes  erste  Werkstatte  [The  Kindergarten, 
the  child's  first  workshop].     3d  ed.,  Dresden,  Kammerer,  1878.    (68  ?)  p.,  with  3 
lithogr   pi. 

Appeared  first  under  the  title  :  "  Les  jardins  d'enfants  "  [The  Kindergartens]. 
Paris,  Borrani  and  Droz.,  1855. 

The  journal:  " Le  disciple  de  Jesus-Christ"  [The  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ], 
publ  by  Martin  Pachoud,  .  .  .  contained  this  pamphlet  in  several  numbers. 

The  German  translation  (bvr  Isidore  von  Billow)  appeared  first  in  Lauck- 
hard'.s  pedagogical  quart: r'y  Reform,"  Leipzig,  Weber,  v.  2,  No.  1,  and 

As  a  separate,  entitled :  "Die  Frobelschen  Kindergarten  [The  Froebelian 
Kindergartens]. 

The  2d  ed.  appeared  under  the  title :  "Der  Kindergarten,  des  Kindes  erste 
Werkstatte  [The  Kindergarten,  the  child's  first  workshop].  Dresden,  Kubel, 
1873. 

Polish  translation  (by  a  young  Pole,  Xaveria  Kuwiczinska)  :  Dresden,  1864. 

Publ.  at  Florence,  in  French,  and  in  Italian,  by  a  Union  formed  there  for  the 
Froebelian  cause. 

9.  NOTIIWENDIGE  VfiRBESSERUNG  der  Kleiukinder-Bewahranstalten  [Nec- 
essary improvement  of  the  asylums  for  little  children].     Berlin,  Dunker,  1857. 

f  Reprinted  in  the  Rheinische  Blatter,  1857,  pt.  2,  p.  69-85 ;    Representatives.) 


IQi)  FROEBELIAN    LITERATURE. 

10.  LES  JARDINS  D'ENFANTS.     Expose  presei.te  .  .  .  au  Congres  interna- 
tional de  Bieufaisance  de  Frankfort  sur  le  Mein  [The  Kindergartens.     State- 
ment presented  by  Mme.  the  Baroness   of    Marenholtz    to  the   International 
Congress  of  Benelicence,  of  Frankfort  on  the  Main].     Bruxelles,  1858. 

Also  in:  "Congres  int.  de  Bienf.  de  Frankfort  s.  1.  M.  Session  1857. 
Frankfort  s/M.  et  Bruxelles,  1858,  v.  1,  p.  295—,  p.  307—. 

In  1858  she  contributed  to  the:  "Manuel  pratique  des  jardins  d'enf  ants  " 
.  .  .  [Practical  manual  of  the  Kindergartens  of  Fr.  Froebel,  for  the  use  of 
instructresses  and  mothers ;  composed  upon  the  German  documents  by  F.  F. 
Jacobs,  with  an  introduction  by  Madame  the  Baroness  of  Marenholtz]. 
Bruxelles,  1859. 

In  1861  she  founded  the  periodical:  "Die  Erziehung  der  Gegenwart"  [The 
education  of  the  present],  edited  by  Dr.  Schmidt  in  Kothen,  in  which  she  pub- 
lished a  series  of  articles,  which  were  re-published  in  her  work  "  Das  Kind  und 
sein  Wesen"  [The  child  and  its  nature].  Berlin,  Habel,  1868. 

11.  DIE  ARBEIT  und  die  neue  Erziehung  nach  Frobels  Methode  [Work 
and  the  new  education  according  to  Froebel's  method].     Berlin,  Habel  (Ensliu), 
1866.     More  than  259  p. 

Same,  2d  ed.     Kassel  und  Gottingen,  Wigand,  1875.     [4]  329  p.,  4.5  Mark. 
Russian  transl. 

English  transl.  in  America  (by  Mrs.  Mann.) 
Italian  transl.  in  Palermo. 

12.  DAS  KIND  und  sein  Wesen.  .  .  .     [The  child  and  its  nature.     Contri- 
bution to  the  understanding  of  Froebel's  doctrine  of  education].     2d  ed.  Kassel, 
Wigand,  1878. 

(A  part  of  the  articles  in  this  appeared  in  1861  and  1862  in  the  "  Erziehung 
der  Gegenwart.") 

The  first  edition  of  this  work  was  transl.  by  Prof.  Sanzo  del  Rio  into  Spanish  ; 
and  by  Matilda  Kriege  in  New  York  into  English  :  "  The  child,  its  nature  and 
relations.  A  free  rendering  of  the  German  of  the  Baroness  Marenholtz  -Billow. 
New  York,  1872"; — also,  from  the  2d  edition,  into  English,  by  Alice  M- 
Christie:  "Child  and  child-nature.  Contributions  to  the  understanding  of 
Frobel's  educational  theories,  by  Baroness  Marenholtz-Bulow."  London,  Sonnen- 
schein,  1879  ; — the  same,  republished  by  Dr.  Barnard,  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Education,  for  March,  July,  and  September,  1880,  and  in  Pamphlet  of  128 
pages,  Hartford,  1880,  and  in  the  Kindergarten  and  Child-Culture  Papers,  1881. 

13.  BEITRAGE  zum  Verstandnisse  der  Frb'belschen  Erziehungsideen  [Con- 
tributions to  the  understanding  of  the  Froebelian  ideas  of  education]. 

Vol.  1.  Reminiscences  of  Fr.  Froebel.  Appeared  first  in  the  "Erziehung  der 
Gegenwart,"  1874-76.  In  America  this  work  was  translated  into  English: 
"Reminiscences  of  Fr.  Frobel  by  Bar.  B.  de  Marenholtz-Bulow,  translated  by 
Mrs.  Horace  Mann.  With  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  Fr.  Frobel  by  Emily  Shirreff ." 
Boston,  Lee  &  Shepard. 

Vol.  2.     Kassel,  Wigand,  1877. 

14.  DIE  ERSCHEINUNGEN  der  Zeit  uncl   die  Aufgaben  der  Erziehung.    .  .  . 
[The  phenomena  of  the  times  and  the  task  of  education.     An  exhortation  to 
carry  out  the  solution  of  the  educational  tasks  of  the  present].     In  Kommission 
derkonigl.  Hofbuchhandlung  von  Burdachin  Dresden,  1879. 

Appeared  first  in  the  "Erziehung  der  Gegenwart,"  1878  and  1879. 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS. 

BY   BAKOXESS   MAREXHOLT/-BULOW.* 


I.  CHILD-XATURE. 

THE  child  is  born  into  the  world !  He  enters  it  struggling ;  a  scream 
is  his  first  utterance.  His  destiny  is  labor;  he  has  to  make  himself 
master  of  the  world  by  his  own  exertions  in  whatever  sphere  of  society 
his  cradle  may  lie.  A  thick  veil  hangs  over  the  young  being  which, 
like  a  closely  enveloped  bud,  does  not  betray  the  exact  image  of  the 
flower  it  will  one  day  expand  into. 

Can  even  the  mother  divine  what  fate  is  in  store  for  her  newborn 
child  ?  She  knows  not  whether  there  lies  in  her  lap  a  future  benefactor 
of  mankind,  or  a  miserable  criminal.  Is  it  in  her  power  to  bring  about 
the  one  destiny — to  avert  the  other  ?  Who  can  doubt  that  she  may  do 
something  towards  both  these  ends  ?  Imagine,  for  instance,  an  infant 
with  the  natural  endowments  of  a  Goethe,  a  Beethoven,  a  Raphael,  or  a 
Franklin,  and  let  its  cradle  be  placed  in  some  haunt  of  misery  and  vice. 
A  childhood  without  loving  care,  without  guidance,  passed  in  the  midst 
of  immoral  surroundings  ;  a  youth  lived  among  drunkards,  thieves,  and 
liars — how  much  of  the  original  material  will  have  been  developed? — 
as  good  as  none !  and  the  gifts  of  nature  will  probably  become  a  per- 
ilous weapon  in  the  hands  of  a  scoundrel. 

Or  suppose  the  same  gifted  child  to  be  born  in  a  palace,  and  brought 
up  by  weak,  light-minded  parents  in  extravagance  and  luxury,  and  under 
the  pernicious  system  of  intellectual  forcing,  but  at  the  same  time,  in 
all  practical  senses,  in  utter  idleness — is  it  likely  that  in  such  a  case,  the 
natural  endowments  will  ripen  to  perfection  ?  Hardly !  If  a  few  sickly 
sprays  shoot  out  and  blossom,  it  is  as  much  as  can  be  hoped  for. 

Now  let  us  reverse  the  supposition,  and  imagine  a  child  of  quite 
ordinary  faculties  reared  neither  in  want  and  vice,  nor  in  luxury  and 
superfluity,  whose  parents  and  whole  surroundings  fulfill  all  the  condi- 
tions which  a  human  being  can  require  for  its  development — will  a 
distinguished  man  or  woman  be  the  result  in  such  a  case — a  great  artist, 
or  a  splendid  character,  whose  place  will  be  lastingly  marked  out  in 
human  society?  Certainly  not!  Great  geniuses,  great  characters, 
bring  their  greatness  with  them  into  the  world.  Rose-trees  cannot  be 
grown  from  thistle-seeds. 


*  "  Child  and  Child-Nature."  Contributions  to  the  Understanding  of  Frobel's  Edu- 
cational Theories,  by  the  Baroness  Marenholtz-Biilow.  Translated  from  Revised 
Berlin  edition  (1878),  by  Alice  M.  Christie.  London  :  \V.  Swan  Sonnenschein,  15 
Paternoster  Square,  1879. 

161  » 


162  CHILD-NATURE. 

Or  let  us  imagine  the  most  highly  gifted  of  human  beings  brought 
up  under  all  the  best  conceivable  educational  influences,  whether  ac- 
cording to  Frobel's  principles  or  others — would  such  an  one  appeal- 
before  us  as  a  completely  perfect  man  ?  Certainly  not !  If  we  pre- 
sumed to  answer  this  question  in  the  affirmative,  we  must  be  prepared 
to  maintain  as  a  general  fact  that  human  conditions  are  sufficient,  in 
any  direction  whatever,  to  produce  perfection.  And  this  we  cannot  do. 
For  we  see  all  around  us  defects  of  birth,  as  well  as  defects  of  educa- 
tion and  surroundings,  and  we  cannot  attempt  to  determine  how  much 
.of  the  imperfection  of  human  beings  is  to  be  attributed  to  natural 
qualifications  and  how  much  to  outward  influences — to  the  education 
which  is  bestowed,  as  well. as  to  that  which  goes  on  of  itself. 

Each  of  these  influences  has  its  part  in  the  development  of  the  man 
or  woman  out  of  the  child.  But  the  more  human  knowledge  embraces 
in  its  scope  the  knowledge  of  human  nature,  the  more  educational  sys- 
tems are  adapted  to  this  knowledge,  the  nearer  will  they  be  brought  to 
perfection. 

Human  nature  has  not  as  yet  attained  to  its  full  standard  of  devel- 
opment, nor  does  any  one  yet  know  to  what  height  it  is  capable  of 
rising  even  on  earth.  Once  only  did  mankind  behold  its  perfect  pattern 
in  the  man  Christ  Jesus.  But  we  know  that  man  is  of  divine  origin, 
and  that  his  destiny  is  to  become  the  image  of  God.  Eternally  pro- 
gressing development  can  alone  solve  the  problem  of  his  existence. 

Frobel  aptly  describes  human  nature  when  he  says :  "  Man  is  at  once 
the  child  of  nature,  the  child  of  humanity,  and  the  child  of  God ; " 
in  this  threefold  sense  alone  can  he  be  rightly  understood.  Frobel 
himself  has  done  little  to  develop  this  and  many  other  of  his  profound 
thoughts  on  human  nature,  and  there  is,  therefore,  need  of  constant 
exposition  to  make  them  more  thoroughly  understood.  By  the  com- 
prehension of  this  threefold  character  in  human  nature,  Frobel  to  a 
certain  extent  neutralizes  the  discord  between  body  and  spirit,  for  he 
places  man  as  a  reconciler  between  God  and  Nature. 

With  its  first  breath  the  child  comes  undoubtedly  into  relation  with 
these  three  powers :  Nature,  Humanity,  and  God. 

THE  CHILD'S  RELATION  TO  NATURE. 

(1.)  As  a  child  of  nature,  man  is  connected  with  all  the  elements  of 
creation,  even  down  to  the  inorganic  ones,  which  can  be  detected  as 
iron  in  the  blood,  as  chalk  in  the  bones,  and  so  forth.  As  a  product  of 
nature,  he  is  not  only  subject  to  her  laws,  he  lives  in  her,  and  only  exists 
through  her,  he  comes  out  from  her  and  goes  back  to  her !  He  is  sur- 
rounded by  her  atmosphere,  and  his  earthly  life  is  an  outcome  of  it. 
Soil  and  climate,  food  and  clothing,  with  the  modes  of  life  arising 
therefrom,  give  their  special  stamp  to  races  and  peoples,  of  which  the 
individual  man  is  a  member.  There  is  not  a  single  product  of  nature 
that  does  not  pass  int6  man,  or  at  any  rate  stand  in  relation  to  him. 


CHILD-NATURE.  163 

Everywhere  there  goes  on  a  perpetual  interchange  of  material  between 
man  and  nature,  nature  and  man ;  and  when  a  human  being  has  fin- 
ished his  course  on  earth,  he  bequeaths  to  the  earth  his  body,  which  will 
rise  from  it  again  as  plants,  flowers,  or  fruits. 

And  through  nature,  too,  men  are  closely  bound  up  in  one  another, 
each  generation  in  itself , 'and  all  generations  together,  for,  from  the  first 
down  to  the  last,  the  great  world  chemist  has  smelted  and  fused  them 
with  one  another,  and  with  the  kingdoms  of  nature. 

In  all  these  kingdoms  there  is  but  one  and  the  same  law  which 
governs  alike  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  smallest  stone,  the  lowest 
animal,  and  the  noblest  human  being,  for  all  have  the  same  origin,  and 
the  same  Creator,  God.  And  it  is  because  the  Spirit  of  God  lives  in 
nature  and  in  the  human  soul  that  man  is  able  to  understand  nature. 
Only  where  there  is  mutual  analogy,  is  mutual  understanding  possible. 
And  this  understanding,  this  finding  out,  of  analogies  must  be  arrived 
at,  if  man  is  to  acquire  a  deeper  knowledge  of  his  own  being.  We  have 
not  yet  got  beyond  the  A  B  C  of  the  great  symbolisms  of  nature ;  but 
science  now-a-days  takes  possession  with  giant  strides  of  one  realm  of 
nature  after  another.  Let  us  only  place  the  rising  generation,  from  its 
cradle  up,  under  the  mighty  influences  of  divine  nature,  so  that  her 
intuitive  language  may  penetrate  to  our  children's  souls  and  awaken 
an  echo  in  them,  and  mankind  will  soon  be  better  able  to  solve  the 
riddles  which  contain  the  key  of  life,  the  hieroglyphs  of  this  mystic 
symbolism  will  soon  be  legible  to  all. 

RELATIONS    TO    HUMANITY. 

(2.)  But  as  a  child  of  humanity,  the  young  citizen  of  the  world, 
comes  out  from  the  circle  of  necessity  to  which  all  the  domains  of  nat- 
ure belong,  and  enters  the  realm  of  freedom,  of  self-knowledge,  and 
self-mastery.  The  stamp  of  natural  organisms  is  simple  and  easily 
recognized ;  the  species  is  a  sure  index  to  the  individual. 

In  the  human  organism,  individuality  grows  into  personality,  which 
once  established  can  never  more  be  lost,  but  expands  and  develops  con- 
tinually -in  the  chain  of  conscious  existence,  whose  highest  member 
leads  up  to  the  Godhead.  But  here,  too,  the  species,  the  tribe,  the  na- 
tion, the  generation,  all  combine  to  give  the  stamp  to  the  individual. 

Who  is  there  that  would  be  able  to  unravel  the  many-threaded, 
thousand-fold  entangled  web  of  derivation  ;  to  determine  how  much 
is  inherited  from  the  race,  the  nation,  the  family,  and  how  much  is 
peculiar  to  the  individual  himself?  Do  not  numberless  traits  of  char- 
acter live  on  from  forefathers  to  descendants?  No  one  can  entirely 
separate  himself  from  the  chain  of  which  he  is  a  link.  None  can  repu- 
diate the  heritage  of  his  fathers,  whether  it  descend  to  him  in  the 
features  of  his  face,  in  his  gestures,  or  in  special  qualities  of  the  soul. 

The  old  saying,  "the  sins  of  the  fathers  are  visited  on  the  children 
to  the  fourth  generation,"  is  true  for  all  times.  But  virtues  perpetuate 


1 64  CHILD-NATURE. 

themselves  in  like  manner,  and  it  is  within  the  free  choice  of  every 
separate  personality  to  diminish  the  sum  of  wickedness  and  to  increase 
that  of  virtue.  The  moral  progress  of  mankind  depends  on  this,  that 
•each  individual  and  each  generation  make  such  use  of  the  talent 
received  from  its  predecessor,  that  it  shall  yield  manifold  interest. 

Backslidings  of  individual  human  beings,  as  of  individual  nations, 
are  unavoidable  in  the  great  school  of  experience  in  which  Providence 
has  placed  mankind.  But  progress  in  the  main,  and  on  the  whole,  is 
going  forward.  To  deny  this,  is  as  much  as  to  deny  the  Providence 
which  has  implanted  this  incessant  yearning  after  something  better 
'(even  under  earthly  conditions)  in  the  human  breast,  and  has  based  on 
this  yearning  the  whole  moral  and  mental  development  of  man.  With- 
out the  assumption  of  the  possibility  of  perfection,  for  the  individual 
;as  well  as  the  race,  human  education  would  be  without  end  or  aim. 

To  what  extent  man  is  the  offspring  of  humanity  is  seen  in  a  thou. 
sand  different  ways.  A  child  may  have  been  transplanted  to  a  foreign 
land  and  into  the  midst  of  foreign  surroundings  immediately  after  its 
birth,  and  it  will  nevertheless  learn  its  mother  tongue  with  greater 
facility  than  any  other.  There  are  examples  to  show  that  children 
who  had  lost  their  parents  in  strange  countries,  at  the  tenderest  age, 
and  had  never  heard  a  syllable  of  their  mother  tongue,  learnt  it  with 
incredible  rapidity  at  the  first  opportunity.  So,  too,  it  is  affirmed  that 
it  is  not  only  owing  to  the  imitative  faculty  that  children  learn  their 
parents'  trades  so  easily.  The  practice  of  the  parents,  through  which 
special  organs  are  developed,  stands  the  children  in  good  stead.  And 
who  has  not  caught  himself  in  habits  which  are  hereditary  in  his 
family? 

Humanity  is  a  u-liole,  and  is  destined  to  develop  and  establish  itself 
more  and  more  as  an  organism  through  the  conscious  hanging  together 
of  its  members,  through  the  realization  (striven  after  by  all  religions) 
of  the  brotherhood  of  men.  Hence  the  individual  can  only  be  under- 
stood when  considered  as  part  of  the  race,  while  it  is  only  through 
individuals  that  the  race  can  receive  the  full  impress  of  all  its  manifold 
features.  The  paradox,  "  the  more  individual,  so  much  the  more  uni- 
versal; and  the  more  universal,  so  much  the  more  individual,"  is  only 
an  apparent  contradiction.  The  more  distinctly  and  completely  the 
personal  character  of  the  individual  pronounces  itself,  the  nearer  will  it 
approach  the  universal  character  of  mankind.  Harmony  in  music  is 
all  the  more  perfect  when  each  separate  instrument  gives  out  its  par- 
ticular note  clearly  and  sharply. 

Profound  obscurity  still  covers  the  Why  of  the  great  mystery  of  unity 
in  variety,  and  of  the  linking  together  of  generations  in  the  past,  the 
present,  and  the  future.  But  with  the  advance  of  all  other  sciences  that 
of  humanity  is  advancing  also.  The  time  will  come  when  man  shall 
have  arrived  at  that,  which  by  the  wise  of  all  ages  has  been  recognized 
as  the  keystone  of  wisdom,  viz.,  "  to  know  oneself." 


CHILD-NATURE.  165, 

All  knowledge  must  ascend  from  the  easier  to  the  more  difficult;  and 
so  the  road  to  the  knowledge  of  man  must  lead  first  through  that  of 
the  organisms  of  nature,  which  is  subordinate  to  man.  Man  must  first 
behold  himself  in  the  looking-glass  of  nature,  before  he  can  rightly  use 
that  glass  which  the  history  of  mankind  holds  up  to  him. 

Only  in  the  mirror  of  his  own  race,  in  the  history  of  humanity,  can 
individual  man  see  what  his  true  nature  is — though  hitherto  it  may  be 
only  in  a  fragmentary  manner.  However  much  epochs  and  nations 
may  differ  from  one  another,  and  however  infinite  in  its  variety  may 
be  the  conformation  of  separate  individuals — each  one  sees,  nevertheless, 
the  universal  features  of  his  broad  human  nature  beaming  at  him  from 
the  portraits  of  history.  What  is  it  that  makes  the  dramas  of  Shaks- 
peare  immortal,  but  the  grandly  universal  traits  of  human  nature  which 
stand  out  with  the  strongest  individuality  in  all  his  characters?  These 
universal  features  remain  the  same,  and  are  comprehensible,  in  all  ages 
and  under  all  forms. 

Mankind  from  its  birth,  like  individual  man,  has  passed  through,  and 
is  still  passing  through,  the  different  stages  of  childhood,  youth,  man- 
hood, and  old  age.  And  conversely  we  see  in  the  development  of  the 
individual  the  universal  features  of  the  progress  of  mankind. 

Frb'bel  has  studied  these  features  with  deeper  insight,  and  has  found 
the  method  of  drawing  them  out  in  the  various  stages  of  childish  devel- 
opment, through  sensation,  will,  and  action. 

In  the  instinctive  utterances  of  infant  nature,  in  so  far  as  its  freedom 
is  not  curtailed  by  the  training  universally  in  vogue,  are  seen  traces  of 
the  groove  in  which  mankind  has  gone  forward  in  its  inarch  from  the 
beginnings  of  civilization  to  the  heights  reached  at  the  present  day. 
The  instinct  of  animals  has  been  strong  enough  from  the  very  beginning 
to  procure  them  the  necessaries  of  their  existence.  The  various  races 
of  animals  have  not  changed  their  functions  within  our  epochs.  The 
bee  builds  its  cell,  the  swallow  her  nest,  the  fox  his  hole,  exactly  as  they 
did  formerly.  Man  alone  has  been  compelled  to  open  out  a  way  for 
himself,  to  mount  upwards  by  his  own  labor  and  exertions,  by  the 
mighty  power  of  his  inventive  spirit,  and  through  thousands  of  errors 
and  by-ways,  from  the  first  rude  conditions  of  a  wild  life  of  nature  to 
the  heights  of  civilization.  The  history  of  human  culture  shows  this. 

But  whatsoever  the  mind  of  man  may  have  produced,  from  the  most 
primitive  work-tools  carved  out  of  stones  and  roots,  to  the  wonderful 
machinery  of  modern  times  ;  from  the  first  rude  outlines,  copied  from 
the  shadows  of  objects,  to  the  wonders  of  sculpture  and  painting ;  from 
the  imitated  tones  of  birds  and  insects  and  all  the  different  sounds  of 
nature,  to  the  symphonies  of  Beethoven  ;  from  the  rude  knowledge  of 
the  relations  of  space  and  size  to  the  measurement  of  the  heavens.;  in 
all  that  the  human  mind  has  accomplished  in  the  way  of  knowledge,  it 
is  nature  that  has  given  the  direction-line  and  the  law.  For  man  could 
only  create  after  the  patterns  of  the  Creator  himself,  and  it  is  only  in 


IQQ  CHILD-NATUKE. 

a  later  stage  of  development  that  the  genius  of  mankind  has  been  capa- 
ble of  giving  a  divine  stamp  to  these  first  rude  constructions,  and  of 
elevating  them  into  works  of  art.  These  early  patterns  were  to  man  at 
the  same  time  symbols  of  truth ;  visible  signs  of  the  invisible — until  he 
became  capable  of  immediate  apprehension  through  the  Word.  By 
gentle,  gradual  steps,  through  the  rudest  and  the  simplest  modes  of 
sensual  perception  to  the  manifestation  of  divine  beauty  in  Art,  and  of 
divine  truth  in  the  Word,  has  God  led  his  human  children. 

In  the  play  of  children  of  all  times  we  see  the  nature  of  mankind 
expressed.  Its  past  and  future  life  passes  through  the  soul  of  the  child 
as  a  dim  recollection  and  a  dim  foreboding,  and  groping  and  fumbling 
it  seeks  to  find  the  leading-string,  both  outward  and  inward,  which 
shall  guide  it  through  all  labyrinths  to  the  fulfilment  of  its  tasks. 

As  birds  build  nests,  so  children  in  their  play  build  houses,  or  dig 
holes.  As  chickens  scratch  up  the  earth,  so,  too,  do  little  children's 
hands,  until  in  their  little  gardens  they  have  learnt  in  play  how  to  till 
the  soil,  and  sow  and  reap.  Any  chance-found  material  will  serve  them 
for  plastic  modeling,  be  it  only  moist  sand.  There  is  no  art  which  is 
not  attempted  by  children,  whether  it  be  pictures  in  chalk  or  pencil,  or 
drawn  in  the  sand ;  or  that  the  first  stammering  tones  of  the  newborn 
infant  move  rhythmically ;  or  the  crowing  of  the  cock,  the  mooing  of 
the  cow,  the  bark  of  the  dog,  and  any  other  animal  voices,  be  imitated 
by  children,  until  true  musical  sounds  issue  from  their  little  throats ; 
these  are  the  first  beginnings  which  lead  up  to  art.  And  with  the  rudi- 
ments of  industry  and  art,  the  first  germs  of  science  show  themselves 
also  in  the  desire  to  know.  With  its  oft-repeated  :  why,  how,  wherefore  ? 
the  young  mind  strives  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  things,  to  the  funda- 
mental truth,  to  their  source  in  God. 

It  is  a  fundamental  necessity  that  the  development  of  the  individual 
should  go  through  the  same  phases  as  that  of  the  race,  for  both  have 
the  same  end  before  them.  Happiness — or  according  to  Frobel — "  Joy, 
Peace,  Freedom,"  are  sought  by  the  individual,  are  sought  by  mankind. 
To  both  these  can  only  come  through  the  fulfillment  of  their  destination, 
which  is  the  full  development  of  the  entire  human  nature.  A  rightly 
directed  education  is  the  chief  means  of  reaching  this  end,  but  a  means 
which  is  only  possible  through  a  right  understanding  of  man  and  nat- 
ure. Through  this  understanding  alone  can  the  secret  of  human  exist- 
ence be  discovered. 

THE    CHILD    OF    GOD. 

(3.)     Every  human  being  in  his  spiritual  origin  belongs  to  God. 

The  child  of  God  exists  only  as  a  feeble  spark  in  the  human  being  at 
his  first  entrance  into  the  world  ;  to  fan  this  spark  into  a  flame  is  the  ob- 
ject of  his  earthly  existence.  At  the  beginning  of  existence  the  child  of 
nature  rules  in  a  man  as  instinctive  life,  as  an  impulse  which  awakens 
the  will — at  first  only  as  an  ungoverned  force  of  nature.  Self-preserva- 


CHILD-NATURE.  167 

tion  is  almost  exclusively  the  unconscious  object  of  all  childish  utter- 
ances. And  we  have  no  right  to  blame  children  for  this  so-called  egoism ; 
had  not  an  all-wise  providence  implanted  this  impulse  so  strongly  in  the 
human  breast,  how  could  weak,  helpless  beings  preserve  their  existence 
in  the  midst  of  the  countless  perils  of  life  ?  It  is,  however,  the  business 
of  education  to  moderate  this  instinct  of  self-preservation,  and  by  the 
exercise  of  the  capacity  for  loving,  to  lead  the  child  out  of  the  narrow 
range  of  personal  life  into  that  of  the  child  of  humanity,  i.  e.,  the  social 
being  who  constitutes  a  member  of  human  society.  In  this  sphere 
feeling  and  reason  bear  rule,  and  by  these  the  will  is  guided  and  pointed 
to  a  higher  aim  than  mere  personal  well-being. 

Self-reliance,  independence,  freedom,  are  the  highest  stamps  of  the 
child  of  humanity  as  an  individual.  How  far  would  the  development  of 
the  world  have  advanced  were  it  not  for  the  inborn,  unextinguishable 
craving  which  is  driving  and  spurring  men  on  to  create  for  themselves 
an  independent  existence,  a  respected  position  in  society  ?  Almost  all 
progress  is  the  result  of  it.  Each  one  wishes  to  assert  himself,  to  be 
himself  the  center  of  a  little  world  of  his  own  activity ;  and  this  desire 
drives  him  to  a  thousand  exertions,  to  countless  inventions,  to  continu- 
ous change  of  position,  and  consequently  of  his  whole  circumstances. 

So  long,  however,  as  man  considers  only  himself — or  even  the  wider 
self  of  his  family — so  long  the  child  of  God  still  slumbers  in  him.  Then 
only  is  the  latter  awake  and  living,  when  the  love  which  has  hitherto 
embraced  only  himself,  and  the  narrow  circle  of  those  living  with  him, 
drives  him  forth  into  the  larger  community  of  the  nation  and  the  race ; 
when  this  love  becomes  strong  enough  to  move  him,  regardless  of  his 
own  personality,  yea,  more,  at  the  sacrifice  of  earthly  personality  to  de- 
vote himself  to  the  good  of  the  whole.  He  that  enters  the  service  of 
mankind  has  entered  the  service  of  God.  The  saying :  "  He  that  lov- 
eth  not  his  brethren,  how  can  he  love  God  ?  "  is  the  kernel  of  all  religion. 
Through  the  love  of  those  outside  us  we  arrive  at  the  love  of  God,  in 
that  higher  community  which  exists  outside  the  visible  world. 

By  every  ideal  upsoaring  we  overstep  the  limits  of  this  earthly  visi- 
ble life,  and  penetrate  into  a  higher  world  where  the  mortal  becomes 
immortal.  If  everywhere  throughout  the  universe  there  is  continuous 
unbroken  connection,  it  can  only  be  an  apparent  gap  which  is  caused 
by  earthly  death.  The  image  of  God,  to  which  man  is  called  to  raise 
himself,  cannot  be  perfected  in  the  narrow  limits  of  earthly  existence , 
in  his  divine  nature  man  is  a  citizen  of  the  great  All,  which  prevails  by 
gradual  advances,  thereby  conquering  time  and  space. 

Who  is  there  that  either  would  or  could  deny  that  man  bears  in  him- 
self the  marks  that  he  is  destined  to  communion  with  God,  and,  finally, 
to  union  with  him?  Has  there  ever  been  a  human  being  worthy  of 
the  name,  who  has  passed  through  the  whole  course  of  his  earthly 
life  without  experiencing  a  craving  after  something  higher  ?  It  may 
have  been  but  one  single  moment  of  strong  emotion,  whether  of  joy  or 


168  CHILD-NATURE. 

of  sorrow,  but  that  moment  has  been  enough  to  point  to  something  be- 
yond the  confines  of  this  existence.  Is  there  any  work  of  man,  even 
the  highest,  any  deed,  even  the  greatest,  which  does  not  presuppose 
something  higher  than  itself,  more  perfect?  Nowhere  in  human  exist- 
ence is  full  satisfaction  to  be  found,  everywhere  forebodings,  yearnings, 
hopings,  drive  us  outside  of  ourselves — on  to  the  Ideal  of  Humanity— 
as  it  was  once  presented  to  us  in  Him  who  gave  His  life  for  His  breth- 
ren— on  to  the  fountain  of  all  fullness  and  perfection — to  God  Himself  ! 

Such  is  the  child  of  God  who  enters  into  a  higher  liberty  because  he 
has  become  capable  of  a  higher  love.  Only  through  love  is  true  liberty 
possible  ;  for  it  is  only  love  that  can  conquer  whatever  is  opposed  to 
liberty ;  and  only  in  liberty  is  love  possible,  for  only  he  who  possesses 
himself  in  perfect  liberty  is  free  to  give  himself  up  in  love. 

All  great  benefactors  of  mankind,  all  its  true  heroes,  martyrs,  and 
saints,  all  really  great  artists  and  great  discoverers  of  truth  and  science 
— as  also  all  childlike  souls  who  have  lived  out  their  lives  in  simplicity 
and  piety — were  children  of  God.  In  them  the  divine  spark  had  kin- 
dled into  a  holy  fire  of  inspiration,  purifying  and  enlightening  the  soul, 
and  enabling  the  divine  mind  to  shine  through  the  human.  In  them 
the  soul  had  burst  the  narrow  bounds  of  personality  and  expanded  itself 
on  mankind,  in  anticipation  of  that  time  when  all  human  beings,  in 
full  possession  of  their  perfected  individuality,  will  together  realize  the 
great  being  of  humanity;  i.  e.,  when  all  the  endless  variety  of  human 
life  shall  be  swallowed  up  in  unity,  and  the  countless  different  notes  of 
a  great  harmony  of  brotherly  love  be  struck  in  concord.  Then  the 
child  of  God  will  have  triumphed  in  humanity,  then  good  will  have 
conquered  evil,  then  the  Apotheosis  of  this  earthly  globe  and  its  inhab- 
itants will  be  consummated  ! 

We  may  lower  or  raise  the  standard  of  perfection  attainable  on  earth 
as  much  as  we  will — it  matters  little.  Once  let  us  accept  the  law  of 
progress  as  an  eternal  law,  and  it  must  lead  us  on  to  ever  higher  ends. 
There  are  only  two  alternatives  •  either  this  earth  is  a  treadmill,  on 
which  men  go  round  and  round  without  ever  getting  further ;  or  else 
mankind  is  destined  to  attain  even  on  earth  to  a  God-decreed  height  of 
perfection  which  will  be  carried  on  further  and  further  in  the  great 
hierarchy  of  the  universe. 

If  all  without  exception  believed  in  this  high  destiny,  if  each  one  of 
us  was  convinced  that  he  was  called  to  work  according  to  God's  will 
toward  the  fulfillment  of  this  aim,  how  much  more  quickly  would  it  be 
reached?  How  much  more  easily  would  want  and  sorrow  be  endured 
if  we  kept  steadily  in  view  the  great  end,  to  bring  us  nearer  which  every 
experience  of  humanity  must  be  gone  through,  every  pain  suffered  and 
its  cause  mastered  ?  But  each  painful  sufferer  and  faithful  worker  will 
once  have  his  share  in  the  glory  of  fulfillment.  This  is  the  true  belief, 
belief  in  the  glorification  of  God  in  humanity ;  this  is  the  belief  which 
all  religions  must  presuppose,  this  is  the  kernel  of  Christianity  ;  and  on& 


CHILD-NATURE.  169 

great  reason  why  religion  has  so  little  hold  on  the  world  now-a-days  is, 
that  it  mostly  leaves  this  belief  out  of  account.  So  long  as  it  is  con- 
sidered mere  fanaticism,  or  Utopian  expectation,  to  believe  in  this 
Apotheosis  of  humanity,  so  long  will  it  remain  unrealized.  To  science 
is  committed  the  great  task  of  demonstrating  how  all  that  exists,  not 
only  in  our  planet  but  in  all  the  heavenly  bodies,  is  bound  together  in 
one  continuous  chain.  When  this  is  done,  the  higher  relations  of  things 
beyond  the  earth  will  be  understood  of  themselves,  and  the  belief  in 
their  perfect  spiritual  development  will  itself  have  become  science. 

But  this  triumph  of  the  child  of  God  will  not  be  brought  about  by 
the  suppression  and  annihilation  of  the  child  of  nature,  and  the  child  of 
humanity.  The  full  harmony  of  human  nature  can  only  be  produced 
when  its  due  weight  is  given  to  each  side,  and  the  higher  nature  draws 
the  others  up  to  equal  perfection  with  its  own. 

Education  will  only  then  fulfill  its  task  when  it  deals  with  human 
nature  in  its  threefold  aspect,  and  gives  to  each  equal  consideration. 
Hitherto,  this  has  not  been  possible,  both  because  child-nature  was 
little  understood  before  the  present  time,  and  because  the  means  were 
wanting  to  respond  from  the  very  beginning  to  the  necessities  of  the 
infant  mind.  It  was  Frb'bel  who  first  found  the  key  to  the  nature  of 
children,  who  learnt  to  understand  their  dumb  natural  language,  who 
discovered  a  way  of  supplying  them  with  their  first  mental  nourish- 
ment, and  of  treating  the  child  of  humanity,  from  its  first  entrance  into 
the  world,  as  a  being  destined  to  become  reasonable. 

Woman — the  Educator  of  Mankind. 

But  where  shall  we  find  mothers  fit  to  receive  the  educational  legacy 
of  genius  bequeathed  to  our  age,  and  to  apply  it  in  the  right  way  ?  We 
have  but  to  look  around  in  all  classes  of  society  to  see  how  few  are  the 
women  really  fit  to  become  mothers  and  bringers-up  of  children.  And 
even  tjie  best  amongst  them  are  deficient  in  the  necessary  knowledge 
and  means.  Frb'bel  has  laid  the  basis  of  a  true  science  for  mothers, 
and  we  hope  that  many  perversities  of  our  educational  systems  may  be 
struck  at  their  roots,  and  misery  of  every  description  thus  warded  off. 

With  the  elevation  of  child-nature,  the  elevation  of  woman  and  her 
veritable  emancipation  are  closely  bound  up.  The  science  of  the  mother 
initiates  her  inevitably  into  a  higher  branch  of  knowledge,  whereby  not 
mere  dry  intellectual  power,  but  true  sensibility  and  high  spiritual 
clearsightedness  are  developed  in  her.  With  the  knowledge  that  a  di- 
vine spark  slumbers  in  the  little  being  on  her  lap,  there  must  kindle  in 
her  a  holy  zeal  and  desire  to  fan  this  spark  into  a  flame,  and  to  educate 
for  humanity  a  worthy  citizen.  With  this  vocation  of  educator  of  man- 
kind is  bound  up  everything  needful  to  place  woman  in  possession  of 
the  full  rights  of  a  worthy  humanity. 


170  FKOEBEL'S  ED  UC ATION  AL  VIEWS. 


II.    THE    FIRST    DEVELOPMENTS    OF    THE  CHILD. 

"  Sich  selbst  und  ihre  Welt  zu  schaffen,  welche  Gott  erschaffen,  ist  die  Aufgabe 
der  Menschheit,  wie  des  Einzelnen." 

"  To  fashion  himself,  to  fashion  the  world,  which  God  created,  is  the  task  of  hu- 
manity, as  well  as  of  the  individual." 

NOT  Frobel  alone,  others  too  before  him,  and  at  the  same  time,  have 
given  expression  to  the  thought  that,  as  the  universal  development  of 
the  human  individual  can  only  be  carried  on  in  relation  to  his  race,  so 
the  first  sure  standard  for  his  management  and  education  must  be  ob- 
tained through  observation  of  the  development  of  collective  humanity. 
Frobel  grounded  his  Kindergarten  system  to  a  great  extent  on  this 
principle,  without,  however,  carrying  its  application  to  the  individual ; 
a  few  explanations,  therefore,  by  which  this  analogy  may  be  more 
closely  established,  and  Frobel's  system  of  development  exhibited  in  its 
right  light,  will  not  be  out  of  place  here. 

The  first  question  that  proposes  itself  is :  "  What  are  the  principal 
utterances  of  the  infant  ?  "  those,  that  is,  which  are  more  or  less  com- 
mon to  all  children  alike,  and  in  which  we  can  point  to  the  beginnings 
of  human  efforts  after  culture. 

PHYSICAL   MOVEMENT. 

When  a  child  is  born  into  the  world,  its  first  utterances  are  in  the 
form  of  movements — outward  movements  of  his  arms  and  legs,  and 
inner  movements  in  the  shape  of  screams.  All  development  must  go 
on  through  movement.  Before  a  human  being  can  in  any  degree  begin 
to  take  possession  of  himself  and  of  the  outward  world,  his  physical 
powers  and  organs  must  be  to  some  extent  unfolded ;  and  thence  it  is 
that  in  the  early  years  of  life  physical  development  takes  the  lead.  The 
child  of  but  a  few  months  old,  lying  in  its  cradle,  plays  with  its  Jimbs, 
pulls  about  its  feet  and  fingers,  strikes  out  its  arms  and  legs,  and  thus 
makes  its  first  acquaintance  with  its  outward  form,  which  in  this  way 
only  can  be  impressed  on  its  mind.  As  soon  as  the  child  can  walk, 
its  greatest  need  again  is  movement.  To  run  hither  and  thither,  to 
traverse  the  same  ground  in  a  dozen  different  cross  and  roundabout 
ways ;  to  touch,  handle,  and  examine  everything  with  the  ever  restless 
hands,  all  this  is  common  to  every  healthy  child ;  and  the  greater  its 
strength  the  greater  its  need  for  bodily  exertion,  which  vents  itself  in 
running,  jumping,  climbing,  wrestling,  throwing,  and  lifting ;  and  in 
the  case  of  boys  especially,  urges  on  to  a  variety  of  games  which  de- 
velop strength  and  skill.  No  such  object,  however,  is  present  to  the 
child's  consciousness,  who  is  simply  driven  by  his  impulses,  the  satisfac- 
tion of  which  causes  him  amusement  and  joy.  Whatever  affords 
pleasure  to  children  in  general,  and  in  all  times,  conduces  always  to 
their  development  in  some  way  or  other. 


THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD,  171 

To  forward  physical  development  is  thus  the  principal  end  of  the 
child's  activity.  And  do  we  not  see  a  like  process  going  on  amongst 
savage  uncultivated  races ;  corporal  exercises,  and  exertions,  the  object 
of  which  is  generally  to  supply  their  needs,  form  the  chief  scope  of 
their  actions  !  The  commencement  of  history  with  the  heroic  age  ex- 
hibits in  like  manner  bodily  strength  and  skill  as  the  highest  aim  of 
action,  only  here  we  have  in  addition  the  goal  of  heroic  deeds,  which 
were  not  merely  concerned  with  material,  egoistic  needs,  but  also,  and 
chiefly,  with  beloved  human  beings,  and  before  all  with  the  home  and 
family.  The  putting  forth  of  strength,  the  overcoming  of  obstacles  or 
enemies,  are  always  the  highest  pleasure  of  youth  and  early  manhood. 
And  even  in  middle  age  we  still  see  the  tournament,  the  duel,  and  the 
chase  replacing  to  some  measure  as  sport,  the  business  of  warfare. 
Nothing  shows  more  clearly  that  the  development  of  the  physical  powers 
constituted  the  highest  happiness  of  mankind  in  its  infancy,  than  the 
idea  oi  a  i'uture  life  contained  in  Northern  mythology,  viz.,  that  the 
dead  would  divide  their  existence  in  Walhalla  between  fighting  and 
banqueting,  and  that  the  wounds  received  in  battle  would  heal  up  at 
once,  and  the  slain  shortly  after  be  drinking  cheerily  at  the  feast. 

EXERCISES    OF    THE    LIMBS. 

The  members  and  organs  of  the  body  must  have  been  developed  up 
to  a  certain  pitch,  before  they  can  serve  as  fit  instruments  for  the  mind. 
We  see  plainly  that  the  wise  direction  of  Providence  has  so  ordered 
things,  that  every  human  being  is  attracted  towards  the  kind  of  action 
necessary  for  his  special  development.  The  child  is  driven  by  an  in- 
ward impulse,  so  to  use  his  members  and  senses  in  his  play,  that  these 
are  developed  and  formed,  just  as  the  grown  man  in  a  primitive  state  is 
compelled  to  supply  his  own  bodily  wants  in  order  that  his  bodily 
powers  may  be  cultivated  and  made  fit  for  a  higher  kind  of  activity. 
But  every  human  being  must  take  care  that  he  does  not  remain  at  the 
mercy  of  these  impulses,  or  he  will  degenerate,  be  lead  on  to  that  which 
we  call  evil,  and  lose  sight  of  the  direction  which  would  have  conducted 
him  to  the  destined  end  of  his  development.  A  right  education  con- 
sists in  so  strengthening  and  encouraging  all  the  natural  dispositions 
of  a  child  that  they  may  conduce  to  the  end  which  nature  has  set  be- 
fore them.  Our  modern  age,  which  makes  so  much  less  demand  for 
expenditure  of  corporal  strength,  furnishes  so  much  less  opportunity 
for  battling  with  outward  material  obstacles,  imitates  the  Greeks, 
though  by  no  means  universally  enough,  in  using  gymnastics  as  a 
means  of  physical  education  for  its  youth,  but  there  is  no  similar  pro- 
vision, or  as  good  as  none,  for  the  first  years  of  childhood,  except  where 
Frobel's  Kindergarten  system  is  in  vogue.  Hence  the  first  stage  in  the 
process  of  infant  development  is  called  "  Exercises  of  the  Limbs." 

After  the  first  development  of  rude  strength,  that  of  skill  in  handling 
stands  out  as  the  chief  requisite  at  the  commencement  of  human  cul- 


172  THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD. 

ture.  Next  to  the  need  for  movement,  there  is  none  so  great  in  the 
early  years  of  childhood  as  that  of  using  the  hands.  The  sense  of  touch 
is  next  to .  that  of  taste  (which  is  itself  a  kind  of  touching  with  the 
tongue),  the  dominant  one  in  the  first  stage  of  sensual  growth. 

SENSE    OF    TOUCH — USE    OF    HAND. 

.At  the  beginning  of  life  there  is  very  little  distinction  between  the 
different  senses ;  they  are  all  more  or  less  fused  together.  The  feeble 
capacity  for  work  which  any  single  sense  possesses,  necessitates  the  co- 
operation of  all,  when  one  is  called  upon  to  act.  It  is  well  known  that 
children  must  always  touch  everything  ;  and  not  children  only ;  all 
rough,  uncultivated  grown  people  are  not  satisfied  with  seeing  an  object, 
they  must  also  bring  their  sense  of  touch  in  various  ways  to  their  as- 
sistance, in  order  to  understand  exactly  the  nature  of  the  object. 

In  order  that  this  most  necessary  member  may  be  prepared  for  future 
work,  nature  encourages  the  child  to  use  its  hands  incessantly  in  its 
play.  Nothing  is  more  contrary  to  nature  than  to  forbid  a  young  child 
the  use  of  its  hands,  as  is  so  often  done  in  infant  institutions.  In 
order  that  they  may  keep  their  attention  steadily  fixed  on  the  subject 
of  instruction,  generally  premature  and  quite  out  of  proportion  to  the 
children's  stage  of  development,  they  are  condemned  to  keep  their 
hands  folded,  or  crossed  behind  their  backs.  Through  this  indication 
of  nature,  Frobel  has  discovered  the  right  method  of  riveting  a  child's 
attention,  viz  ,  connecting  all  the  instruction  imparted  to  it  with  the  use 
of  the  hands.  The  hand  is  the  natural  scepter  which  raises  man  to  the 
position  of  sovereign  of  the  earth.  With  his  hand  man  has  fashioned 
for  himself  all  his  weapons  o£  self-defense,  whereas  animals  are  pro- 
vided with  them  by  nature ;  with  his  hand  he  has  made  all  the  imple- 
ments needful  for  mastering  the  forces  and  materials  of  nature,  and  for 
procuring  the  necessaries  and  ornaments  of  his  life.  Without  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  hand,  industry  and  art  would  be  impossibilities.  But 
the  marvelous  organism  of  this  member  would  not  alone  have  been 
sufficient  to  produce  the  wonders  of  industrial  art ;  for  this  the  guiding 
co-operation  of  the  mind  was  necessary.  The  activity  of  human  beings 
differs  in  this  from  that  of  animals,  that  it  is  work  in  the  full  sense  of 
the  word,  that  the  fingers  are  moved  by  the  mind,  and  are  obliged  to 
carry  out  its  plans  and  ideas.  Therefore  work  is  not  a  curse,  but  the 
highest  blessing  of  mankind,  and  that  which  confers  on  it  its  nobility. 

INSTINCT    OF    CONSTRUCTION. 

The  play  of  children  is  for  them,  at  the  same  time,  work,  for  it  serves 
to  develop  their  members,  senses,  and  organs.  After  the  first  unregu- 
lated feeling  and  grasping  of  their  little  hands,  their  favorite  occupa- 
tion is  to  dabble  in  some  soft  me?s — earth,  sand,  or  what  not — and  to 
try  their  skill  at  shaping  and  producing.  Modeling  is  one  of  the  first 
necessities  of  child-nature.  But  even  this  instinct,  if  left  to  itself,  will 
lead  to  no  end:  education  must  supply  the  material  and  guidance 


THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD.  173 

necessary  for  its  development,  must  convert  the  aimless  touching  and 
fumbling  into  systematic  construction,  and  direct  the  mere  instinct  into 
a  channel  of  useful  activity,  all  of  which  is  done  in  the  Kindergarten. 

The  first  and  easiest  kind  of  construction,  after  the  forms  in  clay  and 
sand,  is  building.  After  the  child  has  grubbed  itself  holes  in  sandhills, 
it  goes  a  step  further  and  builds  houses,  or  whatever  else  its  fancy  may 
be  able  to  invent  in  the  way  of  architecture — and  connected  with  this 
building  are  all  manner  of  efforts  towards  the  creation  of  a  diminutive 
industry.  The  never-lessening  fascination  for  all  children  of  the  ad- 
ventures of  Robinson  Crusoe  is  chiefly  due  to  the  depiction  of  the 
strivings  after  culture  of  a  solitary  individual,  in  which  children  see 
their  own  strivings  reflected  as  in  a  mirror. 

One  of  the  first  ways  in  which  human  skill  showed  itself  was  un- 
doubtedly in  the  erection  of  dwelling-places  that  would  afford  sufficient 
protection  when  natural  holes  in  rocks  or  under  the  earth,  or  mud-huts 
in  woods,  were  no  longer  enough.  But  when,  through  the  improvement 
of  the  tools  employed,  their  work  progresses  from  its  first  rough  out- 
lines, and  as  the  combinations  of  which  the  mind  is  capable  multiply, 
and  form  perfects  itself,  there  awakes  in  the  child  (as  formerly  in  our 
ancestors)  a  feeling  for  the  beautiful.  This  feeling  is  no  doubt  in  part 
awakened  even  earlier  by  the  influence  which  the  forms  and  colors  of 
natural  objects  exercise  even  on  the  least-formed  character.  Every- 
thing glittering,  bright,  or  gaudy,  excites  pleasure  in  the  child  as  in  the 
savage  ;  and  in  order  to  produce  itself  pleasure  of  this  sort  the  child, 
in  its  own  handiwork,  feels  more  and  more  after  the  laws  of  rhythm 
and  harmony,  which,  long  before  it  can  apprehend,  it  dimly  and  un- 
consciously forebodes.  Observation  of  nature  furnishes  the  patterns 
which  the  awakened  creative  spirit  will  idealize,  and  Art  is  born  in  the 
human  soul,  whether  its  expression  be  through  form,  color,  or  sound. 

But  it  is  not  only  shaping  and  modeling  that  childish  hands  practice 
instinctively — drawing  and  painting  are  also  attempted  by  them.  As 
Frobel  savs,  the  child  first  perceives  the  linear — the  outlines  of  objects. 
Whoever  observes  the  actions  of  children  will  see  how  they  almost  in- 
variably feel  all  round  objects  with  their  fingers — take  in,  so  to  say,  by 
touch,  the  contours  of  tables,  chairs,  and  other  articles  of  furniture, 
sketch  the  outline  of  their  own  hands  and  fingers  in  pencil,  and  so 
forth.  The  unpracticed  eye  of  a  child  will  at  first  take  in  only  the 
principal  lines  of  objects,  and  of  these  first  the  straight  ones,  before  it 
can  master  curves,  surfaces,  and  filling  in. 

We  notice  the  same  characteristics  in  the  people  who  first  practiced 
the  science  of  architecture.  Their  drawings  consist  of  outlines — linear 
representations — in  straight  strokes,  without  curves  or  perspective,  as 
in  the  first  attempts  of  children. 

The  awakening  of  the  sense  of  sound  can  perhaps  be  traced  back  to 
the  earliest  moments  of  a  child's  life,  for  even  before  it  can  speak  it 
.stammers  out  rhythmic  tones.  It  is  this  instinctive  need  of  rhythm  in 


174  THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD. 

children  which  calls  forth  from  mothers  and  nurses  their  cradle-songs, 
and  causes  the  rhythmic  rocking  and  lulling  of  infants  in  their  cradles 
and  in  the  arms. 

SENSE    OF    SOUND — RYHTHM. 

Attention  to  the  differences  of  sound  is  one  of  the  first  awakenings 
of  children,  and  early  instruction  in  song  avowedly  one  of  the  most 
effectual  means  of  education.  Savages,  like  children,  have  the  keenest 
desire  for  song  and  dance — i.  e.,  for  rhythmic  sound  and  movement. 
Rhythm  is  one  of  the  great  fundamental  principles  of  all  that  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  motion  of  the  spheres,  the  flight  of  birds,  the  course  of 
the  deer,  in  the  excitement  of  the  dance,  and  the  whole  wide  harmony 
of  creation  and  of  human  genius.  The  civilization  of  mankind,  as  of 
individual  man,  without  the  cultivation  of  the  beautiful,  is  unthinkable 
— and  music  is  before  all  other  arts  the  awakening  of  the  heart. 

Before,  however,  the  child  has  arrived  at  the  production  of  his  first 
little  works  of  art,  we  may  have  noticed  him  grubbing  in  the  earth,  or 
transfixed  in  admiration  of  some  animal  or  flower :  nature  has  already 
worked  upon  him  in  various  ways.  It  is  not  only  to  the  fresh  living  air 
that  children  of  the  tenderest  years  stretch  out  their  hands  so  joyfully, 
when  the  mother  or  the  nurse  produces  hat  and  cloak  to  take  them  out 
of  doors.  The  forms  and  immediate  impressions  of  surrounding 
nature  already  afford  the  infant  being  pleasure  and  delight. 

GARDENING. 

When  free  use  of  the  limbs  has  been  gained,  all  children  who  are  not 
prevented  from  so  doing  will  be  seen  grubbing  in  the  garden  soil, 
throwing  up  mounds,  and  little  by  little  making  themselves  small  gar- 
dens of  their  own.  At  first  the  little  spade,  which  accompanies  the 
child  out  of  doors,  is  only  used  for  heaping  up  sand  and  stones,  as  an 
exercise  of  strength  without  aim.  As  soon,  however,  as  any  power  of 
observation  has  begun  to  supplement  the  merely  instinctive  movements, 
there  is  awakened  an  impulse  to  till  the  ground  and  to  make  use  of 
the  productive  force  of  nature ;  thus  the  child  in  its  play,  and  thus  man 
in  the  earliest  stages  of  civilization,  seeks  to  obtain  better  and  more 
plentiful  nourishment.  Even  though  the  instinct  which  moves  the 
child  to  enclose  its  little  garden  with  sticks  be  an  undefined  one,  it  is 
nevertheless  that  out  of  which  the  science  of  agriculture  has  arisen — 
the  instinct,  or  need  of  possession. 

Without  possession,  without  ownership,  the  individuality  of  man 
would  never  have  been  fully  stamped.  Ownership  widens  personality 
by  giving  it  power  to  work,  means  to  carry  out  its  will,  and  to  satisfy 
the  feeling  of  fellow-love  by  sharing  its  goods  with  others. 

Were  it  riot  for  the  impulse  which  le<l  him  to  agriculture,  man  would 
never  have  forsaken  his  nomadic  life,  would  never  have  founded  towns 
and  communities,  would  never  have  curried  development  as  far  as  the 
nation,  and  never  have  experienced  the  love  of  country. 


THE  FIKST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILI).  175 

It  may  seem  to  many  ridiculous  to  pretend  to  see  in  the  first  little 
territorial  possession  of  the  child  the  starting-point  of  the  love  of  one's 
country,  and  yet  it  is  an  undeniable  truth  that  all  and  everything  which 
is  of  importance  in  human  life,  be  it  little  or  great,  has  had  its  begin- 
ning in  unnoticed  utterances  which  have  been  the  germs  of  future  de- 
velopments. The  largest  tree  may  have  sprung  from  the  least  percep- 
tible seed,  and  the  greatest  human  action  slumbers  in  tne  first  sensations 
of  the  infant  soul.  Is  not  the  love  of  one's  own  hearth  the  seed  of  the 
love  of  one's  country? 

But  if  bodily  wants  have  been  the  first  spurs  to  all  human  culture,  it 
is  also  unmistakably  noticeable  through  the  course  of  history,  that  by 
the  side  of  every  material  need  there  is  also  a  spiritual  claim  which 
makes  itself  felt.  The  tending  and  nurturing  of  that  which  serves 
firstly  to  satisfy  selfish  requirements,  must  at  the  same  time  awaken 
love.  For  whatever  man  carefully  tends,  the  object  or  the  being  to 
whom  he  devotes  his  care,  for  whom  he  works,  he  also  learns  to  love. 
That  child  would  be  a  degenerate  one  that  did  not  bestow  its  loving- 
care  on  some  objects  or  beings,  were  it  at  first  only  its  playthings. 
With  what  tenderness  do  girls  love  their  dolls,  boys  their  toy-horses ! 
but  from  these  inanimate  things — which  are  only. alive  in  childish 
fancy — their  affections  are  soon  transferred  to  the  animals  of  the  house, 
and  the  flowers  of  the  garden.  To  a  child  who  has  never  called  a  piece 
of  ground  its  own,  has  never  tilled  it  in  the  sweat  of  its  brow,  has 
never  expended  its  fostering  love  on  plants  and  animals,  there. will  al- 
ways be  a  gap  in  the  .  development  of  the  soul,  and  it  will  be  difficult 
for  that  child  to  attain  the  capacity  for  human  nurture  in  a  compre- 
hensive sense.  All  tending  and  fostering  require  self-mastery  and  self- 
denial,  and  these  are  only  learnt  by  gradual  exercise,  beginning  with 
the  little  and  mounting  up  to  the  great.  Out  of  the  soil  which  he  tilled 
with  labor  and  care,  there  accrued  to  man  his  first  rights  over  the  planet 
inhabited  by  him,  and  the  first- page  of  his  later  law-book  contains  the 
principle  :  "  Duties  and  rights  should  correspond  to  one  another." 

CURIOSITY    TO    KNOW. 

Not  till  the  child  has  to  a  certain  extent  mastered  the  use  of  its  limbs 
and  senses,  and  its  spontaneity  and  faculties  of  observation  have  been 
awakened,  enabling  it  to  make  all  manner  of  little  experiments,  not  till 
then  does  the  desire  for  knowledge  (generally  called  curiosity)  assert 
itself.  True,  this  desire  lies  already  at  the  bottom  of  the  first  groping 
and  feeling  of  the  hands,  but  it  only  then  awakens  with  anything  like 
distinctness,  when  the  child  begins  to  search  into  the  causes  of  things 
and  appearances  with  its  thousand  times  repeated,  "  Why,  whence,  and 
wherefore."  It  must  first  have  taken  in  from  the  outward  world  a  se- 
ries of  impressions,  images,  and  ideas,  before  thoughts  will  germinate 
in  its  mind.  In  order  to  know,  the  child  makes  experiments ;  it  knocks 
different  objects  together,  or  throws  them  on  the  ground,  to  test  the 


176  THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD. 

solidity  of  their  material ;  it  finds  out  their  taste  with  its  tongue  ;  tears 
or  breaks  them  up  to  see  what  they  are  like  inside,  and  by  hundreds  of 
like  experiments  searches  out  the  nature  and  use  of  things. 

COMPARISON. 

To  observation  and  investigation  follows  the  comparison  of  one  thing 
with  another,  and  by  comparison  a  perception  of  size,  form,  color, 
number,  etc.,  is  arrived  at.  What  child  is  there  that  does  not  measure 
the  length  and  breadth  of  different  articles,  that  does  not  ask  :  "  which 
of  them  is  the  largest?"  What  child  does  not  delight  in  counting  the 
objects  with  which  it  is  occupied?  in  asking  their  names  and  uses? 
Unfortunately  the  answers  given  to  a  child's  eager  inquiries  are  too 
often  only  empty  words  little  calculated  to  satisfy  them.  It  is  not 
words  alone,  but  above  all  demonstrations,  which  can  furnish  answers 
adapted  to  a  child's  understanding ;  instruction  in  observation  must 
begin  with  its  earliest  games,  and  not  only  at  school.  How  brightly  a 
child's  eyes  will  sparkle  at  every  fresh  discovery,  be  it  only  a  shining 
stone  or  a  new  wild-flower  that  it  has  found ;  its  joy  over  every  fresh 
addition  to  its  store  of  knowledge,  to  its  treasure-house  of  ideas,  is  often, 
though  it  may  express  itself  differently,  no  less  than  that  of  the  wise 
man  of  antiquity,  who,  with  the  words,  "  I  have  discovered  it,"  fell 
senseless  to  the  ground.  Just  as  children,  when  the  desire  for  knowl- 
edge first  wakens  in  them,  begin  by  occupying  themselves  with  the  re- 
lations of  space,  with  size  and  number,  so  did  the  learning  of  mankind 
begin  with  the  elements  of  mathematics.  The  sole  book  which  they 
could  interrogate  at  the  beginning  of  their  development,  was  nature; 
the  observation  and  imitation  of  nature  led  from  invention  to  invention, 
each  of  which  increased  the  sum  of  knowledge,  and  widened  the  men- 
tal horizon.  With  a  knowledge  of  nature, — however  superficial  it  may 
h  ive  been,  and  based  merely  on  appearances — did  the  learning  of  man- 
kind begin,  and  the  learning  of  children  must  begin  in  like  manner. 
It  was  inevitable  that  the  first  deductions  from  this  experimental 
knowledge  should  lead  to  mathematical  conclusions,  should  consist  in 
the  measurement  of  compared  objects.  Not  till  things  had  been  classi- 
fied according  to  their  size  and  number,  could  they  present  themselves 
clearly  to  the  understanding. 

As  the  child  carries  on  its  first  geographical  observations  by  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  garden  and  the  nearest  environs  of  its  dwelling-place, 
so  the  geographical  knowledge  of  infant  mankind  began  with  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  neighboring  tracts  of  land,  their  soil,  their  products, 
their  climates,  etc.  With  the  history  of  the  family,  the  patriarchs,  be- 
gan the  history  of  the  world.  What  do  children  love  more  to  hear  than 
the  stories  of  family  adventures,  what  their  parents  and  grand-parents 
did,  all  that  happened  in  their  childhood,  how  they  lived  "  when  they 
were  little  ?  "  It  is  one  of  the  first  thoughts  that  occurs  to  a  child, 
whether  others  were  like  what  he  himself  is,  whether  they,  too,  were 


THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD.  177 

once  little.  It  was  possibly  this  thought  which  once  moved  a  child  to 
ask  the  question,  "  if  God  had  once  been  a  little  boy  ?  "  Children  only 
understand  what  they  can  refer  back  to  themselves,  for  they  can  only 
start  from  themselves. 

SOCIAL    IMPULSE. 

But  all  these  degrees  of  development,  which  we  have  pointed  out, 
could  only  be  reached  by  mankind  (and  the  same  applies  to  the  child) 
in  connection  with  his  fellow-men,  through  the  bond  of  society.  The 
instinct  of  fellowship  distinguishes  even  the  higher  races  of  animals 
from  the  lower,  and  is  the  deepest  and  most  universal  instinct  of  hu- 
man nature,  the  source  and  the  means  of  all  his  culture  and  civiliza- 
tion. Only  by  means  of  association  can  man  conquer  time  and  space, 
subdue  to  his  own  uses  the  forces  of  nature,  and  make  himself  more 
and  more  the  ruler  of  the  earth,  which  he  shall,  in  time,  permeate  and 
dominate  even  as  God  permeates  and  dominates  the  universe. 

The  social  impulse  shows  itself  as  early  as  the  first  months  of  a 
child's  existence.  No  child  likes  to  be  alone ;  it  screams  in  its  cradle 
if  it  thinks  no  human  being  is  near  it,  and  is  quieted  by  the  least  word 
of  kindly  speech.  But  it  is  not  merely  the  society  of  human  beings  in 
general  that  it  wants — it  needs  especially  that  of  its  like,  of  children 
who  are  at  the  same  stage  of  development,  that  is  to  say,  of  children  of 
its  own  age.  A  child  that  has  spent  its  childhood  with  grown-up  people 
only  will  never  possess  the  freshness  and  youthful  joyousness  which  are 
awakened  by  life  in  a  community ;  and  premature  seriousness,  if  not 
melancholy,  will  stamp  its  young  features.  What  happy  smiles,  what 
beaming  eyes,  does  one  not  see  in  even  the  youngest  children,  when 
they  catch  sight  of  other  children  as  young  as  themselves.  The  play 
of  children  with  each  other  forms  the  first  basis  of  a//,  and  more  espe- 
cially of  their  moral  cultivation.  Without  the  love  of  his  kind,  without 
all  the  manifold  relations  of  man  to  man,  all  morality,  all  culture, 
would  inevitably  collapse ;  in  the  instinct  of  fellowship  lies  the  origin 
of  state,  of  church,  and  of  all  that  makes  human  life  what  it  is. 

RELIGIOUS    INSTINCT. 

According  to  Frobel  the  first  religious  instincts  of  children  show 
themselves  in  their  eagerness  to  join  all  gatherings  of  grown-up  people  ; 
this  Frobel  attributes  to  an  undefined  feeling  that  there  is  a  common 
striving,  a  common  idea  uniting  all  the  different  individuals  and  causing 
them  to  assemble  together.  Thus,  in  the  streets,  or  anywhere  else, 
children  will  be  seen  flocking  to  any  spot  where  several  people  are 
gathered  together  ;  nothing  delights  children  more  .than  to  be  allowed 
to  join  in  gatherings  of  grown-up  people,  however  much  constraint  be 
enforced  upon  them.  The  pleasure  of  the  first  visit  to  church  has  more 
to  do  with  the  delight  in  a  concourse  of  many  people  than  with  the  un- 
derstanding of  what  is  going  on,  or  the  participation  in  the  spirit  of  the 
devotions,  which  the  child  is  quite  incapable  of  entering  into.  No 

12 


178  THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD. 

doubt  this  is  only  the  first  unconscious  aspiration  penetrating  the 
child's  soul,  and  with  it  is  bound  up  at  the  same  time  the  love  of  man- 
kind, which  always  precedes  the  love  of  God.  It  is  only  the  love  of  its 
mother,  of  its  parents,  of  those  nearest  to  it,  which  can  lead  the  young 
soul  to  God ;  out  of  this  feeling  is  born  the  first  spark  of  religious  as- 
piration. As  every  sensation,  and  all  other  knowledge  rests  immediately 
on  instinct,  so,  too,  does  religious  knowledge.  Frbbel's  statement  that 
by  repeatedly  observing  how  children,  scarcely  a  year  old,  when  being- 
amused  with  a  ball  fastened  to  a  string,  will  quickly  take  their  eyes  off 
the  revolving  ball  and  follow  the  string  till  they  come  to  the  hand  which 
is  turning  it,  he  became  convinced  that  even  a  child's  instinct  will 
drive  it  from  the  contemplation  of  the  appearance  of  things  to  the  in- 
vestigation of  their  cause,  may  be  little  instructive  to  those  who  do  not 
concede  to  childish  utterances  a  psychological  basis.  And  yet  no 
thinker  will  deny  that  all  the  conscious  utterances  of  humanity  have  risen 
out  of  unconscious  ones.  But  in  this  concession  there  is,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, an  acknowledgment  of  Frbbel's  idea,  that  every  conception  of  the 
mature  mind  has  its  root-point  in  an  instinctive  idea  of  the  child's 
mind,  which,  being  awakened  by  outward  phenomena,  shows  itself  first 
as  a  blind  impulse ;  and  that,  therefore,  all  instruction  must  start  with 
the  concrete  and  mount  up  to  abstract  thought.  Frbbel  says  :  "  From 
objects  to  pictures — from  pictures  to  symbols — from  symbols  to  ideas, 
leads  the  ladder  of  knowledge."  And  Pestalozzi :  "  There  is  nothing 
in  the  mind  which  has  not  passed  into  it  through  the  senses." 

God  through  Nature. — Symbols. 

The  first  intimation  of  a  higher  being  came  to  mankind  in  the  be- 
ginnings of  its  development — as  it  still  does  to  the  child — through  the 
impressions  of  the  visible  world  of  nature.  Man  felt  his  own  weak- 
ness in  the  presence  of  the  giant  forces  of  Nature,  contemplated  while 
still  in  the  fermentation  stage  of  its  development,  and  bowed  trem- 
blingly before  its  unknown  ruler.  He  saw  that  he  himself  and  his  ex- 
istence were  dependent  on  the  bounty  and  beneficence  of  this  Nature, 
which,  like  a  loving  mother  showered  all  manner  of  blessings  on  him, 
and  so  he  loved  her  in  return,  and  worshiped  her  through  symbols 
chosen  from  her  own  treasure-house,  till  at  last,  as  he  became  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  acquainted  with  himself  and  his  own  being,  he  humanized 
the  sonl  of  nature  after  an  ideal  standard,  and  worshiped  and  feared 
it  in  the  shape  of  his  false  Gods. 

Who  made  all  the  trees  and  flowers,  birds  and  sheep?  who  made  my 
father  and  mother?  asks  the  child,  seeking  after  the  causes  of  things, 
because  he  is  himself  the  beginning  of  a  thinking,  reasonable  being. 
The  roaring  of  the  thunder  makes  him  tremble  like  the  savages — he 
imagines  it  to  be  the  voice  of  a  higher  power;  the  reviving  breath  of 
spring  fills  him  with  an  undefined  sensation  of  wonder,  and  awakes  in 
him  forebodings  of  the  invisible  Benefactor  whose  visible  image  he 


THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD.  179 

loves  in  his  parents.  A  child,  with  his  lap  full  of  sweet-smelling  flow- 
ers which  he  is  going  to  weave  into  a  garland,  sits  on  the  grass  under  a 
blossoming  apple-tree  in  which  the  birds  are  warbling  their  spring  song  ; 
the  warm  rays  of  the  sun  penetrate  his  being,  a  cooling  wind  plays 
gently  round  his  face  and  showers  over  him  the  white  blossoms  of  the 
tree ;  a  flood  of  newly  experienced  bliss  uplifts  his  soul,  and  his  lips 
gently  whisper :  "  It  is  the  good  God  who  is  passing  by," — the  first 
revelation  of  the  deity  has  entered  his  soul. 

All  religion  begins  with  natural  religion,  but  the  God  in  nature  must 
also  be  recognized  in  man,  though  this  will  not  be  till  the  God  in  nat- 
ure has  been  apprehended.  The  development  of  nature  and  the  de- 
velopment of  mankind  are  mutually  symbolic  one  of  the  other,  and 
correspond  in  their  different  stages  to  the  various  stages  of  belief  iii 
God,  through  which  mankind  and  the  individual  pass.  That  is  to  say, 
the  spiritual  development  of  the  human  soul  proceeds  according  to  the 
same  system  of  laws  as  the  development  of  the  organisms  of  nature — 
for  both  have  a  common  creator.  And  not  only  do  they  follow  the 
same  laws  of  development,  but  the  sequence  of  stages  is  the  same  in 
both  cases;  everything  ascends  from  the  less  to  the  greater.  The 
budding-season  of  spring  represents  childhood ;  the  blossom-time  of 
summer,  youth  ;  the  fruits  of  harvest,  the  maturity  of  manhood ;  and 
the  decay  of  winter,  that  of  old  age.  Everywhere  in  the  world  of  nature 
we  find  analogies  to  the  life  of  the  human  soul.  All  natural  phenomena 
correspond  to  ideas,  incorporate  thoughts,  and  thus  receive  a  higher 
meaning ;  or  are  the  signs  of  spiritual  truths  to  which  they  give 
expression.  Thus  they  may  be  called  Symbols. 

The  profound  understanding  shown  by  Frobel  of  the  path  which  ed- 
ucation must  follow,  in  order,  in  this  aspect  also,  to  keep  in  relation  to 
human  nature,  will  be  more  closely  examined  later  on  in  this  work. 

UTTERANCES. 

The  utterances  of  all  children  are  the  same,  and  their  origin  is  tl;e 
same,  for  they  are  based  on  inborn  natural  impulses.  But  nature  does 
nothing  in  vain,  nothing  without  an  object ;  all  instincts  which  have 
not  been  deflected  from  their  natural  direction  have  but  this  one  end  : 
to  further  the  development  of  the  organization  of  nature,  or  of  the 
human  individual. 

The  child  plays,  is  constrained  to  play,  in  order  to  develop  itself. 
Its  play  is  activity  intended  to  awaken,  strengthen,  and  form  its  powers 
and  talents,  so  that  it  may  be  able  to  fulfill  its  destiny  as  a  grown 
being.  In  like  manner  the  combined  activity  of  mankind — the  results 
of  which  appear  in  the  progressive  stages  of  civilization  in  the  past  and 
the  present — can  have  no  other  end  but  the  realization  of  perfected 
humanity  through  the  development  of  all  that  concerns  mankind,  or,  in 
other  words,  the  fulfillment  of  the  divine  idea  of  humanity.  But  hu- 
manity is  made  up  of  individual  men,  and  thus  it  follows  of  necessity, 


180  THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD. 

that  the  life's  aim  of  the  latter  must  -be  the  same  as  that  of  the  com- 
munity of  which  they  are  members. 

No  one  thinks  of  denying  that  the  individual  plant,  or  the  individual 
animal,  develops  itself  according  to  the  laws  of  its  tribe.  And  it  is  only 
because  we  understand  how  the  development  of  the  tribe  and  family  of 
a  plant  or  an  animal  proceeds  that  we  know  how  to  manage  the  indi- 
vidual specimens.  According  to  the  various  modifications  of  this 
natural  method  of  treatment,  is  the  special,  individual  character  of  an- 
imals stamped  on  them ;  and  this  shows  itself  most  distinctly  in  house- 
dogs. Amongst  the  same  tribe  of  dogs,  one  may  be  much  more  obedi- 
ent, faithful  and  dependent,  or  more  vicious  and  faithless,  than  others. 

The  utterances  of  every  different  being  bear,  likewise,  the  stamp  of 
the  tribe  to  which  it  belongs,  and  man  is  no  exception  to  the  rule.  It 
follows,  therefore,  that  the  instinctive,  involuntary  expressions  and  ac- 
tions, which  are  common  to  all  the  individuals  of  a  race,  must  serve  the 
natural  end  of  their  development. 

The  child  is  as  little  conscious  of  this  end  as  is  the  savage  in  a  state 
of  nature,  or  the  uncultivated  grown  being,  but  both  are  driven  and 
led  by  inward  impulses  and  outward  attractions  to  procure  the  satisfac- 
tion of  their  needs,  first  in  order  to  preserve  themselves  in  existence, 
and  then  to  attain  the  highest  possible  state  of  well-being.  The  nec- 
essary exertions  and  practices  to  this  end  are  the  means  of  their  culture. 

The  history  of  the  development  of  mankind  teaches  us  how  the  bodily 
necessities,  food,  clothing,  shelter  from  inclement  weather,  danger,  etc., 
and  later  on  the  spiritual  needs,  social  intercourse,  desire  after  the  true 
and  the  beautiful,  spurred  men  on  to  the  discovery  of  all  that  consti- 
tutes our  present  possessions  in  industry,  art,  and  science. 

Just  as  mankind  through  its  stage  of  unconsciousness  was  prepared 
for  a  succeeding  higher  stage  of  development  and  culture,  till  it  should 
attain  to  self-consciousness  and  knowledge  of  its  destiny,  so  does  the 
playful  activity  of  the  child  prepare  it  for  its  later  conscious  existence. 
But  this  end  will  only  be  accomplished  when  education  holds  out  to  the 
instinctive  feeling  and  groping  of  childhood  the  necessary  guidance,  and 
the  fit  material  to  work  on.  To  do  this  is  the  object  of  Frobel's  Kinder- 
garten, which  follows  out  in  miniature  the  chief  features  of  the  history 
of  human  culture,  places  in  the  way  of  children  similar  experiences,  and 
thus  prepares  them  for,  and  makes  them  capable  of,  understanding  the 
life  of  the  present  day,  which  is  an  outcome  of  the  past. 

It  need  hardly  be  said,  that  by  the  following  of  the  history  of  culture 
we  do  not  mean  the  depiction  of  the  different  epochs  of  culture,  or  of 
the  nationalities  which  represent  them  (as  is  often  erroneously  thought), 
but  such  a  course  of  instructional  activity  as  shall  reproduce  in  minia- 
ture in  the  work  of  the  child  the  progressive  development  of  the  race, 
as  manifested  in  the  work  of  mankind. 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS.  181 


III.      EDUCATION    IN    GENERAL FROEBEI/S    THEORY. 

"  The  purpose  of  nature  is  development.  The  purpose  of  the  spiritual  world  is  cul- 
ture. The  problem  of  this  world  is  an  educational  one,  the  solution  of  which  is  pro- 
ceeding according  to  fixed  divine  laws." 

EDUCATION  is  emancipation— the  setting  free  of  the  bound-up  force* 
of  the  body  and  the  soul.  The  inner  conditions  necessary  to  this  setting- 
free  or  development  all  healthily-born  children  bring  with  them  into 
the  world,  the  outer  ones  must  be  supplied  through  education. 

If  in  the  spring  the  hard  coverings  of  plants  are  to  burst  open  so  that 
the  buds  of  leaves  and  blossoms  may  be  set  free  and  sprout,  air  and  sun- 
light, rain  and  dew  must  be  supplied  to  them.  The  inner  force  will  be 
sufficient  to  break  open  the  shells  if  the  outward  conditions  are  not 
wanting.  In  nature  every  necessity  or  want  meets  with  corresponding- 
satisfaction,  and  this  without  conscious  will  or  exertion  according  to 
unchanging  laws  and  principles.  The  course  of  the  sap  in  plants,  which 
ascends  and  descends  regularly  from  the  root  to  the  blossom,  and  by  a 
continual  process  of  expansion  and  contraction  forms  the  leaf-buds,  cor- 
responds to  the  course  of  the  blood  in  animal  and  human  organisms, 
starting  from  the  heart  and  returning  to  the  heart,  and  in  the  action  of 
the  ventricles,  exhibiting  in  like  manner  expansion  and  contraction. 

LAW    OF    DEVELOPMENT. 

Everything  in  the  kingdom  of  nature,  however  different  the  stages 
of  progress  may  be,  comes  under  one  universal  law,  and  development 
means  the  same  as  progress  according  to  law, — systematic  going  on  from 
the  unformed  to  the  formed,  from  chaos  to  cosmos. 

And  as  does  the  physical  so  also  must  the  spiritual  development  pro- 
ceed in  systematic  fashion,  or  education  would  be  impossible.  For 
what  we  call  education  is  influencing  the  development  of  the  child, 
guiding  and  regulating  it  as  well  in  its  spiritual  as  in  its  physical  as- 
pect. But  how  common  a  thing  it  is  to  hear  people  maintain  that  dur- 
ing the  instinctive,  unconscious  period  of  a  child's  life,  it  should  be  left 
to  follow  its  impulses  entirely,  and  no  attempt  made  to  deal  with  it 
systematically.  But,  as  the  soul  undoubtedly  begins  to  unfold  and  form 
itself  in  the  period  of  unconsciousness  in  the  same  systematic  manner 
as  in  later  periods,  any  such  assertion  must  be  erroneous  and  based  on 
false  premises.  Spiritual  development  must  proceed  in  as  regular  and 
systematic  a  course  as  organic  development,  seeing  that  the  physical 
organs  are  intended  to  correspond  as  implicitly  to  the  soul,  which  they 
serve,  as  cause  corresponds  to  effect.  1'sychology  has  determined  the 
order  of  the  development  of  the  soul,  as  has  physiology  that  of  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood,  but  the  former  science  has  chiefly  concerned  itself 
with  the  already  more  or  less  formed  soul  of  the  adult,  which,  through 
self-will  and  voluntary  deflection  from  the  path  of  order,  is  always  to  a 


182  EDUCATION  IN  GENERAL— FROEBEL'S  THEORY. 

certain  extent  the  slave  of  arbitrariness,  and  the  growth  of  the  soul  m 
the  period  of  childhood  has  been  little  studied  or  observed. 

Frobel  used  constantly  to  say  when  lecturing  :  "  If  you  want  to  un- 
derstand clearly  the  regular  working  of  nature  you  must  observe  the 
common  wild  plants,  many  of  which  are  designated  as  weeds  :  it  is  seen 
more  clearly  in  these  than  in  the  complexity  of  cultivated  plants." 
For  this  purpose  he  grew  different  species  of  wild  plants  in  pots. 

The  same  holds  true  of  the  human  plant.  The  young  child's  soul, 
while  yet  in  its  primitive  and  instinctive  stage,  without  forethought 
and  without  artificiality,  exhibits  to  the  really  seeing  and  understand- 
ing observer  the  systematic  regularity,  the  logic  of  nature's  dealings  in 
her  development  process,  spite  of  the  variety  of  individual  endowment. 

In  the  foregoing  essay  we  attempted  to  demonstrate  what  may  be 
called  the  universal  in  the  "  utterances"  of  child-nature,  that  which  sets 
the  stamp  of  the  race  on  each  individual.  Through  these  utterances, 
in  so  far  as  they  repeat  themselves  in  each  individual  and  may  conse- 
quently be  reduced  to  a  law,  we  arrive  at  the  key-note  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  natural  order  of  child  development. 

CORRESPONDENCES. —  INDIVIDUAL THE  RACE. 

Frobel  says  :  "  There  is  continuous  connection  in  the  spiritual  life  as 
a  whole,  as  there  is  universal  harmony  in  nature."  And  certainly  it 
cannot  be  otherwise :  the  eternal  law  of  order,  which  reigns  throughout 
the  universe,  must  also  determine  the  development  of  the  human  soul. 
But  the  educator  who  would  supply  the  human  bud  in  right  manner 
with  light  and  warmth,  rain  and  dew,  and  so  induce  it  to  emancipate 
itself  from  its  fettered  condition,  and  through  the  unfolding  of  all  its 
slumbering  forces  to  blossom  into  worthy  life,  must  not  only  understand 
the  law  but  must  also  possess  the  means  of  acting  in  accordance  with 
the  law :  i.  e.,  his  method  of  education  must  follow  the  same  systematic 
plan  as  nature  does,  and  the  outward  practical  means  must  correspond. 

Xo  one  will  dispute  the  assertion  that  instruction  is  only  worthy  of  the 
name  when  it  is  methodical.  Instruction  of  such  kind  is  a  branch  of 
education :  but  branch  and  stem  spring  from  the  same  root.  However 
much  may  have  been  done,  from  the  days  of  antiquity  up  to  the  present 
day,  to  improve  educational  and  instructional  systems,  and  to  adapt 
them  more  closely  to  the  natural  process  of  development,  and  thus  at- 
tain the  result  aimed  at — knowledge — in  the  best  and  quickest  manner, 
the  laws  of  development  of  the  infant  mind  are,  nevertheless,  still  veiled 
in  obscurity.  No  infallible  chart  has  yet  been  found,  which,  as  the 
magnet  to  the  mariner,  will  show  the  educator  invariably  the  right 
direction  to  steer  in.  spite  of  all  ebbs  and  flows,  spite  of  all  the  thousand 
different  courses  that  each  vessel,  each  character,  according  to  its  indi- 
vidual destination,  has  to  strike  into.  But  so  long  as  some  such  fixed 
method  of  education  remains  undiscovered,  so  long  will  even  the  best 
education  be  more  or  less  an  arbitrary  work. 


EDUCATION  JN  GENERAL— FROEBEL'S  THEORY.  183 

It  was  also  Pestalozzi's  chief  endeavor  to  discover  and  apply  that 
which  he  called  "  the  principle  of  the  organic,"  and  to  him,  and  his  ed- 
ucational forerunners,  are  we  indebted  for  our  first  knowledge  of  the 
course  of  child  development,  and  for  the  means  by  which  education  and 
instruction  have  been  more  systematically  organized.  Without  their 
preliminary  efforts  Frobel  might  not,  perhaps,  have  discovered  the 
method  whereby  he  built  upon  the  foundation  laid  by  them,  and  brought 
their,  and  more  especially  Pestalozzi's,  practical  endeavors  to  comple- 
tion. In  like  manner  will  Frobel's  successors  be  called  on  to  develop 
further  what  he  has  laid  the  foundation  of. 

In  one  of  his  letters  to  me,  Frobel  says :  "  As  motion  in  the  universe 
depends  on  the  law  of  gravitation,  so  do  movements  in  the  life  of  hu- 
manity depend  on  the  law  of  unity  of  life."— And  further :  "  As  the  laws 
of  the  fruit  are  developments  of  the  laws  of  the  flower,  and  the  laws  of 
the  flower  developments  of  the  laws  of  the  bud,  and  the  laws  of  the  bud, 
flower,  and  fruit,  are  at  the  same  time  one  with  the.  laws  of  the  whole 
tree  or  plant ;  so  are  the  laws  of  the  development  of  spiritual  life  higher 
outcomes,  or  developments,  of  the  laws  of  the  solar  and  planetary  sys- 
tem of  the  universe.  Were  this  not  the  case  man  could  not  understand 
the  latter,  for  he  can  only  understand  that  which  is  homogeneous  to 
him.  And,  according  to  this,  the  laws  of  the  development  of  life,  in 
the  region  of  the  spiritual,  must  be  apprehended,  demonstrated,  and 
built  upon,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  laws  of  the  formation  of  the 
world.  It  will  be  the  work  of  the  Kindergarten  to  point  out  the  appli- 
cation of  these  laws,  as  one  stage  of  progressive  human  cultivation." 

Frobel's  aim  and  efforts  may,  I  think,  be  summed  up  thus :  he  was 
striving  to  hit  on  a  regular  course  or  method  of  education,  corresponding 
to  the  method  of  instruction  long  ago  established  by  pedagogic  science. 

Education  Includes  Character. 

As  instruction  aims  before  all  things  at  imparting  knowledge,  so  ed- 
ucation has  for  its  chief  object  moral  culture,  the  formation  of  the 
character ;  and  for  this  end  it  is  above  all  necessary  that  there  should 
be  freedom  of  individual  movement,  room  for  the  development  of  per- 
sonality. It  may  be  asked  :  "  How  can  there  be  one  law  for  all  and 
everything  ?  "  But  does  not  the  infinite  variety  of  creation  rest  on  the 
eternal  basis  of  the  unity  of  the  Creator  ?  Are  not  all  the  heavenly 
bodies  alike  subject  to  the  law  of  gravitation,  and  are  they  thereby 
hindered  from  the  development  of  the  greatest  individuality  ?  It  is  an 
undoubted  fact  that  each  heavenly  body  differs  from  another  both  in  its 
organisms  and  its  productions.  We  see  trees  and  plants  of  the  most 
different  kinds,  thriving  in  the  same  forests,  under  the  same  conditions 
of  soil,  climate,  etc.,  each  individual  growth  assimilating  to  itself  those 
outward  influences  only  which  befit  its  special  nature.  So  the  person- 
ality of  the  child  will  only  absorb  into  itself  out  of  that  which  is  pre- 
sented to  it,  whatever  corresponds  to  its  special  wants  and  endowments. 


184         EDUCATION  IN  GENERAL— FKOEBEL'S  THEORY. 

And  as  it  is  only  in  consequence  of  the  order  of  all  movement  in  space 
that  the  free  movement  of  the  heavenly  bodies  is  possible,  and  that  dis- 
turbing collisions  are  avoided,  so  in  the  child's  nursery,  as  in  the  state, 
it  is  through  systematic  government  alone  that  freedom  is  attained— 
freedom  of  the  individual  through  the  freedom  of  all. 

That  education  should  be  carried  on  in  accordance  with  nature  is 
granted  by  nearly  all  educationalists,  at  any  rate  by  those  of  modern 
times,  as  one  of  its  first  requisites.  And  what  is  according  to  nature 
is  according  to  law. 

Now  it  is  both  according  to  law  and  to  nature,  that  the  progressive 
development — of  the  individual  as  well  as  of  mankind — should  require 
at  each  new  stage,  new  conditions,  and  new  modes  of  assistance.  The 
bell-glass  which  protects  the  germinating  plant  will  not  cover  the  full- 
grown  tree,  and  the  man  cannot  wear  the  clothes  which  fitted  him  in 
his  childhood.  The  conditions  of  life  change  and  become  higher  in 
every  new  epoch  and  generation,  and  it  must  necessarily  follow  that 
education  should  make  higher  and  more  comprehensive  demands  on  us 
than  on  the  generations  before  us. 

Amongst  our  Germanic  forefathers,  who  lived  in  their  forests  clothed 
in  bear  skins,  the  standard  of  their  children's  education  was :  for  the 
boys,  that  they  should  learn  the  use  of  the  spear  and  the  bow,  and  to 
mount  a  horse  in  the  battle  or  the  chase,  that  they  should  know  the 
rights  and  duties  of  their  tribe,  and  the  customs  of  the  service  of  the 
gods ;  for  the  girls,  that  with  womanly  chastity  they  should  combine 
skill  in  cooking,  spinning,  and  housekeeping.  But  this  standard  no 
longer  satisfied  the  succeeding  age  of  chivalry.  And  the  culture  of 
knights  and  their  womankind  does  not  satisfy  the  demands  of  our  day, 
because  the  general  conditions  of  life  have  become  different. 

And  with  these  changes  of  conditions  the  nature  of  man,  physical 
and  spiritual,  changes  also.  Not  of  course  in  its  essential  features ;  not 
in  the  shape  and  conformation  of  his  body;  nor  altogether  in  his  im- 
pulses, passions,  and  inclinations,  or  in  his  processes  of  thinking,  feel- 
ing, and  willing.  Man  has  at  all  times  one  head,  two  hands,  and  two 
feet ;  at  all  times  he  suffers  and  enjoys,  according  to  the  impressions 
produced  on  him ;  thinks  and  endeavors  in  human  fashion.  But  are 
not  the  barbarian  and  the  cultivated  human  being  just  as  much  dis- 
tinguishable from  one  another  by  their  outward  appearance  and  de- 
meanor as  by  their  inclinations  and  endeavors,  their  thinking  arid 
willing?  The  physical  development  of  the  working-classes  is  so  uiii-. 
versally  influenced  by  their  mode  of  life  that  in  them  the  bones  and 
muscles  preponderate  ;  whereas  in  those  who  lead  a  more  intellectual 
life  the  nervous  system  dominates.  The  organization  of  the  head  of  a 
thinker  differs  in  an  important  manner  both  from  that  of  a  savage  and 
from  that  of  a  manual  laborer.  This  difference  is  transmitted  to  pos- 
terity ;  it  is  not  only  physically  that  children  bear  the  stamp  of  their 
parents,  they  also  inherit  from  them  mental  dispositions.  The  child  of 


EDUCATION  IN  GENERAL— FK<  >EBELS  THEORY.  1S,> 

the  Hottentot  will  be  born  with  different  dispositions  from  that  of  the 
cultivated  European,  and  the  child  of  the  nineteenth  century  from  one 
of  the  barbaric  age,  because  the  progress  of  the  race  must  also  express 
itself  in  the  individual. 

In  plants  and  animals  we  see  the  influence  of  cultivation  very  plainly. 
The  wild  yellow  root,  or  carrot,  must  for  instance  go  through  twenty 
generations  of  culture  before  it  becomes  eatable ;  and  after  only  five 
generations  of  neglect  it  will  again  revert  to  its  wild  condition.  The 
horse  breeder  knows  that  the  offspring  of  a  noble  race  is  itself  noble, 
and  therefore  requires  higher  care  than  that  of  a  lower  race.  Manifold 
experience  teaches  how  difficult  it  often  is  to  educate  the  child  of  un- 
couth parents  and  ancestors — though  not  necessarily  of  savage  ones—- 
for a  life  of  refined  cultivation. 

It  lies  still  before  the  explorers  in  the  science  of  humanity  to  discover 
and  demonstrate  more  exactly  the  powerful  influences  of  mental  culture 
on  the  bodily  and  mental  organism,  but  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the 
higher  the  culture  of  a  nation  has  risen,  so  much  the  higher  endow- 
ments will  its  children  bring  with  them  into  the  world. 

Can  there  be  any  doubt  of  the  necessity  for  continual  reconstruction 
of  educational  systems,  as  of  all  other  things,  and  will  any  persist  in 
maintaining  that,  what  of  old  was  good  enough  and  sufficient  for  the 
education  of  mankind  is  also  sufficient  now-a-days  ?  To  each  age,  how- 
ever, belongs  a  special  virtue,  and  it  is  precisely  this  which  is  commonly 
overlooked  by  the  reformers  of  the  directly  succeeding  age.  However 
much  we  may  be  justified  in  claiming  for  our  own  age  great  advance 
in  all  school  and  instructional  arrangements,  there  is  also  no  doubt  that 
the  preceding  generation  excelled  us  in  many  respects  with  regard  to 
education.  Cultivation  of  character,  moral  earnestness  and  religion — 
the  foundation  of  all  education — were  prevalent  in  far  higher  measure. 
The  care  and  attention  which  the  ancient  Greeks  bestowed  in  training 
the  body  for  strength,  skill  and  beauty,  are  also  equally  wanting  in  our 
day.  Furthermore  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  ruling  tendency  of  ed- 
ucation at  the  present  day  has  resulted  in  a  one-sided  development  of 
the  understanding,  and  in  the  stupefying  system  of  overcramming  for 
which  our  rising  generation  is  remarkable. 

Can  any  one,  moreover,  be  so  blind  as  not  to  see  the  black  shadows 
looming  in  the  pathway  of  the  present  generation,  so  deaf  as  not  to 
hear  the  warning-cry  of  manifold  misery  resounding  on  all  sides.  The 
blame  of  this  melanchoiy  state  of  things  must  undoubtedly  be  partly 
attributed  to  faulty  education.  The  characteristic  features  of  our  age 
are : — Knowledge  without  practice  ;  practice  without  the  stamp  of  indi- 
viduality ;  thought  precociously  developed  before  fancy  and  feeling, 
like  to  bud  and  blossom,  have  matured  the  fruit ;  insight  without  power 
of  action  ;  the  capacity  for  ruling  matter  degraded  to  the  service  of  the 
material  nature  ;  no  reverence  for  the  all-permeating  spirit  of  God,  no 
belief  in  its  eternal  working— human  intellect  regarded  as  the  highest 


186  EDUCATION  IN  GENERAL— FKOEBEL'S  THEORY. 

court  of  appeal.  The  childlike  simplicity  which  surrenders  itself  to  a 
higher  and  an  invisible  power  is  now  almost  unknown,  for  its  source  in 
the  original  unsullied  nature  of  childhood  becomes  early  corrupted,  and 
education  directs  the  mind  only  to  outward  things;  learning  has  come 
to  be  little  more  than  acceptance  of  what  is  imparted,  leaving  no  room 
for  any  original  material  to  come  to  the  surface,  and  stifling  the  innate 
faculties.  On  all  sides  there  is  a  crying  out  for  new  rights,  without 
any  regard  for  the  idea  of  duty.  Well  does  a  modern  poet  lament : 

*  "  In  sadness  I  gaze  on  mankind  of  to-day, 

Who  of  premature  culture  the  penalty  taste  ; 
To  doubt  and  to  learning  a  too-early  prey, 

They  look  forth  on  a  future  of  darkness  or  waste." 

And  because  this  is  the  case  we  see  everywhere  restlessness,  discon- 
tent, a  piteous  seeking  for  unattained  happiness — a  deep  vein  of  sad- 
ness runs  through  modern. society,  in  whose  very  strains  of  joy  tones  of 
sorrow  mingle,  and  which,  in  the  midst  of  wanton  pleasure-seeking, 
longs  with  wailings  and  yearnings  after  the  forfeited  higher  good  which 
alone  can  satisfy  the  ideal  cravings  of  the  soul.  The  world  waits  as  for 
a  magic  spell,  for  a  new  generation,  fashioned  for  a  new  world,  capable 
of  the  deeds  which  that  new  world  demands,  open  to  new  truths — who 
shall  usher  it  in  ? 

Every  penetrating  reform,  in  whatsoever  field  it  may  be  attempted, 
requires  a  new  truth,  a  new  idea  of  genius  for  its  foundation.  But  such 
an  idea  will  seldom  seem  new  in  its  entirety;  the  pages  of  history  will 
almost  certainly  prove  that  the  same  idea  has  already  been  expressed, 
though  in  a  different  setting,  by  former  thinkers,  and  that,  constantly 
recurring,  it  has  gained  a  standing  in  different  epochs.  And  whenever 
this  is  the  case  there  must  be  something  important  in  question  which 
has  not  hitherto  attained  to  full  development.  Often  it  is  only  a  lucky 
hit  that  is  needed  to  convert  into  reality  an  idea  that  has  long  been  in 
preparation. 

Whether  it  has  happened  to  Frobel  by  a  like  lucky  hit  to  give  a  new 
basis  to  education,  experience  and  the  application  and  carrying  out  of 
his  method  must  show.  A  written  exposition  can  do  no  more  than 
represent  the  matter  in  its  general  outlines,  and  thus  awaken  the  de- 
sire to  understand  it  better,  and  to  test  its  merits  by  application. 

The  most  difficult  of  all  difficult  tasks  is  without  doubt  to  give  a 
universally  enlightening  definition  to  a  new  truth — great  or  small — for 
new  truths  always  lie  outside  the  general  mental  horizon.  Even  Frobel 
himself,  therefore,  has  had  little  success  in  describing  his  educational 
theory  in  its  full  compass,  and  he  is,  perhaps,  even  more  justified  than 
Hegel  and  other  thinkers  in  complaining  that  he  has  not  been  under- 
stood. Far  be  it  from  us  to  pretend  here  to  expound  this  idea  in  its 

*  "  In  Trauern  blick'  ichhin  auf  das  Geschlecht  von  heute, 

Wie  es  die  kunstlich-friihe  Ueife  biisst ; 
Friih  schon  des  Zweifels,  der  Erkenntniss  Beute, 
In  eine  Zukunft  schaut,  die  dunkel  oder  wiist." 


EDUCATION  IN  GENERAL— FROEBEL'S  THEORY.  187 

whole  breadth  and  depth— we  would  only  attempt  by  means  of  the  fol- 
lowing short  statements  to  open  up  the  way  to  an  understanding  of  it : 

The  process  of  spiritual  development  goes  on  according  to  fixed  laws. 

These  laws  correspond  to  the  general  law*  which  reign  throughout  tJif  uni- 
verse, but  are  at  the  same  time  higher,  because  suited  to  a  higher  stage  of  de- 
velopment, 

This  system  of  laws  must  be  able  to  be  traced  back  to  a  fundamental  lav., 
however  much  the  latter  may  vary  in  itsformulcK. 

Frobel  calls  it :  "  The  law  of  opposites  and  their  reconciliation,"  or 

"THE  LAW  OP  BALANCE." 

There  is  nothing,  animate  or  inanimate,  to  which  this  law  does  not 
apply,  for  everything  consists  of  related  opposites  :  a  proposition  always 
implies  the  counter  proposition — the  existence  of  God  presupposes  that 
of  the  world,  that  of  the  world  presupposes  that  of  God ;  man,  as  a  be. 
ing  both  conscious  and  unconscious,  links  together  nature — or  uncon. 
scious  existence,  with  God — absolute  conscious  existence.  The  inward 
and  outward  aspects  of  things  are  opposites,  which  the  thing  itself  con- 
nects together.  This  universal  law  manifests  itself  in  nature  in  the 
interchange  of  matter.  Every  organism  possesses  the  property  of  giv- 
ing out  on  the  one  hand  of  its  own  substance,  and  taking  in  on  the 
other  what  has  emanated  from  other  organisms.  And  these  opposites 
of  giving  out  and  taking  in  are  connected  by  assimilation  and  appro- 
priation— a  process  which  varies  in  each  different  organism.  It  is  by 
interchange  of  this  sort  that  the  physical  world  is  kept  in  continual 
balance,  and  connection  of  all  its  parts. 

In  the  intellectual  world  this  law  manifests  itself  in  a  similar,  or  at 
least  an  analogous,  manner.  Mental  development  is  also  exchange — a 
mental  interchange  of  matter.  The  soul  takes  in  from  outside,  through 
the  senses,  a  stock  of  impressions  and  images,  which  by  an  inward 
process  it  converts  into  thoughts  and  conceptions,  and  gives  out  again 
to  the  world  as  words  and  actions.  Without  intercourse  and  exchange 
of  ideas  with  other  minds,  man  would  never  learn  to  think.  The 
process  of  thinking  is  impossible  without  comparison,  and  in  order  to 
compare  there  must  be  variety  at  hand  ;  but  the  most  distinct  difference 
constitutes  only  relative  opposites  (absolute  opposites  do  not  exist), 
which  are  blended  together  by  means  of  concomitant  similarities. 
Therefore,  thought  is  also  the  connection  of  opposites. 

This  long  recognized  law  which,  whether  in  the  centrifugal  and  cen- 
tripetal forces  that  rule  throughout  the  cosmic  universe,  or  in  the  in- 
spiration or  expiration  of  the  lungs,  or  the  expansion  and  contraction 
of  the  sap  of  plants,  etc..  has  established  itself  as  the  law  of  all  life, 
growth,  and  being — this  law  Frobel  applies  to  education.  For,  he 
argues,  if  this  law  guides  the  process  of  spiritual  development  in  early 
childhood,  that  is,  in  the  period  of  non-deliberate  action,  educators  must 
regard  it  as  the  law  of  nature  for  the  human  mind  if  they  are  to  pro- 


188  EDUCATION  IN  GENERAL— FROEBEL'S  THEORY. 

ceed  according  to  nature  (Natur-gemass*)  and  they  must  apply  this  law 
in  their  method,  and  above  all  lead  children  to  apply  it  themselves  in 
whatever  they  do;  and  this  from  the  beginning  of  the  child's  develop- 
ment, in  the  stage  of  unconscious  existence,  which  is  the  germ  of  all 
others.  In  this  way  the  human  mind  will  be  trained  to  render  to  itself 
an  ever  clearer  and  clearer  account  of  the  laws  of  its  thinking  and  act- 
ing, while  an  opposite  method  of  education  would  more  or  less  hinder 
the  mind  from  attaining  the  power  of  clear  thought. 

For  instance,  a  child  directly  it  is  born  begins  to  take  in  through  its 
senses  impressions  from  outside.  It  perceives  heat  and  cold,  light  and 
darkness  ;  it  arrives  gradually  at  distinguishing  between  hard  and  soft, 
solid  and  fluid,  near  and  distant,  etc.  These  are  all  so  many  kinds  of 
opposites.  As  long  as  this  perceptive  faculty  is  but  feebly  developed,  it 
will  not  easily  distinguish  slight  degrees  of  difference,  as,  for  instance, 
a  hard  material  from  one  only  a  little  less  hard,  a  near  object  from  one 
a  very  little  farther,  and  so  forth.  The  more  marked  the  contrast  in 
the  qualities  of  different  objects  (for  it  is  not  the  things  themselves 
that  form  opposites,  but  their  qualities)  the  more  easily  will  they  be 
distinguished  from  one  another.  Now  to.be  able  to  distinguish  is  the 
first  step  towards  understanding.  Is  it  not,  therefore,  self-evident  that 
this  process  will  be  facilitated  if  the  objects  with  which  the  child  is  to 
occupy  itself  are  presented  to  it  in  the  form  of  opposites  ?  If,  for  in- 
stance, it  is  to  learn  to  distinguish  between  the  size  of  things,  let  two 
objects,  relatively  great  and  little,  be  given  to  it,  or  for  distinction  of 
color  two  contrasting  colors,  and  so  forth. 

In  Frbbel's  "second  gift,"  for  instance,  the  sphere  (a  single  surface 
without  edges  and  corners)  and  the  cube  (many  surfaces,  edges,  and 
corners)  form  opposites  which  the  cylinder  (containing  both  a  round 
surface  like  the  sphere,  and  flat  surfaces  and  edges  like  the  cube) 
combines  in  its  form,  thus  connecting  two  opposites. 

Through  these  shapes,  and  by  means  of  the  sense  of  sight,  the  child 
receives  impressions,  nothing  more.  But  out  of  these  impressions, 
feeling  and  willing  arise,  and  later  on  understanding  and  thinking,  and 
it  is  because  all  later  development  depends  on  them  that  early  im- 
pressions are  so  important. 

As  God  the  Creator  has  everywhere  in  creation  placed  opposites  side 
by  side  in  order  to  work  out  harmony,  so  must  man  proceed  in  like 
fashion,  in  all  his  works,  if  he  is  to  produce  harmony.  All  art  is  based 
on  the  principle  of  contrasts.  The  musician  in  the  trichord  connects 
together  two  discordant  tones ;  the  artist  in  his  pictures  blends  light 
and  shade,  dark  tints  and  bright  ones,  by  means  of  middle  tints,  etc. 

The  child,  too,  in  the  Kindergarten,  plaits  and  twists  in  like  manner ; 
lays  one  little  stick  horizontally,  another  perpendicularly,  and  a  third 


*  The  word  Natur-gemass  (according  to  nature)  must  never  be  understood  to  refer 
to  nature  in  its  distorted,  corrupted  condition,  in  which  sense  the  word  natural  is 
often  used. — Note  by  the  Author. 


EDUCATION  IN  GENERAL— FROEBEL'S  THEORY.  189 

half  horizontally,  half  perpendicularly,  in  order  by  means  of  the  slant- 
ing line  to  connect  together  the  two  others. 

And,  whilst  the  child  is  applying  this  simple  law  in  a  thousand  dif- 
ferent ways  in  its  occupation,  it  is  being  led  on  to  creativeness,  which 
means,  as  far  as  mankind  is  concerned,  out  of  given  materials  to  form 
new  combinations.  Without  law  or  rule,  i.  e.,  method,  this  is  not  pos- 
sible. The  mode  of  procedure  in  all  work,  whether  industrial  or 
artistic,  must  be  at  bottom  systematic. 

If  the  child  in  all  its  little  productions,  even  those  of  its  play,  has 
persistently  applied  this  principle  of  its  own  mental  development,  al- 
though at  the  time  conscious  of  nothing  more  than  that  by  this  simple 
means  it  could  produce  the  most  manifold  shapes,  figures,  etc.,  far  more 
will  have  been  done  for  its  general  development,  than  if  it  had  been  at 
once  prepared  for  all  the  various  branches  of  school  instruction.  Ar- 
rangement, distribution,  classification,  without  which  no  instruction 
can  be  carried  on,  and  clear  thought  is  impossible,  will  have  become 
habits  of  his  life,  and  will  bring  to  him  clearness  of  feeling,  will  and 
thought,  the  only  certain  foundations  of  culture. 

FROEBEL'S  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION. 

As  a  result  of  the  foregoing  we  find  the  first  general  educational 
requisites  to  be  : 

Assistance  of  spontaneous  development  which  shall  accord  with  the 
laws  of  nature ; 

Considerations  for  the  outward  conditions  of  life  of  each  epoch,  and 
for  each  personality ; 

Understanding  and  application  of  the  universal  laws  of  spiritual 
development. 

With  regard  to  the  special  service  rendered  by  Frbbel,  let  me  here 
repeat  what  I  have  already  mentioned,  that  Frbbel  has  discovered  the 
method  and  practical  means  of  disciplining,  or  of  developing,  body,  soul 
and  mind,  will,  feeling  and  understanding  according  to  the  systematic 
laws  of  nature. 

In  the  practical  application  of  the  positive  and  individual  portion  of 
it,  the  simplicity  and  naturalness  of  Frb'bePs  method  stand  out  mark- 
edly, and  at  once  do  away  with  any  idea  of  its  being  pedantic  or  arti 
ficial,  and  in  opposition  to  the  natural  free  development  of  the  child. 

No  one  will  deny  that  the  smallest  practical  discovery  which  shall 
turn  our  educational  system  in  a  direction  corresponding  to  the  de- 
mands of  human  nature,  and  of  modern  times,  is  of  immense  impor- 
tance, and  must  contribute  towards  facilitating  and  expediting  the  great 
reformatory  process  of  our  age.  Though  education  cannot  do  all  that 
is  needed  in  this  respect,  it  can  do  a  great  deal. 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS. 


IV.    EARLY    CHILDHOOD. 

"  The  renovation  of  society  depends  on  its  moral  reform,  and  this  again  chiefly  on 
improvement  in  the  nature  of  education.  But  the  results  of  education  depend  on  its 
first  commencements,  and  these  are  in  the  hands  of  women." 

"  POOR  HUMANITY  I  "  exclaims  Madame  de  Stael  at  the  sight  of  all 
the  manifold  miseries  of  mankind.  With  much  more  truth  might  one 
exclaim  :  "  Poor  childhood  !  "  for  in  childhood,  and  its  perverted  man- 
agement, lies  the  source  of  the  greater  part  of  this  misery.  Adult  man- 
kind has  weapons  wherewith  to  repel  the  assaults  of  temptation  and 
trouble ;  helpless  childhood  is  exposed  without  power  of  resistance  to 
the  evils  of  mismanagement  and  neglect,  and  the  consequence  is  that 
human  beings  find  themselves  beginning  the  battle  of  life  already 
maimed  by  thousands  of  wounds.  If  only  the  human  soul  were  better 
guarded  and  fostered  in  its  infancy,  how  many  fewer  despairing  men 
and  women  should  we  see ! 

How  much  has  there  not  been  said  and  written — before  and  after 
Pestalozzi's  "  Book  for  Mothers  " — on  the  importance  of  first  impres- 
sions, and  yet  what  boundless  neglect  do  we  see  of  this  first  period  of 
the  growth  of  the  human  soul !  If  a  tender  young  leaf  be  pricked  in 
spring-time  with  the  finest  needle  it  will  show  a  scar  of  continually 
increasing  size  till  it  withers  in  the  autumn ;  how  many  such  needle- 
pricks  does  not  the  young  child-soul  receive — and  in  them  the  beginnings 
of  many  scars,  bad  habits,  faults  and  vices?  Is  there  a  single  human 
being  who  has  not  to  bear  the  weight — often  a  very  heavy  one — of  the 
consequences  of  some  neglect  in  childhood  ?  For  each  one  of  us  the 
roots  of  our  being  are  planted  in  our  childhood,  and  as  are  the  roots  so 
will  be  the  tree.  The  good  and  the  bad  alike,  if  they  could  see  down 
into  the  lowest  depths  of  their  existence,  would  be  able  to  trace  back 
their  good  deeds  and  their  evil  ones,  in  their  latest  ramifications,  to  the 
seeds  sown  in  infancy.  It  is  true  that  the  origin,  both  of  physical  and 
moral  diseases,  lies  to  a  great  extent  in  the  innate  dispositions  which 
are  the  heritage  of  parents  and  'ancestors,  but  it  depends  upon  early 
care  and  training  whether  these  dispositions  be  developed  or  suppressed. 
Every  single  evil  tendency  can  be  overcome  to  a  certain  degree. 

Nearly  all  mothers,  and  especially  young  ones,  think  that  their  chil- 
dren, so  softly  cradled  in  the  lap  of  love,  are  in  no  way  to  be  pitied, 
that  they  are  protected  from  all  moral  hurt,  as  from  every  breath  of 
cold  air.  And  yet  how  much  harm  is  done  both  to  their  bodies  and 
souls  by  this  very  mother-love  if  it  be  not  accompanied  by  knowledge. 

ERRORS    IN    PHYSICAL    TRAINING. 

How  often  do  we  see  a  young  mother,  in  any  class  of  society,  enter 
on  her  educational  office  fully  prepared  for  it,  even  let  us  say  so  far  as 
the  management  of  health  is  concerned  ?  And  even  if  she  herself  be 


EARLY  CHILDHOOD.  191 

thoroughly  fitted  for  her  work,  can  she  prevent  nurses,  and  nursery- 
maids, or  whoever  else  may  assist  her  in  it,  from  committing  a  hundred 
errors  ?  Why  is  it  that  more  than  half  of  mankind  die  during  the  first 
ten  years  of  life,  and  of  these  again  the  greater  number  in  the  first  three 
years  ?  How  few  children  of  all  ages  are  really  blooming  and  healthy- 
looking,  especially  in  large  towns.  The  little  pale  faces  are  a  heavy 
reproach  to  parents  and  nurses,  and  little  do  these  thoughtless  mothers 
consider  what  a  terrible  responsibility  they  have  undertaken  in  view  of 
the  well-being  of  humanity. 

Here,  for  instance,  is  a  child  who  can  scarcely  bold  up  its  great  heavy 
head.  When  the  mother  was  at  her  balls  the  nurse  used  to  give  it  de- 
coctions of  milk  and  poppy-heads,  so  that  whilst  it  was  sleeping  soundly 
she  might  keep  a  rendezvous.  The  water  in  the  little  one's  head  dooms 
it  to  an  early  death,  or — still  worse — to  idiocy  for  life  !  There  again 
is  one  whose  tottering,  uncertain  gait  tells  of  bandy  legs.  Born  with  a 
scrofulous  tendency,  it  was  set  too  early  on  the  weak  limbs  which  were 
not  able  to  support  it.  In  the  thick  waist  and  pale  face  of  another 
child  are  seen  the  results  of  over-feeding,  the  work,  perhaps,  of  a  good^ 
natured  nursery-maid  who  was  in  the  habit  of  sharing  her  coffee,  coarse 
bread,  potatoes,  etc.,  with  her  young  charge.  Inflammation  of  the  chest, 
brought  on  during  the  first  months  of  its  life  by  a  draught  when  it  was 
being  washed,  has  developed  in  another  child  the  seeds  of  consump- 
tion. Who  could  enumerate  all  the  seemingly  trifling  causes  which, 
followed  up  by  later  injurious  influences,  destroy  the  health  of  millions? 
And  in  depriving  a  child  of  health  we  deprive  it  also  of  the  power  to 
work  and  to  be  of  any  use  in  the  world.  A  sickly  child  is  always,  and 
indeed  must  be,  a  coddled  and  a,  spoilt  one,  and  grows  up  into  a  man 
of  ill-health,  unable  properly  to  maintain  his  family,  or  a  suffering 
housewife  and  mother  who  cannot  fulfill  her  duties. 

Errors  in  Moral  Training. 

But  the  first  pernicious  moral  influences  work  almost  more  terribly. 
The  apparent  passiveness  of  the  young  being  easily  deceives  its  elders 
as  to  its  really  too  ready  susceptibility  to  outward  impressions.  The 
helpless  infant  is  supposed  to  be  insensible  to  disorder,  insobriety,  vul- 
garity or  ugliness  of  surroundings,  while  all  the  time  the  impressions 
are  being  received  which  will  determine  the  points  of  view  from  which 
the  grown  man  or  woman  will  look  out  later  on  the  world. 

Each  one  of  us  is  the  offspring  of  his  age  and  his  nation.  This  means 
to  say :  each  one  bears  the  stamp  of  those  characteristics  of  his  age  and 
nation  amongst  which  he  is  born  :  and  each  one  reflects  the  influences 
of  his  immediate  and  more  distant  surroundings.  In  this  respect  too 
each  one  is  the  offspring  of  his  family,  of  his  mother,  his  nurse,  his 
nursery,  his  playfellows,  etc.,  for  it  is  in  these  that  his  century  and  his 
nation  are  first  represented  to  him.  The  special  stamp  of  individuality 
which  his  body  and  soul  will  bear  in  later  life  will  be  traceable  to  these 


192  EARLY  CHILDHOOD. 

first  impressions  which  influenced  the  inborn  dispositions  like  rain  or 
sunshine.  The  boy  who  has  been  reared  in  the  turmoil  of  camp-life  will 
bear  a  different  stamp  of  character  from  one  who  has  grown  up  in  peace- 
ful quiet  amongst  the  flowers  of  a  garden.  The  Spartans  and  Athenians 
grew  up  in  the  self-same  country,  under  the  same  sky — but  how  differ- 
ently did  culture  and  morals  color  their  national  characters.  Culture 
and  morals  are  the  result  of  education — of  that  which  is  bestowed  as 
well  as  of  that  which  goes  on  of  itself. 

There  are  certainly  few  errors  which  have  had  such  a  pernicious  and 
hampering  effect  on  the  development  of  good  in  humanity  as  the  one 
which  treats  children  in  their  earliest  childhood  merely  as  physical  be- 
ings, and  regards  the  soul  at  this  period  as  wholly  unsusceptible  and 
without  requirements.  The  soul,  which  makes  its  existence  unmistak- 
ably known  later,  must  have  grown  out  of  a  former  if  only  a  dormant 
state,  in  which  state  it  must  have  acquired  the  strength  to  manifest 
itself  at  last  openly.  The  soul  then  exists  as  such  already  in  infancy. 
But  in  what  manner  does  it  arrive  at  its  later  development  ?  It  can 
only  be  through  impressions  received  from  outside,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  surroundings.  Body  and  soul  at  the  beginning-  of  life  may 
be  said  to  be  one,  and  bodily  desires  and  needs  are  seemingly  all  that 
express  themselves.  But  the  foundation  of  these  bodily  desires  is  a 
spiritual  one.  The  organs  must  first  be  strengthened  before  the  soul 
can  make  use  of  them,  but  simultaneously  with  their  development  the 
soul  itself  grows,  and  according  to  the  form  which  these  organs,  whether 
limbs  or  senses,  take  will  be  in  great  measure  the  spiritual  stamp. 
Every  physical  impression  is  at  the  same  time  a  spiritual  one,  and  all 
the  more  lasting  in  proportion  to  the  youth  and  want  of  power  of  resist- 
ance of  the  being  in  question.  The  reason  why  children  so  easily  con- 
tract the  mien,  gestures,  and  habits  of  their  surroundings  is  that  they 
have  no  power  of  resistance — everything  outside  them  is  stronger  than 
themselves,  and  they  have  to  borrow  from  all  outward  influences  for 
their  own  growth.  Hence  they  are  good,  cheerful  and  contented,  or 
bad,  morose  and  discontented,  just  .according  to  their  surroundings. 

It  is  a  great  mistake,  for  instance,  to  imagine  that  the  vulgar,  unre- 
fined manners  of  servants  have  no  effect  on  children  in  their  first  two 
or  three  years,  or  even  in  their  first  months.  It  is  evident  that  a  child 
grows  like  its  nurse  from  the  fact  that  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  it 
catches  her  expressions.  The  foundations  of  the  strongest  passions,  fail- 
ings and  vices  may  be  laid  when  the  human  being  is  in  its  earliest  stage, 
a  mere  infant  in  arms.  To  have  been  in  infancy  witness  of  improper 
behavior  may  have  been  the  beginning  of  lust.  Anger  and  lying  most 
children  learn  from  the  servants  of  the  house — if  not  from  their  par- 
ents !  Picking  leads  to  stealing.  Many  a  promising  lad  has  been  led 
on  to  deceit  and  theft  from  no  other  cause  than  that  his  mother  was 
wanting  in  order  and  management,  and  unable  to  teach  him  either  by 
example  or  guidance  ;  or  because  she  was  too  weak  to  resist  the  wishes 


EARLY  CHILDHOOD.  193 

of  her  child  ;  he  did  not  learn  to  bear  contradiction  in  childhood,  and  in 
after  years  he  could  not  accustom  himself  to  it. 

Many  a  conscientious  mother  will  doubtless  smile  to  herself  and 
think :  I  am  not  guilty  of  these  sins.  I  wash  and  dress  my  child  my- 
self, or  am  present  while  it  is  being  done  ;  I  have  good  nurses  to  look 
after  it ;  I  feed  it  myself ;  I  play  and  talk  with  it  to  develop  its  little 
mind ;  I  do  not  let  it  associate  with  vulgar  people,  and  so  forth.  And 
nevertheless  it  was  the  child  of  a  very  conscientious  and  cultivated 
mother — a  little  girl  of  six  years  old — who  was  assaulted  by  a  soldier, 
in  a  public  park,  in  the  coarsest  and  most  improper  manner,  because  it 
hindered  his  tete-a-tete  with  the  nurse.  And  every  glance  into  the  world 
reveals  such-like  hideous  pictures.  They  show  that  even  the  best  of 
mothers  cannot  be  too  careful,  can  never  be  over  rich  in  precautions, 
and  that  they  all  need  preparation  for  their  calling. 

Neglect  of  the  Intellect. 

No  less  sure  in  its  vengeance  is  the  early  neglect  of  the  intellect. 
What  a  multitude  of  "  confused  heads  "  does  one  see  in  our  days,  per- 
sons incapable  of  mastering  the  wealth  of  ideas  of  the  present  day. 
One  great  cause  of  this  is  not  unfrequently  found  in  the  meaningless 
playthings  heaped  together  without  the  slightest  order,  with  \vhich  the 
year-old  child  is  set  to  amuse  itself.  For  inward  clearness  proceeds 
from  outward  order.  As  soon  could  the  eyes  of  a  grown  person  take 
in  at  a  glance  all  the  innumerable  objects  of  an  industrial  exhibition, 
as  the  young  uncultivated  eye  of  an  infant  distinguish  from  one  another 
the  shapeless,  generally  broken  objects,  through  which  it  has  to  acquire 
its  first  knowledge.  Yes,  knowledge !  For  can  the  child  understand 
anything  else  before  it  has,  to  a  certain  extent,  learned  to  know  form, 
color,  material,  size,  number,  etc.— that  is  to  say  the  qualities  of  things? 
But  this  faculty  of  distinguishing  begins  partly  in  the  earliest  years,  as 
the  child  itself  plainly  manifests  ;  it  would  not  otherwise  crow  with  de- 
light when  its  hat  and  cloak  are  produced  to  take  it  out  of  doors,  or  cry 
when  the  sight  of  bath  and  towel  indicate  to  it  preparations  for  washing. 

No  one  would  dream  of  expecting  a  child  of  six  or  seven  years  old, 
because  it  had  been  supplied  with  the  necessary  materials, — paper,  ink, 
books,  etc.,  to  learn  to  read  and  write  by  itself  without  instruction,  and 
how  should  an  infant,  up  to  its  third  year,  learn  without  assistance  to 
distinguish  all  the  many  different  things  which  surround  it,  and  their 
qualities,  in  the  clear  manner  which  is  necessary  to  develop  in  it  clear 
perception  ?  Without  the  proper  materials  and  without  help,  it  will 
also  learn  badly  what  it  has  to  know  in  order  to  be  prepared  for  later 
school  instruction. 

It  is  through  the  senses  that  the  young  being  takes  in  the  first  nour- 
ishment for  the  faintly  glimmering  spark  of  the  soul. 

As  physical  nourishment,  and  especially  that  given  in  early  years,  is 

by  no  means  a  matter  of  indifference  as  regards  the  growth  of  the  body, 

13. 


194  EARLY  CHILDHOOD. 

so  it  cannot  be  considered  immaterial  what  kind  of  spiritual  food  is 
afforded  at  this  early  period.  The  development  of  the  soul  does  not 
depend  merely  on  the  fact  of  the  limbs,  senses,  and  organs,  being 
formed — it  depends  also  on  how  they  are  formed. 

As  eagerly  as  the  babe  at  the  breast  sucks  in  its  mother's  milk,  so  do 
the  senses  (eyes  and  ears  above  all)  suck  in  the  nourishment  of  the  soul. 
Frbbel  calls  this  spiritual  sucking  in  "  ein  A  ugen,"  because  the  eye  is 
specially  active  in  the  process.  In  this  first  period  of  existence  when  the 
child  is  a  sucking-babe,  receptiveness  is  the  dominant  faculty.  Just  as 
the  bees  gather  from  thousands  of  flowers  the  stores  with  which  they  pre- 
pare their  honey,  so  from  the  outer  world  the  child's  soul  collects  a 
store  of  images  which  must  stamp  themselves  upon  it,  and  grow  into 
ideas,  before  the  first  signs  of  spontaneous  mental  activity  can  show 
themselves  outwardly.  Up  to  this  point  the  forces  of  the  soul  work 
only  inwardly  and  invisibly,  like  the  seed  of  a  plant  before  it  has  begun 
to  sprout.  And  as  seeds  will  wither  and  come  to  nothing  if  they  be 
not  watered  and  tended,  so  will  mental  faculties  if  proper  care  be  de- 
nied them.  And  in  what  else  can  this  first  fostering  of  the  infant  soul 
consist  than  in  surrounding  it  with  influences  and  images  of  beauty, 
truth  and  morality  ?  These  are  the  three  objects  of  human,  and  there- 
fore also  of  infant,  development. 

REQUISITES    FOR   HEALTHY    MENTAL   GROWTH. 

The  first  requisite  then  is  to  discover  the  right  method  by  which 
children  should  take  in  knowledge  before  the  period  in  which  the  under- 
standing begins  to  work.  Because  it  has  hitherto  been  supposed  that 
the  feelers  of  the  infant  soul  take  in  all  the  nourishment  necessary  to  it, 
just  as  the  instinct  of  the  young  animal  leads  it  to  its  proper  food,  no 
external  care  has  been  considered  necessary.  But  no  more  than  a  young 
animal  could  satisfy  its  hunger  in  a  sandy  desert,  can  the  instinct  of 
the  child's  soul  still  its  cravings  where  the  surroundings  offer  nothing 
that  it  can  make  use  of.  But  it  may  be  asked,  do  not  nature  and  the 
outward  world  present  everywhere  forms,  colors,  sounds,  and  materials, 
which  may  serve  as  pictures  for  the  child's  inner  world?  No  doubt 
they  do,  but  in  a  scattered  form,  not  collected  together  and  arranged 
in  such  manner  that  they  can  be  taken  in  by  the  eye  that  has  as  yet 
seen  nothing,  the  ear  that  has  heard  nothing — not  in  the  simple  and 
elementary  form  required  by  the  unpracticed  eye.  Can  a  child's  eye 
in  its  earliest  years  take  in  the  beauty  of  a  landscape  with  its  thousand 
different  features  and  gradations,  even  when  it  is  represented  on  a 
small  scale  in  a  picture  ?  Or  can  a  child's  ear  convey  a  Beethoven  sym- 
phony, even  as  a  general  impression  only,  to  the  soul  ?  Impossible ! 
For  the  organs  have  not  yet  the  necessary  strength  for  sustaining  suck 
complicated  images,  nor  the  soul  the  capacity  for  grasping  them.  In- 
fluences and  attractions  of  undue  magnitude  and  power  weaken  the 
young  organs,  and  leave  the  soul  wholly  indifferent,  because  untouched. 


EARLY  CHILDHOOD.  195 

As  nature  has  prepared  for  the  child  its  fit  bodily  food  in  its  mother's 
milk,  so  must  the  mind  of  the  mother  prepare  the  food  for  her  child's 
soul  by  placing  all  the  widely  scattered  natural  objects  in  such  manner 
before  its  senses  that  the  feelers,  which  these  put  out,  may  be  able  to 
find  and  take  hold  of  the  right  materials.  And  further,  by  removing 
from  its  surroundings  whatever  may  influence  perniciously  the  germinat- 
ing soul. 

The  mother  has  to  paint  the  great  pictures  of  nature  and  reality  in 
miniature,  to  separate  single  objects,  to  select  and  dress  up,  so  as  to 
produce  symbols  of  beauty,  truth,  and  morality  adapted  to  infant  com- 
prehension. To  determine  these  symbols  for  the  earliest  stage  of  de- 
velopment is  an  art,  and  a  difficult  art ;  it  involves  a  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  of  physiology  and  psychology :  how  shall  mothers,  all 
mothers,  attain  to  it? 

The  maternal  instinct,  maternal  love,  is,  indeed,  a  magic  power  en- 
abling the  simplest  women  often  to  work  wonders  ;  and  without  this 
wonder  of  love  humanity  would  hardly  have  developed  itself  in  its  in- 
fancy. But  at  the  same  time  every  mother  is  not  capable  of  finding 
out  for  herself  what  her  child's  soul  requires,  in  order  that  none  of  its 
faculties  may  be  arrested,  but  all  brought  to  their  full  development. 

It  is  always  individuals  who  find  out  what  all  need.  For  all  its  ne- 
cessities mankind  has  had  its  discoverers,  its  inventors,  its  geniuses,  who 
have  satisfied  each  want  in  turn,  and  who,  as  missionaries  of  God,  have 
reformed  and  beautified  human  existence  and  quenched  the  thirst  of 
the  human  soul  after  truth. 

Frobel  has  fulfilled  the  mission  of  satisfying  the  need  and  higher  de- 
mands of  childhood,  arising  out  of  the  new  stage  of  human  develop- 
ment, and  of  furnishing  mothers  with  the  symbols  by  means  of  which, 
as  by  the  leading-string  of  truth,  they  may  lead  young  souls  through 
the  first  labyrinth  of  life.  His  mind  it  was  that  selected  and  arranged 
materials,  forms,  colors  and  sounds  with  elementary  simplicity,  and  in 
such  a  manner  that  they  might  penetrate  the  child's  soul  without  dis- 
turbing the  stillness  of  its  budding  life,  without  awakening  it  suddenly 
or  artificially,  and  at  the  same  time  without  letting  the  glimmering 
spark  of  the  soul  be  stifled  in  the  ashes  of  materialism.  Frobel  found 
out  the  certain  rule  by  which  the  mother  may  be  safely  and  freely 
guided  in  her  search  for  the  right  method  of  tending  the  human  plant 
entrusted  to  her. 

But  what  is  this  right  method?  Is  everything  to  be  prepared  for  the 
germinating  infant  mind,  everything  weighed  out,  all  exertion  spared 
it,  and  is  it  simply  to  rest  in  its  passivity,  as  on  its  mother's  breast  ? 
Yes,  at  the  beginning  of  its  existence  the  world  of  its  surroundings 
must  be  adapted,  arranged  and  modeled  according  to  its  needs,  as  its 
cradle  and  clothing  are  prepared  for  its  body,  because  the  sucking  babe' 
must  first  suck,  i.  e.,  take  in,  and  can  as  yet  procure  nothing  for  itself. 
But  let  only  a  few  months  go  by,  and  it  will  begin  to  stretch  out  its 


196  EARLY  CHILDHOOD. 

hands  eagerly  as  if  to  lay  claim  to  its  share  of  the  world.  Frobel  says 
that  the  first  grasping  of  childish  hands  is  a  sign  of  mental  awakening. 
With  the  hands  man  begins  to  take  possession  of  the  material  good 
things  of  the  world,  till  the  mind  in  its  fashion  begins  also  to  grasp. 
It  is  only  by  appropriation  that  a  human  being  can  place  himself  in 
relation  or  connect  himself  with  the  outward  world,  but  appropriation 
must  be  followed  by  action,  as  duties  come  with  rights.  The  spon- 
taneous action  of  the  child,  which  is  the  beginning  of  future  labors, 
begins  already  in  the  earliest  months.  It  shows  itself  in  the  first  grasp- 
ing with  the  hands  ;  but  instead  of  encouraging  and  assisting  this  prac- 
tice, whereby  a  sense  of  space  and  distance  is  developed,  people  too 
often  hinder  it  by  handing  to  the  child  or  taking  away  from  it  the 
object  which  it  grasped  at  with  its  little  hands  for  the  purpose  of  study- 
ing it  by  touch. 

Child's  Instinct  to  Play. 

Constant  stimulus  to  spontaneous  action  is  the  first  principle  of 
Frb'bePs  educational  method.  He  says  :  "  The  beginning  of  a  child's 
activity  is  the  conversion  of  the  outward  into  the  inward  ;  " — i.  e.,  tak- 
ing in  outward  things  as  impressions — "  In  order  afterwards  to  make 
the  inward  again  outward ;  " — or  in  other  words,  to  work  up  into  ideas 
and  thoughts  the  impressions  taken  in,  and  give  them  out  again  in 
words  and  actions.  In  his  "  Sunday  papers  "  he  says  :  "  Taking  in  and 
living  out  is  a  fundamental  necessity  of  child-nature,  as  indeed  of 
humanity  in  general.  The  earthly  destination  of  mankind  is,  by  careful 
assimilation  of  the  outer  world,  by  the  forming  of  his  nature,  by  the 
expression  of  his  inner  life  outside  himself,  and  by  careful  comparison 
of  this  inner  life  with  outward  life,  to  attain  to  the  knowledge  of  their 
oneness,  to  the  knowledge  of  what  life  consists  in,  and  to  a  faithful 
living  up  to  its  demands." 

But  suppose  the  right  kind  of  surrounding  to  have  been  prepared  for 
a  child,  so  that  it  is  able  to  take  in  images  of  beauty,  truth  and 
morality,  how  is  it  to  "  live  out  "  that  which  it  has  taken  in  ?  How  is  it 
to  become  spontaneously  active?  In  what  form  is  it  to  express  its  indi- 
vidual nature?  It  must  live  out  the  self,  the  inner  being,  which  nature 
has  bestowed  on  it,  in  that  manner,  in  that  form,  which  its  childish 
instinct  prescribes  to  it,  viz.,  in  play. 

Play  is  free  activity,  engendered  by  happiness  and  well-being.  To 
develop  itself  is  happiness  and  well-being  to  a  child  so  long  as  the  pro- 
cess is  in  accordance  with  nature ;  in  order  that  it  may  develop  itself 
the  child  plays  in  happy  unconsciousness — for  it  knows  nothing  of  the 
object  of  its  activity.  "  Play  is  the  first  poetry  of  the  child,"  says  J. 
Paul,  but  play  means  also  its  first  deeds,  which  are  the  expression  of 
human  nature,  of  human  life.  It  is  the  preparatory  exercise  for  this 
life.  The  child  begins  its  existence,  after  the  first  months  of  mere 
taking  in,  by  handling,  producing  and  transforming :  for  to  transform 
the  world  is  the  business  of  humanity. 


EARLY  CHILDHOOD.  197 

When  a  child  of  but  a  few  months  old  applies  its  whole  strength  to 
thumping  on  the  table  with  some  object  or  other,  or  to  flinging  it  over 
and  over  again  on  the  ground,  or  from  its  mother's  arms  opens  and 
shuts  the  door,  etc.,  it  is  exercising  its  young  forces,  and  it  derives 
pleasure  from  so  doing — it  may  be  said  to  be  playing — though  as  yet 
without  conscious  end  and  without  manifestation  of  its  individual 
nature.  When  at  a  somewhat  later  age,  while  playing  with  its  doll  it 
imitates  all  that  happens  to  itself,  the  way  in  which  it  is  washed,  or 
dressed,  etc.,  or  whatever  it  sees  going  on  in  the  kitchen,  in  the  work- 
shop, in  the  garden,  in  the  street,  the  instinct  of  imitation  is  developing 
its  ideas,  and  stimulating  it  to  ever  new  dramatic  representations  from 
the  life  of  grown  people,  and  the  young  mind  is  now  exercising  its  forces. 
But  this  activity  is  still  so  to  say  universal,  in  so  far  as  the  child  only 
gives  back  universal  impressions  made  on  it,  without  its  individual 
stamps  standing  out  distinctly — though  at  the  same  time  difference  of 
disposition  may  already  distinguish  the  boy  from  the  girl,  the  sanguine 
temperament  from  the  phlegmatic,  and  various  features  show  individu- 
ality of  character.  It  is  only  specially-gifted  children  and  artistic  or 
scientific  geniuses  of  the  future  whose  individual  endowments  are  often 
strongly  pronounced  at  the  earliest  age,  even  though  all  musical  com- 
posers do  not,  like  the  little  Mozart,  compose  sonatas  at  six  years  old. 

Doing  and  handling  alone  are  not  enough  to  cause  the  individuality 
of  a  child,  the  kernel  of  its  personality,  the  Divine  thought  in  it  to  blos- 
som forth — for  this,  actual  production  and  creation  are  necessary.  It 
is  in  the  works  of  its  hands  that  the  signs  must  be  sought  which  will 
point  to  the  special  vocation  it  is  destined  for. 

The  degree  of  practical  skill  of  which  little  child-hands  are  capable 
is  shown  by  many  an  industry  in  which  child  labor  is  rmsused,  for  it 
is  employed  like  a  machine,  always  in  one  direction  only.  But  the 
child's  mind  can  only  produce  in  the  joyousness  of  play,  with  the  stim- 
ulus of  a  desired  end  to  be  attained,  of  an  awakened  sense  of  the  beau- 
tiful to  be  satisfied,  or  contentment  of  one  kind  or  another,  to  be 
reached  as  the  result  of  its  endeavors.  With  such  an  aim  the  healthy 
child  will  spare  itself  no  trouble,  no  exertion — indeed,  without  any 
definite  aim  it  delights  in  exhausting  itself  with  activity  ;  its  nature 
impels  it  to  do  so,  for  it  is  created  for  labor.  But  it  must  also  become 
artist  i.  e.,  it  must  originate  within  the  limits  of  its  own  small  powers, 
if  the  flower  of  its  individuality  is  to  unfold.  For  this  purpose  the 
ordinary,  imitative,  aimless  play  is  not  sufficient ;  its  efforts  require  the 
guiding  and  determining  of  suitable  materials. 

How  eagerly  do  children  long  and  beg  for  the  participation  of  their 
elders  in  their  play — for  their  guidance  and  direction ;  with  what  zeal 
do  they  collect  all  available  materials  to  enable  them  to  carry  out  their 
little  ideas.  But  grown-up  people,  when  they  do  join  in  the  amuse- 
ments of  children,  understand  but  imperfectly  how  to  be  wise  leaders, 
and  the  materials  at  hand  are  seldom  suitable.  Chance-found  material 


198  EARLY  CHILDHOOD. 

is  generally  too  rough  to  be  worked  upon ;  and  finished  objects  leave 
nothing  over  to  be  done.  It  has  often  been  remarked  that  childish 
fancy  prefers  an  unfinished  article  to  a  finished  one,  a  bit  of  wood  to  a 
doll,  because  it  can  do  something  more  to  it ;  and  it  is  sufficiently  evi- 
dent that  the  continually  increasing  wealth  and  perfection  of  toys  only 
serve  to  produce  dullness  in  children,  or  destructiveness  as  the  only  form 
of  activit}7  left  to  them,  or,  at  any  rate,  satiety,  weariness,  and  a  fatal 
love  of  distraction  which  causes  a  constant  craving  for  change,  while, 
amid  all  this  superfluity  of  diversion,  the  inactivity  of  the  powers  makes 
any  real  satisfaction  an  impossibility. 

Frobel,  when  a  little  boy,  tried  once  very  hard  with  the  material  that 
he  had  collected — stones,  boards,  and  splints — to  build  a  model  of  the 
Gothic  church  of  his  village,  but,  after  long  fruitless  struggles,  he  threw 
up  his  work  in  childish  rage.  This  incident,  however,  gave  birth  to 
the  later  thought  that  children  have  need  of  prepared  material  and 
guidance,  even  for  the  exercises  they  carry  on  in  play,  in  order  that  the 
real  meaning  and  object  of  play  may  be  fulfilled.  His  own  childish 
games  in  his  father's  garden  were  the  foundation  of  his  "  means  of 
employment  during  the  first  childhood,"  which  are  applied  in  his 
Kindergarten. 

ULTIMATE    PURPOSE    OP    PLAYTHINGS. 

The  purpose  of  the  playthings,  which  he  has  devised,  is  to  facilitate 
from  the  very  first  months  the  perception  of  outward  objects ;  by  the 
simplicity,  the  method,  and  above  all,  the  fitness  of  the  things  set 
before  the  child,  to  enable  it  the  more  easily  to  take  in  form,  size,  num- 
ber, color,  sound,  etc.,  and  by  their  definiteness,  serial  order,  and  con- 
nection, to  produce  clear  and  distinct  impressions  which  shall  corres- 
pond to  the  first  budding  powers  of  comprehension.  They  serve,  also, 
to  assist  the  development  of  the  senses  and  organs  in  the  easiest  man- 
ner, viz.,  through  the  own  action  of  the  child,  so  that  it  may  be  rendered 
capable  of  living  out  its  innerself  in  accordance  with  its  individual  en- 
dowments, and  of  recognizing  itself  in  its  works,  as  works  of  art  reflect 
the  soul  of  the  artist. 

Through  Frobel  the  childish  instinct  of  play  has  been  converted  into 
conscious  action.  He  perceived  the  end  which  nature  intended  to  reach 
by  its  means ;  saw  the  analogy  between  the  process  of  development  in 
early  childhood  and  the  evolutionary  development  of  humanity,  and  was 
able,  by  a  penetrating  glance  at  the  relations  of  these  two  processes  to 
one  another,  to  discover  the  true  method  for  the  satisfaction  of  the 
impulse  of  culture  which  is  innate  in  man,  and  through  which  he  has 
been  led  to  the  development  of  himself  and  his  world. 

It  has  been  well  said  :  "  Genius  brings  with  it  its  own  path,  the  gifted 
nature  reaches  its  goal."  Providence,  it  is  true,  allows  those  chosen  by 
it  for  great  tasks  to  select  for  themselves  the  means  of  their  fulfillment ; 
but  who  caii  say  how  much  labor,  how  many  fruitless  struggles,  how 
many  tears  of  despair  might  have  been  saved  them  ?  Or  how  much 


EARLY  CHILDHOOD.  jgg 

greater  their  services,  how  much  wider  their  hearts  might  have  been  ? 
Many,  no  doubt,  would  say  that  it  is  just  these  tears,  and  struggles,  and 
agonies  of  despair,  which  develop  genius  or  character ; — and  certainly  a 
man  has  always  to  thank  his  own  endeavors  which  developed  his 
faculties,  for  his  greatness.  But  the  point  in  question  is  to  direct  these 
exertions  to  the  right  end  and  enable  them  to  reach  it,  and,  above  all, 
to  recognize  endowments  betimes.  If  a  person  gifted  with  a  fine  voice 
does  not  sing,  he  or  she  cannot  become  a  singer ;  and  if  Thorwaldsen 
and  Humboldt,  like  Casper  Hauser,  had  been  confined  for  fifteen  years 
in  a  dark  cellar  where  they  could  see  and  hear  and  do  nothing,  their 
genius  would  never  have  unfolded  itself.  But  who  could  count  the 
fast-bound  gifts  and  powers  which  fall  like  unripe  fruit  from  the  tree 
of  humanity,  because  no  school  was  at  hand  for  their  development, 
because  the  soul  was  not  loosed  from  its  darkness  ?  The  number  of 
geniuses  will  not  be  less  because  their  crowns  of  thorns  are  exchanged 
for  crowns  of  roses,  but,  on  the  contrary,  will  multiply  beyond  all  power 
of  calculation  when  the  faculties  have  room  given  them  for  joyous  work 
and  effort,  and  when,  through  wise  guidance,  the  vocation  of  the  indi- 
vidual is  made  plain  to  him  when  still  a  child,  and  the  shortest  way  to 
its  fulfillment  pointed  out. 

All  Sysiphus  labor  should  be  spared,  especially  in  childhood,  which 
should  be,  before  all  things,  a  time  of  happiness ;  and  the  way  to  make 
it  so  is  by  encouraging  natural  activity,  by  setting  free  the  imprisoned 
forces,  and  by  enabling  children  to  live  in  accordance  with  their  needs, 
to  collect  experiences,  and  to  learn  for  themselves  without  school  disci- 
pline. The  creative  spirit  must  be  allowed  to  work  in  them,  that  thus 
the  rising  generation  may  be  saved  from  the  demon  of  excitement-seek- 
ing, which  is  ruining  morality  in  our  days.  Action,  in  the  form  of 
play,  must  supply  the  elements  of  all  knowledge  and  practice,  so  that 
Unity  and  connection  may  pervade  the  whole  culture.  The  child  should 
come  to  school  ready  equipped  with  all  the  fundamental  conditions 
necessary  for  true  learning ;  and  these  are :  to  be  able  to  see  with  one's 
own  eyes ;  to  hear  with  one's  own  ears ;  to  possess  the  power  of  observ- 
ing and  attending ;  to  have  a  thirst  for  knowledge  ;  to  be  able  rightly 
to  perceive  and  distinguish  the  different  surrounding  objects,  and  to  be 
able,  through  construction  in  childish  fashion,  to  give  outward  expres- 
sion to  the  inward  self. 

Morality  and  virtue  must  be  learned  through  doing  and  practicing } 
words  alone  will  never  teach  them.  It  is  only  by  action  that  the  will 
is  strengthened  and  the  capacity  for  great  and  good  deeds  ripened. 
And,  for  this  purpose,  children  will  seldom  find  so  fit  a  field  as  the 
Kindergarten  presents  to  them.  No  age  ever  called  for  such  a  throng 
of  action  as  does  ours  !  The  industrial  works  of  our  day  are  gigantic 
as  the  pvramids  of  Egypt ;  but,  instead  of  centuries,  like  the  lafeter, 
they  require  only  days  for  their  completion,  and  the  outward  world  is 
being  reconstructed  with  astounding  rapidity. 


200  EARLY  'CHILDHOOD. 

But  all  the  slower,  alas,  does  the  moral  reconstruction  go  forward ! 
What  force  shall  be  mighty  enough  to  rival,  in  this  field,  the  wonders- 
of  industry?  Is  there  a  higher  force  than  love,  which,  in  its  divine 
nature,  created  the  world  ?  And  what  love  is  more  powerful  than  that 
of  the  mother  ?  The  Divine  spark  of  love  in  the  human  breast  never 
burns  with  a  purer  and  a  holier  fire  than  on  the  sacrificial  altar  of  the 
mother's  heart,  which  the  ashes  of  a  ruined  world  would  not  suffice  to 
quench.  Shall  not  this  force,  then,  be  mighty  enough  to  contribute  to 
the  purifying  and  sanctifying  of  human  society  in  an  age  when  a  new 
phoenix  is  striving  to  rise  from  the  ashes  of  centuries  ? 

It  is  not  enough  that  saving  ideas  should  be  carried  about  in  the 
world ;  there  must  also  be  the  necessary  devotion,  the  good-will,  the 
endurance,  the  power  of  self-sacrifice,  to  carry  them  out.  The  male 
genius  of  humanity  begets  the  ideas  of  which  each  century  has  need ; 
the  female  genius  has  to  work  them  out. 

The  genius  of  mankind  is  two-sexed,  but  a  long  period  has  gone  by 
during  which  the  world  has  received  its  stamp  from  the  male  half  only, 
and  the  result  is  that  many  fields  are  barren,  large  tracts  parched  and 
arid.  The  dews  of  emotion  and  love  can  alone  refructify  them.  A  cry 
is  going  up  on  all  sides  calling  to  the  slumbering  second  genius  of 
humanity  to  awake,  and  appealing  to  the  "  love  force  "  of  woman  for 
redeeming  works.  The  cry  of  the  children  calls  to  the  hearts  of  moth- 
ers that  here  is  the  material  out  of  which  they  may  build  up  a  new 
generation  which  shall  impart  the  spirit  of  moral  greatness  and  dignity 
to  the  beautified  outward  world,  so  that  the  body  may  not  remain  with- 
out a  soul.  A  new  key  has  been  found  to  unlock  the  nature  of  the 
child,  a  new  alphabet  is  ready  wherewith  to  decipher  its  secrets — will 
not  the  mothers  of  our  day  snatch  gladly  at  this  key,  and  eagerly  study 
this  new  book  for  mothers  ?  And  will  not  the  young  women  too  who 
are  not  yet  mothers,  joyfully  undertake  the  sacred  office  of  educators  of 
childhood  to  which  Frobel  calls  them  ? 


FEOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS.  201 


V.    GENERAL    IDEAS. PECULIARITIES    OF    METHOD. 

We  have  attempted  so  far  to  draw  out  more  fully  and  to  make 
universally  comprehensible  the  following  general  ideas  of  Frobel. 

1.  The  destiny  of  a  child  is.  to  be  the  child  of  nature,  the  child  of 
humanity,  and  the  child  of  God. 

Or,  the  human  being  as  a  product  of  the  earth  belongs  to  the 
material  physical  world,  and  is  of  necessity  subject  to  the  laws  of  this 
world ;  as  a  personality  he  comes  out  of  the  range  of  these  laws  and 
stands  as  man  on  the  higher  ground  of  self-knowledge  and  freedom ; 
and  lastly,  through  right  development  and  a  life  in  harmony  with  it, 
he  attains  to  the  still  higher  spiritual  community  of  universal  humanity 
in  which  the  divine  spark  of  the  human  soul  begins  to  shine,  and  he 
enters  into  relation  with  the  world  outside  the  limits  of  earth,  and  with 
the  source  of  all  things. 

2.  In  the  utterances  of  the  child,  which  are  the  mirror  of  its  nature, 
we  recognize  on  a  small  scale  the  development  of  humanity  in  its  infancy. 

Or  in  other  words,  the  individual  will  always  reflect  the  characteris- 
tics of  the  race,  as  may  be  proved  by  the  analogy  between  the  historical 
epochs  in  the  world's  progress,  and  the  universal  stages  in  the  life  of 
childhood. 

3.  The  education  of  children  requires  :  consideration  of  human  nature 
in  general,  which  changes  with  the  progressive  development  of  the  race; 
consideration  of  the  age  in  which  they  are  living ;  of  the  personality  of 
each  individual  character ;  and  lastly  of  the  law  of  development,  which 
as  regards  the  spiritual  nature  is  "  a  higher  outcome  of  the  general  law 
of  development  of  the  universe." 

4.  The  first  period  of  childhood — as  being  the  most  important  with 
regard  to  human  development  in  general — is  not  yet  sufficiently  con- 
sidered and  cared  for ;  the  first  needs  of  the  soul  are  almost  entirely  dis- 
regarded ;  Frobel  offers  the  means  by  which  the  female  sex  may  be 
more  adequately  prepared  for  its   vocation  as  the  first  educators  of 
childhood. 

These  fundamental  ideas  must  be  accepted  before  Frbbel's  method 
and  means  of  education  can  be  understood  and  appreciated  in  their 
full  significance.  In  their  general  acceptation  these  ideas  have  un- 
doubtedly been  more  or  less  expressed  in  different  ages  and  at  dif- 
ferent times,  and  every  thoughtful  educationalist  has  more  or  less 
recognized  them.  But  in  the  relation  which  Frobel  gives  them,  and 
the  application  discovered  for  them  by  him,  they  are  new. 

An  idea  is  never  realized  by  one  human  mind,  or  even  by  one  gen- 
eration ;  it  is  part  of  the  scheme  of  the  great  Ruler  who  sends  these 
ideas  to  the  earth,  these  sparks  from  the  eternal  altar  of  truth,  that 
they  should  go  on  ripening  for  centuries  before  they  are  allowed  *o 


202  GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

bear  fruit.  Every  new  truth,  which  has  become  a  reality,  has  had 
behind  it  a  host  of  zealous  spirits,  who  have  been  compelled  to  fight 
for  it  and  force  open  a  way,  may  be  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  before 
it  could  make  its  entry  into  the  region  of  reality.  And  often  it  hap- 
pens that  the  man  or  woman  in  whose  mind  the  light  of  a  new  truth 
first  kindled  remains  forever  unknown. 

Before  a  new  idea  assumes  an  established  form  it  must  have  been 
thought  out  again  and  again  by  the  various  successors  of  its  first  pio- 
neer, each  one  of  whom  will  have  something  to  contribute  to  what  has 
been  already  conceded — not  merely  an  amendment  here  or  there,  but  a 
new  thought  which  will  alter,  or  give  afresh  basis  to  the  entire  scheme. 
And  this  is  essentially  the  work  of  genius — the  fire  in  which  every 
spark  of  truth  is  kindled.  If  a  new  thought  is  to  be  fused  into  any 
scheme  that  has  been  already  ripening  for  some  time,  the  whole  ground 
which  has  been  gone  over  and  gained  from  the  birth  of  the  scheme 
down  to  its  present  stage  must  be  contemplated  anew  from  an  inde- 
pendent stand-point.  Every  man  of  science  who  contributes  something 
new  to  his  special  branch  must  be  well  up  in  all  that  has  been  done 
before  his  time ;  he  must  reckon  up  again  the  whole  sum  of  results 
already  gained  if  he  has  received  a  fresh  amount  to  be  added  to  it. 
What  but  the  intuitive  power  of  genius  would  be  equal  to  such  a  task  ? 

In  the  field  of  education  the  same  truth  holds  good :  Frbbel's  idea  of 
"  human  education  conducted  according  to  an  infallible  method  "  had 
been  groped  after,  worked  at,  nourished  and  fostered  for  centuries  by 
minds  kindred  to  his  own,  until  at  last  it  was  able  to  be  formulated 
and  expressed  with  some  sort  of  clearness.. 

Method  or  Plan  of  Work. 

The  pith  of  the  educational  theory  in  question  may  be  summed  up 
in  few  words,  as  follows  : — there  must  be  a  methodical  and  systematic 
plan,  according  to  which  every  healthily  born  human  being  (relatively 
speaking !)  can  be  in  such  manner  surrounded  and  guided  that  his 
inborn  faculties  and  powers  may  be  sure  of  complete  development. 

Before  the  theory  in  question,  together  with  what  Frbbel  has  done 
towards  carrying  it  out,  can  be  clearly  expounded,  it  is  necessary  to 
come  to  an  understanding  as  to  what  is  meant  by  method,  and  to  dis- 
tinguish rightly  between  an  educational  and  instructional  method. 

There  are  many  people  who  while  allowing  that  instruction  should  be 
imparted  methodically  to  children  at  quite  an  early  age,  nevertheless 
think  it  foolish  and  unpractical  to  dream  of  educating  a  child  according 
to  a  method  from  the  beginning  of  its  existence.  They  think  that  free 
spontaneous  development,  the  growth  of  individuality,  would  be  hin- 
dered thereby. 

The  idea  of  method  in  its  general  signification  may  be  defined  as 
follows :  A  systematic  plan,  that  is  to  say  a  plan  which  could  not  be 
any  other  than  what  it  is,  and  such  as  after  repeated  experiences  it  has 
become,  for  reaching  any  given  end  in  the  easiest  and  best  possibio 
way.  Or  the  following  of  definite  rules  to  attain  an  object  in  view. 


GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OK  METHOD.  203 

In  all  and  everything  that  has  to  be  accomplished  there  must  be  one 
way  which  leads  more  directly  than  any  other  to  the  wished-for  goal. 
When  once  this  most  direct  way  to  any  given  end  has  been  established, 
each  one  has  but  to  follow  it :  that  is  to  say,  to  apply  certain  fixed 
rules  which  have  resulted  from  experience ;  and  it  is  in  this  application 
of  fixed  rules  that  method  consists.  This  is  true  of  all  work  without 
exception — the  least  as  well  as  the  greatest. 

No  art,  not  even  that  of  cooking,  can  be  carried  on  without  such  a 
system  of  rules.  Suppose  a  cook,  for  instance,  were  to  put  together 
the  ingredients  of  her  dougli  in  an  arbitrary  manner,  without  regard 
to  weight,  and  to  bake  them  without  first  mixing  and  stirring  them, 
the  bread  would  not  turn  out  well.  And  what  applies  to  industrial  pro- 
cesses applies  equally  to  artistic  and  mental  work.  Poetry  cannot  dis- 
pense with  metre  and  the  laws  of  versification ;  musical  compositions 
must  be  based  on  the  laws  of  harmony. 

Even  when  people  write  poetry  without  any  knowledge  of  metrical 
rules,  they  nevertheless  unconsciously  apply  these  rules ;  their  composi- 
tions could  not  be  called  poetry  if  a  definite  plan  of  syllables  did  not 
produce  rhythm.  In  the  same  way,  people  gifted  with  musical  talent  do 
not  need  to  have  learned  the  laws  of  harmony,  in  order  to  apply  them 
in  musical  improvising.  But  without  that  unconscious  application, 
only  discordance  would  be  the  result,  and  never  a  complete  tune. 

This  unconscious  and  intuitive  application  of  every  kind  of  laws 
proves  that  the  foundation  of  all  systems  lies  in  human  nature  itself — 
is  an  innate  faculty.  If  this  were  not  the  case  no  amount  of  experience 
would  enable  man  to  comprehend  the  laws  outside  himself,  either  in 
nature  or  in  human  work. 

The  imparting  of  knowledge  according  to  some  such  a  plan  of  laws 
is  called  methodical  instruction.  Nothing  can  be  called  real  instruction 
which  does  not  proceed  according  to  a  method,  and  no  one  will  have  a 
word  to  say  against  instruction  being  methodical.  Every  one  knows 
that  a  language  cannot  be  thoroughly  learned  without  a  grammar  which 
sets  before  the  pupil  the  rules  or  laws  of  the  language. 

Instruction,  or  teaching,  as  such,  has  to  do  with  the  powers  of  appre- 
hension, the  understanding  of  the  pupil,  and,  in  addition  to  the  impart- 
ing of  positive  knowledge,  aims  at  exercising  and  developing  the  power 
of  thought.  The  laws  of  instructional  methods  must  therefore  corres- 
pond to  the  laws  of  human  thought.  In  what  do  these  laws  of  human 
thought  consist? 

Let  us  be  permitted  to  give  here  a  few  rapid  indications:  which  are 
necessary  to  the  clear  exposition  of  our  subject.  A  psychological 
treatment  of  it  would  be  out  of  place.  These  indications,  moreover, 
will  not  be  given  in  accordance  with  the  numerous  definitions  of  philo- 
sophical authorities,  but  only  in  the  sense  in  which  inward  and  out- 
ward observation  brings  them  to  the  notice  of  every  sound  human  in- 
tellect, and  in  which  they  lie  at  the  bottom  of  Frobel's  views. 


204        GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

Froebel's  Law  of  Opposites  and  their  Reconcilement. 

What,  then,  is  the  process  of  the  human  mind  in  reflection  ?  The 
systematic  process,  as  it  is  the  same  for  all  minds. 

"Every  thought  must  relate  to  something  that  we  know,  and  first  of 
all  to  visible  objects  ;  we  must  have  an  object  of  thought.  This  object 
of  thought  must  not  only  be  taken  in  by  the  senses  as  a  whole,  so  that 
a  general  idea  of  it  is  gained,  as  of  a  foreign  plant  that  has  been  seen 
superficially  in  a  picture,  without  the  details  of  leaves,  blossoms,  sta- 
mens, etc.  It  must  be  observed  and  studied  in  all  its  parts  and  details. 
If  we  want  to  acquire  a  thorough  knowledge  of  a  foreign  plant  we 
must  compare  all  its  properties  with  those  of  plants  known  to  us. 
When  the  properties  or  qualities  of  different  objects  are  all  exactly  the 
same  we  cannot  compare  them;  if  there  is  to  be  comparison,  there 
must  be  a  certain  amount  of  difference — but  difference,  side-by-side 
with  similarity.  The  qualities  which  are  similar  will  be  the  universal 
ones,  which  everything  possesses,  as  form,  size,  color,  material,  etc.,  for 
there  is  nothing  that  does  not  possess  these  qualities.  The  different,  or 
contrasting  qualities,  will  consist  in  variations  of  the  universal  ones  of 
form,  size,  etc.,  as,  for  instance,  round  and  square,  great  and  little,  hard 
and  soft,  etc.  Such  differences  in  properties  that  have  a  general 
resemblance  are  called  opposites. 

All  such  opposites,  however,  are  at  the  same  time  connected  and 
bound  together.  The  greatest  size  that  we  can  imagine  to  ourselves  is 
connected  with  the  smallest  by  all  the  different  sizes  that  lie  between  ; 
the  darkest  color  with  all  the  lightest  by  all  the  intermediate  shades ; 
from  an  angular  shape  one  can  gradually  go  over  to  a  round  one  through 
a  series  of  modifications  of  form ;  and  from  hard  to  soft  through  all  the 
different  gradations.  Not  that  one  and  the  same  object  can  ever  be 
both  hard  or  soft,  dark  or  light,  great  or  little,  but  the  collective  qual- 
ities of  all  existing  objects  go  over  from  their  superlative  on  the  one 
side  to  their  superlative  on  the  other,  hardest  to  softest,  darkest  to 
lightest,  and  so  on. 

The  gradations  of  great  and  little,  hard  and  soft,  etc.,  which  lie 
between  the  opposites,  are  the  connecting  links,  or,  as  Frobel  puts  it, 
"  the  means  of  reconciliation  of  opposites  "  (and  FrobePs  system  can- 
not be  rightly  understood  unless  this  principle,  which  forms  the  basis 
of  it,  be  acknowledged).  This  "reconciliation"  is  effected  through 
affinity  of  qualities.  Black  and  white  are  not  alike,  but  opposite ;  the 
darkest  red,  however,  is  in  affinity  with  black,  as  the  lightest  red  is 
with  white,  and  all  the  different  gradations  of  red  connect  together  the 
opposites,  black  and  white. 

Now  any  one  who  has  compared  an  unknown  plant  with  known 
ones,  in  all  the  details  of  its  different  parts — leaf,  flower,  fruit,  etc.,  is 
in  a  position  to  pass  judgment  on  it,  and  to  draw  a  conclusion  as  to 
whether  it  belongs  to  this  or  that  known  genus  of  plants,  and  what  is 
its  species.  Thus  the  natural  process  of  thought  is  as  follows  :  percep- 
tion, observation,  comparison,  judgment  and  conclusion. 


GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD.  205 

Without  this  series  of  preliminary  steps  no  thought  can  be  worked 
out,  and  the  ruling  principle  is  the  law  of  the  reconciliation  of  oppo- 
sites,  or  the  finding  out  the  like  and  unlike  qualities  of  things. 

It  matters  not  how  far  the  thinker  be  conscious  or  unconscious  of 
the  process  going  on  in  his  mind.  The  child  is  entirely  unconscious  of 
it,  and  therefore  takes  longer  to  reach  from  one  stage  to  another.  At 
first  it  receives  only  general  impressions ;  then  perception  comes  in ; 
gradually  ideas  begin  to  shape  themselves  in  its  mind,  and  it  then 
learns  to  compare  and  distinguish  ;  but  judging  and  concluding  do  not 
begin  till  the  third  or  fourth  year,  and  then  only  vaguely  and  dimly. 
Nevertheless,  the  same  systematic  process  is  at  work  as  in  the  con- 
scious thought  of  the  adult. 

Pestalozzi'j  Fundamental  Law. 

Any  system  of  instruction  which  is  to  be  effectual  must  therefore 
take  into  account  this  law  of  thought  (or  logic);  it  must  apply  the  fun- 
damental principle  of  connecting  the  known  with  the  unknown  by  means  of 
coinparif<nn.  This  principle  is,  however,  everlastingly  sinned  against, 
and  people  talk  to  children  about  things  and  communicate  to  them 
opinions  and  thoughts  concerning  them,  of  which  children  have  no  con- 
ception and  can  form  none.  And  this  is  done  even  after  Pestalozzi  by 
his  ''  method  of  observation  and  its  practical  application  "  has  placed  in- 
struction on  "a  true  basis. 

Of  the  manner  in  which  Frobel  has  built  upon  this  foundation  we 
shall  speak  later.  We  have  here  to  deal  first  with  education,  to  show 
how  far  it  differs  from  instruction,  and,  whether  a  systematic  or  meth- 
odical process  is  applicable  to  it,  as  Frobel  considers  it  to  be. 

When  Pestalozzi  was  endeavoring  to  construct  his  "  Fundamental 
Method  of  Instruction  "  (u  Urform  des  Lehrens  ")  according  to  some 
definite  principle,  he  recognized  the  truth  that  the  problem  of  educa- 
tion cannot  be  fully  solved  by  any  merely  instructional  system  how- 
ever much  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  nature.  He  saw  that  the 
moral  forces  of  the  human  soul,  feeling  and  will,  require  to  be.  dealt 
with  in  a  manner  analogous  to  the  cultivation  of  the  intellectual  facul- 
ties, that  any  merely  instructional  method  is  inadequate  to  the  task, 
and  that  a  training-school  of  another  sort  is  needed  for  the  moral  side 
of  cultivation— one  in  which  the  power  of  moral  action  may  be  ac- 
quired. While  searching  for  some  such  "  psychological  basis  "  to  his 
method  he  exclaimed,  "  I  am  still  as  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the 
wilderness." 

As  a  means  to  this  end  he  requires  an  A  B  C  of  the  science  and  a 
system  of  moral  exercises,  and  he  says :  "  The  culture  of  the  moral 
faculties  rests  on  the  same  organic  laws  which  are  the  foundation  of 
our  intellectual  culture." 

Fichte  (in  his  "  Discourses  ")  insists  on  an  "A  B  C  of  perception," 
which  is  to  precede  Pestalozzi's  "A  B  C  of  observation,"  and  speaks  as 
follows  :  "  The  new  method  must  be  able  to  shape  and  determine  its 
pupil's  course  of  life  according  to  fixed  and  infallible  rules." 


206        GENEHAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

"  There  must  be  a  definite  system  of  rules  by  which  always,  without 
exception,  a  firm  will  may  be  produced." 

The  development  of  children  into  men  and  women  must  be  brought 
under  the  laws  of  a  well-considered  system,  which  shall  never  fail  to 
accomplish  its  end,  viz.,  the  cultivation  in  them  of  a  firm  and  invaria- 
bly right  will. 

This  moral  activity,  which  has  to  be  developed  in  the  pupil,  is  with- 
out doubt  based  on  laws,  which  laws  the  agent  finds  out  for  himself  by 
direct  personal  experience,  and  the  same  holds  good  of  the  voluntary 
development  carried  on  later,  which  cannot  be  fruitful  of  good  results 
unless  based  on  the  fundamental  laws  of  nature. 

Thus  Pestalozzi  and  Fichte— like  all  thinkers  on  the  question  of  edu- 
cation— searched  for  the  laws  of  human  nature,  in  order  to  apply  these 
laws  in  the  cultivation  of  human  nature. 

Frdbel  strove  to  refer  back  all  these  manifold  laws  to  one  funda- 
mental law  which  he  called  the  "  reconciliation  of  opposites  "  (of  rela- 
tive opposites). 

In  order  to  arrive  at  a  clear  and  comprehensive  conception,  where 
there  is  plurality  and  variety,  we  seek  a  point  of  unity,  in  which  all 
the  different  parts  or  laws  may  center, -and  to  which  they  may  be  re- 
ferred. For  the  undeveloped  mind  of  the  child  this  is  an  absolute 
necessity.  The  method,  which  is  to  be  the  rule  of  his  activity,  must 
be  as  simple  and  as  single  as  possible.  This  necessity  will  be  made 
plain  when  we  come  to  the  application  of  Frobel's  theory  in  practice. 

Frobel's  observations  of  the  human  soul  are  in  accord  with  the  gen- 
eral results  of  modern  psychology,  in  spite  of  small  deviations  which 
cannot  be  considered  important.  Science  has  not  by  a  long  way  arrived 
at  final  conclusions  on  this  subject,  and  must,  therefore,  give  its  due 
weight  to  every  reasonable  assumption ;  it  would  be  most  unprofitable 
to  drag  Frobel's  system  into  the  judgment  hall  of  scientific  schools,  in 
order  to  decide  how  far  it  agreed  with  these  schools  or  not.  Its  impor- 
tance lies  for  the  moment  chiefly  in  its  practical  side.  In  order  to  pre- 
serve this  part  of  it  from  becoming  mechanical,  and  to  maintain  its 
vitality,  its  connection  with  the  theoretical  side  must  be  understood 
and  expounded  more  and  more  thoroughly.  With  the  advance  of  sci- 
ence Frobel's  philosophy  of  the  universe  must  in  course  of  time  have 
its  proper  place  assigned  to  it,  and  his  educational  system,  which  is 
grounded  on  his  philosophy,  will  be  brought  into  the  necessary  connec- 
tion with  other  scientific  discoveries. 

The  great  endeavor  of  modern  educationalists  is  to  replace  the  arti- 
ficiality and  restraint  in  which  the  purely  conventional  educational  sys- 
tems of  earlier  times  have  resulted  by  something  more  corresponding 
to  human  nature.  To  this  end  it  was  necessary  to  go  back  to  the 
ground  motives  of  all  education  whatsoever  :  the  laws  of  development 
of  the  human  being.  It  was  nece-sary  at  the  same  time  to  determine 
the  reason  of  educational  measures  in  order  to  elevate  them  into  con- 


GENERAL  IDEAS.—  PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD.         207 

scious,  purposeful  action.  Former  conventional  systems  of  education 
worked  only  unconsciously,  according  to  established  custom,  without 
any  deep  knowledge  of  human  nature  or  fundamental  relation  to  it. 

The  science  of  humanity  was  then  in  its  infancy,  and,  although  it 
has  since  made  great  progress,  the  knowledge  of  child  nature  is  still 
very  meager. 

The  services  rendered  by  Rousseau,  as  the  first  pioneer  of  modern 
educational  theories,  and  the  many  errors  and  eccentricities  mixed  up 
with  his  great  truths,  must  here  be  assumed  to  be  known.* 

Insufficiency  of  Pestalozzi's  Doctrine  of  Form. 

Pestalozzi,  who  carried  on  the  work  in  the  same  track,  fixed  the  ele- 
ments of  his  "  Urform  des  Lehrens  "  in  form,  number,  and  words,  as  the 
fundamental  conditions  of  human  mental  activity,  and  which  can  only 
be  acquired  and  gained  by  observation. 

For  instance,  every  visible  and  every  thinkable  thing  has  a  form 
which  makes  it  what  it  is.  There  are  things  of  like  and  things  of  dif- 
ferent form,  and  there  is  a  plurality  of  things  which  stands  in  opposi- 
tion to  every  single  thing.  Through  the  division  of  things  arises  num- 
ber, and  the  proportions  and  relations  of  things  to  one  another.  In 
order  to  express  these  different  proportions  of  form  and  number,  we 
have  need  of  words. 

Thus  in  these  three  elements  we  have  the  most  primitive  facts  on 
which  thought  is  based.  In  every  form,  every  number,  and  every  word 
there  exist  two  connected  or  united  opposites.  In  every  form,  for  in- 
stance, we  find  the  two  opposites,  beginning  and  end,  right  and  left, 
upper  and  under,  inner  and  outer,  and  so  forth. 

With  regard  to  number,  unity  and  plurality,  as  well  as  odd  and  even 
numbers,  constitute  opposites.  Then  form  and  number  are  in  them- 
selves opposites,  for  form  has  to  do  with  the  whole,  number  with  the 
separate  parts.  But  the  word  by  which  they  are  described  reconciles 
these  opposites  by  comprehending  them  both  in  one  expression. 

Pestalozzi  has  begun  the  work  of  basing  instruction  systematically 
on  the  most  primitive  facts  and  workings  of  the  human  mind.  To 
carry  on  this  work,  and  also  to  find  the  equally  necessary  basis  for 
moral  and  practical  culture,  with  which  must  be  combined  exercises 
for  the  intellectual  powers  before  the  period  allotted  to  instruction,  is 
the  task  that  remains  to  be  accomplished.  Pestalozzi's  plan  and  prac- 
tical methods  are  not  altogether  sufficient  for  the  first  years  of  life. 

It  is  a  false  use  of  language  which  separates  education  from  instruc- 
tion. The  word  education,  in  its  full  meaning  of  human  culture,  as  a 
whole,  includes  instruction  as  a  part,  and  comprises  in  itself  mental, 
moral,  and  physical  development ;  but  in  its  narrower  use  it  signifies, 
more  especially,  moral  culture. 

*An  elaborate  exposition  of  Rousseau's  system,  principles  and  methods  will  be  found 
in  Barnard's  Journal  of  Education,  v.  pp.  459-486;  also  in  Barnard's  French  Pedagogy 


208  GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  instruction  has  been  so  much  more  consid- 
ered and  systematized  than  the  moral  side  of  education  is,  undoubt- 
edly, that  the  former  is  in  the  hands  of  educational  and  school  author- 
ities who  possess  the  mental  training  and  capacity  necessary  for  their 
vocation.  No  one  is  allowed  to  be  a  professional  teacher  who  has  not 
proved  himself  to  possess  a  certain  degree  of  proficiency  for  the  task. 
Moral  education,  on  the  other  hand,  falls  to  the  supervision  of  the  fam- 
ily, as  the  first  and  natural  guardians  of  its  children,  and  here  neither 
the  father  nor  the  mother,  nor  any  of  the  other  sharers  in  the  work, 
are  really  fitted  for  it ;  not  one  of  them  has  received  a  special  prepara- 
tion, and  it  depends  entirely  upon  the  higher  or  lower  degree  of  general 
culture  of  the  parents,  and  their  natural  capacity  or  non-capacity  for 
their  educational  calling,  how  far  the  moral  culture  of  the  children 
will  extend. 

But  over  and  above  the  preparatory  training  of  parents  and  other 
natural  guardians — which  was  already  insisted  on  and  striven  after  by 
Pestalozzi — moral  education  will  only  then  be  placed  on  a  par  with 
intellectual  instruction  when  a  real  foundation  has  been  given  to  it  by 
the  application  of  a  fixed  system  of  rules,  such  a  foundation  as  the 
laws  of  thought  afford  for  instruction. 

The  human  soul  is  one,  all  its  powers  and  functions  have  a  like  aim, 
and,  therefore,  feeling  and  willing — as  factors  of  moral  life — cannot  be 
developed  in  any  other  way  than  thought.  The  parts  which  make  up 
the  whole  of  education  must  be  subject  to  the  same  laws  as  the  whole, 
and  conversely  the  whole  must  be  developed  in  like  manner  as  the  parts. 

The  moral  world  is  concerned  with  two  aspects  of  things — the  good 
and  the  beautiful — while  the  understanding  has  the  discovery  of  truth 
for  its  object. 

Both  the  good  and  the  beautiful  have  their  roots  in  the  heart  or  the 
feelings,  and  belong  thus  to  the  inner  part  of  man — to  his  spiritual 
world.  The  power  and  habit  of  feeling  rightly  and  beautifully  consti- 
tute moral  inclination,  which  influences  the  will,  but  does  not  yet  nec- 
essarily lead  it  to  action. 

In  its  connection  with  the  outer  world  morality  appears  in  the  form 
of  action.  Through  action,  or  the  carrying  out  of  the  good  that  is 
willed,  the  character  is  formed.  The  practice  of  the  beautiful,  on  the 
other  hand,  leads  to  art  and  artistic  creation. 

Thus  education,  in  its  essentially  moral  aspect,  has  to  do  with  the 
cultivation  of  the  feelings  and  the  will.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that 
the  element  of  instruction  cannot  be  altogether  dispensed  with,  even 
in  this  department,  any  more  than  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect  can 
be  carried  on  without  a  certain  amount  of  moral  development.  In 
earliest  childhood  the  three  different  natures  of  the  human  being  are 
fused  in  one  and  must  be  dealt  with  accordingly. 

The  good  and  the  beautiful,  like  all  other  qualities,  are  known 
through  their  opposites.  Only  by  contrast  with  the  not  good,  or  bad, 


GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD.  209 

the  not  beautiful,  or  ugly,  are  the  good  and  the  beautiful  apprehended 
by  our  consciousness. 

As  mental  conceptions,  the  good  and  the  bad,  the  beautiful  and  the 
ugly,  the  true  and  the  untrue,  are  irreconcilable  (absolute)  opposites. 
Pure  thought,  however,  has  to  deal  with  the  absolute.  In  all  the  man- 
ifestations of  the  actual  world  everything  that  exists  is  only  relatively 
good  and  bad,  ugly  and  beautiful,  true  and  untrue ;  all  opposites  exist 
here  only  relatively.  No  human  being  is  perfectly  good  or  perfectly 
bad,  just  as  nobody  is  completely  developed  or  completely  undeveloped. 
So,  too,  no  work  of  art  is  in  an  absolute  sense  perfectly  beautiful,  or 
perfectly  ugly  —  whether  as  a  whole  or  in  its  parts. 

As,  therefore,  in  all  and  everything  belonging  to  the  human  world 
opposites  are  found  existing  together,  so,  also,  do  they  pass  over  into 
one  another  and  are  "reconciled."  Thus  everything  is  connected 
together,  and  constitutes  an  immense  chain  of  different  members. 

We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  already  in  the  actual  world  all  opposites 
are  reconciled,  all  discords  solved,  and  the  great  world-harmony  com- 
plete; but  it  is  going  on  to  completion.  This  is  the  aim  and  end  of  all 
movements,  all  life,  and  all  endeavor,  and  an  end  which  is  only  fully 
attainable  to  human  beings  by  the  cessation  of  all  self-seeking  (as  in 
Christ),  the  absorption  of  all  individuals  into  humanity;  and  this  by 
means  of  the  highest  individual  development  and  self -existence ;  not 
by  transforming  the  individual  into  the  universal. 

In  the  most  fundamental  bases  of  good  and  evil  we  find  again  two 
new  opposites. 

In  whatever  form  evil  manifests  itself,  it  is  always  at  bottom  self- 
seeking  of  some  sort;  or  else  it  is  error  or  madness.  Ambition,  pride, 
avarice,  envy,  dishonesty,  murder,  hatred,  etc.,  may  always  be  traced 
back  to  self-seeking,  even  though  it  be  disguised  in  the  form  of  extrav- 
agant affection  for  others,  or  for  one  other.  So,  too,  what  we  call  dia- 
bolical is,  in  reality,  self -seeking. 

And  whatever  shape  good  may  take  it  must  be  essentially  the  expres-       ]y 
sion  of  love  to  others.     A  solitary  individual  in  no  way  connected  with 
fellow-creatures  would  have  as  little  opportunity  for  good  as  for  evil. 

All  the  impulses  and  passions  of  a  human  being  have  for  their  object 
the  procurance  of  personal  happiness  and  well-being  and  the  avoidance 
of  personal  annoyance.  And  as  long  as  the  happiness  and  well-being 
of  others  is  not  disturbed,  nor  the  individual  himself  injured,  there  is 
nothing  to  be  said.  The  conflict  between  good  and  evil  begins  when  // 
the  happiness  of  an  individual  is  procured  at  the  cost  of  others  or  of 
the  community. 

True  goodness  consists,  with  rare  exceptions,  in  preferring  the  wel- 
fare of  the  many  or  of  the  whole  of  human  society,  to  personal,  ego- 
tistical advantage ;  in  striving  after  an  ideal  which,  without  self-sacri- 
ficing love,  would  be  unthinkable.  Love  towards  God,  moreover,  com- 
pels love  towards  mankind.  14 


210  GENERAL  IDE  AS. -PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

The  moral  battle-field  is  always  between  the  two  extremities  of  per- 
sonal and  universal  interest,  and  the  reconciliation  of  the  two  is  the 
result  aimed  at.  There  also  where  the  battle  goes  on  in  the  inner 
world  of  the  human  soul  it  is  a  question  of  personal  against  general 
interest,  or  of  the  opposition  between  the  sensual  and  the  spiritual  nat- 
ures of  the  individual.  The  object  of  man's  earthly  existence  is  to 
reconcile  the  rights  of  personality,  self-preservation  and  independence 
with  the  duties  of  necessary  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  to  society.  The 
personal  services  rendered  to  the  whole,  in  any  circle  of  life,  determine 
the  worth  of  the  individual  to  society,  and  moral  greatness  consists  in 
the  love  which,  going  out  beyond  the  personal,  seeks  to  embrace  the 
whole  of  God's  world — and  therewith  God  himself.  For  God  has 
herein  placed  the  destiny  of  man,  viz.,  to  expand  from  the  circle  of  in- 
dividual existence,  through  all  intermediate  circles,  to  the  great  circle 
of  humanity. 

In  the  world  of  the  beautiful  we  meet  with  the  same  law,  viz.,  "  the 
reconciliation  of  opposites." 

What  do  we  mean  by  the  beautiful?  That  which  is  harmonious  or 
rhythmical.  Harmony  is  the  co-operation  of  all  the  parts  of  a  whole 
towards  the  object  of  the  whole.  If  the  innermost  nature  of  beauty 
baffles  our  attempts  at  full  definition,  harmony  is,  nevertheless,  its  fun- 
damental condition. 

But  a  necessary  condition  of  harmony  is  the  balance  of  parts  tending 
in  opposite  directions. 

Beauty  of  form  (plastic  art)  depends  on  the  opposites,  height  and 
breadth,  for  instance,  being  rightly  proportioned  or  balanced ;  on  the 
contracting  horizontal  and  perpendicular  lines  being  kept  in  balance 
by  their  connecting  lines.  In  the  circle  we  have  the  perfect  balance  of 
all  opposite  parts,  and  the  circular  line  is,  therefore,  the  line  of  beauty. 
In  architecture  the  triangle  is  the  fundamental  shape — that  is  to  say, 
two  lines  starting  from  one  point  and  running  in  opposite  directions 
are  connected  together  by  a  third  line.  And  so  forth. 

Beauty  in  the  world  of  color  is  the  harmonious  blending  together  of 
the  opposites,  light  and  shade,  by  means  of  the  scale  of  color — this  at 
least  is  the  primary  condition.  The  mixing  of  colors,  too,  consists  in 
the  right  fusion  of  the  elementary  colors — red,  blue,  yellow,  which  in 
themselves  form  opposites. 

In  the  world  of  sound  beauty  is  in  like  manner  conditioned  by  the 
harmony  of  single  tones  amongst  each  other.  The  basis  of  musical  har- 
mony is  the  simple  chord,  i.  e.,  the  opposites,  which  the  key-note  and 
the  fifth  constitute,  are  reconciled  by  the  third. 

In  poetry  rhythm  is  obtained  by  the  regular  connection  of  long  and 
short  syllables.  And  so  forth. 

The  ugly,  the  imperfect,  in  all  arts,  is  on  the  other  hand  the  inhar- 
monious— or  the  result  of  want  of  proportion  and  correspondence  in 
opposites — or  the  absence  of  transitions  to  connect  them  together. 


GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD.        211 

And  we  come  again  across  these  same  laws,  which  we  have  summed 
up  as  the  basis  of  thought,  in  the  moral  world  also,  as  well  in  that  side 
of  it  which  is  known  as  "  the  good  "  (ethics),  as  in  that  which  is  called 
"the  beautiful"  (esthetics). 

Law  of  Balance — Universal  and  Beneficial. 

Whether  this  universal  principle  {Welt  gesetz — world  law,  as  Frobel 
calls  it)  be  formulated  as  "  the  reconciliation  of  opposites  "  or  in  any 
other  way,  is  here,  as  has  been  already  said,  of  little  importance.  The 
most  comprehensive  formula  would  perhaps  be  law  of  balance. 

Science  expresses  itself  very  differently  in  this  matter.  Newton  calls 
the  law  in  question  the  "  law  of  gravitation  "  (the  connection  of  attrac- 
tion and  repulsion).  Naturalists  designate  it  as  the  law  of  "  universal 
exchange  of  matter  "  (giving  out  and  taking  in,  connected  by  assimu- 
lation),  etc. 

This  law,  in  which  Frobel  sees  the  foundation  of  all  development, 
and,  therefore,  also  of  human  development — it  is  his  desire  to  establish 
and  apply  as  the  "  universal  law  of  education."  It  is  with  the  applica- 
tion of  the  law,  which  will  be  demonstrated  in  the  practices  of  his 
Kindergarten  method,  that  we  are  chiefly  concerned  here,  but  in  order 
to  a  clear  understanding  of  this  the  foregoing  introduction  was  indis- 
pensable. Not  till  one  all-prevading  principle  of  development,  which 
shall  comprise  in  itself  every  variety  of  law,  has  been  discovered  and 
applied  to  practical  education  in  its  minutest  detail  will  there  be  any- 
thing approaching  to  a  veritable  and  complete  method.  It  remains, 
therefore,  now  to  prove  that  this  principle  of  Frobel's  is  identical  in 
the  spiritual  and  material  \vorld,  and,  if  this  be  established,  the  con- 
nection or  unity  of  all  law  will  follow  of  itself. 

Frobel  has  over  and  over  again  told  us  how  deeply  his  whole  develop- 
ment was  influenced  by  the  fact  that  from  his  earliest  childhood  he  was 
out  of  harmony  with  his  immediate  surroundings.  The  early  death  of 
his  mother,  the  unloving  treatment  of  his  step-mother,  and  the  small 
amount  of  attention  and  sympathy  bestowed  on  him  by  his  father, 
partly  owing  to  the  professional  duties  of  the  latter,  which  left  him 
little  time,  and  partly  to  an  uncommunicative  and  somewhat  stem  nat- 
ure, deprived  the  child  of  fostering  love  in  the  morning  of  his  life,  and 
initiated  him  early  into  the  sorrows  of  existence. 

Frobel's  Personal  Experience. 

The  yearning  of  his  soul  for  love,  the  thirst  of  his  mind  for  knowl- 
edge, were  never  really  satisfied,  and  he  was  forever  finding  himself 
driven  back  anew  on  the  inmost  depths  of  his  nature,  left  to  stand  by 
himself  alone.  Up  to  the  years  of  early  manhood  the  gulf  between  his 
outer  surroundings  and  his  inner  world  became  greater  and  greater, 
and  his  young  spirit  suffered  deeply  in  consequence.  The  pain  that  he 
experienced  incited  him  to  search  out  the  cause  of  it,  and  this  he  found 
in  the  sharp  contrast  that  existed  between  his  inner  and  his  outer  world. 


212        GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

This  discovery  of  "  opposites,"  this  want  of  the  concord  and  harmony 
that  his  whole  soul  was  unconsciously  yearning  after,  forms  the  first 
great  and  lasting  impression  of  his  life.  The  feelings  which  met  with 
no  response  in  the  world  of  humanity,  all  the  warmth  and  ardor  of  his 
soul,  now  turned  to  the  world  of  nature.  In  the  contemplation  of  this 
world,  in  devotion  to  its  invisible  spirit,  in  which  he  soon  learned  to 
recognize  the  Divine  Spirit,  he  found  the  consolation,  and  also  in  part 
the  instruction  which  had  been  denied  him  by  his  human  surroundings. 

Already  as  a  boy  he  would  lose  himself  in  profound  meditation  on 
the  laws  of  the  universe,  on  the  cause  of  organic  life  in  nature. 

"  From  star-shaped  blossoms,"  he  says,  "  I  first  learned  to  understand 
the  law  of  all  formation,  and  it  is  no  other  than  the  '  reconciliation  of 
opposites.' " 

For  instance  :  Each  of  the  petals  which  form  the  corolla  round  the 
calyx  of  the  flower  has  another  petal  opposite  it,  and  between  these  op- 
posite petals  there  are  others  which  connect  them  together. 

"  A  humble  little  flower  taught  me  dimly  to  suspect  the  secrets  of 
existence,  the  mysterious  laws  of  development,  which  I  afterwards 
learned  clearly,"  so  writes  Frb'bel. 

Continuing  his  observations,  he  perceived  that  every  single  petal  is 
in  itself  a  whole  leaf,  or  a  whole,  but  at  the  same  time  only  a  part  of 
the  whole  of  the  floral  star.  Thus  a  whole  and  a  part  at  the  same  time, 
or  a  glied  gauzes,  as  Frb'bel  expresses  it.  Then  again,  the  flower  is  a 
whole  'in  itself,  but  also  only  a  part  of  the  whole  plant.  The  plant  is 
a  whole,  and  at  the  same  time  a  part  of  the  plant  family  to  which  it  be- 
longs, and  this  again  is  a  part  of  the  genus.  In  such  manner  did  the 
child  Frobel  perceive  the  membership  in  all  natural  objects,  and  he  re- 
marked at  the  same  time  how  one  part  is  always  sub-related  or  super- 
related  or  co-related  to  another ;  the  flower  is  super-related  to  the  root, 
the  root  is  sub-related  to  the  flower,  the  petals  are  co-related  to  each  other. 

These  divisions  into  members,  which  are  found  in  all  organic  and 
systematic  formations,  are  now  taught  to  children  at  school  by  means 
of  boots;  it  is  a  question,  however,  whether  in  this  way  they  can  grasp 
them  as  easily  and  understand  them  as  clearly  as  did  the  child  Frb'bel, 
through  his  own  observation.  The  first  apprehension  of  things  comes 
long  before  school  instruction,  and  what  is  taught  with  words  must  be 
based  on  that  which  has  been  taken  in  through  the  senses.  If  this  first 
apprehension  through  observation  is  wanting,  the  foundation  for  the 
understanding  of  what  is  taught  will  also  be  wanting, 

In  the  progressive  course  of  his  childish  observations,  Frobel  further 
remarked  that  it  is  not  only  in  individual  organisms  that  the  different 
parts,  by  means  of  connecting  transitions  (or  the  reconciliation  of  oppo- 
sites) make  up  the  harmony  of  the  whole,  but  that  also  between  all  and 
the  most  different  organisms  there  are  everywhere  to  be  found  like 
joints  of  transition,  which  connect  together  the  most  opposite  things 
by  a  series  of  intermediate  points  growing  more  and  more  similar. 


GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD.  2  1  '4 

Thus  through  a  countless  series  of  intermediate  plants  he  saw  grasses 
connected  with  trees.  The  connection  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  be- 
came apparent  to  him  through  the  fact  that  all  plants,  how  great  soever 
their  differences,  have  something  in  common ;  all  have  roots,  stems, 
leaves,  crowns,  stamens,  etc.,  the  characteristics  of  the  vegetable  world- 
Thus  unity  in  spite  of  infinite  variety. 

But  it  was  not  in  the  vegetable  world  alone  that  organic  life  mani- 
fested itself  to  him  as  the  result  of  systematic  working,  of  division  into 
parts,  of  a  series  of  events,  of  sub  and  super  ordination,  of  connection 
through  transitions,  ^of  variety  in  similarity,  in  short,  of  harmony  and 
concord  accomplished  through  the  reconciliation  of  opposites  ;  he  saw 
the  self-same  truth  pervading  other  kingdoms  of  nature.  In  the  organ- 
ism of  animal  bodies,  indeed,  in  the  whole  animal  kingdom,  he  found 
his  law  at  work  again. 

As  the  sap  of  plants  ascends  and  descends  from  the  root  to  the  crown, 
and  conversely,  and  through  this  movement  connects  together  the  op- 
posite forces,  expansion  and  contraction  through  which  the  leaf-buds 
are  formed  in  the  stem,  so  is  the  circulation  of  blood  in  the  animal 
body.  The^  blood  streams  out  from  the  heart,  and  back  to  it  again  by 
opposite  movements;  the  lungs  expand  and  contract  together  in  the 
process  of  breathing,  etc.  As  the  corresponding  petals  of  a  flower 
stand  opposite  one  another,  so  do  the  limbs  of  animal  bodies ;  the  cor- 
responding feet,  hands,  ears,  or  eyes,  are  placed  opposite  to  one  another. 
Frbbel  calls  this  entflegengesetztgleiche  (like  things  set  opposite  to  each 
other),  and  he  finds  analogous  occurrences  in  the  spiritual  world. 

And  further,  he  perceives  that  not  only  throughout  each  of  the  three 
kingdoms  of  nature — the  inorganic  mineral  kingdom  not  excepted — 
there  exist  common  characteristics  by  which  the  members  of  the  sep- 
arate kingdoms  are  united,  but  that  these  three  kingdoms,  taken  as 
wholes,  have  points  of  similarity  through  which  they  pass  over  into  one 
another,  and  are  connected  together.  He  saw  that  the  vegetable  world 
is  fed  by  the  mineral  world,  which  is  contained  both  in  the  bosom  of 
the  earth  and  in  the  atmosphere  ;  that  the  vegetable  and  mineral  worlds 
together  feed  the  animal  world,  which  also  feeds  upon  itself ;  and  that 
man,  by  the  food  he  eats,  by  the  air  he  breathes  in,  etc.,  lives  on  all  the 
three  kingdoms  of  nature,  and  is  thus  united  and  connected  with  them. 

Here,  too,  in  the  chemical  process  of  fusion,  which  is  known  as  "  inter- 
change of  matter,"  he  found  his  favorite  law  again.  For  this  process  of 
interchange  goes  on  as  follows  :  —Every  organism  takes  or  sucks  in 
nourishment,  air,  etc.,  and  then  gives  out  again  part  of  what  it  has 
taken  in.  Here,  therefore,  we  have  the  opposites,  taking  in  and  giving 
out.  The  reconciliation  of  these  opposites  is  accomplished  by  appro- 
priation or  assimulation,  for  every  organic  body  converts  a  portion  of 
what  it  has  taken  in  in  the  shape  of  food,  air  etc.,  into  flesh  and 
blood ;  and  thus  there  is  a  constant  mutual  exchange  of  substance  go- 
ing on  between  all  organisms.  And  this  process  of  exchange,  by  which 


214  GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

everything  that  exists  is  connected  together  organically  and  materially, 
is  not  thinkable  without  the  adjusting  of  opposites,  or,  as  Frobel  calls 
it,  "  the  reconciliation  of  opposites." 

But  this  was  not  all.  Besides  the  continuous  connection,  the  unity 
which  he  discovered  to  exist  in  everything  on  earth,  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest,  from  the  nearest  object  to  the  most  distant,  the  same  truth 
was  borne  in  upon  him  concerning  the  solar  system.  There  was  not 
the  tiniest  herb  on  earth  that  did  not  drink  in  and  feed  on  the  sunlight. 
Without  the  continuous  action  of  the  sun's  rays  on  all  that  exists  on 
earth,  all  life  must  perish  ;  the  earth  would  be  a  dead  body  without  the 
light  and  warmth  of  the  sun.  And  as  everything  on  our  earth  is  kept 
alive  by  the  action  of  the  sun,  so  is  it  with  all  the  heavenly  bodies  on 
which  the  sun  shines,  every  single  planet  of  our  solar  system. 

And  further  still,  our  solar  system  itself  is  not  isolated,  alone  and  un- 
connected with  the  other  solar  systems  of  the  universe.  Arguing  from 
the  known  (or  that  which  was  nearest  to  him)  to  the  unknown  (or 
that  which  was  furthest),  from  the  visible  to  the  invisible,  Frobel  con- 
cluded that  the  law  of  membership,  which  he  had  found  to  exist  in  the 
least  as  well  as  the  greatest  organisms,  and  in  all  organisms  on  the  earth, 
must  in  a  like  or  analogous  manner  pervade  the  whole  universe. 

The  works  of  a  Creator  must  be  in  connection  one  with  another,  and 
all,  without  exception,  bear  the  stamp  of  their  Creator.  Not  necessarily 
in  exactly  the  same  degree,  but  in  gradations  from  lowest  to  highest, 
and  not  in  outward  appearance  either,  but  by  one  and  the  same  system 
of  law,  according  to  which  each  and  all  are  developed,  must  this  stamp 
of  God  show  itself. 

"  There  is  but  one  fundamental  law  of  the  universe  out  of  which  all 
other  laws  in  the  world  of  outward  phenomena  spring."  Thus  did  A. 
von  Humboldt  also  express  the  truth  which  is  the  fundamental  thought 
on  which  Frobel's  method  of  observation  rests.* 

Frobel  has  certainly  about  as  good  a  right  to  argue  from  the  visible 
and  known  things  of  earth  to  the  invisible  unknown  things  of  the 
universe,  as  has  the  naturalist  from  a  given  vertebrae  to  undertake  to 
construct  the  whole  organism  of  an  animal.  In  a  letter  to  his  elder 
brother,!  written  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  Frobel  sketches  out  a  plan 
for  his  future  life.  A  passage  in  this  letter,  alluding  to  his  childhood 
and  early  youth,  plainly  shows  how  from  his  childhood  up  he  busied 
himself  with  the  attempt  to  reconcile  the  workings  of  nature  with  his 
own  inner  world,  and  to  find  the  points  of  unity  between  the  two.  To 
understand  the  connection  of  all  phenomena  of  the  outward  world,  and 
the  way  in  which  these  harmonized  with  the  spiritual  world,  was  his 
constant  endeavor. 

Speaking  of  things  in    Nature,  he  says  : — "  I  felt  that   something 

*  Frobel  searched  after  and  discovered  the  "unity  of  all  development,"  a  theory 
which  is  universally  occupying  modern  scientific  enquiry. 
t  In  vol.  I.  of  "Frobel's  Schriften,"  edited  by  W.  Lange. 


GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD.  215 

simple  informed  them  all,  that  they  all  had  their  origin  from  something 
which  was  one,  the  same,  identical ;  that  they  must  all  unite  together 
in  some  one  point ;  for  they  all  existed  collectively  in  Nature !  My  own 
inner  world  was  inspired  by  one  thought,  one  idea — the  suspicion  of 
something  higher  in  man  than  humanity,  of  a  higher  end  than  this  life. 
By  means  of  this  continual  searching  and  finding  in  the  depths  of  my 
inner  being,  this  constant  going  down  into  self,  I  soon  discovered  that 
a  better  knowledge  of  myself  helped  me  better  to  understand  the  outer 
world.  I  was  driven  to  explore  my  little  inner  world,  that  through  it  I 
might  learn  to  know  the  great  outer  world  surrounding  me.  I  learned 
from  the  teacher  experience,  without  suspecting,  without  even  knowing 
clearly,  what  I  was  learning.  In  this  way  I  arrived  at  an  ideal  knowl- 
edge of  myself,  of  the  world,  and  of  humanity,  such  as  few  men  possess 
in  youth.  For  every  fresh  discovery  that  I  made  in  the  outward  world 
I  felt  always  compelled  to  find  a  corresponding  point  in  myself,  to  which 
I  could  fasten  it,"  etc. 

Frobel  was  then  seeking  for  what  he  later  designated  by  the  expres- 
sion Lebenseinigung  (unity  of  life).  In  the  life  of  the  human  soul  he 
saw  a  repetition  of  the  continual  adjustment  of  opposites,  which  went 
on  in  the  life  of  nature.  As  the  opposites  of  day  and  night  were  con- 
nected by  twilight,  of  summer  and  winter  by  spring  and  autumn,  so  in 
the  human  soul  do  the  day  and  night  of  conscious  and  unconscious  life, 
the  light  and  darkness  of  good  and  evil,  alternate  with  one  another. 
So,  too,  activity  and  rest,  happiness  and  sorrow,  etc. 

As  the  buds  which  burst  open  in  the  spring  have  developed  out  of  the 
invisible  germ  hidden  under  the  hard  crust  of  winter,  so  do  the  oppo- 
sites, life  and  death,  alternate.  And  these  are  only  seemingly  irrecon- 
cilable opposites.  All  earthly  life  contains  within  itself  the  germ  of 
death  (of  future  change),  all  death  carries  new  life  within  it.  "  How 
can  any  one,"  Frobel  exclaims,  "  believe  in  real  death,  in  annihilation  ? 
Nothing  dies  ;  everything  only  becomes  changed  in  order  to  pass  into  a 
new  and  higher  life.  This  is  true  of  every  little  herb,  for  its  essential 
inherent  qualities  are  indestructible.  Everything  retains  in  each  of  its 
parts  the  individual  character  assigned  to  it,  i.  e.,  its  essence,  to  all 
eternity.  How,  then,  should  the  most  marked  characteristic  of  a  human 
being,  the  consciousness  of  his  own  individual  personality,  be  lost,  even 
though  he  should  pass  through  millions  of  new  existences?  What  you 
people  call  death  is  nowhere  to  be  found  in  creation,  but  only  expan- 
sion, life  ascending  higher  and  higher,  always  nearer  to  God.  If  you 
only  knew  how  to  read  the  book  of  nature  rightly  you  would  find  every- 
where in  it  the  confirmation  of  the  revelation  of  the  soul's  immortality. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  nature  there  is  nothing  but  continually 
repeated  resurrection  !  .  .  .  The  universal  and  the  individual  are 
opposites,  which  presuppose  one  another.  Without  individual  human 
beings  there  would  be  no  humanity,  and  without  humanity  there  would 
be  no  individuals.  The  race  only  continues  because  the  personal  units 


216        GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

continue.  Humanity  comprises  not  only  mankind  of  to-day,  but  man- 
kind of  the  past  and  of  the  future ;  all  the  human  beings  that  have  ever 
existed  on  earth  make  up  humanity,  and  humanity  presupposes  con- 
scious existence,  both  general  and  personal." 

The  above  quotations  from  Frbbel's  own  words  will  be  sufficient  proof 
that  his  theory  of  the  unity  of  life  (Lebenseinigung)  did  not,  as  has  been 
asserted,  rest  on  a  pantheistic  conception  of  the  universe.  The  im- 
mense unbroken  whole  of  the  universe  comprises,  according  to  him, 
God,  nature,  and  man,  as  an  inseparably  connected  whole,  though  not 
as  finished  and  at  rest,  but  on  the  contrary,  in  a  state  of  eternal  "be- 
coming " — of  having  become  and  being  about  to  become,  at  the  same 
time.  He  had  always  in  view  the  progressive  development  of  all  things 
— that  is  to  say,  the  continual  movement  of  forces ;  he  saw  nowhere 
repose — or  at  any  rate  only  passing  repose — never  lasting  completion, 
for  every  apparently  finished  form  of  development  was  always  succeeded 
by  a  new  one. 

In  his  "  Menschen-Erziehung  "  (Human  Education),  he  says,  for  in- 
stance :  "  The  theory  which  regards  development  as  capable  of  standing 
still  and  being  finished,  or  only  repeating  itself  in  greater  universality, 

is,  beyond  all  expression,  a  degrading  one,  etc Neither  man  nor 

mankind  should  be  regarded  as  an  already  finished,  perfected,  stereo- 
typed being ;  but  as  everlastingly  growing,  developing,  living ;  moving 

onwards  to  the  goal  which  is  hidden  in  eternity Man,  although 

in  the  closest  connection  with  God  and  nature,  stands,  nevertheless,  as 
a  person  in  the  relation  of  an  opposite  to  nature  (or  plurality)  and  to 
God  (or  unity).  (Nature  and  God  are  opposites  in  their  character  of 
plurality  and  unity.)  Man  (as  humanity)  is  the  representative  of  the  law 
of  reconciliation,  for  he  stands  in  the  universe  as  the  connecting  link 
between  God  and  creation."  (For  unconscious  existence  and  absolute 
conscious  existence  are  connected  by  personal,  or  limited  conscious 
existence.) 

"  As  the  branch  is  a  member  of  the  tree,  and  at  the  same  time  a 
whole,  so  is  the  individual  man  a  member  of  humanity,  and  therefore 
a  member  of  a  whole.  But  each  one  is  a  member  in  an  entirely  special 
individual,  personal  manner ;  the  destiny  of  humanity — that  is  *  to  be  a 
child  of  God  ' — manifests  itself  differently  in  each  individual. 

"One  and  the  same  law  rules  throughout  everything,  but  expresses 
itself  outwardly  (in  the  physical  world),  and  inwardly  (in  the  spiritual 
world),  in  endless  different  forms." 

"  At  the  bottom  of  this  all-pervading  law  there  must,  of  necessity,  lie 
an  all-working  unity,  conscious  of  its  existence,  and  therefore  existing 
eternally." 

"  This  unity  is  God." 

"  God  manifests  himself  as  life  in  nature,  in  the  universe  ;  as  love  in 
humanity  ;  and  as  light  (wisdom).  He  makes  himself  known  to  the 
soul As  life,  love,  and  light  does  the  nature  of  man  also  mani- 
fest itself. 


GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD.         217 

"  As  the  child  of  nature,  man  is  an  imprisoned,  fettered  being,  with- 
out self-mastery,  under  the  dominion  of  his  passions.  As  the  child  of 
God  he  becomes  a  free  agent,  destined  to  self-mastery,  of  his  own  free 
will  a  hearing,  conforming  spiritual  being.  As  the  child  of  humanity, 
he  is  a  being  struggling  out  of  his  fettered  condition  into  freedom,  out 
of  isolation  into  union,  yearning  for  love  and  existing  to  find  it. 

"  The  unity  in  the  nature  of  all  things  is  the  in-dwelling  spirit  of 
their  Creator,  '  the  mind  of  God '  which  expresses  itself  as  law."  .... 
The  destiny  of  man  as  a  child  of  God  and  of  nature  is  to  represent  the 
being  of  God  and  of  nature  :  as  the  destiny  of  a  child,  as  the  member  of 
a  family,  is  to  represent  the  nature  of  the  family,  its  mental  and 
spiritual  capabilities,  so  the  vocation  of  man,  as  a  member  of  humanity, 
is  to  represent  and  to  cultivate  the  nature,  the  powers,  and  faculties  of 
humanity. 

Frobel  defines  life,  in  whatever  form  it  may  express  itself,  as  progres- 
sive development  from  lower  to  higher  grades,  from  unconscious  exist- 
ence to  a  conscious  existence,  which  ascends  higher  and  higher  till  it 
reaches  the  consciousness  of  God.  But  all  development  is  movement. 
It  ascends  from  beneath  to  above,  from  lesser  to  greater,  from  the  germ 
to  its  completion.  It  is  also,  at  the  same  time,  a  constant  means  of 
reconciliation  of  opposites,  and  itself  a  product  of  that  universal  law, 
which  we  have  just  acknowledged  as  the  law  of  human  thought,  the 
law  of  moral  life,  and  the  law  of  the  physical  or  organic  world.  Move- 
ment, whether  free  or  compulsory  movement,  which  has  an  object,  is 
activity. 

From  which  it  follows  that  the  law  of  the  reconciliation  of  opposites 
is  also  the  law  of  all  activity,  of  all  human  action,  and  all  human 
development  which  is  based  on  activity  and  is  the  result  of  it.  And 
how  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  Human  beings  belong,  on  their  physical  side 
also,  to  nature ;  the  whole  process  of  their  physical  life  is  an  interchange 
with  the  products  of  nature ;  therefore  man,  as  a  physical  being,  is  sub- 
ject to  the  laws  of  nature.  But  the  soul  is  inseparable  from  the  body, 
and  can  only  express  itself  and  act  through  the  bodily  organs.  It  fol- 
lows, therefore  that  the  soul  cannot  be  subject  to  conditions  opposed  to 
the  bodily  ones,  but  must  obey  laws  analogous  to  those  which  govern 
the  other  organisms  of  the  universe,  though  of  a  higher  order  than  the 
laws  of  unconscious  life. 

Every  utterance  or  manifestation  of  the  human  spirit  necessitates 
action  of  the  senses  ;  and  we  know  that  such  action  is  based  on  law, 
and,  moreover,  on  the  same  law  which  governs  all  action  in  the 
universe :  the  reconciliation,  connection,  or  adjustment  of  opposites. 

If,  then,  the  full  development  of  human  nature  rests  on  this  universal 
law  of  activity  there  can  be  no  other  rule  for  the  guidance  of  this 
development  in  childhood  and  youth,  or,  in  one  word,  for  education. 
Nature  follows  this  law  in  her  dealings  with  children,  and  if  education 
is  to  be  in  accordance  with  nature  it  must  do  the  same  ;  and  then  only 


218       GENERAL  IDEAS.— PECULIARITIES  OF  METHOD. 

when  this  fundamental  principle  is  recognized  and  followed,  and  applied 
in  the  development  of  human  nature,  with  full  understanding  of  its  aim 
and  object,  will  education  be  raised  to  the  level  of  art  or  science. 

Frbbel  is  the  first  person  who  has  hitherto  fully  recognized  this  prin- 
ciple and  rendered  its  application  possible,  and  his  educational  method 
is  nothing  more  or  less  than  constant  obedience  to  it  at  every  stage  of 
the  pupil's  development  Which  means  to  say  that  all  the  free  spon- 
taneous activity  of  children  is  systematically  regulated  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  whole  natural  world  unconsciously  is,  and  as  the  world 
of  human  nature  would  always  be  also  were  it  not  for  the  disturbing 
element  of  consciousness  which  awakens  the  personal  will,  and  incites 
it  to  arbitrary  action  (i.  <?.,  free  choice  without  regard  to  right  or  wrong), 
thus  coming  in  contact  with  the  laws  of  nature  and  hindering  the 
direct  accomplishment  of  her  purpose. 

But  there  can  be  no  real  freedom  in  human  action,  unless  it  follows 
in  the  path,  recognizes  the  limits,  and  subjects  itself  to  the  necessity  of 
Law.  The  treatment  of  matter,  substances,  the  physical  in  short, 
which  is  the  point  of  departure  of  all  human  thought  and  action,  can 
only  accomplish  the  desired  end  when  it  is  carried  on  according  to 
systematic  rules.  Arbitrary  capricious  action  never  reaches  its  end,  or 
only  by  accident. 

•  Thus,  then,  Frobel's  system  consists  in  regulating  the  natural  spon- 
taneous activity  of  the  child  according  to  its  own  inherent  law,  in  order 
that  the  purpose  of  nature,  the  complete  development  of  all  the  natural 
faculties,  may  be  fulfilled. 

This  system  aims  at  teaching  the  child  from  the  beginning  of  its 
existence  to  apply  for  itself  the  universal  principle  which  we  have  been 
considering. 

The  order  of  the  children's  performances  is  so  planned,  that  the 
application  of  this  principle  becomes  continually  wider,  and  by  this 
means  there  is  gradually  awakened  in  the  children  the  consciousness 
that  all  systematic  working  is  based  on  it. 

The  above  indications  will,  we  hope,  be  sufficient,  so  far,  to  explain 
Frobel's  theory  of  the  universe  as  is  necessary  to  show  its  connection 
with  his  system  of  education.  ,A  full  exposition  of  his  philosophy  is 
not  contemplated  here. 

A  true  understanding  of  these  generalities  can  only  be  arrived  at 
through  their  practical  application,  and  the  knowledge  of  their  results. 
And  conversely  the  practical  application  only  gains  meaning  through 
knowledge  of  the  fundamental  idea. 

The  reason  why  Frb'bel  was  so  much  condemned  and  run  down,  and 
even  derided,  during  his  lifetime,  is  that  his  ideas,  owing  to  their 
novelty  and  apparent  opposition  to  old-established  methods,  met,  of 
necessity,  with  little  comprehension. 

Frobel's  philosophy  and  educational  theories  have  certainly  their 
"  mystic  "  side,  inasmuch  as  they  are  not  at  once  apprehensible  to  every 
one,  and  in  their  entire  scope. 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS.  219 


VI.    THE    KINDERGARTEN. 

FREDERIC  FROEBEL  has  succeeded  in  realizing  what  the  educational 
geniuses  who  preceded  him  only  strove  after.  But  he  has  done  more 
than  simply  embody  their  ideas  in  reality — whereas  they  concerned 
themselves  only  with  methods  of  instruction,  he  has  given  to  the  world 
a  true  and  complete  method  of  education. 

Frb'bel  gives  to  children  experience  instead  of  instruction,  he  puts 
action  in  the  place  of  abstract  learning.  In  the  Kindergarten  the  child 
finds  itself  surrounded  by  a  miniature  world  adapted  to  its  require- 
ments at  different  stages  of  growth,  and  through  action  in  which  it  can 
develop  itself  according  to  the  laws  of  its  nature. 

Let  us  first  glance  at  the  Kindergarten  from  outside,  as  it  strikes  the 
eye  of  the  casual  looker  on,  before  we  proceed  to  a  comprehensive  sum- 
mary of  Frobel's  educational  system  as  a  whole. 

The  pleasant  sound  of  children's  voices  singing  falls  on  the  ear  of 
the  visitor  as  he  enters  the  Kindergarten,  and  in  an  open-air  space 
shaded  with  trees  (or  in  a  large  heated  room  in  winter)  he  sees  a  ring 
of  little  children  from  two  to  four  or  five  years  old,  led  by  the  Kinder- 
garten teacher,  and  moving  in  rhythmic  measures  round  one  of  their 
little  comrades  who  is  going  through  an  energetic  course  of  gymnastic 
exercises,  which  the  others  imitate  :  after  a  time  the  young  instructor 
is  relieved  by  another  of  the  children,  and  so  on.  To  the  gymnastic 
exercises  succeed  other  (Bewegungxapiisle)  movement  games  representing 
incidents  of  husbandry  and  harvesting;  or  the  way  in  which  birds 
build  their  nests  in  woods,  fly  out  and  return  home  again,  or  phases  of 
professional  life,  scenes  from  the  market,  and  the  shop,  and  so  forth. 
All  the  games  are  accompanied  by  explanatory  songs. 

In  the  first  period  of  childhood  words  and  actions  must  always  accom- 
pany each  other  ;  the  child's  nature  requires  this.  Body  and  mind  must 
not  yet  be  occupied  separately,  but  the  gymnastics  of  the  limbs  should 
at  the  same  time  exercise  the  mental  powers  and  dispositions.  Frobel's 
"  movement  games  "  develop  the  limbs  and  muscles,  while  the  accom- 
panying music  works  on  the  feelings  and  imagination,  and  the  words 
and  action  rouse  the  mind  to  observation,  and  finally  the  will  to  imita- 
tion of  what  has  been  observed.  The  promotion  of  physical  health  and 
strength  is  the  main  object  of  education  in  the  Kindergarten. 

A  little  further  on  in  the  garden,  under  a  linen  awning,  will  be  seen 
three  tables  surrounded  by  benches  with  leaning  backs,  at  each  of  which 
are  seated  ten  children  from  four  to  seven  years  of  age,  working  away 
busily  and  attentively.  At  one  of  the  tables  strips  of  different  colored 
papers,  straw  or  leather,  are  being  plaited  into  all  sorts  of  pretty  pat- 
terns, to  make  letter-cases,  mats,  baskets,  boxes,  etc.  The  patterns  of 
the  elder  children  are  of  their  own  invention,  and  their  little  produc- 
tions are  destined  for  presents  to  parents,  brothers  and  sisters,  and  friends. 


220 


THE  KINDERGARTEN. 


At  the  second  table  building  with  cubes  has  been  going  on.  Before 
each  child  stands  an  architectural  structure  of  its  own  planning,  and 
all  are  listening  attentively  to  the  narrative  of  the  teacher,  in  which 
each  of  the  objects  built  up  is  made  to  play  a  part. 

At  the  third  table  paper  is  being  folded  into  all  sorts  of  shapes,  rep- 
resenting tools  of  different  kinds,  or  flowers.  All  the  various  forms 
which  the  children  produce  are  arrived  at  by  gradual  transitions  from 
one  fundamental  mathematical  form,  and  thus  the  elements  of  geometry 
are  acquired  in  the  Kindergarten,  not  through  abstract  instruction,  but 
by  observation  and  original  construction. 

In  playful  work  and  workful  play  the  child  finds  a  relief  for,  and  the 
satisfaction  of,  his  active  impulses  and  receives  an  elementary  ground- 
ing for  all  later  work,  whether  artistic  or  professional.  His  physical 
senses  as  well  as  his  mental  faculties  are  all  exercised  in  proportion  to 
his  age. 

But  the  half-hour  is  at  an  end,  and  there  must  be  no  more  sitting 
still.  Spades,  rakes,  and  watering-pots  are  now  brought  out  to  work  in 
the  flower-beds,  of  which  each  child  has  one  for  its  own.  Flowers,  vege- 
tabJ-es  and  fruits  are  cultivated  by  the  children  in  these  little  patches 
of  ground,  but  in  the  general  garden,  which  is  the  common  charge  of 
all  the  children,  are  grown  all  sorts  of  corn,  field-products,  and  useful 
plants,  and  these  serve  as  materials  for  an  elementary  course  of  botan- 
ical observation  and  experiment,  when  the  children  cannot  be  taken 
into  the  open  fields  and  woods  to  study  nature  in  her  own  workshops, 
to  learn  singing  from  the  birds,  and  to  watch  the  habits  of  the  insects. 
In  this  garden,  too,  all  kinds  of  animals  are  kept ;  chickens,  doves,  rab- 
bits, hares,  dogs,  goats,  and  birds  in  cages,  which  have  to  be  looked  after 
and  cared  for. 

Thus  the  child  grows  up  under  the  influences  of  nature.  He  learns, 
gradually  to  perceive  the  regularity  of  all  organic  formations ;  by  the 
loving  care  which  he  is  encouraged  to  bestow  on  animals  and  plants, 
his  heart  and  sympathies  are  enlarged,  and  he  becomes  capable  of  love 
and  sympathy  for  his  fellow  creatures  ;  and  in  imitating  the  works  of 
nature  he  is  led  to  discover  and  to  love  the  Creator  of  nature,  and  to 
acknowledge  Him  as  his  own  Creator  also,  and  he  becomes  imbued 
with  the  divine  peace  of  nature  before  the  turmoil  of  the  world  and  of 
sin  find  their  way  into  his  heart. 

But  to  return  to  the  Kindergarten.  The  little  ones  whom  we  first 
saw  engaged  in  gymnastics  now  come  running  and  laughing  up  to  the 
table  deserted  by  the  elder  children,  and  in  their  turn  take  their  seats 
for  half  an  hour's  work  (for  the  quite  little  ones  the  time  is  limited  to  a 
quarter  of  an  hour),  and  begin  laying  together  and  interlacing  little 
laths  or  sticks  in  symmetrical  shapes.  "  Forms  of  beauty,"  or  syste- 
matic constructions  without  any  special  object ;  "forms  of  knowledge," 
or  mathematical  figures  ;  u  forms  of  practical  life,"  or  tools,  buildings, 
etc. ;  or  else  one  of  the  many  occupations  of  which  the  results  may  be 


THE  KINDERGARTEN.  221 

seen  in  the  glass  cupboard  of  the  play-room,  is  carried  on.  In  this  cup- 
board are  a  variety  of  articles  modeled  in  clay,  lace-like  arabesques  cut 
out  of  fine  white  paper  and  pasted  on  blue  paper ;  ingenious  devices  of 
plaited  straw,  riband,  and  leather ;  all  manner  of  drawings  and  paint- 
ings, too,  according  to  FrobeFs  new  linear  method ;  artistic  little  houses, 
churches,  furniture,  etc.,  constructed  of  little  sticks  fastened  together 
by  means  of  moistened  peas,  into  which  the  ends  of  the  sticks  are  stuck  ; 
in  short,  an  art  and  industrial  exhibition  of  the  works  of  little  manu- 
facturers under  eight  years  old. 

But  these  pretty  things  are  not  all  intended  for  birthday  or  Christmas 
presents  in  the  children's  families.  At  the  end  of  the  year  most  of  them 
are  put  into  a  lottery  through  which  each  of  the  children  receives  a  lit- 
tle sum  of  money  for  its  own  work,  and  the  joint  proceeds  are  spent  in 
dressing  a  Christmas  tree  for  the  poor  children  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  the  pleasure  which  the  little  donors  derive  from  this  tree  is  far 
greater  than  that  which  their  own  more  costly  one  affords  them. 

By  the  side  of  the  glass  cupboard,  in  which  the  children's  productions 
are  kept,  stands  another  containing  dried  plants,  mosses,  insects,  shells, 
stones,  crystals,  and  other  wonders  of  nature,  which  have  either  been 
collected  on  different  excursions,  or  are  presents  from  relations  and 
friends.  This  is  the  children's  museum,  and  into  it  the  little  collectors 
often  carry  the  commonest  stones  and  weeds,  for  to  children  everything 
that  they  notice  for  the  first  time  seems  wonderful. 

Work,  which  is  at  the  same  time  fulfillment  of  duty,  is  the  only  true 
basis  of  moral  culture,  but  it  is  necessary  that  such  work  should  also 
satisfy  the  child's  instinct  of  love,  and  the  object  of  it  must,  therefore, 
be  to  give  pleasure  to  others.  With  this  end  in  view  difficulties  will 
be  overcome  with  courage  and  cheerfulness,  and  the  only  effectual  bar- 
rier will  thus  be  opposed  to  selfishness.  Only  let  children's  earliest 
work  and  duties  be  made  easy  to  them  and  they  will  infallibly  learn  to 
love  them,  and  in  later  years  they  will  not  shrink  from  the  sacrifices 
demanded  by  love.  A  true  system  of  national  education,  such  as  the 
reforms  of  modern  times  render  necessary,  can  only  be  established  by 
making  work,  such  work  as  shall  connect  artistic  dexterity  with  the  cul- 
tivation of  intelligence,  the  basis  of  education.  The  Kindergarten 
meets  this  want  during  the  period  of  early  childhood  ;  the  Jugend,  or 
Schulgarten*  (Youth,  or  school-garden)  with  workshop,  studio,  camp, 
gymnastics,  etc.,  must  carry  on  the  work  afterwards  on  the  same  foun- 
dation. 

And  now  the  working  hours  are  ended,  and  a  choral  melody  resounds 
in  our  Kindergarten.  The  little  ones  with  their  teacher  and  her  assist- 
antsf  form  into  a  circle  and  sing  with  childish  reverence  a  short  song. 


*See  "  Die  Arbeit  und  die  neue  Erziehung."  Second  edition ,  published  by  G.  Wlgand 
of  K  asset. 

tYoung  girls  who  help  in  the  work  of  teaching,  and  are  thus  trained  to  be  themselves 
Kindergarten  teachers. 


222 


THE  KINDERGARTEN. 


the  words  of  which  express  gratitude  to  God  for  the  blessings  enjoyed, 
and  a  promise  to  live  according  to  His  will  and  that  of  their  parents. 
The  Kindergarten  always  opens  and  closes  in  this  way  \vith  religious 
worship. 

The  work  of  religious  development  must  begin  by  directing  the 
child's  imagination  towards  higher  things,  and  there  is  no  better  means 
to  this  end  than  sacred  song  which  arouses  the  devotional  instincts. 
The  influence  of  nature,  in  which  the  spirit  of  God  breathes,  combines 
with  the  sacred  melodies  to  awaken  in  the  mind  its  first  dim  perception 
of  the  organic  connection  of  the  universe,  which  has  its  ultimate  origin 
in  God. 

Through  association  with  its  fellows,  i.  e.,  with  other  children  of  its 
own  age,  the  child  learns  to  love  beyond  the  narrow  range  of  self;  and 
the  love  of  human  beings  leads  to  the  love  of  God.  tieligion  means 
binding  togeth  r,  union  (between  God  and  man),  and  without  loving 
fellowship  religion  cannot  exist.  Frobel  defines  religion  as  "  union 
with  God,"  which  can  only  grow  out  of  union  with  mankind,  or  the 
love  of  human  beings  for  one  another. 

To  the  above  influence  is  added  religious  narrative,  which  in  the 
case  of  the  younger  children  is  connected  with  facts  experienced  by  them- 
selves, and  for  the  elder  ones  refers  to  Bible  history. 

Four  hours  of  the  day  thus  pass  quickly  by  for  the  little  people,  and 
then  they  hurry  off  to  join  the  fathers,  mothers  or  nurses,  who  have 
come  to  fetch  them  delighted  at  seeing  them  again,  and  eager  to  tell  of 
all  the  pleasures  and  labors  of  the  day,  and  to  carry  on  by  themselves 
at  home  the  arts  they  have  learned — and  there  is  never  any  room  for 
the  disagreeable  guest,  ennui. 

Such  is  more  or  less  what  the  visitor  to  a  Kindergarten  will  see  going 
on,  and  he  will  very  likely  think  to  himself,  "  This  is  all  very  nice  and 
delightful,  the  children  must  certainly  flourish  better  here,  both  physi- 
cally and  mentally,  than  in  the  close  atmosphere  of  rooms,  under  the 
supervision  of  nurses  and  nursemaids  (by  whom  the  mother  must  at 
any  rate  be  relieved  during  some  hours  of  the  day),  or  else  left  entirely 
without  supervision.  It  is  also  better  than  the  formal  out  door  walks 
in  which  children  are  generally  led  stiffly  by  the  hand,  instead  of  being 
allowed  to  run  and  jump  about  freely.  Certainly  these  Kindergartens 
must  be  a  great  benefit  to  children,  but  do  they  deserve  all  the  fuss 
that  is  made  about  them,  all  the  expectations  founded  on  them  ?  And, 
even  if  a  salutary  reform  has  been  effected  in  school  education  during 
its  earliest  stages,  what  has  been  done  for  the  improvement  of  educa- 
tion in  the  home,  which  must  always  form  the  starting  point,  the  ker- 
nel, of  all  human  culture?  " 

No,  the  Kindergarten  is  not  all  that  is  wanted,  and  Frobel  has  not 
forgotten  the  important  share  which  a  family,  above  all  the  mother, 
has  in  the  work  of  education.  The  cultivation  of  the  female  sex, 
through  which  the  sniritual  mother  of  humanity,  its  educator  in  the 


THE  KINDERCiAi.TKN. 


223 


highest  sense  of  the  word,  is  to  be  realized,  is  essentially  the  starting- 
point  of  his  educational  method.  The  Kindergarten  begins  on  the 
mother's  lap.  It  is  to  the  mother  that  Frobel  presents  his  <k  play- 
gifts;"  on  her  preparatory  training  does  the  efficacy  of  the  system 
depend;  by  her  frequent  presence  at  the  Kindergarten  it  is  hoped  that 
she  will  take  a  personal  part  in  the  proceedings,  and  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  day,  when  the  child  falls  to  her  charge,  she  can  herself 
guide  its  occupations  on  the  same  plan.  All  mothers  will  one  day,  we 
hope,  be  equal  to  this  task.  We  look  forward  to  a  time  when  Frobel's 
method  shall  be  taught  in  all  girls'  schools,  and  when  it  will  have 
become  universally  acknowedged  that  all  who  have  to  do  with  children, 
fathers  and  mothers,  nurses  and  governesses,  should  be  versed  in  the 
science  of  education,  in  order  that  they  may  be  able  to  satisfy  the 
higher  demands  of  the  present  stage  of  human  culture. 

Frobel's  general  principles  of  education  may  be  summed  up  under 
the  three  following  heads  :  "  freedom  for  development,"  "  work  for  de- 
velopment," and  "  unity  of  development." 

1.  In  nature,  where  everything  works  freely,  unrestrainedly  and  un- 
artificially,    there   is   scope   for  freedom   of  development.     Freedom  of 
growth  among  plants  is  only  possible  where  this  systematic  develop- 
ment is  not  disturbed,  and  the  necessary  conditions  of  their  growth  are 
attended  to.     If  they  are  to  attain  to  full  development,  they  must  have 
proper  care  and  attention.     Plants  shut  up  in  dark  cellars  degenerate 
and  die,  and  human  nature,  which  lacks  care  and  attention,  especially 
in  its  earliest  stages,  degenerates  and  dies  also.     Children,  if  brought  up 
among  the  wild  animals  of  a  forest,  would  become  themselves  almost 
animals,  and  bear  scarcely  any  resemblance  to  human  beings.     It  is 
only  by  applying  the  eternal  principles  of  all  organic  development  in 
the  higher  scale  of  human  nature,  that  the  clue  will  be  found  to  free- 
dom of  development  in  the  human  being,  as  Frobel  understands  it. 
Only  there,  where  order. and  morality  reign,  where  love  and  discipline 
are  the  guiding  powers,  can  there  be  any  question  of  freedom  of  devel- 
opment for  the  human  soul.     A  wild  up-shooting  of  untrained  natural 
forces,  the  unfolding  of  the  young  human  plant  given  over  to  chance, 
these  are  the  very  opposites  of  free  development.     Whatever  also  is 
contrary  to  Nature's  laws  for  man  hinders  his  development.     His  des- 
tiny, which  is  to  become  a  morally  reasonable  being,  makes  a  morally 
reasonable   education   indispensable.     Development  is  emancipation  : 
emancipation  from  the  bands  of  rude  unspiritualized  matter  ;  emanci- 
pation of  the  limbs  and  senses,  of  all  the  mental  powers  and  faculties 

this  is  it  that  makes  freedom.     But  freedom  of  development  is  not 

sufficient  without  exercises  for  development. 

2.  Frobel  says  :  "  Man  is  destined  to  rise  out  of  himself  by  means 
of  his  own  activity,  to  attain  to  a  continually  higher  stage  of  self- 
knowledge."     Thus  it  is  only  through  its  own  exertions,  its  own  work, 
through  personal  action,  that  the  child  can  so  develop  itself,  in  accord- 


224  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

ance  with  its  human  nature,  as  to  realize  its  true  self,  to  express,  as  it 
were,  the  thought  of  God  which  dwells  in  every  being.  According  to 
Frobel,  man  is  born  into  the  world  more  weak  and  helpless  than  any 
animal,  in  order  that,  by  the  resistance  which  the  things  of  the  out- 
ward world  oppose  to  his  weakness,  he  may  be  incited  to  the  exertion 
of  inward  strength.  A  child  cannot  learn  to  walk  without  trouble  and 
effort;  and  it  is  only  after  thousands  of  times  repeated  attempts  that 
it  learns  to  make  itself  understood,  that  is  to  say,  to  talk. 

But  if  the  child's  efforts  and  exertions  be  left  to  themselves,  they 
will  fall  very  fa"r  short  of  their  natural  end,  andj  therefore,  education 
must  come  to  their  assistance  and  guidance,  and  establish  discipline 
and  control  where  otherwise  caprice  would  step  in,  and  confusion  of 
ungoverned  forces  reign.  There  is,  however,  a  kind  of  discipline  which 
is  contrary  to  nature,  as  well  as  one  in  accordance  with  it,  and  this  un- 
natural discipline  leads  to  artificiality,  and  the  suppression  of  individ- 
ual personality,  which,  indeed,  it  rather  aims  at  doing  away  with  and 
replacing  by  something  conventional. 

What  may  be  called  new  in  Frobel's  Kindergarten  plan  is  the  practi- 
cal means  which  he  has  discovered  and  applied  for  disciplining  and 
developing  body,  soul,  and  mind,  will,  feelings,  and  understanding,  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  Nature.  All  the  materials  which  he  sets 
before  children,  all  their  playthings,  are  so  contrived  as  to  meet  their 
innate  impulse  to  activity,  and  that  in  a  rightly  ordered  sequence  cor- 
responding to  every  stage  of  the  soul's  progressive  development.  The 
child  is  thus  led  on  by  easy  simple  stages  to  modeling,  production,  and 
creation.  Only  by  original  creation  can  it  fully  express  its  inner  self, 
its  individual  being ;  and  this  it  must  do  if  it  is  to  attain  to  worthy 
existence. 

Action,  i.  e.,  the  application  of  knowledge,  the  carrying  out  of  ideas, 
is  what  our  age  calls  for  more  and  more  loudly,  and  what  the  young 
generation  must  be  trained  for ;  and  in  view  of  this  Frobel  would  have 
children  learn  even  in  their  earliest  games  to  act  and  to  create ;  he 
would  have  work  and  action  precede  abstract  study,  and  be  made  the 
means  and  educator  to  prepare  for  the  later  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
In  order  to  produce  strength  and  greatness  of  character  (and  what  is 
more  needed  at  the  present  time?),  it  is  necessary  to  awaken  will  and 
energy,  resolution  and  a  sense  of  duty ;  this  is  done  in  the  Kinder- 
garten by  means  of  personal  activity  in  an  atmosphere  of  happiness 
and  contentment.  To  train  pupils  in  the  great  workshops  of  the  Cre- 
ator to  be  themselves  one  day  creators,  to  bring  human  beings  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  likeness  of  God,  this  is  the  purpose  of  the  "  Devel- 
opment exercises,"  which  are  carried  on  in  the  Kindergarten. 

3.  All  organic  development  is  continuous,  unbroken,  and,  progress- 
ing from  stage  to  stage,  forms  a  closely  interconnected  whole.  In  Nat- 
ure this  continuity,  or  connectedness,  exists  unconsciously,  but  in  the 
world  of  human  life  it  must  be  the  result  of  deliberate  conscious  voli- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN. 


225 


tion,  and  must  lead  up  to  the  apprehension  of  the  highest  cosmic  unity, 
i.  e.,  to  the  knowledge  of  God. 

Education  to  be  worthy  of  a  human  being  must,  therefore,  be  contin- 
uous, must  proceed  upon  the  same  plan  from  the  beginning,  though  in 
a  progressive  sequence,  according  to  the  natural  stages  of  development. 
The  first  playthings  must  stand  in  proper  social  relation  to  the  last,  the 
first  elementary  lessons  must  be  in  connection  with  the  topmost  pin- 
nacle of  later  knowledge ;  the  moral  cub  ure  especially  depends  on  har- 
mony in  the  whole  treatment  of  the  child.  Human  existence  begins 
in  unconsciousness,  and  has  to  pass  through  all  the  successive  stages  of 
growing  consciousness,  until  it  reaches  complete  self-knowledge.  Fro- 
bel  says :  "  The  clearer  the  thread  which  runs  through  our  lives  back- 
ward— back  to  our  childhood — the  clearer  will  be  our  onward  glance  to 
the  goal." 

Such  continuity  in  education  is  as  yet  nowhere  aimed  at ;  fathers 
and  mothers,  nurses  and  governesses,  servants  and  friends,  all  influence 
the  child  in  different,  too  often  in  quite  opposite,  directions.  There  is 
no  such  thing  as  transition  in  education — no  point  of  connection  be- 
tween the  first  period,  which  is  the  sport  of  caprice  and  chance,  and  the 
following  lesson — and  school-time,  between  the  first  years  of  mere  idle 
amusement,  and  the  beginnings  of  practical  activity  and  exercise  of 
duty ;  nowhere,  in  short,  is  continuity  in  the  lessons,  occupations,  and 
lives  of  children  so  much  as  thought  of. 

The  relations  of  the  human  being  to  the  surrounding  world,  to 
Nature  and  his  fellow-creatures — with  which  latter  relations  is  bound 
up  the  highest  of  all,  that  of  the  creature  to  its  Creator — begin  with 
his  birth.  The  most  important  relation  at  the  commencement  of  life  is 
that  between  child  and  mother,  and  it  is  in  the  mother's  hand  accord- 
ingly that  Frobel  places  the  first  end  of  the  Ariadne  thread,  which  is  to 
lead  the  child  through  the  labyrinth  of  life.  The  mother's  play  and 
caresses  (see  FrbbePs  Mutter  un  Koselieder)  form  the  first  foundation  on 
which  the  Kindergarten  and  the  after-training  of  school  and  life 
are  built  up.  The  logical  continuity,  the  strict  order  of  sequence  in  its 
games  and  occupations,  which  hang  together  like  the  links  of  a  chain, 
so  that  the  one  always  prepares  for  the  other ;  the  unbroken  series  of 
transitions;  the  close  connection  between  childish  conceptions  and 
ideas  and  their  realization— all  this  can  only  be  fully  appreciated  after 
a  close  study  of  the  details,  both  theoretical  and  practical,  of  Frobel's 
system.  But  no  one,  having  once  made  the  study,  can  doubt  that  the 
complete  and  universal  carrying  out  of  the  Kindergarten  theory,  the 
first,  though  imperfect,  steps  towards  which  have  already  been  taken 
in  many  countries  of  Europe,  and  in  the  United  States  of  America, 
would  contribute  enormously  towards  the  production  of  men  and  women 
whose  lives,  actions,  and  thoughts  shall  make  up  a  complete  whole, 
whose  personality  and  individual  characteristics  shall  stand  out  strongly 
and  who  shall  have  the  courage  to  be  always  themselves,  and  not  to 
lower  themselves  to  the  condition  of  conventional  puppets. 

15 


226  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

It  is  only  a  more  harmonious  development  of  the  special  characteris- 
tics of  individuals  that  can  lead  to  the  concord  and  unity  of  masses, 
whether  of  families,  communities,  or  nations,  and  thence  to  the  unity 
of  mankind — the  goal  towards  which  the  strongest  impulse  of  our  age 
is  tending,  and  the  next  step  to  which  is  union  with  God.  Frbbel  sums 
up  the  various  syntheses  which  humanity  has  to  work  out  under  the 
title  of  Lebenseinigung  (unity  of  life),  and  calls  to  his  contemporaries  to 
work  in  the  field  of  education  towards  the  fulfillment  of  this  idea  with 

the  motto  : 

"  Come,  let  us  live  for  our  children." 

In  his  book  for  mothers  he  says : 

"  Parents,  let  your  home  a  children's  garden  be, 

Where  with  watchful  love  the  young  plant's  growth  you  see ; 

A  shelter  let  it  be  to  them  from  all 

The  dangers  which  their  bodies  may  befall ; 

And  still  more  a  soil  in  which  will  grow, 

The  inward  forces  that  from  God  do  flow  ; 

Which  with  a  father's  love  He  unto  men  has  given, 

That  by  their  use  they  may  upraise  themselves  to  Heaven." 

NOTE. — It  is  not  difficult  to  see  why  the  hitherto  imperfect  organization  of 
existing  Kindergartens  is  only  now  beginning  to  approximate  to  something  cor- 
responding to  the  original  idea.  The  greatest  obstacle  to  the  perfect  realization 
of  this'  idea  (especially  as  regards  national  Kindergartens)  arises  from  the 
insufficient  means  of  localization,  and  the  scarcity  of  teachers,  which  necessitate 
taking  in  too  many  children  at  a  time.  The  crowding  together  of  herds  of 
children,  which  must  result  in  confusion  and  prevent  the  teacher  from  giving 
sufficient  individual  attention  to  her  pupils,  is  by  no  means  what  Frobel  contem- 
plated. He  wished  the  number  of  children  in  national  Kindergartens  to  be 
limited  to  thirty,  or  at  the  outside  forty ;  or  else  a  larger  number  to  be  broken 
up  into  groups  of  thirty,  under  one  teacher.  This,  as  well  as  many  others 
points,  which  have  hitherto  been  overlooked,  will  meet  with  proper  considera- 
tion, as  the  matter  becomes  more  fully  understood,  and  its  development  pro- 
gresses. At  present  the  chief  thing  to  be  considered,  is  how  to  make  the  estab- 
lishment of  Kindergartens  as  general  as  possible. 


FKOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL   V1KWS. 


VII.       THE    MOTHER    AND    HER    NURSERY    SONGS. 

FROBEL  himself  says  of  this  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder "  book  :  "  I 
have  here  laid  down  the  most  important  part  of  my  educational  method ; 
this  book  is  the  starting  point  of  a  natural  system  of  education  for  the 
first  years  of  life,  for  it  teaches  the  way  in  which  the  germs  of  human 
dispositions  must  be  nourished  and  fostered,  if  they  are  to  attain  com- 
plete and  healthy  development." 

But  over  and  over  again  we  hear  people  exclaim  after  a  superficial 
glance  through  the  book  :  "  What  wretched  poetry,  what  lame  rhymes, 
what  unintelligible  illustrations,  and,  above  all,  what  absurdity !  the 
idea  of  regulating  a  mother's  caressing  and  fondling  of  her  child !  " 

And  such  a  judgment  would  not  be  incorrect  as  far  as  the  many 
imperfect  verses  and  the  style  of  the  book  generally  is  concerned.  But 
at  the  same  time  many  successful  rhymes,  and  much  true  poetry  will  be 
found  side  by  side  with  the  philosophic  thoughts  thus  embodied  in  the 
form  of  verse  ;  and  what  is  of  greater  importance,  there  is  a  fund  of  child- 
like simplicity  and  naivete  which  seems  to  come  straight  from  the  child's 
soul,  and  must  meet  with  response  there.  But  above  all  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  mottoes  contained  in  this  book  are  intended  for 
grown-up  people,  i.  e.  for  mothers,  and  only  the  songs  for  children — and 
of  these  the  greater  number  are  fully  adapted  to  infant  comprehension. 

Notwithstanding,  however,  that  the  form  of  the  book  is  quite  a  sec- 
ondary consideration,  it  is  capable  of  being  improved  when  its  sub- 
stance has  come  to  be  understood.  And  this  substance  is  not  only  new 
and  important,  but  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  the  production  of  genius. 
It  reveals  the  process  of  development  of  the  inner,  instinctive  life  of 
childhood,  and  converts  the  intuitive,  purposeless  action  of  mothers  into 
an  intelligent  plan,  in  a  way  which  has  never  before  been  even  at- 
tempted. The  key-note  of  the  book  is  the  analogy  between  the  devel- 
opment of  humanity  from  its  earliest  infancy,  and  that  of  the  individual. 
The  fact  that  the  germs  of  all  human  faculties  and  dispositions,  as  they 
show  themselves  in  the  life  of  humanity,  in  its  passions,  its  efforts  after 
culture,  its  whole  manner  of  existence,  are  traceable  in  the  nature  of 
children  as  manifested  in  their  instinctive  utterances, — must  be  taken 
into  account,  in  order  that  the  games  of  children  may  be  turned  to  their 
natural  purpose,  viz.,  the  assistance  of  the  child's  development. 

So  long  as  the  analogy  between  the  course  of  tlie  development  of 
humanity  and  that  of  individual  man  is  only  recognized  outwardly,  and 
treated  more  or  less  as  a  fact  in  science,  so  long  will  little  practical  use 
be  made  of  it.  But  it  acquires  an  immense  degree  of  importance,  when 
once  it  is  made  the  means  of  supplying  education  with  an  infallible 
guide,  childhood  with  a  regulator  for  its  blind  impulses,  its  uncertain 
groping  and  fumbling,  and  the  maternal  instinct  with  a  safe  channel. 

The  practical  hints  contained  in  this  book  of  FrobePs  consist,  it  is 
true,  of  mere  disconnected  fragments,  too  often  couched  in  obscure  Ian- 


228  THE  MOTHER  AND  HER  NURSERY  SONGS. 

guage.  But  experience  proves  that  the  mother's  instinct  is  equal  to  the 
task  of  piecing  the  fragments  together  and  rightly  applying  them. 

All  ideas  assume  at  starting  a  crude,  unbeautiful  shape,  which  for  a 
time  serves  rather  to  hide  and  disfigure  the  inner  meaning ;  but  when 
this  meaning  has  at  last,  made  itself  felt,  the  outward  form  becomes 
gradually  remodeled  and  brought  into  accordance  with  it.  And  so  it 
has  been  with  the  play  of  children.  Its  high  significance  had  first  to 
be  discovered  and  made  known  before  it  could  be  embodied  in  a  form 
corresponding  to  its  object  and  to  the  degree  of  culture  reached  by 
civilized  humanity. 

And  even  Frobel  in  the  book  in  question  has  only  taken  the  first  step 
towards  the  attainment  of  this  purpose,  has  done  no  more  than  point 
out  in  what  manner  it  is  possible.  The  filling  up  of  gaps  in  the  system, 
greater  perfection  of  arrangement,  and  improvement  in  the  outward 
form  will  not  be  difficult  when,  through  more  universal  practical  appli- 
cation, FrobePs  great  educational  theory  meets  with  more  and  more 
thorough  understanding.  Genius  gives  utterance  to  its  thoughts,  which 
will  in  due  time  become  embodied  in  appropriate  forms. 

Frobel  rightly  calls  this  book  a  family  look,  for  only  by  its  use  in 
the  family,  in  the  hands  of  mothers,  can  it  fulfill  its  purpose,  and  con- 
tribute towards  raising  the  family  to  a  level  of  human  culture  corre- 
sponding to  the  advanced  civilization  of  the  day,  and  preparing  mothers 
for  their  vocation  in  the  highest  sense. 

Frobel  made  his  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  the  foundation  of  his  lec- 
tures to  Kindergarten  teachers  on  his  theory,  and  over  and  over  again 
repeated  :  "  I  have  here  laid  down  the  fundamental  ideas  of  my  educa- 
tional theory ;  whoever  has  grasped  the  pivot  idea  of  this  book  under- 
stands what  I  am  aiming  at.  But  how  many  do  understand  it  ?  Learned 
men  have  too  great  a  contempt  for  the  book  to  give  it  more  than  cursory 
attention  ;  and  the  majority  of  mothers  only  see  in  it  an  ordinary  pict- 
ure-book with  little  songs.  No  doubt  there  are  finer  pictures  and  better 
verses  to  be  had  than  mine,  but  of  what  use  are  they  if  wanting  in  any 
educational  power  ?  Only  a  small  minority  of  people  get  from  my  book 
a  real  understanding  of  my  educational  theory  in  all  its  fullness,  but,  if 
only  mothers  and  teachers  would  follow  its  guidance  they  would  at  last 
see,  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  that  I.  am  right." 

I  once  replied  to  a  similar  outburst :  "  It  is  not  always  easy  to  trace 
the  connection  between  the  examples  you  give  and  the  idea  you  wish  to 
illustrate  ;  many  of  these  are  of  such  a  kind  that  one  must  search  long 
before  one  sees  the  reason  of  their  being  cited,  and  those  who  do  not 
take  this  trouble  will  never  find  it  out.  This  is  the  reason  why  so 
many  people  reject  great  part  of  the  substance  of  the  book ;  they  say 
it  is  so  far-fetched,  so  unnatural,  it  is  thought  out  artificially  instead  of 
being  taken  from  observation  of  child-nature.  You  yourself  have  had 
experience  of  such  objections,  and  so  have  I  in  the  course  of  my  exposi- 
tion of  the  system.  If  you  would  only  draw  the  conclusions  of  your 
ideas  yourself  and  collect  them  together  in  a  commentary  they  would 


THE  MOTHER  AND  HER  NURSERY  SONGS.  229 

be  much  easier  to  understand,  and  the  book  which  you  consider  of  so 
great  importance  would  at  least  be  recognized  by  the  thinking  world." 

To  which  Frobel  answered :  "  You  do  not  know  what  you  are  ask- 
ing :  I  should  then  be  obliged  to  say  everything,  and  I  should  be  still 
less  understood.  None  but  the  children  who  are  brought  up  in  Kinder- 
gartens will  ever  understand  my  philosophy  in  its  breadth  and  depth. 
Let  the  world  laugh  at  me  now  as  much  as  it  likes  for  my  ordering  and 
arranging  of  children's  play,  and  it  will  one  day  acknowledge  that  I 
am  right,  for  the  children  will  understand  me  and  know  that  I  under- 
stood them  and  fathomed  the  depths  of  their  nature.  If  you  are  not 
afraid  of  being  laughed  at  with  me,  do  you  write  what  you  think  is- 
desirable  for  a  better  understanding  of  the  system." 

It  was  FrobePs  misfortune  that  he  had  not  the  gift  of  expressing 
himself  clearly  and  attractively  in  words ;  indeed,  it  was  a  long  time 
before  he  even  realized  that  this  was  necessary,  and  that  the  concrete 
practical  form  in  which  he  had  so  completely  embodied  his  educational 
ideas,  and  which  was  to  him  the  most  natural  form  of  expression,  was 
not  universally  intelligible.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  repeated  experi- 
ence that  his  system  was  not  understood  by  the  general  public,  or  even 
by  the  thinking  world,  he  would,  perhaps,  never  have  attempted  to 
translate  his  practical  language  into  words.  That  neither  his  written 
nor  his  spoken  explanations  contributed  to  make  Kindergartens  more 
popular  must  be  attributed  to  this  want  in  his  own  nature,  and  not  to 
any  fault  in  his  method  of  education. 

The  following  very  imperfect  attempt  to  throw  some  light  on  the 
contents  of  "Mutter  und  Koselieder"  would  have  been  given  to  the 
public  sooner,  but  for  the  repeated  experience  that  in  no  way  is  so 
much  opposition  to  FrobePs  system  excited,  as  by  any  endeavor  to 
propagate  this  book.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  there  is  no  book  that  gives 
more  pleasure,  to  mothers  especially,  than  this  one.  It  will  not  be 
unprofitable  to  communicate  my  experiences  on  this  point. 

In  all  the  towns  of  different  countries  in  which  I  delivered  lectures 
on  Frobel's  system  (which  lectures  were  almost  always  followed  by 
the  introduction  of  the  system),  in  Paris,  Brussels,  London,  Geneva, 
Lausanne,  Neuchatel,  Amsterdam,  the  Hague,  Rotterdam,  etc.,  as  also 
in  many  German  towns,  I  found  pretty  generally  that  the  ideas  most 
difficult  to  make  intelligible,  both  to  the  learned  and  the  unlearned, 
both  to  men  and  women,  were  the  following: — 

1.  That  the  first  mental  development  of  the  child  goes  on  in  its  play, 
and  that  this  play  needs,. consequently,  to  be  as  much  systematized  as 
the  instruction  imparted  at  a  later  age. 

2.  That  by  rightly  meeting  and  assisting  the  natural  force  which 
vents  itself  in  play,  or  by  faulty  and  mistaken  treatment  of  it,  it  may 
be  directed  either  to  good  (its  true  use) — or  to  evil  (its  abuse) ;  and 

3.  That  the   examples   given  in   the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder "  are 
psychologically  based  on  the  instinctive  life  of  the  child,  even  though 
they  are  not  always  expressed  in  the  most  perfect  form. 


230  THE  MOTHER  AND  HER  NURSERY  SONGS. 

Many  profound  thinkers,  as  well  among  psychologists  as  natural 
philosophers,  were  beyond  measure  astonished  at  Frbbel's  theory,  and 
gave  their  hearty  agreement  to  it.  Women  of  simple  minds,  but  true 
motherly  hearts,  added  their  approval  with  tears  In  their  eyes.  They 
were  struck  by  so  much  truth  as  "  by  lightning,"  as  one  of  them  ex- 
pressed it,  and  they  felt  the  force  of  the  book  without  yet  thoroughly 
understanding  it.  Indeed,  the  contents  of  this  book  never  failed  to 
touch  the  hearts  of  mothers.  It  was  only  dry  intellectual  natures  that 
exercised  their  powers  of  criticism  on  it  without  ever  grasping  its 
spirit.  And  such  criticism,  we  must  own,  is  not  unfair  as  regards  the 
choice  of  many  of  the  examples.  A  complete  understanding  of  the 
theory  will  make  a  new  and  faultless  selection  possible. 

The  nature  of  babies  and  young  children  is  still  much  less  considered 
by  scientific  observers  than  is  that  of  plants  and  animals,  and  there  is 
consequently  in  this  field  an  infinite  number  of  discoveries  and  experi- 
ences to  be  collected  together,  which  in  their  importance  for  the  well- 
being  of  human  society  are  second  to  no  science  whatever.  What 
Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Jean  Paul,  Burdach,  Schleiermacher,  and  others 
have  effected  in  this  direction  is  still  very  little  compared  with  what 
has  yet  to  be  done  in  order  that  education  may  really  bear  good  fruit, 
and  the  secret  workings  of  the  child's  mind  and  spirit  be  fully  revealed. 
The  side  of  the  question  which  Frbbel  specially  illustrated,  and  for 
which  he  devised  his  practical  method  of  application  had,  before  his 
time,  been  almost  wholly  neglected.  It  is  true  that  he  was  generally  in 
agreement  with  Burdach 's  theories  concerning  the  meaning  of  the  first 
utterances  of  children,  and  when  reading  his  works  in  the  company  ot 
friends  his  face  would  beam  with  pleasure  when  he  came  to  a  passage 
that  specially  pleased  him,  and  he  would  exclaim, — "  See,  I  am  right 
after  all ;  he  has  found  it  out  too  !  "  But  at  the  same  time  he  was  fully 
aware  that  in  his  fundamental  idea  he  had  discovered  a  new  point  of 
departure  which  had  been  overlooked  by  all  his  predecessors. 

However  much  or  little  the  nature  of  children  may  have  been  studied, 
no  one  has  come  up  to  Frbbel  in  his  searching  analysis  of  every  phase 
and  detail  of  their  development.  Following  the  example  of  modern 
natural  science,  which  has  descended  from  the  study  of  the  greatest 
phenomena  to  that  of  the  least,  and  is  making  its  most  important  dis- 
coveries through  microscopic  investigations,  Frobel,  in  the  field  of 
human  nature,  goes  back  to  the  smallest  beginnings,  and  finds  thus  the 
first  link  in  the  chain  which  connects  one  moment  of  human  develop- 
ment with  all  the  others.  He  finds  the  law  which  lies  at  the  bottom 
of  all  systematic  development,  and  discovers  the  means  for  the  applica- 
tion of  this  law.  In  the  growth  of  the  child  he  sees  the  same  system 
of  law  as  in  organic  growth  generally,  and  he  points  out  the  complete 
analogy  between  the  development  of  the  child  and  that  of  the  organisms 
of  nature  and  of  humanity  as  an  organic  whole. 

A  new  basis  has  thus  been  given  to  education,  and  it  remains  for  us 
to  build  up  upon  it.  But  we  must  be  content  to  wait  patiently- 


FIIOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS.  231 


VIII.       EARLIEST     DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    LIMBS. 

DURING  the  first  years  of  life  the  physical  development  is  the  mo^t 
marked  and  prominent,  but  the  growth  of  the  soul,  though  unperceived, 
goes  on,  nevertheless,  all  the  while ;  for  in  infancy  body  and  soul  are 
still  completely  in  union,  and  can  only  be  developed  through  mutual 
interaction.  It  is  on  this  principle  that  Frobel  has  compiled  his  "  Mut- 
ter und  Koselieder."  The  games  introduced  in  this  book  are  adapted 
both  to  cultivating  the  limbs  and  senses,  and  guiding  and  assisting  the 
mind  in  its  first  awakening  stage. 

Gymnastic  exercises  have  come  to  be  regarded  as  essential  to  bodily 
health,  and  their  use  in  later  childhood  and  youth  is  consequently 
gaining  more  and  more  ground  in  the  present  day.  But  bodily  disci- 
pline is  essential  also  to  the  moral  well-being  of  humanity.  By  de- 
veloping muscular  force  the  will  is  strengthened,  and  grace  of  mind 
and  spirit  increases  in  proportion  to  physical  grace. 

Now,  if  children  require  systematic  muscular  exercises 'when  they 
can  already  walk  and  run  and  jump,  they  need  them  still  more  before- 
hand. Circus-riders  and  tight-rope  dancers  are  taken  at  the  tenderest 
age  to  be  trained  for  their  professions,  because  it  is  known  that  the 
pliability  of  the  limbs  decreases  with  every  additional  year. 

For  centuries  past  the  maternal  instinct,  following  its  playful  bent, 
has  devised  all  manner  of  little  games  which  tend  to  exercise  children's 
limbs;  but  these,  like  everything  else  that  human  beings  do  merely 
from  instinct,  fall  far  short  of  what  they  should  be. 

The  popular  nursery-games  that  have  been  handed  down  by  tradition 
are  very  much  alike  in  all  civilized  countries,  for  they  are  the  product 
of  the  natural  instinct  of  mothers,  which  is  the  same  all  over  the  world 
and  in  all  ages.  Of  these  Frobel  collected  together  all  that  were  suita- 
ble for  his  purpose.  During  the  greater  part  of  his  life  it  was  his  habit 
to  go  about  familiarly  among  the  homes  of  the  people,  in  order  to  ob- 
serve the  ways  of  mothers  with  their  babies ;  and  in  this  way  he  accu- 
mulated a  whole  store  of  national  nursery  and  cradle  songs,  which  he 
adapted  for  his  own  use,  taking  care  always  to  eliminate  from  them  all 
the  course  expressions,  unchildlike  ideas,  or  utter  nonsense,  which  too 
often  disfigured  and  spoilt  them.  Mothers  never  play  with  their  chil- 
dren in  perfect  silence ;  they  invariably  talk  or  sing  to  them  all  the 
while,  and  those  among  us,  who  can  still  recall,  with  inward  emotion, 
the  first  songs  with  which  their  mother's  voice  lulled  them  to  sleep  in 
their  infancy,  will  not  wonder  at  Frobel's  connecting  the  earliest  awak- 
ening of  feeling  with  the  songs  that  accompany  his  games. 

The  object  of  ordinary  gymnastic  exercises  is  to  produce  the  com- 
pletest  possible  development  of  all  the  muscles.  This,  however,  would 
be  fatiguing  for  young  children,  who,  during  the  first  years  of  their 


232  THE  FIRST  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  LIMBS. 

life,  require  to  be  equally  stimulated  on  all  sides  of  their  nature.  Every 
branch,  too,  of  their  training  must  be  carried  on  by  the  most  gradual 
process.  Both  these  essentials  are  fully  considered  in  FrobePs  "  Gym- 
nastic Games."  The  gymnastics  of  the  body  serve,  at  the  same  timer 
to  promote  the  growth  of  the  mental  and  spiritual  organs,  and  the  first 
playful  activity  of  the  child  is  made  the  starting-point,  and  the  prepa- 
ration for  all  later  development,  both  in  the  Kindergarten  and  the 
school,  so  that  there  may  be  sequence  and  continuity  in  the  whole 
course  of  education. 

Life  may  be  denned  as  activity,  and  all  activity,  which  is  in  propor- 
tion to  the  natural  strength,  and  not  over-straining,  is  enjoyment.  This 
truth  is  exemplified  in  the  gambols  of  young  animals,  and  in  the  case 
of  little  children  who  derive  the  greatest  enjoyment  from  kicking  their 
feet  against  some  object  which  offers  resistance,  or  against  the  hands 
of  their  mothers,  who  should  encourage  them  to  repeat  the  exercise,  for 
it  strengthens  the  muscles  of  their  backs  and  legs.  But  the  principal 
gymnastic  exercises  in  FrobePs  book  have  reference  to  the  hand,  which 
is  the  most  important  member  of  the  human  body.  The  increased  use 
of  machinery  in  the  present  day  tends  more  and  more  to  relieve  human 
beings  from  all  the  rougher  kind  of  manual  labor,  but  there  is,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  all  branches  of  industry  a  growing  demand  for  artistic 
work,  and  it  is,  therefore,  of  the  greatest  importance  that  care  should 
be  bestowed  on  cultivating  manual  dexterity.  We  have  but  to  look  at 
the  children  of  the  working-classes  to  see  how  stiff  and  awkward  are 
usually  those  limbs  which  will  one  day  be  called  upon  to  work  for  their 
bread.  Unless  the  hand  be  exercised  at  the  beginning  of  life  a  great 
measure  of  its  pliability  is  lost,  and  the  muscles  do  not  acquire  sufficient 
strength  to  be  able  to  satisfy  the  modern  technical  demands  of  all  kinds. 
Pianoforte  players,  sculptors,  and  other  artists,  know  that  it  is  only  by 
practice,  carried  on  from  their  earliest  childhood,  that  they  can  attain 
perfect  mastery  in  the  technicalities  of  their  arts.  Education  should, 
therefore,  begin  with  teaching  the  management  of  material,  or  manual 
work,  then  go  on  to  the  transformation  of  material,  which  constitutes 
art  or  industry,  and  finally  lead  up  to  the  spiritualization  of  material. 
Not  time  only,  but  much  tedious  discipline  also  would  be  saved  in  late 
years  if  children  acquired  a  certain  amount  of  mechanical  dexterity  by 
means  of  their  early  games. 

All  things  whatsoever  that  surround  a  child  are  either  products  of 
Nature  or  of  human  culture,  and  have  their  ultimate  origin  in  God. 
Now,  the  child's  relation  to  these  things  should  be  conveyed  to  him  with 
the  utmost  possible  clearness  and  definiteness,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
the  impression  of  unity  and  continuity,  in  which,  as  yet,  everything 
appears  to  him,  must  be  preserved  as  much  as  possible. 

Let  us  examine  a  few  specimens  from  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder" 
and  see  how  Frobel  carries  out  his  ideas. 


FUOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS. 


ix.  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  NATURE. 

We  must  here,  of  course,  take  for  granted  that  the  essential  condi- 
tions of  true  education  are  at  hand,  and  also  teachers  who  understand 
how  to  make  use  of  these  conditions.  In  the  streets  of  great  cities, 
where  many  a  child  grows  up  to  the  age  of  ten  years  or  more  without 
making  any  acquaintance  with  nature,  without  seeing  anything  of  the 
life  of  fields  and  forests,  of  the  animal  and  the  vegetable  universe, 
Frobel's  system  of  education  cannot  possibly  be  applied  (unless  there 
are  Kindergartens  within  reach  to  supply  the  life  of  nature),  and  the 
human  being  must  go  without  the  most  essential  and  natural  elements 
of  its  development.  The  Kindergartens  should  supply  to  children  the 
atmosphere  of  country  life  which  is  of  such  vital  importance  to  them, 
and  we  feel  assured  that  the  day  will  come  when  it  will  be  considered 
disgraceful  for  a  human  being  to  grow  up  without  coming  into  contact 
with  the  glorious  world  of  nature,  where  the  breath  ^of  nature's  God 
breathes  with  life-giving  power. 

When  a  child  of  about  a  year  old  is  taken  out  of  doors,  the  things 
that  first  attract  its  notice  are  those  that  move.  Movement  signifies  to 
children  life,  and  is  what  they  first  become  aware  of.  Hence  the  child's 
glance  will  at  once  be  arrested  by  a  weather-cock,  or  any  other  object 
moved  by  the  wind. 

THE  WEATHER-COCK 

is  the  name  given  to  one  of  the  first  games  for  hand-gymnastics. 

The  hand  stretched  out  sideways  with  the  thumb  held  upright  repre- 
sents the  weather-cock,  and  the  movement  from  one  side  to  the  other 
forms  an  exercise  for  the  muscles  which  connect  the  arm  and  the  hand, 
and  are  the  most  important  in  all  handiwork. 

But,  in  order  that  it  may  fulfill  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the 
muscles,  the  movement  must  be  uniform  and  regular.  This  is  not 
generally  the  case  with  ordinary  nursery  hand-games. 

Children  only  really  understand  what  comes  into  immediate  contact 
with  them,  and  is,  so  to  speak,  part  of  their  lives.  No  amount  of  vague 
staring  at  weather-cocks,  or  any  other  object  swayed  by  the  wind,  will 
produce  in  them  anything  like  a  true  impression  of  a  force  which  causes 
the  movement;  but,  if  they  imitate  it  themselves  by  the  voluntary 
action  of  their  hands,  they  will,  after  frequent  repetition  of  the  exercise, 
begin  dimly  to  realize  the  idea  of  an  invisible  force  at  work  behind  the 
visible  manifestation. 

The  motto  of  this  game,  addressed  to  the  mother,  is  as  follows : 
"Wouldst  thou  give  thy  child  of  outward  things  a  notion, 
Let  it  learn  early  to  imitate  their  motion. 
Thus  in  these  things  deeply  ground  it, 
It  will  learn 
To  discern, 
And  to  copy  things  around  it." — Amelia  Gurney. 


234  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  NATURE. 

SONG. 

"  As  the  weather-cock  011  the  tower 
Turns  about  in  wind  and  shower, 
Baby  moves  its  hands  with  pleasure, 
Round  and  round  in  merry  measure." — Amelia  Gurney. 

If  the  action  were  not  accompanied  by  explanatory  words,  the  child's 
intelligence  and  power  of  speech  would  not  be  called  out. 

The  next  important  step,  viz.,  to  connect  the  visible  phenomena  of 
which  the  child  has  been  made  conscious,  with  an  invisible  cause,  is 
easily  taken.  The  mother,  for  instance,  says  :  "  The  wind  moves  the 
trees,  the  mill,  the  kite,  etc.,"  and  then  asks,  "Where  is  the  wind?" 
and  when  the  child  begins  to  look  about  in  search  of  the  wind,  she  says  : 
"  The  wind  does  all  this,  but  we  cannot  see  the  wind." 

Another  game  is  called 

THE    SUN-BIRD, 

and  consists  in  reflecting  the  sun's  rays  through  a  bit  of  glass,  and  let- 
ting them  play  on  the  wall.  The  mother  or  teacher  says  to  the  child, 
"  Catch  the  bird;"  and  after  he  has  made  two  or  three  vain  attempts  to 
do  so,  she  adds,  "  We  can  see  the  bird,  but  it  will  not  let  us  catch  it." 
The  child  thus  learns  at  an  early  age  that  it  is  not  only  material  posses- 
sion that  gives  pleasure,  that  beauty  has  the  power  to  penetrate  to  the 
soul,  and  to  produce  greater  happiness  than  mere  enjoyment  of  the 
senses  can  afford. 

The  knowledge  impressed  on  its  mind  in  various  ways  that  material 
things  cannot  be  laid  hold  of  with  all  the  senses,  and  that  their  ultimate 
cause  cannot  be  grasped  at  all,  leads  the  child,  at  the  very  beginning 
of  its  observations,  from  the  idea  of  matter  to  something  higher  than 
matter,  and  accustoms  it  to  reason  from  the  visible  world  to  a  higher 
invisible  one,  and  to  a  higher  power  ruling  in  everything.  It  must  be 
well  understood,  of  course,  that  at  first  children  are  only  capable  of 
receiving  a  more  or  less  distinct  impression  of  this  truth. 

But  not  the  phenomena  of  the  earth  only,  those  of  the  heavens  also, 
the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  are  made  use  of  by  Frobel  to  convey  to 
the  child's  mind  a  sense  of  the  relationship  of  man  to  the  universe. 
And  here  he  adopts  the  only  possible  means,  viz.,  awakening  in  the 
child  a  perception  of  the  living  bond  of  union  which  connects  every- 
thing together  as  a  whole,  the  power  of  sympathy  and  love.  The  child 
suspects  as  yet  no  divisions  and  contradictions  in  the  world  ;  his  near- 
est surroundings,  which  speak  to  him  as  love,  are  for  him  the  meas- 
ure and  pattern  of  everything  else.  Neither  has  he  any  conception 
of  distance,  but  snatches  at  the  far-off  moon  as  at  the  flower  close  to 
him.  And  this  sense  of  the  unity  and  continuity  of  the  outward  world, 
which  is  the  result  of  his  own  inward  harmony  or  innocence,  it  must  be 
our  endeavor  to  preserve  for  him,  and  not  let  the  knowledge  of  conflict- 
ing forces  open  his  eyes  any  sooner  to  divisions  and  discords  than  grow- 
ing self-consciousness  will  sooner  or  later  unavoidably  do  for  him.  The 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  NATURE.  235 

Intuitive  perception  in  the  child's  soul  of  the  oneness  and  unity  of  God 
is  after  all  the  eternal  truth,  and  all  the  warring  and  strife  in  the  more 
conscious  lives  of  men  and  women  only  a  passing  phenomenon  of 
spiritual  growth. 

THE    CHILD    AND    THE    MOON 

is  an  example  of  the  only  intelligible  way  in  which  the  great  universal 
harmony  and  concord  of  all  created  things  can  be  communicated  to  the 
child's  mind,  viz.,  through  the  idea  of  love  to  himself. 

SONG. 

(To  be  said  or  sung  by  the  mother.) 
"  See,  my  child,  the  moon's  sweet  light, 
Up  in  heaven  shining  bright. 
Moon  come  down,  come  quickly  here 
To  my  little  child  so  dear." 
"  Gladly  would  I  come  and  play 
With  you,  but  too  far  away 
I  live,  and  from  my  home  above 
I  cannot  come  to  those  I  love. 
But  I  send  my  shining  light 
To  make  the  earth  you  live  on  bright, 
Just  to  please  you,  little  child, 
I  look  down  with  my  glance  so  mild  ; 
And,  although  I'm  far  away, 
1  watch  with  love  your  merry  play. 
You  must  promise  me  to  be 
Good  and  kind,  and  then  you'll  see, 
I  shall  often,  often  come, 
And  look  in  at  your  happy  home  ; 
And  when  my  shining  light  you  see, 
You  must  wave  a  kiss  to  me." 
"  Good-bye,  good-bye,  dear  moon, 
Come  back  again  right  soon  !  " 

Thus  Frbbel  would  have  the  natural  phenomena  of  the  universe  made 
use  of  as  stepping-stones  to  higher  knowledge,  and,  above  all  things,  by 
leading  the  child's  observations  in  gradual  stages  from  created  things  up 
to  the  Creator,  he  would  make  these  phenomena  the  means  of  conveying 
to  the  child's  soul  a  conception  of  the  highest  Being.  "  My  system  of 
education  is  based  on  religion,  and  intended  to  lead  up  to  religion." 

The  child's  relation  also  to  the  world  of  plants  and  animals  will  only 
become  real  and  vivid  to  him  if  he  has  to  do  with  them  himself,  if  from 
his  cradle  he  has  grown  up  among  flowers,  and  has  not  lacked  animal 
playfellows,  "  his  brothers  beneath  him,"  as  Michelet  says. 

Frbbel  would  have  liked  to  see  hung  up  before  the  cradle  of  every 
infant  a  bird  in  a  cage,  the  movements  and  twitterings  of  which  would 
occupy  the  child's  attention  immediately  on  its  awaking,  and  prevent 
that  idle  brooding  by  which  the  weight  of  the  material  world  smothers 
the  feeble  spark  of  the  spirit.  Even  young  babies  should  be  brought 
into  contact  with  all  the  elementary  forces  of  nature — which  are  those 
most  closely  related  to  its  own  nature — and  for  this  purpose  they  should 
spend  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  when  the  weather  and  season  allow 


236  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  NATURE. 

it,  in  the  open  air,  where  the  voices  of  wind  and  water,  color,  form, 
and  sounds  of  thousand-fold  kinds,  will  be  their  first  instructors.  Thus 
the  senses  will  be  trained  and  fitted  for  conveying  to  the  soul  its  earliest 
nourishment.  Without  cultivation  of  the  senses  cultivation  of  the  soul 
is  impossible.  Too  little  distinction,  however,  is  still  made  between 
disciplined  and  undisciplined  enjoyment  of  the  senses.  Real,  elevated, 
mental  enjoyment  can  only  be  realized  through  cultivated  senses,  and 
such  enjoyment  will  overcome  that  delight  in  the  coarse  gratification  of 
the  senses  which  is  incompatible  with  human  dignity. 

Children  should  be  encouraged,  also,  to  call  around  them  the  chick- 
ens, pigeons,  or  other  domestic  animals  at  hand,  and,  whilst  they  are 
scattering  food  before  them,  little  songs  may  be  sung  in  which  the 
modes  of  life  of  these  animals  may  be  described.  Children  are  not  capa- 
ble of  intelligent  observation  of  human  life,  and  can  only  understand 
the  actions  of  human  beings  in  so  far  as  they  have  any  relation  to  them- 
selves. The  life  of  animals,  on  the  other  hand,  supplies  them  with 
hundreds  of  scenes  in  which  the  rude  primitive  existence  out  of  which 
humanity  has  developed  itself  is  reflected,  as  in 

THE  FARM- YARD  GATE. 
What  can  this  be  ?    A  gate  I  see  ! 
Oh  !  come  into  the  court  with  me  ; 

The  horses  are  springing, 

The  pigeons  are  flying, 

The  geese  are  chattering, 

The  ducks  are  quacking, 

The  hens  are  cackling, 

The  cock  is  crowing, 

The  cow  is  lowing, 

The  calf  is  sporting, 

The  lamb  is  baaing, 

The  sheep  is  bleating, 

The  pig  is  grunting  ; 
Closely  shut  the  gate  must  be, 
That  none  may  run  away, 
But  all  in  peace  together  stay.— Amelia  Gurney. 

It  is  generally  the  sight  of  animals  that  first  awakens  in  children  a 
desire  for  knowledge.  With  a  little  encouragement  and  direction  they 
will  easily  learn  their  names  and  chief  characteristics,  and  be  led  to  ob- 
serve their  movements,  habits,  manner  of  life,  etc. ;  they  will  learn  how 
to  manage  and  look  after  them,  and  so  get  to  love  them,  and  know  their 
value  to  mankind.  And  all  this  knowledge  will  be  a  preparation  for 
life  and  intercourse  in  the  world  of  human  beings.  If  children  have 
early  learned  to  observe  the  endless  differences  that  exist  in  the  condi- 
tions of  animals,  how  all  the  separate  species,  varying  in  their  ways 
and  requirements,  live  and  flourish  in  different  elements  and  surround- 
ings, they  will  not  be  so  liable  to  fall  into  the  Philistine  habit  of  criti- 
cising and  condemning  everything  in  which  their  fellow-creatures  differ 
from  themselves — the  seeds  of  wide-hearted  toleration  and  love  of  jus- 
tice will  have  been  planted  in  th"m. 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  NATURE.  237 

All  the  different  images  and  influences  of  nature  produce  correspond- 
ing moods  in  the  human  mind.  A  landscape,  smiling  in  the  sunshine, 
impresses  the  mind  very  differently  from  a  hurricane  by  the  seashore, 
and  the  song  of  the  nightingale  produces  a  different  effect  from  the 
croaking  of  owls.  The  young  child  perceives  at  first  only  individual 
objects  in  nature ;  the  thing  which  is  occupying  him  at  the  moment  is 
all  that  will  excite  his  attention  or  influence  his  mind. 

To  grown  people  and  children  alike  impressions  produced  by  nature 
seem,  more  or  less,  the  creation  of  their  own  souls,  and  for  this  reason, 
•that  there  is  everywhere  harmony  between  the  outward  world  and  the 
inner  nature  of  man,  everywhere  analogies  may  be  traced  between  the 
material  and  the  spiritual  world ;  and  how  should  it  be  otherwise  when 
the  Spirit  which  pervades  both  these  inter-dependent  worlds  is  one  ? 

To  a  song  called  "  The  Little  Fishes,"  which  is  accompanied  by  a 
finger  exercise  imitating  the  swimming  undulating  movement  of  fish, 
Frbbel  has  affixed  the  following  motto  (which,  indeed,  may  be  consid- 
ered the  key  to  all  the  songs  in  the  book), — 

"Where  there's  movement,  where  there's  action, 

For  the  child's  eye  there's  attraction  ! 

Where  brightness,  melody,  and  measure, 

Its  little  heart  will  throb  with  pleasure, 

Oh  !  Mothers,  strive  to  keep  these  young  souls  fresh  and  clear, 
That  order,  truth,  and  beauty,  always  may  be  dear  !  " 

Cleanliness  and  order  in  everything  that  relates  to  a  child's  bodily 
wants  will  also  influence  the  purity  of  its  soul,  just  as  the  delight  in 
clear  sparkling  water,  and  all  that  is  bright  and  transparent,  has  more 
to  do  with  the  spiritual  nature  than  the  bodily  senses.  "  All  things 
are  parables  "  (Allcs  iat  Gleichnisfi),  said  Goethe,  when  he  wanted  to  ex- 
press the  analogy  between  the  world  of  outward  phenomena  and  the 
world  of  thought  and  ideas.  The  time  will  come  when  the  whole  sym- 
bolic language  of  nature  will  be  clear  and  intelligible  to  mankind. 

It  is  not  mere  infantine  curiosity  which  is  at  work  when  children 
peer  with  eager  eyes  into  a  nest  full  of  young  birds.  The  snug  little 
home,  in  which  the  parent-birds  nestle  out  of  sight  with  their  young 
ones,  is  to  the  child  a  picture  of  its  own  home  life,  which  he  cannot 
form  a  distinct  objective  conception  of  until  he  has  seen  it,  as  it  were, 
placed  at  a  distance  from  himself.  His  own  parents  are  too  closely 
united  with  him,  too  much  part  of  his  own  life,  for  him  to  be  able  to 
form  a  right  idea  of  his  relations  to  them. 

A  child  of  two  or  three  years  old,  who  tries  hard  to  round  his  little 
hands  into  the  shape  of  a  bird's-nest,  singing  all  the  while  the  little 
."  bird-song,"  will  be  sure  to  think  of  his  own  dear  mother. 

Two  pretty  birds  built  a  soft  warm  nest, 

In  which  together  they  may  rest ; 

Three  round  eggs  in  the  nest  they  lay, 

And  hatch  three  young  birds  one  fine  day  ! 
"  Twit,  twit,  twit,"  the  young  ones  call, 
"  Mother,  thou  art  so  dear  to  us  all.''— Amelia  Gurney. 


238  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  NATURE. 

Frobel  uses  this  example,  of  the  visible  providence  of  parents,  to 
lead  the  mind  up  to  the  invisible  providence  of  the  all-protecting  Heav- 
enly Father.  The  child  is  then  taught  to  observe  either  in  real  life,  or 
in  the  pictures  of  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder"  how  every  little  bird 
is  taken  care  of  in  a  special  way,  how  it  builds  its  nest  where  it  is  safe 
from  danger,  and  where  the  food  it  requires  is  within  reach,  and  that 
it  builds  this  nest,  and  hatches  its  young  ones,  at  the  time  of  year  when 
the  unfledged  little  creatures  will  be  protected  by  the  warmth  of  the 
spring  sun,  and  so  forth.  And  then  the  mother,  drawing  the  child's 
attention  to  the  fearlessness  with  which  the  little  birds  lie  quietly  in 
their  nest,  waiting  for  the  return  of  their  mother,  who  has  gone  to  fetch 
them  food,  repeats  these  words : 

"  The  heavenly  Father's  glorious  sun 

Warms  thy  home  too  and  makes  it  bright, 
He  shines  on  thee  and  every  one, 

Look  up  and  thank  him  for  his  light." 

And  many  other  verses  of  the  book  point  in  like  manner  to  God's  all- 
ruling  Providence. 

The  child,  who,  at  the  age  of  two  years,  has  imitated  the  watering 
of  flowers,  in  the  hand-game  called  the  "  watering-pot,"  when  it  is  a 
year  or  two  older,  will  delight  in  carrying  water  to  real  flowers,  and 
somewhat  later  on  will  tend  its  patch  of  ground  diligently,  for  its  senses 
will,  from  the  very  first,  have  been  awakened  to  the  fact  that  all  living 
things  require  care  and  love,  and  that  love  must  show  itself  in  action. 
Whatever  children  have  to  take  care  of  they  learn  to  love,  and,  through 
the  care  and  attention  bestowed  on  plants  and  animals,  their  feelings 
will  be  so  enlarged  and  cultivated  that  in  after-life  they  will  be  capable 
of  making  sacrifices  for  the  human  beings  whom  they  love. 

As  every  human  instinct  has  its  analogy  in  nature,  so  has  that  instinct 
of  which  conscience  is  in  time  developed.  If  the  order  and  regularity 
of  nature  be  rightly  understood,  and  the  evil  recognized  which  follows 
neglect  or  violation  of  natural  laws,  the  order  of  the  moral  world,  trans- 
gression against  which  constitutes  sin,  will  be  easily  grasped.  Just  as 
every  breach  of  the  laws  of  nature  speaks  distinctly  in  the  outward 
visible  world,  so  does  the  voice  of  conscience  make  itself  loudly  heard 
within,  when,  by  something  unworthy  of  its  higher  destiny,  the  laws 
of  human  nature  are  violated. 

None  but  those  who  do  not  understand  or  observe  the  nature  and 
character  of  children,  who  have  forgotten  their  own  childhood,  and 
have  no  feeling  or  love  for  nature,  will  consider  it  a  piece  of  far-fetched 
absurdity,  thus  to  interpret  the  earliest  games  of  children  as  the  start- 
ing-point of  the  life  of  the  soul,  and  the  beginning  of  mental  develop- 
ment. If  the  first  play  and  laughter  of  the  infant  had  no  connection 
with  the  last  deeds  of  the  old  man,  how  could  we  pretend  to  believe  in 
anything  like  continuity  in  human  life,  and  man's  inward  develop- 
ment? Only  when  the  idea  of  this  continuity  has  been  fully  grasped, 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  NATURE.  239 

when  education  shall  succeed  in  preserving  unbroken  the  thread  which 
connects  the  child  with  the  youth,  will  the  man  live  and  act  to  the  end 
of  his  days  up  to  the  ideal  of  his  youth.  And  then  only  shall  we  see 
real  men  arid  women  truly  great  and  worthy  characters. 

In  an  age  like  ours,  when  fresh  advances  must  be  made  in  order,  as  far 
as  possible,  to  heal  the  breach  which  has  hitherto  existed  between  man 
and  nature — and  which  was  necessary  for  the  growth  of  human  under- 
standing and  consciousness — and  to  bring  humanity  and  nature,  by 
the  conquest  and  spiritualization  of  the  latter,  into  a  new  bond  of 
union,  in  an  age  when  natural  science  places  itself  at  the  head  of  all 
science,  and  subdues  to  itself  one  department  of  life  after  another,  a 
new  generation  must  not  be  allowed  to  grow  up  without  receiving  its 
initiation  in  this  temple  of  Divine  revelation,  and  being  fitted  to  exer- 
cise wisely  the  sovereignty  assigned  to  man  over  the  kingdom  of  nature. 
And  this  initiation  must  take  place  at  the  very  commencement  of  life, 
through  the  teaching  of  the  symbolic  language  of  nature,  which  chil- 
dren's eyes  can  read  better  than  others.  As  humanity  in  the  dawn  of 
its  existence  apprehended  clearly  the  language  of  nature,  and  heard  in 
it  distinctly  the  voice  of  God,  so  in  the  thousand  voices  of  nature  does 
the  child  hear  God  speaking  to  it,  and  lofty  truths  are  the  first  impres- 
sions made  on  its  soul.  The  rippling  brook  tells  him  the  loveliest 
fairy  tales  ;  the  vine-leaves  swayed  by  the  summer  breeze  reveal  to  him 
the  first  secrets  of  beauty ;  the  flowers  greet  him  as  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, and  exchange  smiling  glances  with  him  ;  the  wind-chased  clouds, 
painted  by  the  evening  sun,  shape  themselves  to  his  fancy  into  magic 
pictures  of  an  ideal  world ;  butterflies  and  insects  speak  to  him  in  a 
familiar  language,  and  the  birds  gladden  with  poetry  that  is  ever  new. 

In  such  a  world  of  beauty  and  divine  peace,  the  young  heart  will  so 
expand  and  strengthen  as  to  be  able  later  to  endure  the  turmoil  and 
strife  of  the  human  world,  will  acquire  force  sufficient  to  overcome  all 
adverse  powers,  and  gain  an  indomitable  belief  in  the  Divine  Spirit, 
and  an  immutable  trust  in  the  fatherly  love  of  God. 

"  What  God  has  joined  together,  let  not  man  separate !  "  says  Frb'bel 
with  regard  to  man's  "  union  with  nature." 


240  FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS. 


x.     THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

THE  child  awakens  to  life  in  its  mother's  arms,  its  mother  is,  so  to 
say,  its  own  wider  life.  Without  her  care,  without  her  looks  of  love, 
existence  would  offer  a  sorry  prospect  to  the  young  new-comer.  The 
mother  must  be  her  child's  first  mediator  with  the  world  and  mankind. 

The  physical  union  between  mother  and  child,  which  still  continues 
for  some  time  after  birth,  becomes  gradually  loosened,  and  that  first  by 
the  child  learning  to  walk,  which  is  the  first  stage  of  physical  independ- 
ence. But  even  in  this  earliest  period  of  the  child's  life  a  certain  degree 
of  spiritual  union,  between  mother  and  child,  must  have  been  gained, 
if,  with  the  growing  freedom  and  independence  of  body,  there  is  to  be 
an  increase  of  the  mental  union  from  which  the  mother  derives  her 
chief  educational  power.  Woe  to  the  child  who  learns  to  run  without 
ever,  during  its  first  exercise  of  this  new  freedom,  hurrying  back  in 
terror  to  his  mother's  loving  arms  !  To  the  end  of  his  life  there  will  be 
a  void  in  his  soul,  for  the  first  love-bond  in  his  life  was  not  knit  closely 
and  securely  enough.  But  if  the  hearts  of  mother  and  child  are  rightly 
fused  together,  during  the  period  of  bodily  union  and  earliest  nurture, 
then  the  physical  emancipation  of  the  child  will  work  in  the  opposite 
direction  as  regards  mind  and  spirit ;  spiritual  union  will  increase  with 
the  child's  consciousness  of  its  physical  independence  of  its  mother, 
with  the  development  of  its  personality. 

The  first  utterance  through  which  the  child  expresses  its  love  relation- 
ship to  human  beings,  to  its  mother,  is  smiling.  The  human  heart  alone 
is  capable  of  laughter  and  tears,  and  for  the  newborn  infant  this  is  the 
only  language  at  command  to  express  its  wants  and  feelings. 

All  relationships  start  from  one  point,  one  object,  and  they  must  first 
be  firmly  knit  round  this  point  before  they  can  bear  to  have  their  limits 
widened.  Thus  the  mother  should  be  the  central  point  round  which 
the  child's  being  revolves  at  first ;  she  should  not  allow  any  one  else  to 
have  so  much  to  do  with  him  as  herself,  in  order  that  his  heart  may 
learn  to  concentrate  itself.  A  great  deal  of  harm  is  still  done  in  this 
respect  by  nurses  and  other  servants.  The  children  of  wealthy  parents, 
who  are  surrounded  by  numbers  of  attendants,  and  handed  over  first  to 
one  and  then  another,  frequently  grow  up  with  weak,  unstable  affections. 

The  natural  sequence  of  human  relationship  for  the  child  is  from 
the  mother  to  the  father,  the  brothers  and  sisters,  the  grandparents,  the 
more  distant  members  of  the  family,  and  the  servants  of  the  house ; 
and  after  these  come  its  own  playfellows  and  the  friends  of  its  parents. 
Very  young  children  are  apt  to  cry,  or,  at  any  rate,  put  on  a  look  of 
alarm,  if  taken  amongst  a  large  company  of  strangers,  and  this  is  sim- 
ply because  they  cannot  yet  feel  any  connection  between  themselves 
and  people  outside  their  own  family,  and  are  therefore  frightened  by 
them.  Everything  strange  and  unknown,  unless  it  be  led  up  to  by, 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  241 

gradual  transitions,  gives  a  shock  to  the  system.  If  the  harmony  of 
the  soul  is  to  be  complete  in  the  future,  the  child's  feelings  must  not 
be  overstrained  at  first,  but  be  allowed  to  expand  gradually. 

Hence  it  must  always  have  a  pernicious  effect  to  take  young  children 
out  of  the  family  circle,  and  set  them  in  the  midst  of  a  larger  commu- 
nity, where  no  natural  bonds  of  affection  can  be  knit.*  Children  who 
have  been  placed  at  an  early  age  in  orphanages,  or  who  have  spent  the 
first  part  of  their  lives  in  a  foundling  hospital,  will  generally  be  found 
to  have  a  melancholy,  listless  expression  of  countenance ;  they  always 
look  as  if  something  was  wanting  to  them,  however  good  the  arrange- 
ments of  these  institutions  may  be.  Nothing  can  fully  take  the  place 
of  the  natural  atmosphere  of  family-life  which  has  been  divinely  or- 
dained for  children,  though  at  the  same  time  it  is  fair  to  acknowledge 
that  orphan  asylums  do,  to  an  immense  extent,  compensate  the  little 
ones  received  in  them  for  the  want  of  a  mother's  care  and  love. 

"  Father,  mother,  and  child  make  up  at  first  the  whole  human  being," 
says  Frobel.  The  family  is  the  first  link  in  the  organism  of  humanity, 
the  first  social  community.  And  if  this  first  link  be  imperfect,  how 
can  the  others  hang  together  properly  ? 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  this  small  circle,  in  which  the  starting  point  of 
morality  may  be  said  to  lie,  does  not  in  course  of  time  extend  its  horizon, 
exclusive  family  love  would  degenerate  into  family  egotism,  of -which 
there  is  already  quite  enough  in  the  world.  In  the  Middle-Ages  such 
exclusiveness  was  to  a  certain  extent  necessary ;  it  had  its  justifications 
and  its  good  results.  But  in  the  present  day  the  conditions  of  life  are 
different ;  and  family  egotism,  such  particularly  as  exists  among  the 
aristocracy  and  in  the  seclusion  of  country  life,  must  be  rooted  out  as  a 
remnant  of  feudalism  if  the  love  of  humanity  is  to  increase  and  spread. 

Hence  children,  when  once  they  have  become  thoroughly  at  home  in 
the  family  circle — have  embraced  all  its  members  in  their  affections — 
must  be  introduced  to  a  larger  circle,  which  should  consist  chiefly  of 
children  of  their  own  age.  The  face  of  the  youngest  child  will  brighten 
with  delight  when  it  meets  another  of  the  same  size  or  age.  An  in- 
stinctive feeling  of  sympathy  arises  where  there  is  a  similar  degree  of 
development,  just  as  in  later  life  people  of  kindred  minds  become  at- 
tached to  one  another.  The  Kindergarten  affords  the  best  possible 
playground  for  infants,  even  before  their  second  year;  but  it  is  essen- 
tial that  they  should  be  accompanied  by  their  mothers  or  nurses. 

The  hand-games  in  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  furnish  also  the  first 
introduction  to  the  family  relationships. 

Almost  everything  that  comes  under  a  child's  notice  will  suggest  to 
it  these  relationships,  because  they  are  the  only  ones  known  to  it.  Its 


*It  is  quite  another  thing,  to  take  young  children  (even  during  their  two  first  years) 
for  part  of  the  day  to  Kindergartens,  for  they  will  there  be  thrown  only  with  children, 
and  will  have  companions  of  their  own  age. 

16 


242  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

dolls  are  made  to  represent  father,  or  mother  and  children ;  it  plays  at 
being  father  or  mother  with  its  little  companions.  A  child  of  two  years 
old  or  so  will  cry  out :  "  Father  and  mother  stars  !  "  while  gazing  at 
two  large  shining  orbs  in  the  heavens  (see  "Mutier  und  Koselieder"). 
These  and  a  hundred  other  examples  teach  us  what  a  prominent  place 
this  most  natural  of  relations  occupies  in  the  minds  of  children. 

In  one  of  the  finger-games  the  child's  fingers  are  made  to  represent 
its  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters. 
For  instance : 

This  is  the  mother,  dear  and  good; 

This  is  the  father,  of  merry  mood; 

This  is  the  brother,  strong  and  tall; 

This  is  the  sister,  beloved  of  all; 

This  is  the  baby,  still  tender  and  small; 

And  this  the  whole  family  we  call. 

Count  them— one,  two,  three,  four,  five, 

To  be  happy  and  good  they  always  strive. 

In  another  game  the  fingers  are  counted  and  doubled  down  one  after 
the  other  into  the  palm  of  the  hand,  while  at  the  same  time  the  names 
of  the  brothers  and  sisters  and  of  the  child  itself  are  enumerated : 

To  thumb  now  I  say  one; 

To  index  finger,  two; 

To  middle  finger,  three; 

To  ring  finger,  four; 

At  little  finger  five  I  number. 

Now  I've  put  them  all  to  bed, 

Pillowed  is  each  sleepy  head; 

Let  them  rest  in  peaceful  slumber.— Amelia  Gurney. 

Counting  is  an  inexhaustible  source  of  amusement  to  little  children, 
as,  indeed,  may  be  everything  that  is  of  importance  for  their  develop- 
ment, if  only  it  be  presented  to  them  in  a  suitable  form ;  and  it  is  ex- 
tremely easy  to  make  the  importance  of  number  intelligible  to  them  by 
degrees,  either  with  the  measure  of  music,  or  the  rhythm  of  verse,  or 
by  giving  them  a  number  of  things  to  count.  This  little  game  also 
affords  opportunity  for  exercising  children's  power  of  self-control. 
Nothing  is  more  difficult  to  them  than  to  stand  perfectly  still  without 
making  a  sound  or  movement ;  it  is  in  vain  that  they  are  bidden  to  be 
silent  unless  they  are  made  to  feel  that  there  is  a  reason  for  silence. 
But  here  is  a  game  of  which  they  understand  the  meaning,  and  they 
will  remain  perfectly  motionless,  with  an  expression  of  the  greatest 
importance,  for  whole  minutes,  and  even  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  under 
the  impression  that  they  must  not  wake  the  sleeping  little  ones. 

From  young  children  only  very  little  must  be  expected,  and  only  a 
little  at  a  time  can  be  taken  in  by  them.  The  smallest  efforts  increased 
by  degrees  will  lead  up  at  last  to  the  greatest  ones. 

In  another  of  the  finger-games  the  fingers  represent  a  flower-basket 
in  which  the  child  carries  flowers  to  its  father,  and  thus  opportunity  is 
afforded  to  the  tiniest  human  being  of  expressing  its  love  in  action. 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  243 

The  motto  to  this  is  : 

"  Seek  your  children's  hearts  to  hold, 

By  all  the  means  you  can  devise  ; 
Even  their  love  for  you  may  grow  cold, 

A  plant  that  is  not  watered  dies." 

Further  on  in  the  book  we  find  two  grandmothers  visiting  each  other 
with  their  grandchildren :  this  is  an  expansion  of  family  relations. 
The  story  connected  with  this  game  strings  together  all  the  various 
objects  which  have  hitherto  served  the  child  as  playthings  in  order  to 
produce  on  its  mind  an  impression  of  the  continuity  and  connection  of 
all  things. 
Frobel  says : 

"  The  child  should  grow  into  a  full  harmonious  whole, 
This  is,  while  yet  on  earth,  the  destiny  of  his  soul." 

It  is  one  of  FrbbeFs  leading  ideas,  and  one  which  recurs  again  and 
again,  to  impress  the  unity  and  continuity  of  the  universe  and  of 
humanity  on  the  child's  anind  in  all  sorts  of  different  ways. 

If  the  modern  mania  for  associations  would  extend  itself  to  associa- 
tions of  families,  for  the  combined  purpose  of  improving  education  and 
of  introducing  greater  community  into  it,  more  good  would  be  done 
than  by  all  the  associations  for  material  and  industrial  ends.  The 
Kindergarten  furnishes  the  best  means  for  this  purpose  by  placing  the 
beginnings  of  education  among  a  community  of  friendly  families,  each 
member  of  which  has  the  opportunity  of  using  his  endowments  for  the 
greatest  good  of  the  young  generation. 

As  in  the  case  of  adult  individuals,  of  nations,  and  of  humanity, 
there  are  great  and  critical  periods  of  development  which  have  a 
decisive  influence  on  their  careers  or  histories — so  is  it  with  the  growth 
of  children.  It  is  such  periods  as  these  that  Frobel  endeavours  to  point 
out  and  explain  to  mothers  in  order  that  they  may  turn  them  to  their 
destined  use.  The  greater  the  child's  unconsciousness  at  the  time,  the 
stronger  will  be  the  effect  on  its  moral  development  of  all  impressions- 
it  may  receive.  If  these  critical  periods  of  growth  were  judiciously  dealt 
with,  not  too  roughly  interfered  with,  while  at  the  same  time  sufficiently 
watched  and  helped  to  make  their  work  lasting,  the  whole  development 
of  the  character  would  receive  a  different  and  a  better  bias.  The  most 
trifling  incidents  are  of  importance  in  childhood ;  for  the  whole  future 
life  is  influenced  by  the  impressions  made  then. 

For  instance,  Frobel  looks  upon  the  child's  first  fall  as  an  important 
event  in  his  early  development,  and  one  of  which  the  full  impression 
should  not  be  disturbed.  The  child's  confidence  in  running  arises  from 
his  being  still  ignorant  of  danger — he  is  like  virtue  which  has  not  yet 
been  tried!  He  falls,  and  is  tor  the  first  time  frightened  out  of  the 
repose  of  unconsciousness.  The  wise  plan  then  would  be  to  leave  him 
to  himself,  not  to  lift  him  up  at  once  and  overwhelm  him  with  pity  and 
lamentations,  even  though  he  should  have  hurt  himself  a  little  and 


244  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

begun  to  cry.  This  first  fright  and  pain  will  thus  produce  their  full 
impression  on  him,  and  foresight  will  be  awakened  in  him ;  his  self- 
confidence  will  no  longer  be  a  blind  instinct,  and  the  necessity  of 
acquiring  strength  and  skill  will  become  gradually  recognized. 

Nothing  makes  people  so  superficial  as  being  subject  to  constant 
rapid  successions  of  impressions,  the  one  effacing  the  other,  and  no 
lasting  mark  being  left  on  the  mind  or  character.  The  present  genera- 
tion, in  the  rich  and  fashionable  world  especially,  affords  ample  proof 
of  this.  Rapid  reading,  rapid  traveling,  enjoyments  of  every  kind 
(even  the  noble  pleasures  of  art  and  nature)  crowded  one  on  the  other, 
the  hurry  and  bustle  of  modern  life  generally,  tend  more  than  anything 
else  to  produce  superficiality,  emptiness,  and  dullness. 

So  little  thought  has  hitherto  been  given  to  the  signification  of  chil- 
dren's earliest  play,  that  we  cannot  too  often  remind  our  readers  not  to 
look  for  this  meaning  in  the  outward  form  of  their  games,  but  in  the 
fact  that  the  utterances  of  children,  being  the  natural  expression  of 
their  human  nature,  reveal  this  nature  in  its  earliest  beginnings.  A 
considerable  number  of  examples  from  the  series  in  the  "  Mutter  und 
Kosdieder  "  is  necessary  to  make  Frb'bel's  theories  quite  intelligible. 

One  of  the  well-known  games  often  played  with  little  children,  and 
which  always  causes  them  great  enjoyment,  is  Bo-Peep.  Now  it  is 
Frobel's  theory  that  whatever  invariably  calls  forth  expressions  of 
delight  from  the  little  beings,  and  has  become  a  tolerably  universal 
practice,  has  always  a  deep  significance  for  their  development ;  and  he 
explains  the  never-ending  delight  afforded  by  the  game  of  Bo-Peep  in 
this  manner :  that  the  child  through  the  momentary  separation  from 
its  mother  (viz.,  when  she  is  hidden  by  the  handkerchief)  becomes 
more  conscious  of  its  dependence  on  her,  and  for  this  reason  that  noth- 
ing can  be  realized,  or  made  objective  to  the  mind,  except  by  contrast 
with  its  opposite.  But  if  the  mother  should  neglect  to  evince  her  joy 
at  seeing  her  child  again  after  being  hidden  from  him,  or  should  allow 
the  child  to  remain  hidden  too  long  without  looking  for  him  and  rejoic- 
ing at  finding  him  again,  a  love  of  hiding  for  its  own  sake  may  gradu- 
ally be  acquired,  and  thus  the  first  step  taken  towards  the  habit  of 
concealment,  from  which  falsehood  and  deceit  are  not  far  removed. 

Who  could  pretend  to  decide  exactly  where  the  first  imperceptible 
germs  of  evil  in  the  human  soul  originate,  and  how  they  show  them- 
selves ?  The  faintest  gleam  that  promises  to  light  up  the  darkness  of 
early  psychology  is  not  to  be  despised  by  the  educationalist,  and  Frobel 
has  certainly  penetrated  deeper  than  any  one  else  into  the  earliest 
beginnings  of  the  soul's  life.  Good  and  evil  lie  always  close  together, 
"but  Divine  Providence  can  make  good  come  even  out  of  evil;  and 
education  should  do  its  utmost  to  use  the  impulses  which  might  lead  to 
evil  for  the  promotion  of  good.  With  regard  to  the  danger  of  the  game 
of  Bo-Peep  exciting  in  the  child  a  love  of  concealment  Frobel  says : 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  245 

"  From  the  very  point  whence  danger  threatens  to  come,  help  may  corne 
also — as  it  always  is  in  God's  world — if  only  you,  the  mother,  rightly 
understand  how  to  turn  to  a  right  account  every  impulse  of  your  child's 
nature.  Through  the  outward  separation,  rightly  used,  the  sense  of 
inward  union  will  be  strengthened  in  the  child.  The  great  end  every- 
where to  be  kept  in  view  is  the  attainment  of  unity,  and  every  separa- 
tion should  be  made  to  conduce  to  this  end." 

What  is  most  essential  for  the  later  educational  influence  of  the 
mother  is  that  in  the  very  earliest  period  of  her  child's  development 
she  should  have  succeeded  in  gaining  its  confidence,  so  that,  when  the 
moment  of  the  first  fault  (or  "  fall  ")  comes,  the  child  should  not  think 
of  hiding  itself  from  her.  But  this  confidence  can  only  be  won  by  the 
mother's  living  in  the  child's  life,  that  is  to  say,  playing  with  it,  enter- 
ing into  everything  that  occupies  its  little  mind ;  in  short,  understand- 
ing and  rightly  directing  its  earliest  utterances.  If  the  first  fault  lias 
been  committed,  loving  sympathy  with  the  child's  inward  suffering, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  is  made  to  feel  that  it  is  to  a  certain  extent 
brought  on  by  himself,  will  have  more  effect  than  any  scolding  or 
punishment.  That  these  cannot  be  entirely  dispensed  with  as  the  child 
grows  older  is  of  course  understood ;  but  the  natural  consequences  of  a 
fault  are  always  its  most  effectual  punishment.  The  youngest  child 
can  tell  at  once  whether  praise  or  blame  is  intended  in  a  look,  and  if 
the  mother  possess  true  educational  tact  she  can  do  much  in  this  way 

This  occasion  of  the  child's  first  fault  is  of  the  greatest  importance, 
because  it  brings  with  it  the  first  awakening  of  conscience. 

In  order  that  he  may  learn  to  listen  to  this  inward  voice,  to  catch  by 
degrees  its  faintest  whispers,  and  follow  them  obediently,  the  child 
must  first  have  been  accustomed  to  pay  attention  to  a  call  addressed  to 
himself.  Frobel  associates  the  first  attention  to  the  mother's  call  with 

THE    CUCKOO    GAME. 

The  child  is  hidden  in  its  mother's  arms  or  close  to  her,  does  not  see 
her,  but  hears  her  call,  and  is  delighted  by  the  sound  of  her  voice.  If 
the  child  be  constantly  kept  up  to  following  obediently  the  voice  of  his 
mother  directing  him  to  what  is  good  and  right,  he  will  also  listen  to 
the  voice  within  him,  and  not  let  it  speak  in  vain.  If  the  mother  has 
made  her  call  dear  to  him  by  never  requiring  of  him  anything  in  oppo- 
sition to  his  childish  nature  or  to  his  particular  character,  then  he  will 
also  love  the  call  of  conscience  as  the  voice  of  God,  and  this  voice  will 
accompany  him  through  life  as  a  guardian  angel  and  bind  him  to  God. 
The  same  relation  which  exists  between  the  child  and  mother  after  the 
former  has  learned  to  distinguish  his  own  will,  and  therewith  his  own 
personality  from  that  of  his  mother,  will  exist  later  between  his  indi- 
vidual inclinations  and  the  judicial  or  warning  voice  of  universal  reason 
speaking  to  him  through  conscience.  If  love,  loving  obedience,  and 
trusting  confidence  prevail  between  mother  and  child  instead  of  fear 


246  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

of  severity  arid  punishments,  there  will  be  a  possibility  in  later  life  of 
that  true  virtue  which  follows  the  dictates  of  conscience,  not  from  cow- 
ardice and  fear  of  compulsion  (inward  or  outward),  but  from  free 
choice  and  out  of  love  of  right,  and  of  God.  Whether  a  human  being 
becomes  a  moral  freedman  (within  the  given  limits)  or  a  slave  to  his 
own- and  others'  caprices,  depends  to  a  great  extent  on  the  foundation 
laid  in  the  earliest  days  of  his  development.  It  is  not  how  often  or 
how  seldom  he  fails,  but  how  he  lifts  himself  up  from  his  falls  and 
atones  for  sins  committed,  that  determines  the  moral  worth  of  a  man. 

In  our  days,  when  obedience  to  personal  authority  is  growing  less 
and  less,  it  is  certainly  of  the  utmost  importance  that  education  should 
do  all  in  its  power  to  encourage  obedience  to  law.  The  child  should 
be  made  to  feel  at  an  early  age  that  his  parents  and  teachers  are,  like 
himself,  subject  to  a  higher  power,  in  order  that  there  may  be  early 
awakened  in  his  mind  the  conception  of  a  moral  order,  to  whose  au- 
thority he  will  in  time  have  to  submit.  All  the  qualities  of  a  child 
may,  if  not  carefully  watched,  pass  over  into  their  opposites  and  de- 
generate into  faults. 

The  first  characteristic  with  which  education  has  to  contend  is  self- 
will.  Without  a  certain  amount  of  self-will  the  character  would  never 
develop  itself  ;  for  it  is  precisely  out  of  self-will,  /.  e.,  one's  own  will, 
that  the  resolution,  the  assertion  of  one's  own  personality  and  opinion, 
in  short,  all  that  makes  of  human  beings  morally  responsible  men  and 
women,  is  developed. 

The  child's  self-will  is  the  perverted  expression  of  his  growing  feel- 
ing of  personality.  This  feeling  is  roused  when  something  contrary 
happens  to  it,  or  something  that  it  wants  is  denied  to  it.  Now  if  this 
something  be  a  thing  that  he  is  justified  in  wanting,  something  that  has 
to  do  with  a  necessity  of  his  preservation  or  development,  the  child  is 
in  the  right ;  but  if  he  simply  will  not  submit  to  some  justifiable  de- 
mand of  his  elders,  then  he  is  in  the  wrong,  and  must  not  be  listened 
to.  For  instance,  a  child  cries  in  its  cradle  for  food,  or  from  an  in- 
stinct of  cleanliness,  or  any  other  justifiable  prompting  of  its  nature, 
and  is  not  attended  to,  and  this  neglect  excites  him  to  anger,  and  his 
screaming  is  set  down  to  self-will.  In  such  a  case  the  mother  or  nurse 
is  to  blame.  But  if  a  child  simply  cries  whenever  it  wants  to  be  taken 
out  of  its  cradle,  it  must  not  always  be  humored  ;  so  that  its  will  or 
determination  may  not  degenerate  into  obstinacy  or  willfulness.  True, 
the  child  may  be  said  to  be  justified  in  requiring  that  which  is  agreeable 
to  it,  and  wishing  to  get  rid  of  what  is  disagreeable;  as,  for  instance, 
lying  alone  and  unoccupied  in  its  cradle.  But  then  some  occupation 
should  be  provided  for  it  in  its  cradle,  arid  thus  the  reasonable  part  of 
its  demand  be  satisfied. 

It  is  most  essential  that  children  should  learn  from  the  very  begin- 
ning to  submit  to  the  conditions  of  life,  and  even  sometimes  to  do 
without  what  they  are  justified  in  wishing  for,  and  to  bear  what  is 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  247 

unpleasant  to  them  for  the  sake  of  others ;  they  must  be  trained  from 
their  cradles  to  subordinate  the  individual  will  to  the  community,  and 
to  sacrifice  self  out  of  love  to  others.  But  these  exercises  in  self-denial 
must  not  at  first  extend  to  giving  up  anything  really  necessary  to  them, 
and  must  never  last  too  long. 

There  is  no  more  difficult  task  in  education  than  to  strike  the  right 
balance  in  this  matter,  on  which  the  whole  struggle  of  human  life 
turns  ;  avoidance  of  all  that  is  disagreeable,  of  all  pain  and  sorrow,  and 
striving  after  well-being  and  happiness,  are  the  two  opposite  forces  by 
means  of  which  Providence  works  out  our  whole  development.  Here, 
too,  love,  the  highest  principle  of  morality,  is  the  only  one  that  can  lead 
in  the  right  direction.  Let  children  learn  through  love  to  give  up  their 
own  will  to  others ;  this  is  the  only  right  sort  of  obedience  and  that 
which  arouses  energy  for  good,  whereas  obedience  from  fear  produces 
cowardice.  The  obedience  of  love  begets  reverence,  the  noble  desire 
not  to  grieve  parents  or  others  who  are  beloved,  and  from  it  there  will 
spring  later  a  holy  fear  and  reverence  of  God. 

In  training  children  to  obey,  very  little  distinction  is  made  between 
right  and  wrong  obedience.  The  child's  will  is  too  often  cowed  instead 
of  being  guided  and  directed  towards  right ;  and  this  is  the  reason  why 
so  few  human  beings  attain  that  true  moral  independence  without 
which  the  highest  kind  of  freedom,  that  of  self-government,  is  impossi- 
ble, and  the  inner  kernel  of  the  character  can  never  fully  unfold  itself. 

Frdbel  lays  down  the  following  general  rules  :  To  satisfy  the  child's 
demands  as  much  as  possible;  to  be  wisely  indulgent;  not  to  command 
and  forbid  unreasonably ;  and  to  allow  the  child,  as  far  as  it  can  do  so 
without  injury,  to  teach  itself  by  its  own  experiences. 

It  would  not  be  nearly  so  difficult  to  make  children  obedient  if  people 
began  in  earliest  childhood,  and  set  to  work  in  the  right  way.  Before 
egotistic  inclinations,  selfish  impulses  and  passions  have  yet  been 
aroused  and  become  obstacles  in  the  way,  submission  to  law,  which  pre- 
sents itself  in  the  guise  of  parental  authority,  is  not  difficult  to  the 
child  if  only  he  has  been  inspired  with  a  sense  that  nothing  but  Ms  wel- 
fare and  happiness  are  thought  of. 

This  applies  also  to  animals,  who  know  at  once  whether  harm  or 
good  is  meant  them.  One  glance  at  the  human  eye  is  enough  to  inspire 
the  animal  and  the  little  child  with  confidence  or  distrust.  It  is  only  by 
patience  and  love  that  animals  can  be  trained,  not  by  commanding  and 
forbidding;  and  yet  this  latter  plan  is  the  one  chiefly  adopted  with 
young  children,  in  spite  of  the  proverb  which  says,  "  Das  verbot  nur 
reizt."  These  then  are  the  chief  things  to  be  remembered :  That  love 
begets  confidence ;  that  only  what  is  right  and  wholesome  should  be 
required  of  children ;  that  all  compulsion  should  be  avoided  from  the 
beginning ;  that  they  should  never  be  taxed  beyond  their  strength,  and 
that  everything  that  is  disagreeable  to  them  should  as  far  as  possible 
be  averted  from  them. 


248  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  DELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

As  they  grow  older,  more  and  more  may  by  degrees  be  exacted  from 
them,  and  sometimes  even  that  which  for  the  moment  is  difficult  and 
disagreeable,  for  love  and  trust  will  submit  blindly  and  conquer  the 
individual  will. 

And  as  it  is  only  in  childhood  that  a  firm  basis  of  true  obedience  can 
be  laid,  so  it  is  with  all  virtues  which  depend  chiefly  on  the  formation 
of  good  habits  and  experience  of  their  beneficial  consequences.  It  is 
therefore  of  the  greatest  importance  that  this  first  period  of  childhood 
should  be  understood  in  its  minutest  details  and  treated  accordingly. 

Another  critical  moment  in  the  development  of  children,  and  one 
which  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  takes  note  of,  is  when  they  first 
begin  to  observe  that  people  are  talking  about  them  and  criticising  them. 
Without  the  desire  to  gain  the  love  and  approval  of  others,  the  human 
being  would  be  deprived  of  his  strongest  stimulus  in  his  endeavors  after 
the  good  and  the  beautiful.  This  desire  kindles  in  the  child  as  soon 
as  he  arrives  at  a  distinct  perception  of  his  own  personality.  He  then 
begins  to  wish  to  be  loved  and  praised  by  others,  and  it  depends  on  the 
right  or  wrong  guidance  of  this  instinct  whether  it  will  develop  into 
proper  love  and  reverence,  or  into  vanity  and  ambition. 

In  the  games  "  The  Riders  and  the  Good  Child,"  and  «  The  Riders 
and  the  Sulky  Child,"  Frobel  endeavors  to  teach  mothers  the  right  way 
of  dealing  in  this  respect,  by  making  the  riders  delighted  with  the  good 
child,  while  they  leave  the  sulky  one  behind.  Children  must  be  made 
to  feel  that  they  are  loved  for  their  good  qualities,  and  not  for  their 
outward  appearance.  They  are  too  apt  to  hear  themselves  praised  as 
the  "  pretty  child,"  the  "  beautiful  child ;  "  to  have  their  clothes  ad- 
mired, etc.  The  attention  of  many  mothers  is  exclusively  taken  up 
with  their  children's  dress.  "  What  will  people  say  if  you  make  your 
frock  dirty,  crumple  your  hat?"  and  so  forth,  is  the  ordinary  talk  of 
nurses.  Thus  the  child  grows  up  with  the  idea  that  people  pay  more 
attention  to  its  outward  person,  and  value  it  more  for  this  than  for  its 
real  merits.  Outward  appearance  is,  indeed,  the  standard  of  the  many. 
Whatever  the  children  see  their  parents  value  or  despise,  they  will  value 
or  despise  themselves. 

If  ever  a  time  is  to  come  when  appearance  shall  no  longer  rule  the 
world,  or  at  any  rate  when  reality  shall  have  a  humble  place  by  its  side, 
children  must  be  supplied  with  a  proper  standard  at  the  beginning  of 
life.  Pride,  vanity  and  bragging,  which  beget  folly  and  crimes  of  every 
kind,  originate  in  the  early  perversion  of  noble  impulses  which  were 
implanted  by  the  Creator  for  the  purpose  of  striving  after  good.  And 
as  succeeding  generations  inherit  from  each  other  sins  and  iniquities, 
so  the  virtues  that  have  been  cultivated  in  humanity,  and  whose  germs 
lie  in  the  first  motions  of  the  child's  soul,  may  also  be  transmitted. 
The  whole  problem  of  the  development  of  humanity  consists  in  passing 
from  semblance  to  reality. 


THE  CHILD'S  FIKST  KKLATIoNS  To  MANKIND.  249 

The  first  step  to  moral  development  must  thus  be  the  cultivation  of 
the  senses.  Whether  these  become  ministering  organs  to  the  spirit,  o>- 
to  the  animal  nature,  will  to  a  great  extent  be  decided  in  childhood. 

As  the  sense  of  taste  is  the  first  which  pronounces  itself  in  the  child, 
so  his  first  desires  are  wont  to  be  associated  with  eating.  Most  children 
are  little  epicures,  and  it  would  be  unnatural  if  they  were  indifferent 
to  this  earliest  pleasure  which  their  senses  afford  them  ;  but  it  is  owing 
to  bad  bringing  up  that  so  many  children  are  remarkable  for  greediness, 
daintiness,  and  excessive  love  of  eating  and  drinking. 

There  is  only  one  way  of  opposing  a  barrier  against  low  desires,  and 
that  is  by  developing  a  capacity  for  higher  enjoyments.  We  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  coarse  desires  and  passions  can  be  entirely  rooted  out  by 
following  Frbbel's  system,  but  that  the  physical  organs  will  in  this  way  be 
directed  to  the  utmost  towards  spiritual  things,  and  the  higher  part  of  hu- 
man nature  made  to  counteract  the  lower— the  animal.  The  sooner  this 
work  is  begun,  the  more  completely  will  it  be  carried  out.  Hence 
Frbbel  requires  of  mothers  that  they  should  rightly  discipline  their 
children's  senses. 

He  recommends,  for  instance,  that  when  children  are  at  their  meals 
little  songs  should  be  sung  to  them,  or  else  that  some  animal,  such  as  a 
dog  or  bird,  should  be  at  hand  for  them  to  feed,  in  order  that  the  work 
of  the  palate  may  not  engage  their  whole  attention.  He  would  also 
have  children  encouraged  in  the  practice  of  giving  part  of  their  food  to 
others  instead  of  enjoying  it  all  to  themselves.  But  then  what  is  offered 
by  the  child  must  really  be  taken  if  selfishness  is  to  be  counteracted,  or 
he  will  soon  find  out  that  his  sacrifices  are  only  pretended  ones.  These 
distractions  must  not,  however,  be  great  enough  to  deprive  the  child  of 
all  enjoyment  of  its  food,  for  that  would  injure  the  health. 

This  sense  of  taste  must,  moreover,  to  a  certain  extent  be  cultivated, 
for  all  the  senses  are  given  by  the  Creator  for  a  distinct  purpose,  and 
require  development,  or  cultivation,  that  they  may  fulfill  this  purpose. 

The  child  acquires  its  first  capacity  for  distinguishing,  through  the 
sense  of  taste  ;  it  is  in  this  way  that  it  first  becomes  in  a  measure  con- 
scious of  what  is  pleasant  or  unpleasant,  beautiful  or  ugly.  And  here, 
as  everywhere,  we  find  an  analogy  between  the  world  of  the  senses  and 
that  of  the  spirit.  Frobel  points  out  how  the  word  taste  not  only  de- 
scribes the  functions  of  the  palate  but  also  the  result  of  a  cultivated 
sense  of  beauty,  and  thus  connects  the  two  facts  together.  The  child 
exercises  the  power  of  comparison  when  it  notices  the  differences  in  the 
taste  of  food,  and  if  later  he  is  to  become  possessed  of  taste  in  its  sense  of 
a  feeling  for  the  beautiful,  he  must  learn  also  to  distinguish  between 
the  more  or  less  beautiful  and  harmonious,  the  suitable  and  the  non- 
suitable  ;  must  be  taught  to  shade  and  group  together  colors,  to  weigh 
and  measure  sizes  and  forms  against  one  another,  and  so  forth.  Fol- 
lowing out  the  idea  that  all  and  everything  may  be  referred  back  to  one 
fundamental  principle,  Frbbel  traces  taste  in  its  aesthetic  sense  to  the 


250  THE  CHILD'S  FIRS1  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

development  in  the  child  of  the  taste  for  food,  and  explains  in  this  way 
the  fact  of  their  common  appellation.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  it 
is  only  the  earliest  germ  of  aesthetic  culture  that  we  are  here  alluding 
to,  and  that  for  the  development  of  the  complete  fruit,  training  of  the 
most  diverse  kind  is  needed. 

One  of  the  little  songs  in  the  "Mutter  und  Koselieder"  is  called  the 
"  Sc.hmeck-Liedchen  "  (Tasting-song),  and  directs  the  child's  attention 
to  the  different  tastes  of  different  fruits — the  sweetness  of  cherries  as 
opposed  to  the  acidness  of  currants  and  apples,  etc. 

Owing  to  the  misunderstanding  of  much  that  Frobel  has  written  and 
said,  it  has  been  occasionally  supposed  that  he  assumed  nothing  but 
good  qualities  in  every  child.  If  this  were  the  case,  what  need  would 
there  be  for  education  ?  All  the  normal  faculties  and  dispositions  would 
unfold  of  themselves  without  disturbance.  Any  one  who,  like  Frobel, 
has  spent  his  whole  life  in  observing  children  from  their  very  birth, 
cannot  be  blind  to  the  great  differences  which  are  seen  even  in  the 
youngest  children — differences  not  only  of  individual  endowment  but 
of  impulses  and  inclinations.  Symptoms  of  the  degeneration  of  nat- 
urally right  instincts  show  themselves  even  at  the  earliest  age.  It  is 
not  only  in  the  families  of  great  criminals  that  the  heritage  of  evil  is 
transmitted  from  fathers  to  children  :  the  proverb  "  The  apple  does  not 
fall  far  from  the  apple-tree,"  will  bear  universal  application. 

Care  must,  however,  be  taken  to  distinguish  between  whatever  in  the 
original  dispositions  is  broadly  and  universally  human — according  to 
the  divine  conception  of  humanity — and  the  individual  characteristics 
of  generations  and  individuals  which  appear  in  the  course  of  the  devel- 
opment of  mankind,  and  whose  purpose  is  never  far  to  seek. 

For  the  transformation  of  the  savage  or  the  natural  man  into  a  culti- 
vated being,  there  must  of  necessity  be  a  wrestling  with  inborn  disposi- 
tions. Without  obstacles  which  call  forth  exertion  moral  development 
is  unthinkable.  At  present,  however,  very  little  is  done  to  facilitate 
this  struggle  by  exercising  the  moral  forces  in  the  first  period  of  exist- 
ence, as  Frobel  recommends,  by  seeing  to  it  that  the  play  of  children, 
while  satisfying  in  a  natural  manner  their  childish  requirements,  also 
conduces  to  their  moral  well-being  and  acts  as  a  pleasant  stimulus  to 
their  whole  nature.  If  happiness  be  secured  to  them  through  good 
means — through  the  right  use  of  their  powers — the  utmost  possible  will 
have  been  done  to  prevent  their  seeking  it  in  wrong  ways.  Unused 
powers  are  almost  invariably  the  first  cause  of  evil. 

The  physical  nature  should  not  be  kept  caged  and  chained  down  like 
a  wild  beast,  but  should  be  ennobled  by  worthy  culture.  Passions  kept 
down  by  force  and  terror  will  only  break  forth  with  greater  ferocity 
when  free  scope  is  allowed  them,  like  a  tiger  escaping  from  its  cage. 
Passion  is  force  uncontrolled  and  not  directed  to  its  proper  object ;  and 
this  force  should  not  be  suppressed,  but  so  ruled  and  disciplined  as  to  be 
converted  into  energy  for  good.  In  the  human  organism  nothing  can 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  251 

be  assumed  to  serve  unconditionally  and  of  necessity  a  bad  or  unlawful 
purpose.  Where  this  is  the  case  it  is  the  result  of  some  abuse,  and  to 
prevent  such  abuses  as  much  as  possible  is  the  problem  in  question. 
The  original  intention  of  all  the  powers  and  dispositions  implanted  by 
the  Creator  can  only  be  to  bring  about  good  in  one  way  or  another. 
But  if  it  is  the  destiny  of  the  human  being  to  attain  to  moral  freedom, 
there  must  of  necessity  be  room  for  him  to  err,  for  the  choice  between 
good  and  evil  must  be  left  to  him.  Were  we  so  constituted  that  we 
must  of  necessity  choose  what  is  good,  we  should  be  no  better  than 
machines.  Only  free  choice,  and  the  experience  of  the  consequences 
resulting  from  our  choice,  can  raise  us  to  the  dignity  of  conscious  exist- 
ence, self-knowledge,  and  moral  freedom. 

Faith  in  the  final  triumph  of  good  over  evil  under  God's  guiding 
providence  in  the  world's  development — this  was  Frb'beFs  philosphy,  as 
it  was  that  of  Herder,  as  it  was  and  still  is  the  philosophy  of  thousands 
of  other  thinkers. 

When  the  child  has  become  thoroughly  at  home  in  his  immediate 
surroundings,  his  notice  will  begin  to  be  attracted  by  the  industrial  life 
going  on  around  him — by  the  different  pursuits  of  handicraftsmen. 
Many  of  the  hand-games  with  which  he  will  already  have  grown  famil- 
iar, are  based  on  the  movements  and  turns  of  the  hand  customary  in 
these  occupations.  The  child  who  has  seen  the  various  processes  of 
planing,  sawing,  threshing,  grinding,  etc.,  represented  in  his  games, 
will  observe  them  in  real  life  much  earlier  and  with  far  greater  interest 
than  other  children  who  have  never  had  their  attention  drawn  to  them. 

The  child  ought  to  be  initiated  into  the  different  functions  of  human 
life,  and  therefore,  of  course,  into  manual  labor  of  different  kinds. 
The  imitation  of  the  movements  of  the  hand  in  different  kinds  of  work 
may  be  said  to  be  the  child's  own  first  work,  and  at  any  rate  trains  his 
principal  instrument  of  work — viz.,  his  hand.  These  gymnastics  re- 
peated, every  day  at  fixed  times,  may  also  be  treated  as  the  first  little 
duties  of  the  child,  and  so  form  the  introduction  to  later  more  serious 
duties,  and  the  foundation  of  moral  culture. 

The  imitative  games  given  in  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  have  for 
their  object  to  draw  the  attention  of  children  to  the  different  qualities 
of  things,  and  especially  to  the  pursuits  of  human  life. 

In  the  game  called  "  The  Joiner,"  for  instance  (where  the  movement 
of  the  hand  represents  the  action  of  planing),  the  child's  attention  is 
drawn  to  the  high  and  low  sounds  produced  in  planing,  by  the  alter- 
nate long  and  short  drawing  out  of  the  plane.  The  observation  of  this 
and  similar  facts  will  make  it  easier  afterwards  to  understand  the  gen- 
eral fact  that  form  and  sound,  and  time  and  space,  correspond  to  one 
another.  (A  quick  short  movement  produces  high  sharp  tones  ;  a  move- 
ment slowly  drawn  out,  low  deep  ones.) 

A  variety  of  examples  of  long  and  short,  of  great  and  little  objects, 


252  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

of  longer  and  shorter  intervals  of  time  and  the  different  tones  connected 
with  them,  will  gradually  prepare  the  child's  mind  for  the  easier  appre- 
hension of  this  idea.  The  motto  to  this  game  is  : 

"  That  all  things  speak  a  language  of  their  own, 

The  child  right  soon  discovers  ; 
But  little  heed  we  what  is  quickly  known  ; 

Lay  this  to  heart,  ye  mothers." 

It  is  only  by  means  of  contrasts,  or  distinctly  pronounced  differences, 
that  children  can  learn  to  know  things  individually,  and  distinguish  or 
compare  them.  In  the  example  cited  above,  the  long  and  short  sticks 
used  by  the  joiner  serve  as  illustrations  of  the  law  of  contrasts,  just  as 
a  similar  illustration  is  afforded  by  the  measure  between  long  and  high 
notes  of  music.  But  Frobel  does  not  leave  these  opposites  or  extremes 
isolated,  and  expect  the  child  to  fill  up  the  space  between  ;  the  long  and 
short  sticks  are  connected  together  by  others  of  intermediate  sizes,  and 
the  same  with  the  high  and  low  tones  of  music. 

This  universal  principle,  the  constant  application  of  which  is  the 
kernel  of  FrobePs  method,  is  thus  brought  before  children  in  its  sim- 
plest manifestation.  If,  in  their  earliest  years,  they  have  already 
gained  some  idea — albeit,  a  very  limited  one — of  the  law  of  opposites 
and  their  reconciliation  through  the  observation  of  the  different  pi'oper- 
ties  of  things,  the  same  law  will  be  discovered  by  them  later  in  moral 
qualities.  As,  for  instance,  the  story  of  David  and  Goliath,  in  which 
the  conquest  of  skill  and  mental  culture  over  mere  rude  strength  is  de- 
scribed, being  connected  with  the  game  of  "  The  Joiner,"  the  contrast 
between  mental  and  physical  greatness  is  exhibited. 

The  hand-game  called  "  The  Carpenter  "  (in  which  the  position  of 
the  hands  represents  a  wooden  house  with  a  balcony)  is  used  by  Frobel 
to  teach  mothers  to  make  their  children's  home  dear  and  sweet  to  them 
by  the  love  and  happiness  which  they  find  in  it;  whatever  the  child  ex- 
periences in  its  parent's  house,  whether  love  and  concord,  or  quarreling 
and  disagreement,  that  will  it  bring  to  its  own  hearth.  Here,  in  the 
home  of  childhood,  will  the  foundation  be  laid  either  for  love  of  home 
and  domestic  life,  or  of  that  craving  for  dissipation  which  seeks  its 
satisfaction  outside  the  home.  But  here,  too,  may  that  family  egotism 
be  developed  which  is  a  hindrance  to  the  universal  love  of  humanity. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  sacred  duties  of  parents  to  represent  in  miniature, 
through  the  divinely-ordained  organization  of  the  household  and  family 
life,  a  picture  of  the  organization  of  the  State  and  of  society,  into  which 
the  citizen  should  carry  the  lessons  learned  in  his  home.  The  lowliest 
hut  may  be  a  temple  of  humanity  if  the  different  members  of  the  fam- 
ily constitute  a  true  human  organism,  standing  in  living  relations  to 
the  community  and  the  nation.  Education  of  the  right  sort  will  ele- 
vate the  instinctive  love  of  kindred  into  the  spiritual  love  of  humanity 
— of  humanity  in  God.  But  it  is  only  the  sacred  fire  on  the  altar  of 
the  home  that  can  kindle  this  holy  flame  in  the  child's  heart. 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  253 

One  of  the  greatest  and  most  universal  delights  of  children  is  to  con- 
struct for  themselves  a  habitation  of  some  sort,  either  in  the  garden  or 
indoors,  where  chairs  have  generally  to  serve  their  purpose.  Instinct 
leads  them,  as  it  does  all  animals,  to  procure  shelter  and  protection  for 
their  persons,  individual,  outward  self-existence  and  independence. 
When  they  have  installed  themselves  in  a  corner  with  a  few  bits  of 
furniture  of  any  sort,  they  delight  in  fancying  themselves  alone  in  their 
own  dominion.  The  instinct  of  habitation  in  animals  which  prompts 
the  bird,  on  its  return  in  the  spring,  to  seek  out  its  old  nest,  becomes, 
in  the  human  being,  the  love  of  home,  out  of  which  sentiment  springs 
the  love  of  country. 

Frb'bel  says :  "  The  whole  after-life  of  the  human  being,  with  all  its 
deep  significance,  passes  in  dim  shadowy  presentiments  through  the 
child's  soul.  But  the  child  himself  does  not  understand  the  importance 
of  these  presentiments,  these  dim  strivings  and  forebodings,  and  they 
are  seldom  noticed  or  attended  to  by  the  grown-up  people  who  surround 
him.  What  a  change  there  would  be  in  all  the  conditions  of  life,  of 
children,  of  young  people,  of  humanity  in  general,  if  only  these  warning 
voices  were  listened  for  and  encouraged  in  early  childhood,  and  appre- 
hended in  youth  in  their  highest  meaning, 

Were  this  the  case  human  beings  would  certainly  understand  each 
other  better,  and,  therefore,  love  each  other  more  throughout  life,  and 
hundreds  of  the  best  people  would  not  live  and  die  misunderstood. 

THE  COAL  DIGGERS. 
Deep  in  the  mine  below  the  ground, 
The  collier  men  and  boys  are  found  ;         '. 
With  strength  and  skill  they  work  aAvay, 
To  bring  the  coal  to  the  light  of  day. 
They  carry  it  up  that  others  may  burn  it, 
And  the  smith  at  his  forge  to  his  use  will  turn  it. 
For  how  should  we  get  a  knife,  spoon,  or  fork, 
If  these  honest  coal  diggers  weren't  willing  to  work  ? 
With  much  care  and  labor  they  dig  the  coal  out, 
And  their  faces  grow  black  as  they  turn  it  about. 
Come,  child,  let  us  give  these  good  miners  a  greeting, 
For  spoons  and  for  forks  which  we  use  for  our  eating  ; 
And  though  with  their  labor  their  faces  are  black, 
Their  hearts  no  true  goodness  or  kindness  do  lack.*— Amelia  Gurney. 

This  song  is  specially  intended  to  teach  the  value  of  manual  labor, 
and  therefore  also  the  importance  of  the  hand.  Children  should  learn 
to  honor  this  member,  which  is  a  distinctive  mark  of  the  human  being, 
as  a  valuable  gift  of  God  and  to  take  care  of  and  cultivate  it  accord- 
ingly;  and  the  mothers  should  inspire  them  with  reverence  for  the 
roughest  and  dirtiest  work  as  being  necessary  for  human  society.  She 
should  teach  them  to  respect  human  beings  of  every  condition,  even  the 
lowest,  if  they  are  faithfully  fulfilling  their  duties ;  and  not,  as  is  so 

*The  "  Charcoal  Burners  "  not  being  an  English  institution,  I  ventured  to  alter  the 
song. 


254  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

often  done,  represent  chimney-sweeps,  colliers,  or  any  other  laborers 
who  become  blackened  by  their  work,  as  objects  of  terror  and  disgust. 

It  has  been  reserved  to  our  age  to  ennoble  work,  and  to  show  that  it 
is  not  a  disagreeable  necessity  but  an  essential  condition  of  human  life 
and  dignity,  and  thus  give  the  lie  to  the  prejudice  which  for  centuries 
has  governed  the  world,  viz.,  that  work — at  any  rate  rough,  bread- 
winning  work — is  a  disgrace  ;  and  idleness  the  true  sign  of  nobility  and 
the  happy  privilege  of  the  upper  classes. 

But  education  has  a  nobler  work  before  her  than  even  to  counteract 
this  prejudice — which,  moreover,  has  already  in  part  been  overcome; 
she  has  so  to  train  the  rising  generation  that  they  may  be  able  to  turn 
the  mighty  industrial  impulse  of  the  present  day  to  a  higher  and  worth- 
ier end  than  mere  material  gain  and  material  happiness.  With  the 
increase  of  wealth,  leisure,  and  intellectual  capacity,  there  should  be  a 
widening  of  the  spiritual  horizon  and  a  growth  of  moral  power.  Pre- 
cisely here,  where  lies  the  cause  of  so  much  of  the  immorality  of  our  day, 
may  be  found  also  the  most  effectual  lever  for  the  upraising  of  mankind ; 
and  it  cannot  be  set  working  too  soon. 

How  are  greater  honesty  and  uprightness  ever  to  be  infused  into 
trade  and  commerce  if,  from  their  very  cradles,  the  children  of  the  peo 
pie  not  only  hear  worldly  gain  and  prosperity  held  up  as  the  highest 
attainable  end  of  existence,  but  are  even  led  on  by  their  parents,  either 
by  example  or  by  direct  injunctions,  to  trickery  and  fraud  of  every 
sort?  The  idealism  which  has  always  been  considered  the  special 
characteristic  of  Germany,  and  has  been  held  to  extend  even  to  a  fault, 
is  not  found  there  in  over-abundance  nowadays  in  any  class  of  society 
— so  thoroughly  has  the  mercantile  spirit  spread  everywhere.  Striving 
after  the  real  in  the  most  material  form,  fills  up  the  whole  existence  of 
the  majority  of  the  people,  and  leaves  no  room  for  any  higher  aim. 

Two  of  the  hand-games  which  represent  a  Markt-bude  (Market-booth) 
afford  an  example  of  how  the  child's  attention  may  be  directed  at  an 
early  age  to  the  negotiations  of  trade.  It  is  a  bad  plan  to  encourage 
children  to  expect  that  whenever  they  are  taken  into  a  shop  something 
will  be  bought  for  them ;  greed  of  possession  is  apt  to  be  awakened  in 
them  in  this  manner.  They  should  be  allowed  to  look  round  at  and 
admire  all  the  various  products  of  human  art  and  industry,  and,  if  any- 
thing does  fall  to  their  own  share,  it  should  be  pointed  out  to  them 
how  many  different  pairs  of  hands,  and  what  a  variety  of  industrial 
machinery,  must  have  been  called  into  play  for  the  production  even  of 
a  single  article  ;  and  how  all  human  labors  fit  into  each  other  and  com- 
bine together  to  produce  the  requisites  of  material  existence.  Every 
object  which  calls  forth  their  admiration  may  be  made  the  occasion  of 
representing  the  different  labors  of  human  beings  for  one  another  as 
so  many  signs  of  mutual  love — which,  at  any  rate,  is  the  ideal  side  of 
commerce.  And  with  this  idea  is  associated  the  duty  of  preparing 
the  child  to  take,  one  day,  its  own  share  in  the  common  work. 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  255 

One  of  the  greatest  educational  problems  of  the  day  consists,  un- 
doubtedly, in  finding  out  the  right  means  of  welding  the  material  life 
of  every-day  reality  with  the  higher,  spiritual  aims  which  stretch  out 
beyond  the  short  span  of  human  existence. 

We  are  approaching  an  age  in  which  physical  and  mental  work  will 
no  longer  go  on  side  by  side  in  complete  separation,  but  will  be  for 
each  individual  more  or  less  closely  bound  together.  Manual  labor  re- 
quires, every  day,  more  and  more  culture  and  insight  of  mind ;  science 
is  daily  entering  into  more  intimate  fellowship  with  technical  and  in- 
dustrial works.  Perfect  health  of  body,  mind,  and  spirit  is  only  con- 
ceivable if  all  the  powers  and  organs  are  set  in  activity,  and  a  threefold 
equal  division  of  exertion  is  therefore  necessary.  The  precise  mode  in 
which  this  reform  is  to  be  carried  out  matters  little,  the  important  thing 
is  that  the  young  generation  be  fully  prepared  to  meet  this  and  every 
other  demand  made  by  the  regenerating  ideas  of  the  present  and  the 
future. 

One  of  the  most  effectual  means  of  calling  the  ideal  side  of  human 
nature  into  play  is  early  artistic  culture ;  and  nowadays,  when  art  and 
industry  may  be  almost  said  to  be  as  twin  sisters,  a  certain  amount  of 
this  culture  is  necessary  for  all  classes.  There  are  few  trades,  for  in- 
stance, that  do  not  require  some  knowledge  of  drawing.  Music,  too,  is 
penetrating  more  and  more  into  all  classes.  But  in  these,  as  in  all  other 
branches  of  human  culture,  the  first  grounding  is  still  very  deficient, 
and  the  immense  amount  of  time  consequently  required  in  after  years 
in  order  to  arrive  at  even  a  small  degree  of  proficiency,  shuts  out  many, 
even  among  the  gifted,  from  these  arts. 

In  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder"  we  find  sign-posts  pointing  in  this 
direction  also. 

THE    FINGER    PIANOFORTE 

is  the  name  of  one  of  the  little  hand  exercises  in  which  the  fingers 
moving  up  and  down  represent  the  notes  of  the  piano,  and  the  accom- 
panying voice  gives  the  scale  and  exercises  on  the  different  intervals. 

Motto  :     "  Baby  fain  would  catch  the  sound 
Of  the  lovely  things  around, 
For  the  spirit  oft  can  hear 
Sounds  uncaught  by  mortal  ear. 
Early  teach  thy  darling  this, 
Wouldst  thou  give  him  joy  and  bliss." — Amelia  Gurnev. 

SONG. 

Now  a  carol  gay, 

We  on  our  fingers  play; 

As  each  finger  down  we  press, 

Hear  the  tone  of  loveliness. 

12345        54321 
*La,  la,  la,  la,  la;    La,  la,  la,  la.  la.    . 


*The  numbers  represent  the  notes  and  their  intervals. 


256  2-'HE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

1234 
j^a,  la,  la,  la; 

2345        5432 
La,  la,  la.  la;    La,  la,  la,  la; 

4321 
La,  la,  la,  la; 

53         212         3         2 
Baby's  hands  are  small  and  weak; 

421234  3 

'Tis  so  small  it  scarce  can  speak; 

224353  4 

Yet  it  always  loves  to  play, 
23421321 
Singing  songs  the  live-long  day.— Amelia  Gurney. 

In  addition  to  the  simple  songs  which  serve  to  awaken  and  cultivate 
the  sense  of  hearing  from  the  very  beginning  of  life,  Frbbel  also  recom- 
mends little  glass  harmonicas  on  which  chords  and  simple  melodies  may 
be  played  to  children.  The  chief  thing  always  to  bear  in  mind  is  that  all 
impressions  should  be  gentle  and  gradual,  and  that  no  discordant  noisy 
sounds  should  startle  the  sensitive  young  organs.  For  this  reason,  the 
harmonicas  used  by  Frb'bel  are  constructed  in  such  a  manner  that  they 
produce  soft  tones.  The  noisy  jingling  and  clapping  of  keys  and  other 
articles  with  which  children  are  wont  to  be  amused  in  the  nursery  does 
not  certainly  tend  to  the  development  of  a  musical  ear.  The  obnoxious 
articles  known  as  children's  rattles  might  also  with  advantage  be  re- 
placed by  some  more  melodious  instrument. 

Children  are  generally  very  fond  themselves  of  trying  the  sounds  of 
different  objects,  and  it  is  therefore  a  good  plan  to  produce  melodious 
notes  for  them  with  all  sorts  of  objects,  and  to  draw  their  attention  to 
the  different  qualities  of  sound  which  different  materials  produce.  A 
number  of  exercises  for  the  ear,  on  pieces  of  metal  and  other  materials, 
have  already  been  introduced  into  schools  for  little  children  with  great 
success. 

But  here  again  the  first  music  lessons  should  be  learned  from  nature. 
In  this  great  school  the  child  should  be  encouraged  to  listen  to  the 
rustling  of  the  wind  and  water,  the  twittering  of  the  birds,  the  buzzing 
of  the  insects.  In  one  of  the  illustrations  in  the  "  Mutter  und  Kose- 
lieder  "  may  be  seen  in  close  proximity  to  a  player  seated  at  the  piano- 
forte, a  bird  singing  in  a  cage,  corn  swayed  by  the  wind,  a  humming 
beetle,  and  a  buzzing  bee.  One  of  the  greatest  singers  of  modern 
times  (Jenny  Lind)  relates  that  her  musical  talent  first  showed  itself 
when  she  was  only  four  years  old,  by  her  habit  of  sitting  for  hours  at  a 
time,  as  if  chained  to  the  ground,  imitating  all  the  sounds  of  nature 
which  she  heard  around  her.  In  later  years  she  could  still  reproduce 
them  all,  down  to  the  buzzing  of  gnats  and  flies,  with  the  greatest  per- 
fection. Humanity,  in  like  manner,  made  its  first  musical  studies  in 
the  school  of  nature,  and  the  first  pipe  constructed  of  reeds  served  also 
to  imitate  the  sounds  of  nature. 

By  the  connection  of  counting   with   musical   notes  the  child  soon 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  257 

learns  to  perceive  the  analogy  between  number  and  sound,  and  the 
regularity  and  system  of  all  movement  forces  itself  on  him,  even  if  only 
AS  an  indirect  impression. 

But  though  Frobel  would  have  children  surrounded  as  much  as 
possible  by  an  atmosphere  of  music  and  harmony,  it  is  very  far  from 
his  ideas  to  make  of  them  precocious  virtuosos,  or  to  give  them  a  one- 
sided musical  education,  such  as  hundreds  of  children  are  nowadays 
plagued  with,  to  the  detriment  of  the  rest  of  their  development. 

Song  must  precede  instrumental  music,  as  coming  more  easily  and 
naturally  to  the  child.  The  learning  of  notes,  which  is  always  a  tor- 
ment to  children,  can  be  got  over  without  any  trouble,  and  even  in 
play,  by  the  use  of  Frbbel's  method.  This  consists  in  making  the 
children  mark  down  the  notes  as  they  sing  them  with  counters  of  the 
colors  of  the  rainbow  (like  the  six  balls  of  Gift  I.),  on  a  large  ruled  sheet. 

The  value  of  the  notes  will  be  very  quickly  learned  by  means  of  the 
large  cube  divided  into  eight  little  ones.  When  a  whole  note  has  to  be 
sung,  the  whole  cube  is  left  standing  before  the  child ;  for  two  half- 
notes  the  cube  is  divided  into  two  halves;  and  so  on.  There  is  no 
easier  and  more  simple  way  of  teaching  children  what  is  otherwise  so 
difficult  for  them  to  acquire,  viz.,  a  conception  of  the  value  of  notes. 
In  the  first  games  with  balls,  too,  the  chord  of  color  (two  primary  col- 
ors and  one  composite  one)  is  connected  with  the  musical  chord,  and 
there  are  other  exercises  of  the  same  kind. 

In  order  to  develop  the  ear  in  a  natural  manner  it  is  necessary,  as, 
indeed,  it  is  in  all  training,  to  begin  in  the  simplest  and  most  gradual 
way ;  the  little  exercises  for  the  finger-pianoforte  are  a  good  example  of 
the  right  mode  of  proceeding.  The  finger-practice  connected  with 
these,  and  the  hand-gymnastics  in  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  gener- 
ally, are  by  no  means  useless  in  facilitating  the  mechanical  part  of  all 
instrumental  playing.  But  they  serve  also  to  direct  the  child's  atten- 
tion early  to  the  art  of  music,  and  to  stimulate  the  will  and  the  desire 
to  learn  it.  The  vocal  exercises  begun  in  the  first  years  of  the  child's 
life  should  be  continued  without  interruption,  unless  considerations  of 
health  make  it  impossible.  All  children,  even  musically  ungifted  ones, 
may  have  their  voices  and  ears  cultivated  to  a  certain  extent.  It  is 
often  falsely  assumed  of  people  that  they  are  entirely  without  musical 
capacity,  whereas  their  deficiency  in  this  respect  arises  really  from  the 
lack  of  any  musical  culture  or  stimulus  in  their  childhood.  Musical 
geniuses  cannot  certainly  be  produced  by  cultivation  any  more  than 
geniuses  of  other  kinds;  but  every  soundly-constituted  child  can  be 
trained  to  a  certain  degree  of  musical  sensibility,  and  also  to  some  de- 
gree of  technical  proficiency.  And  it  is  most  important  that  all  chil- 
dren should  receive  a  greater  or  less  amount  of  musical  training,  in 
order  that  in  the  absence  of  any  other  elevating  tastes,  they  may,  at 
least,  be  capable  of  the  enjoyment  of  the  art  which  more  than  any 
other  rouses  the  higher  emotions  of  the  soul. 

17 


258  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

DRAWING. 

should  be  made  one  of  the  earliest  occupations  of  children,  for  it  is  the 
art  in  which  they  may  the  most  easily  become  themselves  productive. 
There  is  scarcely  a  child  who  will  not  at  a  very  early  age  begin  to  draw 
shapes  in  the  sand  with  his  fingers,  or  a  piece  of  stick,  or  any  instru- 
ment that  comes  in  his  way  ;  or  else  he  will  sketch  with  his  fingers  the 
outlines  of  tables,  chairs,  etc.  In  this  way  he  fixes  objects  more  easily 
in  his  memory. 

Frobel's  plan  for  assisting  the  child's  instinctive  efforts  in  this  direc- 
tion is  to  strew  some  sand  on  the  table,  or  on  a  wooden  board,  and  then 
to  guide  the  little  hand  in  drawing  the  outlines  of  things  in  the  room ; 
in  this  way  the  child's  eye  will  accustom  itself  to  compare  the  real  ob- 
jects with  the  outlines,  arid  to  regard  the  picture  as  a  symbol  of  the 
object.  The  hieroglyphics  used  in  the  earliest  ages  of  civilization  to 
convey  ideas  were  nothing  more  than  outlines  of  things,  from  which  by 
degrees  letters  were  developed.  And  with  children,  too,  pictures  should 
precede  letters,  and  drawing  come  before  writing,  that  is  to  say,  outline 
drawing.  A  child's  eye  can  at  first  only  discern  the  outlines  of  things, 
not  the  filling  in  and  the  details.  In  the  drawings  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  too,  we  find  nothing  but  outlines,  and  those  generally 
straight  ones  ;  there  is  very  little  attempt  at  curved  lines,  which  mark 
a  higher  development  of  the  sense  of  beauty. 

Frobel's  method  of  linear  drawing,  which  forms  one  of  the  chief  oc- 
cupations in  Kindergarten,  exactly  meets  this  want,  and  enormously 
facilitates  the  right  apprehension  of  form,  size  and  number.  Before 
the  child  is  able  to  draw  with  a  pencil,  little  sticks  about  the  size  of 
lucifer  matches  are  given  to  it,  and  with  these  it  is  taught  to  lay  out 
the  principal  lines  of  different  objects.  In  this  way  its  mind  becomes 
stored  with  a  variety  of  shapes  and  images,  and  not  only  is  the  foun- 
dation thus  laid  for  later  artistic  culture,  but,  still  more,  Frobel's  first 
principle  of  education  is  carried  out,  viz.,  "to  train  children  through 
the  encouragement  of  original  activity  to  become  themselves  creative 
beings."  His  oft-repeated  saying,  "  Let  it  be  our  aim  that  every  thought 
should  grow  into  a  deed,"  can  only  be  realized  by  humanity  if  indo- 
lence is  as  far  as  possible  suppressed  in  the  cradle.  The  fact  has  not 
hitherto  been  grasped  that  even  in  the  cradle  it  is  necessary  to  regulate 
activity ;  still  less  has  it  been  thought  possible  to  do  this.  Frobel's 
"  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  gives  the  clue  to  how  it  may  be  done,  and  it  is 
for  this  reason  that  the  book  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  whole  of 
his  system,  and  that  we  have  given  it  so  much  consideration. 

Children  should  not  be  content  with  merely  taking  in  and  thus  col- 
lecting in  their  minds  a  confused  mass  of  forms  and  images  which  re- 
main as  useless  as  dead  ballast.  The  impressions  that  are  received 
within  should  be  reproduced  without.  This,  too,  is  what  the  child  it- 
self wishes  to  do,  only  it  lacks  the  means  and  the  power.  Any  one 
who  watches  children  looking  out  of  a  window  will  see  how  eagerly 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND.  259 

theii  eyes  follow  the  people  and  animals  passing  in  the  street ;  how 
they  notice  every  little  detail  of  the  opposite  houses,  of  the  carriages 
and  horses,  of  the  dress  of  human  beings.  If  a  slate  should  chance  to 
be  at  hand  a  few  strokes  drawn  on  it  will  serve  to  represent  houses, 
animals,  men  and  women,  etc.;  or  vivacious  children  will  try  to  imitate 
the  movements  they  observe.  The  imitative  instinct  is  the  first  spur 
tc  activity.  But  even  suppose  the  child  to  be  supplied  with  the  neces- 
sary materials — which  most  children  are  not — he  will  still  be  unable  to 
reproduce  the  objects  as  he  would  like  because  he  cannot  draw.  He 
will  soon  grow  tired  off  making  meaningless  lines  and  scratches,  and 
will  give  himself  up  to  staring  vaguely  out  into  the  street;  and  his 
mind  will  soon  become  so  inert  that  he  will  scarcely  distinguish  one 
thing  from  another. 

This  is  one  of  a  thousand  examples  of  the  little  help  and  encourage- 
ment that  is  given  to  childish  activity,  and  of  the  almost  systematic 
manner  in  which  natural  quickness  is  stifled,  and  indolence  allowed  to 
grow  into  habit  and  inclination.  Everlasting  cramming,  first  through 
the  eyes  and  ears,  then  through  the  understanding — learning,  endless 
learning,  is  almost  all  that  is  thought  of  ;  doing  is  quite  an  unimportant 
matter !  FrobePs  plan,  however,  is  quite  the  opposite  one  ;  he  would 
have  nothing  seen  or  heard,  nothing  learned,  without  being  in  some  form 
or  other  given  out  again — reproduced — and  thus  made  the  individual 
property  of  the  recipient.  And  he  puts  before  us  the  means  of  culti- 
vating this  artistic  activity  both  by  early  training  in  drawing  and  also 
in  construction  of  all  sorts.  In  his  "  Menschen  Erziehung  "  he  says  : 
"  The  capacity  for  drawing  is  as  much  inborn  in  a  man  as  the  power 
of  speech,  for  word  and  symbol  belong  to  each  other  as  inseparably  as 
light  and  shade,  day  and  night,  body  and  soul." 

The  balance  between  productiveness  and  receptivity  is  at  present 
completely  upset,  and  requires  to  be  re-adjusted.  This  will  be  accom- 
plished when  Frb'bePs  method  has  become  recognized,  and  children  are 
taught  in  their  earliest  years  by  means  of  individual  experience  and 
production,  and  action  is  made  the  foundation  and  the  constant  com- 
panion of  learning;  when,  in  short,  children  are  made  to  act  according 
to  the  rules  of  morality  before  they  can  possibly  know  them  ;  instead 
of  knowing  the  rules  without  being  able  to  act  according  to  them. 

With  the  help  of  the  above  examples  we  have  now  gone  through  the 
principal  relations  in  which  the  child  stands  to  human  society,  viz.,  his 
relations  to  the  family  and  household,  to  industry,  to  trade,  and  to  art. 

By  means  of  the  exercises  of  which  we  have  given  examples  the  gen- 
eral powers  of  thought  are  called  into  play,  and  thus  a  foundation  is 
laid  for  later  study.  By  familiarizing  children  with  the  relations  of 
words,  number,  shape,  and  size  in  their  most  elementary  form,  and  by 
drawing  their  attention  to  the  causes  of  the  effects  perceived  by  them 
in  nature,  and  their  own  surroundings  (tee  examples  in  "  Mutter  un<i 


260  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND. 

Koselieder")  a  way  is  opened  up  for  the  later  study  of  science  as  could 
not  possibly  be  otherwise  done  in  the  period  of  unconscious  existence. 
Nature,  that  is  to  say  the  whole  visible  world  and  the  impressions  it 
produces,  is  the  basis  of  all  science  and  all  thought,  the  first  awakener 
of  the  desire  for  knowledge.  Impressions  arouse  observation,  observa- 
tion brings  images  before  the  mind  and  induces  comparison,  and  from 
comparisons  result  conclusions  and  judgment.  And  let  it  be  well  re- 
membered that  it  is  in  early  childhood  that  the  strongest  impressions 
are  produced  on  human  beings.  Agriculture  and  the  care  of  animals 
were  considered  under  the  head  of  relations  to  nature. 

And  now  will  any  one  still  ask,  "  What  does  all  this  matter  to  the 
young  child  who  understands  nothing  whatever  about  the  relations  of 
human  life?"  Will  mothers  still  be  of  opinion  that  the  meaning  of 
nursery-rhymes  and  games  is  of  little  importance  so  long  as  children 
are  amused  by  them  ? 

Those  who  still  think  in  this  way  have  certainly  not  grasped  the 
leading  idea  of  Frobel's  educational  theory,  viz.,  that  childhood,  as 
embryo  humanity,  must  express  one  and  the  same  nature  in  all  its 
stages  of  development,  however  great  the  difference  in  degree  of  devel- 
opment and  in  mode  of  expression.  The  child  is  the  embryo  man,  t.  e., 
is  destined  to  attain  to  conscious  existence.  Whatever  human  society 
has  given  birth  to  in  the  course  of  its  development  must  have  existed 
in  embryo  in  its  infancy — States  and  Churches,  and  all  the  institutions 
and  organizations  of  civilized  life.  These  all  appeared  at  first  in  the 
crudest  possible  shapes — in  fact  in  childish  shapes ;  and  childhood  in 
its  "  unconscious  actions  "  can  do  no  more  than  express  these  begin- 
nings of  human  existence,  just  as  all  young  animals  exhibit  in  their 
gambols  the  mode  of  life  of  their  tribe. 

Children,  of  course,  do  not  and  cannot  understand  the  philosophy  of 
the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder,"  but  the  games  and  rhymes  produce  on 
them  impressions  which  rouse  them  to  observation  of  their  surround- 
ings. Children  will  always  be  receiving  impressions  of  some  sort  which 
it  is  the  business  of  education  so  to  regulate  that  they  may  contribute 
to  right  and  natural  development. 

If  this  theory  of  the  necessary  continuity  between  the  life  of  child- 
hood and  that  of  manhood  be  not  accepted,  and  the  consequent  logic  of 
making  the  first  instinctive  utterances  the  starting-point  of  education, 
Frobel's  system  must  of  course  lose  all  its  signification,  and  his  ideas 
seem  very  far-fetched  and  void  of  all  connection  with  such  little  simple 
games  as  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  and  many  other  books  of  the 
kind  contain.  Neither  in  such  a  case  can  there  be  any  question  of  a 
plan  of  education  proceeding  continuously  from  the  beginning  of  the 
child's  life ;  for  if  the  beginning  of  life  does  not  correspond  to  the 
end — if  nature,  speaking  through  the  child's  instinctive  utterances, 
cannot  be  taken  as  a  guide  in  this  matter — we  are  left  without  any  cei- 
tain  guide  at  all,  or  any  starting-point. 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS.  261 


xi.     THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

FROEBEL'S  principle,  that  whatever  is  evolved  in  the  course  of  the 
development  of  any  human  being  is  inherent  in  the  human  race  and 
has  its  root  in  inborn  dispositions,  is  also  applicable  with  regard  to 
man's  relations  to  the  highest  Being.  The  belief  in  God,  in  the  Divine, 
is  also  inborn,  intuitive,  and  can  be  developed  in  every  child.  As  all 
spiritual  development,  all  consciousness,  has  to  be  evolved  from  dim, 
undefined  feelings  and  sensations,  so  is  it  with  the  consciousness  of  God. 
But,  also,  as  no  faculty  whatever  can  be  developed  without  stimulus 
from  outside  and  without  appropriate  means,  so  with  respect  to  belief 
in  God  there  must  come  both  to  humanity  and  to  childhood  some  com- 
munication, some  revelation  from  without,  which  shall  convert  the 
unconscious  yearnings  into  conscious  apprehension,  supply  a  channel 
for  the  feelings,  and  give  a  definite  form  to  the  vague  intuitive  faith. 

But  how  can  God  reveal  Himself  to  the  young  child  ?  Is  this  possible 
in  the  first  years  of  life?  It  may  truly  be  said  that  "childish  uncon- 
sciousness is  rest  in  God,"  it  is  inseparableness  from  God.  But  that 
which  is  inseparable  from  ourselves  cannot  become  objective  to  us,  for 
we  cannot  place  opposite  and  outside  us  what  is  part  of  us.  The  child 
cannot  take  cognizance  of  himself — is  not  as  yet  a  personality ;  he  is 
one  with  all  that  surrounds  him  and  that  he  is  related  to.  Hence 
Frb'bel  says,  "  The  child  is  at  unity  with  nature,  with  mankind,  and 
with  God."  He  lives  still,  as  it  were,  in  Paradise,  as  in  the  age  before 
discord  had  entered  the  world,  before  there  was  division  between  man's 
outward  and  inward  nature.  He  cannot  be  expected  to  have  anything 
like  religion,  for  the  essence  of  religion  is  striving  after  union  with 
God,  and  we  do  not  strive  after  that  which  we  already  possess.  But  at 
the  moment  when  the  child  first  sins  against  what  is  good,  that  is, 
against  God,  the  unconscious  union  ceases,  and  division  or  discord 
begins. 

With  nothing  and  nobody  in  the  visible  world  is  the  child  so  closely 
united  as  with  its  mother,  and  therefore  Frbbel  gives  as  motto  to  one 
of  the  little  games  in  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder"  (the  one  called 
Kinder  ohne  Harni),  of  which  the  accompanying  illustration  represents 
a  mother  praying  by  the  side  of  her  sleeping  children : 

"  Believe  that  by  the  good  that's  in  thy  mind 

Thy  child  to  good  will  early  be  inclined; 

By  every  noble  thought  with  which  thy  heart  is  fired, 

Thy  child's  young  soul  will  surely  be  inspired. 

And  canst  thou  any  better  gift  bestow, 

Than  union  with  the  Eternal  one  to  know  ?  " 

The  mother's  moods  communicate  themselves  instinctively  to  the 
child :  for  instance,  she  is  frightened  by  something,  and  the  child, 
without  knowing  the  cause  of  her  alarm,  at  once  takes  fright  also. 


* 
262  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

This  immediate  rapport  and  connection  between  them  shows  itself  in 
the  most  different  ways,  and  is  at  any  rate  not  more  wonderful  than 
the  influence  which  the  mother's  moral  dispositions  and  affections  exer- 
cise on  her  infant  even  before  its  birth.  In  like  manner  may  the 
mother's  piety  affect  the  character  of  her  child  both  before  and  after 
its  birth. 

"  The  most  delicate,  the  most  difficult,  and  the  most  important  part 
of  the  training  of  children,"  says  Frobel,  "  consists  in  the  development 
of  their  inner  and  higher  life  of  feeling  and  of  soul,  from  which  springs 
all  that  is  highest  and  holiest  in  the  life  of  men  and  of  mankind ;  in 
short,  the  religious  life,  the  life  that  is  at  one  with  God  in  feeling,  in 
thought,  and  in  action.  When  and  where  does  this  life  begin  ?  It  is 
as  with  the  seeds  in  spring :  they  remain  long  hidden  under  the  earth 
before  they  become  outwardly  visible.  It  is  as  with  the  stars  of  heaven, 
\vhich  astronomers  tell  us  have  shone  for  ages  in  space  ere  their  light 
has  fallen  on  our  eyes. 

We  know  not,  then,  when  and  where  this  religious  development,  this 
process  of  reunion  with  God,  first  begins  in  the  child.  If  we  are  over- 
hasty  with  our  care  and  attention  the  result  will  be  the  same  as  with 
the  seedling  which  is  exposed  too  early  and  directly  to  the  sun's  heat, 
or  to  the  moisture  of  rain.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are  behindhand, 
the  consequences  will  be  equally  fatal. 

What  then  must  education  do?  It  must  proceed  as  gently  and  gradu- 
ally as  possible,  and  in  this  respect,  as  with  all  other  kinds  of  develop- 
ment, work  first  only  through  general  influences.  As  the  child's  physi- 
cal condition  is  healthily  or  injuriously  affected  by  the  badness  or 
goodness  of  the  air  which  it  breathes,  so  will  the  religious  atmosphere 
by  which  it  is  surrounded  determine  its  religious  development. 

Example  does  not  work  only  like  so  many  facts  or  actions  inciting 
to  imitation :  quite  young  children  cannot  understand  these  facts ;  as 
such,  they  have  no  relation  to  them  and  no  meaning  for  them,  and  in 
most  cases  they  are  not  able  to  imitate  them.  But  the  character  of 
their  surroundings  will  act,  as  it  were,  magnetically  upon  them,  the 
influence  of  moods  and  affections  will  pass  directly  into  their  souls. 

How,  then,  at  this  tender  age  can  religious  feelings  be  cultivated? 
Music  will  always  find  its  way  to  the  human  spirit,  and  will  produce 
impressions  even  on  quite  little  children^  Children,  savages,  and, 
indeed,  all  uncultivated  human  beings,  are  much  more  easily  moved  to 
cheerfulness  by  lively  music,  and  to  earnestness  by  serious  music,  than 
are  more  reasonable  and  thinking  people,  who  do  not  give  themselves 
up  to  every  passing  impression.  Divine  service  without  music  would 
be  very  cold  and  barren.  Almost  every  one  must  occasionally  have 
experienced  the  power  of  fine  church  music,  or  of  the  simplest  choral 
on  an  organ,  to  rouse  him  out  of  even  the  most  irreligious  mood,  or  to 
stir  in  him  a  spirit  of  devotion.  And  in  the  same  way  influences  may 
be  brought  to  bear  on  young  children  which  shall  at  any  rate  corres- 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD.  263 

pond  to  their  dim  innate  sensations,  which  are  the  precursors  of 
religious  devotion.  Frobel  recommends  mothers  to  sing  choral  melo- 
dies to  their  children  on  their  going  to  sleep  and  on  their  awakening. 
To  sing  children  to  sleep  is  already  a  universal  custom,  but  there  should 
be  a  more  frequent  use  of  sacred  music,  in  singing  or  in  playing  on  an 
instrument,  such  as  the  harmonica,  which  Frobel  recommends. 

Next  to  the  influence  of  music  comes  that  of  gesture  and  expression, 
the  earliest  of  all  languages,  and,  therefore,  that  which  appeals  most 
readily  to  children.  Gesture  is  the  direct  expression  of  the  soul's  mood ; 
animals,  savages,  and  children,  who  are  incapable  alike  of  dissimulation 
and  of  self-control,  invariably  make  use  of  this  language.  Frobel  would 
have  the  gesture  which  is  expressive  of  inward  collectedness,  viz.,  the 
folding  of  the  hands,  applied  to  children  when  going  off  to  sleep — as 
soon,  that  is  to  say,  as  their  little  hands  are  capable  of  the  action. 
Prayer  is  the  highest  expression  of  the  inner  gathering  up  of  all  the 
powers  of  the  soul,  and  demands  the  deepest  concentration  of  spirit,  and 
the  outward  symbol  or  gesture  of  folding  together  the  hands,  which  are 
now  no  longer  to  be  occupied  with  external  things,  is  in  true  correspon- 
dence with  the  inner  meaning.  And  heie  again  FrbbePs  theory  of  the 
analogy  between  physical  and  spiritual  activity  is  borne  out. 

At  first  the  mother  should  pray  at  her  children's  bedside  as  they  go 
to  sleep,  and  as  soon  as  they  themselves  can  speak  they  should  repeat 
the  prayers  after  her.  But  if  this  exercise  is  not  to  degenerate  into  a 
mere  parrot-like  repetition  without  understanding,  the  child  must  be 
able  to  concentrate  its  spirit,  and  the  words  of  the  prayers  must  be  in 
close  relation  to  the  child's  experiences  and  feelings.  The  mother 
should  be  able  to  draw  out  these  feelings.  She  should  recapitulate  to 
him,  for  instance,  when  he  is  lying  in  his  little  bed,  and  all  around  is 
quiet  and  peaceful,  the  pleasures  and  the  blessings  which  he  has 
enjoyed  during  the  day,  and  excite  in  him  a  feeling  of  gratitude 
towards  all  those  who  have  contributed  to  his  happiness,  and  finally 
lead  his  mind  up  in  thankfulness  to  the  great  Giver  from  whom  all 
good  things  come.  In  such  a  mood  as  this,  the  simple  words,  "Dear 
Father  in  heaven,  I  thank  thee  !  "  will  be  a  real  prayer. 

If  the  child  has  been  guilty  of  any  naughtiness  during  the  day  the 
recapitulation  of  all  the  little  events  of  the  day  will  help  him  to  detect 
how  he  came  to  commit  the  fault,  whatever  it  may  have  been.  The 
sorrow  expressed  by  his  parents  at  his  naughtiness  will  make  him 
unhappy,  and  when  the  mother  says  :  "  You  have  grieved  us,  your 
parents,  very  much,  but  you  have  grieved  your  Heavenly  Father  much 
more ;  you  must  pray  to  Him  for  forgiveness,  and  ask  Him  to  help  you 
to  be  a  better  child,"  the  childish  petition  for  forgiveness  will  be  a  true 
prayer,  a  real  motion  of  the  spirit.  Frobel  relates  of  one  of  his  pupils, 
a  boy  of  five  years  old,  that  as  one  evening  he  (Frobel)  was  saying  his 
prayers  with  him,  the  boy  asked  him  to  repeat  another  prayer,  in  which 
were  the  words,  "  when  I  am  naughty,  forgive  me,  etc.,"  and  that  when 


264  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

he  came  to  this  passage,  the  child's  voice  trembled,  and  became  .scarcely 
intelligible,  thus  showing  plainly  that  he  was  conscious  of  some  naugh- 
tiness committed  during  the  day. 

If  only  more  pains  were  taken  in  education  to  cultivate  the  right  and 
sensitive  feelings  of  children,  or  at  any  rate  not  to  put  out  of  tune  the 
pure  tone  of  their  conscience,  how  great  might  be  the  gain  to  morality  1 

There  is  scarcely  any  way  in  which  greater  harm  may  be  done  than 
by  allowing  the  holy  name  of  God  to  be  desecrated  on  children's  lips 
through  meaningless  babbling,  as  in  the  mechanical  repetition  of 
prayers  learned  by  rote,  which  is  part  of  the  order  of  the  day  for  children. 
It  is  hoped  that  children  will  be  made  pious  in  this  way,  but  the  very 
opposite  result  is  produced,  for  it  becomes  a  habit  with  them  to  approach 
their  Maker  through  outward  forms  only,  without  that  inner  uplifting 
of  the  soul,  that  outpouring  of  the  heart  before  God,  which  alone  con- 
stitute true  and  effectual  prayer. 

Modern  charitable  institutions,  those  especially  in  which  the  relig- 
ious element  is  made  the  principal  one,  fail  most  lamentably  in  this 
respect.  All  reasonable  people  are  fully  aware  that  Bible  history,  the 
book  of  Genesis,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Catechism,  and  all  dog- 
mas whatsoever,  are  entirely  beyond  the  comprehension  of  children  be- 
tween the  ages  of  two  and  six.  Nevertheless,  in  the  majority  of  such 
institutions  all  these  subjects  are  taught  to  young  children,  and  though 
it  is  true  that  an  attempt  is  made  to  treat  them  in  a  childlike  manner, 
it  would  be  better  if  it  were  realized  that  in  no  form  whatever  can  they 
be  made  intelligible  to  young  children. 

The  idea  which — most  often  unconsciously — lies  at  the  root  of  thi& 
practice  is  that  the  relations  of  the  human  race  to  God,  and  to  the 
highest  things,  should  be  presented  to  the  child  in  historical  sequence 
(that  of  a  monotheistic  philosophy,  moreover,  be  it  noted)  from  the 
creation  of  man  to  his  redemption  by  Christian  truth.  That  in  this, 
way  the  child  will  become  acquainted  with  the  continuity  of  human 
development  in  the  past  and  the  present.  And  all  this  must  be  done 
because  the  development  of  children  corresponds  to  the  development  of  the  hu- 
man race. 

Now  this  is  the  very  idea,  as  has  over  and  over  again  been  pointed 
out,  which  forms  the  pivot  of  Frobel's  whole  system ;  but  he  has  dis- 
covered a  system  by  means  of  which  the  child  is  prepared  for  future 
understanding  of  religion,  and  by  which  his  own  religious  feelings  are 
awakened.  And  this  is  all  that  is  possible  in  early  childhood !  In- 
stead of  presenting  children,  in  the  old-fashioned  way,  with  a  com- 
pletely formulated  system  of  truth,  Frobel  aims  at  awakening  and 
cultivating  their  organs,  so  that  with  the  help  of  fitly  corresponding 
impressions  from  without,  religious  belief  and  aspirations  may  grow 
and  develop  in  their  souls ;  in  no  other  way  can  religion  ever  become  a 
real  possession,  a  distinct  and  living  conviction. 

I  once  heard  Frobel  say :  "  If  the  Creator  of  the  world  were  to  say 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD.  265 

to  me,  *  Come  here,  and  I  will  show  to  you  the  mysteries  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  you  shall  learn  from  me  how  everything  hangs  together  and 
works ;  '  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  grain  of  sand  were  to  say,  '  I  will 
show  you  how  I  came  into  existence,'  I  should  ask  of  the  Creator  to  let 
me  rather  go  to  the  grain  of  sand,  and  learn  the  process  of  development 
from  my  own  observation." 

In  these  words  Frbbel's  deepest  conviction  is  expressed,  that  it  is  only 
by  his  own  individual  activity  and  exertions,  rising  gradually  from  the 
least  to  the  greatest,  that  man  himself  can  be  developed. 

It  is  high  time  verily  that  religion  should  come  to  be  looked  upon  as 
the  inalienable  property  of  each  human  being,  as,  indeed,  beseems  the 
full-grown  and  conscious  soul,  if  the  irreligiousness  of  our  day  is  not  to 
increase  and  spread.  And  whence  springs  this  want  of  religion  but 
from  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  human  beings  bring  with  them  out 
of  their  childhood  nothing  more  than  a  religion  learned  by  rote,  which, 
owing  to  the  want  of  understanding  of  its  dogmas,  kills  instead  of  giv- 
ing life. 

One  example  from  a  pauper  institution  out  of  hundreds  that  might 
be  given  will  here  suffice  to  show  that  children  do  not  understand  tlie 
religious  instruction  that  is  imparted  to  them. 

It  was  the  evening  of  Christmas  day,  and  the  festival  was  being  cel- 
ebrated, as  usual,  with  a  Christmas-tree.  The  children  were  all  assem- 
bled together,  and  a  considerable  number  of  parents  and  of  patrons  of 
the  institution  were  also  present.  After  the  customary  singing  out  of 
hymn-books  little  adapted  to  the  children's  capacity,  stories  of  the 
birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  adoration  of  the  magi,  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, of  the  sacrificial  death  of  Christ,  etc.,  were  related  to  the  chil- 
dren, and  printed  questions  were  asked  them  to  which  they  gave 
answers  learned  by  heart.  Then  a  little  girl  of  five  years  old  was 
mounted  on  a  chair  to  represent  the  mistress,  and  a  learned  disputa- 
tion, got  up  by  heart,  was  carried  on  between  her  and  the  other  chil- 
dren, in  which  the  doctrine  of  redemption  through  the  death  of  Christ, 
the  proofs  of  the  divine  truths  of  the  Bible,  the  sinfulness  of  human 
nature,  etc.,  etc.,  were  discussed.  At  the  end  of  the  proceedings  I  asked 
a  child  of  four  years  old,  whose  birthday  we  were  celebrating,  and 
received  at  once  the  answer,  "  I  don't  know."  I  then  asked  the  same 
question  of  a  child  of  six,  who  answered  doubtfully,  "  My  birthday, 
mother's  birthday,"  and  seemed  trying  to  guess  whose  birthday  it  could 
be.  To  a  variety  of  questions  relating  to  the  subjects  which  they  had 
just  been  hearing  and  talking  about,  which  I  asked  of  the  elder  chil- 
dren, the  answer,  "  I  don't  know,"  was  almost  always  given  with  great 
inquiring  eyes  ;  or  else  something  so  utterly  wide  of  the  mark  that  it 
was  easy  to  see  they  understood  nothing  at  all  of  what  had  been  said. 
During  the  whole  proceedings  the  children  were  either  half  asleep,  or 
else  restless  and  inattentive,  and  taken  up  with  admiration  of  the 
Christmas-tree  and  its  load  of  pretty  things.  We  shall  have  a  word  or 


26 Q  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

two  to  say  later,  as  to  the  manner  in  which  Frb'bel  would  have  this 
festival  turned  to  account  for  children. 

It  stands  to  reason  that  we  do  not  intend  to  find  fault  with  such  of 
the  hymns,  narratives  and  prayers  u^-ed  in  these  institutions  as  are 
adapted  to  the  stage  of  development  of  the  children.  To  all  such 
Frobel  has  given  a  place  in  his  Kindergartens. 

Nor  is  it  our  intention  to  criticise  this  or  that  tone  of  religious 
thought  which  may  give  its  color  to  education,  but  simply  to  draw  at- 
tention to  the  unnatural  mode  of  proceeding  as  contrasted  with  Frbbel's 
thoroughly  natural  system. 

The  most  striking  proof  that  he  has  hit  upon  the  right  plan  lies  in 
the  fact  that  all  sensible  mothers  who  have  either  thought  for  them- 
selves or  been  gifted  with  a  strong  and  true  educational  instinct,  have 
long  acted  on  a  similar  one.  Were  it  not  that  such  mothers  form  a 
very  decided  minority,  Frobel's  instructions  might  be  considered  super- 
fluous. But  no  more  than  in  the  political  world  one  would  think  of 
assuming  that  a  few  good  sovereigns  and  reigns  made  laws  and  consti- 
tutions unnecessary,  can  a  few  rational  and  gifted  mothers  do  away 
with  the  necessity  for  principles  and  methods  of  education.  Wherever 
unerring  management  or  administration,  and  universal  application  is 
in  question,  the  thinking,  conscious  mind  must  draw  up  a  code  of  rules ; 
a  right  code  for  education  can  only  be  arrived  at  by  deducing  from  the 
nature  and  character  of  children  a  systematic  plan  capable  of  applica- 
tion in  all  directions. 

No  psychologist .  has  yet  made  the  child's  soul  the  subject  of  such 
profound  research  as  has  Frobel,  nor  so  closely  drawn  the  parallel  be- 
tween the  childhood  of  the  individual  and  that  of  humanity ;  it  is  due 
to  him,  therefore,  that  even  the  smallest  details  should  not  be  cast  aside 
as  useless  rubbish  until  their  inner  meaning  and  principles  have  been 
sufficiently  tested. 

In  considering  the  first  relations  of  the  child  to  nature  we  pointed 
out  how  the  impressions  and  the  observation  of  nature  should  lead  him 
up  to  the  Creator.  In  the  chapter  headed  "  The  Child's  Utterances," 
we  glanced  at  the  analogy  which  exists  between  the  religious  awaken- 
ing of  the  child  and  that  of  infant  humanity.  By  all  the  impressions 
that  come  to  him  through  nature,  whether  pleasing  or  terrifying,  de- 
lightful or  awe-inspiring,  the  undeveloped  human  being  is  unmistaka- 
bly pointed  to  a  Higher  Power  on  which  his  existence  depends.  The 
language  of  nature  responds  to  that  inner  yearning  of  the  soul  which 
compels  man  to  search  for  the  Author  of  his  own  being  and  of  every- 
thing that  he  perceives  around  him.  This  acknowledgment  (at  first 
only  a  vague  foreboding)  of  God  as  the  Creator,  or  the  revelation  of 
God  in  the  visible  world,  must  not  only  precede  the  recognition  of  God 
in  the  historical  development  of  humanity,  it  must  also  be  experienced 
by  the  child.  Children  have  no  point  of  comparison  whereby  to  con- 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD.  267 

nect  the  narrative  of  the  history  of  creation  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
Creator.  Neither  are  the  unaided  impressions  which  they  receive  for 
themselves  from  the  free  life  of  nature  sufficient.  The  only  way  in 
which  they  can  be  led  to  know  God  as  Creator  is  through  their  own  oc- 
cupations in  nature,  through  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  on  a  miniature 
scale — in  short,  through  personal  activity  nd  experiences,  as  humanity 
in  the  beginning  of  its  existence  found  out  God. 

The  following  example  taken  from  a  Kindergarten  will  help  to  illus- 
trate our  meaning.  Two  little  girls  of  four  and  five  years  old  shared 
between  them  a  flower-bed  in  the  Kindergarten,  and  in  this  bed  they, 
like  the  rest  of  the  children,  had  sown  a  few  peas  and  beans.  Day  by 
day  they  would  grub  up  the  earth  with  their  little  hands  in  order  to 
see  why  the  seeds  did  not  come  up.  With  disconsolate  faces  they  used 
to  look  at  their  little  neighbors'  beds,  where  tiny  green  seedlings  were 
seen  peeping  above  the  ground.  It  was  explained  to  them  that  if  they 
wished  for  the  same  result  in  their  beds  they  must  leave  off  raking  up 
the  earth  and  wait  patiently  for  the  seeds  to  germinate.  And  now  on 
their  daily  visits  to  their  gardens  the  children  might  be  seen  exercising 
patience  and  self-control,  while  refraining  from  grubbing  the  earth  up. 
At  last  one  morning  they  were  found  kneeling  down  by  their  flower- 
beds and  gazing  with  wonder  and  delight  at  a  few  little  green  blades. 

This  process  of  the  vegetable  world  had  already  gone  on  frequently 
under  their  eyes,  but  hitherto  unnoticed  by  them,  because  they  them- 
selves had  not  taken  the  personal  part  in  it  of  sowing  and  watching. 
It  cannot  be  often  enough  repeated  that  in  early  childhood  nothing 
will  make  a  lasting  impression  in  which  the  child  itself  does  not,  in 
some  way  or  other,  take  an  active  part,  in  which  its  hands  are  not  more 
or  less  brought  into  play.  And  it  is  chiefly  for  this  reason  that  FrobePs 
hand-gymnastics  are  of  such  importance.  Children  always  require 
practical  demonstration,  material  proof,  to  enable  them  to  apprehend 
abstract  truth.  The  truth  does  not  thereby  cease  to  be  abstract  and 
spiritual ;  scientific  truths  proved  by  physical  experiments  must  still  be 
apprehended  by  the  mind,  although  through  the  medium  of  the  eyes. 
The  more  truths  of  every  kind  are  presented  to  children  in  a  corporeal 
or  symbolic  form,  so  much  the  greater  will  their  power  of  spiritual  or 
abstract  apprehension  be  in  after  years,  for  they  will  have  vivid  images 
in  their  minds,  and  not  merely  a  stock  of  statements  learned  by  heart. 
Again  and  again  we  must  repeat  that  in  early  childhood  all  instruction 
which  is  conveyed  solely  in  words  is  as  good  as  thrown  away.  The 
human  mind  in  the  first  stage  of  its  development  must  have  concrete 
demonstration ;  ideas  must  be  presented  to  it  in  visible  images. 

The  universal  mind  of  humanity  developed  itself  in  like  manner. 
Before  understanding  and  learning  could  extend  to  details  and  thus 
become  exact  science,  it  was  necessary  that  the  influences  of  the  sur- 
rounding world  should  awaken  general  conceptions,  which  reproduced 
themselves  outwardly  in  broad-featured  pictures  and  forms,  and  in  the 


268  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

whole  mode  of  existence ;  as,  for  instance,  in  the  allegorical  world  of 
gods  and  demi-gods,  in  the  mythology  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
Not  till  the  mind  of  humanity  had  matured  itself  could  it  grasp  the 
pure  abstract  idea  of  the  universal,  of  God  in  the  soul  and  in  truth. 

The  two  children  at  their  flower-bed  found  themselves  face  to  face 
with  a  wonder  of  nature ;  only  yesterday  there  was  nothing  visible, 
and  to-day  numbers  of  little  green  leaves  were  sprouting  above  the 
ground.  The  following  dialogue  ensued :  "  You  see,  now  that  you 
have  waited  patiently,  the  seeds  have  come  up ;  or  was  it  you  who 
made  them  grow?  "  The  children  exclaim  "  No  !  "  "  Who,  then,  has 
done  it  ? "  "  The  good  God."  "  Yes,  the  good  God  made  the  sun 
shine  so  that  the  earth  became  warm,  and  warmed  the  seeds ;  and  then 
He  sent  dew  and  rain  to  soften  the  earth,  and  the  soft,  damp  earth 
softened  the  hard  seeds  so  that  the  little  germs  could  push  their  way 
out — as  you  saw  had  happened  to  several  of  those  that  you  took  up  out 
of  the  ground.  The  good  God  has  done  this  to  give  you  pleasure,  as 
He  does  in  so  many  other  ways.  Will  you  not  try  to  give  Him  pleas- 
ure, too?  How  can  you  do  it?"  The  children  answered,  "  If  we  are 
very  good,"  and  the  youngest  one  exclaimed,  in  a  tone  of  the  deepest 
conviction,  "  I  will  do  something  to  please  God !  " 

Later  in  the  day,  when  the  children  were  employed  in  plaiting  strips 
of  colored  paper,  and  one  after  another  mentioned  the  names  of  the 
people  for  whom  their  works  of  art  were  intended,  this  little  one  re- 
plied to  my  question,  for  whom  was  hers  destined,  "  I  am  going 
to  give  mine  to  God !  "  However  trifling  this  incident  may  seem  it 
was  an  entirely  spontaneous  expression  of  child-nature,  and  serves  to 
show  how  easily  the  higher  emotions  may  be  awakened  in  children  by 
means  of  material  facts.  For  the  development  of  religion  the  teaching 
of  visible  phenomena  must  come  before  that  of  words;  the  Creator 
must  first  reveal  Himself  in  His  visible  works  before  He  can  be  appre- 
hended as  the  invisible  God  of  our  spirits. 

The  majority  of  children,  especially  in  pauper  institutions,  are  never 
encouraged  to  observe  nature,  indeed,  scarcely  ever  have  a  chance  of 
receiving  impressions  from  nature  ;  would  it  not  contribute  far  more  to 
their  religious  development  to  take  them  out  into  the  fields  and  lanes,  or 
even  only  into  a  garden,  and  show  them  the  Creator  in  His  works,  than 
to  weary  them  with  histories  of  the  creation,  of  the  fall  of  man,  and  all 
such  narratives  and  instruction  as  it  is  customary  to  present  to  children, 
even  in  some  of  their  games  ? 

The  preceding  remarks  apply  to  the  earliest  years  of  childhood.  A 
little  later  on  it  is  desirable  to  teach  children  so  much  of  the  Bible 
history  as  is  suited  to  their  capacity ;  and  this  is  done  in  Kindergartens. 

But  until  they  can  form  for  themselves  some  conception  of  what 
history  is,  viz.,  a  continuous  series  of  Bvents  in  human  life  (both  of 
individuals  and  nations),  until  then  nothing  more  must  be  communi- 
cated to  them  from  the  history  of  mankind  than  broad  simple  facts 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD.  269 

which  are  in  direct  affinity  with  their  powers  of  observation.  As  with 
their  affections  so  with  their  understanding,  they  can  only  start  from 
themselves ;  everything  outside  them  must  be  associated  with  their  own 
experiences ;  their  own  little  past  history  with  the  events  that  mark  it 
is  the  only  standard  they  can  go  by.  But  this  must  be  made  objective 
for  them — they  must  see  it  represented  in  pictures,  and  we  must  make 
clear  to  them  their  relations  to  events  and  objects. 

This  it  is  that  Frb'bel  aims  at  in  his  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder"  which 
he  intended  to  be  the  first  Story  and  History  Book  for  children — i.  e., 
the  history  of  their  own  short  past.  The  illustrations  contain  scenes 
which  occur  in  the  life  of  almost  every  child — or,  at  any  rate,  will  occur 
if  Frb'bel's  system  be  followed.  As,  for  instance,  a  child  catches  sight 
of  a  weather-cock ;  it  is  put  into  its  bath  ;  it  feeds  the  chickens ;  picks 
flowers;  looks  at  a  bird's-nest;  watches  different  handicrafts;  plays 
the  hand-games  with  its  brothers  and  sisters,  or  little  friends ;  sings 
little  songs  or  draws  pictures  in  the  sand  ;  its  mother  prays  by  its  bed- 
side ;  takes  it  out  shopping  with  her,  etc.,  etc. 

The  history  of  a  child's  own  little  life  is  easily  fastened  on  to  these 
and  such  like  pictorial  representations.  "  That's  a  picture  of  you,"  one 
may  say  to  him  :  "  there  you  are  going  with  your  mother  to  see  a  bird's- 
nest,  or  a  poor  woman,  or  the  coalman  in  the  wood;"  and  so  forth. 
The  most  marked  features  of  the  child's  life,  which,  according  to  Fro- 
bel's  idea,  should  be  fixed  in  the  mother's  mind,  must  be  woven  into 
the  pictures.  The  frequent  repetition  of  these  little  events,  in  which 
All  the  members  of  the  family,  all  the  people  and  things  known  to  the 
child,  find  their  place,  and  in  which  constant  reference  is  made  to  God's 
fatherly  love  and  care,  will  give  the  child,  by  degrees,  a  picture,  on  a 
scale  suited  to  his  powers  of  apprehension,  of  the  little  bit  of  life  that 
lies  behind  him. 

"  Let  a  clear  picture  of  their  past  lives,"  says  Frobel,  "  be  given  to 
children,  let  them  learn  to  see  themselves  mirrored  in  it,  and  when  they 
are  grown  up  the  light  which  illumines  the  way  behind  them  will  help 
them  to  see  clearly  the  road  that  lies  before  them  ;  childhood  will  be 
seen  to  be  a  connected  part  of  all  the  rest  of  life,  and  a  distinct  concep- 
tion of  the  childhood  of  humanity  and  of  its  connection  with  the  rest 
of  history  will  be  possible." 

In  this  manner  there  will  be  a  real  progression  from  the  near  to  the 
distant.  The  child's  mind  will  easily  pass  on  from  its  own  little  history 
and  that  of  its  family  and  surroundings  to  the  history  of  its  nation, 
which  must  first  be  presented  to  it  in  its  broadest  facts,  embodied  in 
single  marked  personalities.  Not  until  the  mind  has  been  led  out  of 
the  present,  first  into  its  own  past  and  then  into  that  of  its  race  and 
people,  will  it  be  in  any  measure  prepared  to  be  introduced  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  childhood  of  humanity  as  presented  to  us  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Children  can  quite  well  wait  till  they  are  eight  or  nine  years 
old  to  begin  this  study. 


270  THE  CHILD'S  FIKST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

What  other  idea  is  there  at  the  bottom  of  this  more  or  less  traditional 
custom  of  making  sacred  history  the  principal  subject  of  instruction  in 
childhood,  than  that  of  connecting  the  facts  of  Divine  revelation  first 
with  the  history  of  the  human  race  and  then  with  that  of  one  nation — 
the  Israelites  ?  But  even  on  the  supposition  that  there  is  anything  in 
the  child's  soul  to  which  these  universal  ideas  and  truths,  gradually 
laid  hold  of  by  the  human  race,  correspond,  the  events  of  a  distant  past, 
which,  however  much  affinity  they  may  have  with  the  child's  nature, 
because  themselves  the  outcomes  of  a  childish  age,  appear,  neverthe- 
less, in  unfamiliar  iorm  and  garb — these  events,  I  say,  cannot  be  made 
in  the  least  intelligible  to  children  until  their  mental  capacities  are  so 
far  developed  as  to  enable  them  to  compare  unfamiliar  facts  with  those 
that  are  familiar  to  them  in  their  surroundings.  The  fact  is,  that 
without  giving  the  matter  any  thought,  people  assume  an  inner  con- 
scious life  in  the  young  child  which  is  impossible  at  this  early  period 
of  existence.  But  this  inner  life  must,  little  by  little,  be  called  forth, 
in  order  that  in  it  the  child  may  find  the  point  of  contact  between  him- 
self and  the  history  of  his  race,  in  which  the  Divine  revelation  is  pre- 
eminently embodied.  This  revelation  must  have  appealed  to  the  soul 
of  the  child  itself  before  the  most  important  point  of  contact  with  the 
universe  cnn  be  felt 

The  moment  of  such  an  inner  revelation  is  like  a  flash  of  lightning, 
a  holy  shower  of  emotions,  which  cannot  be  called  up  at  will,  and 
which  is  generally  hidden  from  every  eye.  An  influence  of  nature,  a 
great  joy,  or  the  first  anguish  of  the  soul,  a  look,  a  word,  a  mere  noth- 
ing, will  often  recall  it,  and  it  disappears  again  like  lightning  ;  but  the 
impression  has  been  made,  the  Divine  revelation  has  taken  shape  in  the 
child's  soul.  For  example,  a  child  of  three  years  old  who  was  being 
ill-used  by  its  nurse  wanted  to  complain  to  its  mother,  but  the  latter 
being  absent  the  child  exclaimed  :  "  Father  in  heaven,  tell  her  !  "  This 
was,  perhaps,  its  first  cry  for  help  to  God.  The  injustice  of  man  drives 
the  human  soul  to  seek  a  higher  refuge. 

All  that  education  can  do  in  this  respect  is  to  furnish  opportunities 
and  means  of  preparation  for  this  sacred  moment,  and  to  see  that  its 
impression  be  not  effaced.  For  this  purpose  Frobel's  educational  sys- 
tem, the  beginnings  of  which  are  contained  in  the  "  Muttc r  ur\d  Kose- 
lieder"  is  specially  adapted ;  there  is  scarcely  a  single  song  in  the  book 
which  does  not,  indirectly,  at  any  rate,  point  to  God  as  the  all-loving 
and  all-protecting  father.  The  child's  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual 
natures  are  all  fused  in  one,  and  must,  therefore,  be  nourished  with 
food  suited  to  this  threefold  nature. 

The  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder"  for  instance,  makes  use  of  the  game 
Brod  oder  Kuchen  backen  "  Baking  bread  or  cakes,"  in  the  following 
sense.  When  the  child  goes  through  the  action  of  baking  he  is  told 
that  the  baker  cannot  bake  the  bread  unless  the  miller  has  ground  the 
flour ;  that  the  miller  cannot  grind  the  flour  unless  the  farmer  brings 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD.  27 1 

him  corn,  and  that  the  farmer  will  not  have  any  corn  unless  God  makes 
it  grow,  etc.  Every  little  incident  can  be  used  to  refer  all  things  to 
God  as  their  first  cause. 

Yes,  every  occupation  which  fixes  the  child's  attention  forms  part  of 
the  general  preparation  for  that  closest  kind  of  attention  which  we  call 
concentration,  and  without  which  religious  devotion  is  impossible.  And 
because  the  attention  of  young  children  cannot  be  kept  fixed  for  any 
length  of  time  unless  their  hands  are  also  employed,  every  one  of  the 
hand-employments  in  Frobel's  system  helps  at  the  same  time  to  culti- 
vate the  power  of  concentration. 

And  all  work,  too,  all  exercises  which  awaken  the  active  powers 
which  form  the  capacity  for  rendering  loving  services  to  fellow-crea- 
tures, will  help  to  lay  the  groundwork  of  religion  in  the  child.  The 
awakening  of  love  goes  before  that  of  faith  :  he  who  does  not  love  can- 
not believe,  for  it  is  love  that  discovers  to  us  the  object  or  the  being 
worthy  of  our  faith.  Loving  self-surrender  to  what  is  higher  than  our- 
selves— to  the  Highest  of  all — is  the  beginning  of  faith.  But  love  must 
show  itself  in  deeds,  and  this  will  be  impossible  unless  there  be  a 
capacity  for  doing.  A  child  can  no  more  be  educated  to  a  life  of 
religion  and  faith  without  the  exercise  of  personal  activity  than  heroic 
deeds  can  be  accomplished  with  words  only. 

The  religious  difficulties  of  our  day  will  never  find  their  solution  till 
Christianity  has  been  made  a  religion  of  action  as  well  as  of  profession, 
and  to  effect  this  we  need  a  generation  trained  for  Christian  action. 

If  we  consider  what  in  point  of  fact  is  done  during  the  first  six  years 
of  life  to  promote  religious  development  we  are  obliged  to  confess, 
either  nothing,  or  else,  we  may  almost  say,  worse  than  nothing. 

Now  this  period  of  the  first  six  or  seven  years  is  regarded  not  only 
by  Frobel,  but  also  by  many  other  educationalists  before  and  after  him, 
as  the  one  in  which  the  germs  of  all  knowledge  and  action,  i.  e.,  of  the 
whole  of  civilized  human  life,  are  set.  Art  and  science  cannot  be  prac- 
ticed before  the  requisite  organs  have  been  called  into  play.  So  long 
as  the  child  is  incapable  of  any  higher  sensations  than  those  which  re- 
late to  his  immediate  wants,  of  any  degree  of  inner  concentration,  or 
of  the  slightest  effort  to  lift  himself  out  of  and  beyond  what  most 
closely  surrounds  him,  so  long  there  can  be  no  question  for  him  of  re- 
ligious practice,  of  devotion  and  self-surrender  to  the  Highest.  That 
for  which  the  child  has  yet  no  organs  of  reception  does  not  even  exist 
as  far  as  he  is  concerned.  And  while  this  is  the  case,  of  what  use 
would  it  be  to  him  to  know  every  syllable  of  Holy  Writ  and  all  the  com- 
mandments of  the  world  ?  We  might  as  well  at  once  adopt  the  method 
of  a  certain  sect  of  Christian  fanatics,  who  place  Scriptural  pictures  be- 
fore the  cradles  of  children  only  a  few  months  old,  and  read  out  to  them 
the  corresponding  passages  from  the  Bible,  with  the  idea  that  the  in- 
fants will  thus  be  early  initiated  into  the  truths  of  Christian  revelation. 


272  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

The  only  grain  of  truth  at  the  bottom  of  all  these  customs  is  just 
what  Frb'bel  has  fastened  upon  and  turned  to  a  right  instead  of  a  mis- 
taken use:  viz.,  that  the  sensitiveness  of  young  children  to  impressions 
from  their  surroundings  should  be  used  to  assist  in  their  development. 

We  have  already  seen  what  are  Frobel's  ideas  with  regard  to  tlie  re- 
ligious training  of  children,  what  importance  he  attaches  to  the  use  of 
simple  sacred  music,  and  to  the  mother's  example  of  reverence  and  de- 
votion ;  how  he  would  have  the  prayerful  spirit  awakened  by  the  sym- 
bolic gesture  of  folding  the  hands,  and  prayer  itself  taught  as  soon  as 
speech  begins,  to  which  the  singing  of  hymns  should  soon  follow ;  and, 
added  to  all  this,  how  much  he  relies  on  the  hallowing  influence  of  im- 
pressions from  nature  combined  with  suitable  illustrations  from  the 
lips  of  the  mother  or  other  guardians. 

Is  not  this  enough  during  the  first  five  or  six  years  of  a  child's  life? 

Some  people,  no  doubt,  will  think  this  too  much,  but  to  such  we  can 
only  say  that  whatever  nourishment  the  child's  own  nature,  physical, 
mental,  or  spiritual,  requires,  it  must  be  good  for  it  to  have,  and  it  can- 
not have  too  soon ;  and  any  one  who  rightly  understands  observing 
children  will  not  fail  to  discover  amongst  their  other  wants  a  necessity 
for  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  this  necessity,  being  the  highest  of  which 
the  human  soul  is  capable,  should  before  all  things  be  satisfied. 

Oii  the  other  hand,  there  are  those  who  will  require  some  more  direct 
and  positive  allusion  to  Christianity  and  Church  worship  and  doctrines. 
Now,  although  all  people  in  any  degree  acquainted  with  the  nature  of 
children  must  allow  that  during  the  first  six  or  eight  years  there  can  be 
no  question  of  any  real  apprehension  of  doctrinal  religion,  that  whilst 
the  development  of  the  organs  is  still  going  on,  nothing  more  can  be 
done  than  to  awaken  religious  feeling  and  implant  purely  elementary 
and  general  conceptions,  at  the  same  time  the  youngest  children  cannot 
fail  to  be  influenced  by  the  doctrinal  tendency  of  their  surroundings  ; 
and  here  the  matter  should  be  allowed  to  rest  during  the  first  six  years 
at  any  rate,  for  the  soil  must  first  be  prepared  before  the  seed  can  ger- 
minate. The  Kindergarten  system  dispenses  with  all  doctrinal  teach- 
ing and  confessions  of  faith,  and  if  we  look  at  God's  method  of  dealing 
in  the  education  of  mankind,  do  we  not  see  that  there  was  a  gradual 
preparation  of  the  world  for  the  reception  of  Christianity? 

At  the  same  time,  we  would  not  be  understood  to  say  that  all  direct 
allusion  to  Church  matters  and  (in  Christian  families)  to  Christianity, 
should  be  entirely  excluded  during  these  first  few  years.  Frb'beFs 
"  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  is  intended  to  embrace  the  germinal  points  of 
all  human  culture,  and  Church  worship  and  doctrine  cannot,  therefore, 
be  altogether  ignored  in  the  book ;  but  in  this,  as  in  many  other  cases, 
the  allusions  are  so  slight  that  to  outward  observers  they  are  almost 
imperceptible,  and  are  only  truly  intelligible  to  those  who  see  clearly 
the  connection  between  the  little  and  the  great,  between  the  physical 
and  the  spiritual  in  the  human  soul,  as  clearly  and  distinctly  as  Frobel 
saw  through  the  mind  and  spirit  of  the  child. 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  COTX  273 

The  example  in  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselleder  "  which  first  directs  the 
child's  attention  to  Church  worship  is  called  " — 

THE   CHURCH  BOOK  AXD  WINDOW. 

Motto:    Where  harmony  in  unison  is  shown, 
Alike  in  form  and  tone  made  known, 
The  infant  mind  doth  readily  embrace  it, 
And  in  its  deepest  mysteries  doth  trace  it. 
To  guide  thy  darling's  earliest  perception, 
Of  this  high  unison  to  form  conception  ; 
And  thus  of  joy  to  catch  the  brightest  gleams, 
So  hard  a  task  will  not  be  as  it  seems. 
Yet,  for  thyself,  in  all  thy  works  take  care, 
That  every  act  the  highest  meaning  bear  ; 
Thus  shalt  thou  lead  it  to  tluit  haven  blest, 
"Wherein  its  infant  heart  shall  be  at  rest ; 
And  nought  can  e'er  deprive  it  of  the  benison, 
Of  being  ever  with  itself  in  unison. 
If  this  belief  thou  to  thy  child  impart, 
It  aye  will  thank  thee  with  a  joyful  heart ; 
Think  not  'tis  yet  too  young  this  truth  to  prize, 
"Within  its  little  heart  a  magnet  lies, 
"Which  draws  it  on  to  union's  highest  joys, 
And  shows  how  severance  sweetest  bliss  destroys. 
Wouldst  thou  unite  thy  child  for  aye  with  thee, 
Then  let  it  with  the  Highest  One  thy  union  see.— Amelia  Gurney. 


Behold  this  window  of  clear  glass, 

Through  which  the  blessed  light  doth  pass, 

And  see  the  high-arched  door  below, 

Through  which  into  ihe  church  we  go. 

But  those  who  fain  would  enter  there, 

Must  come  with  reverence  and  care, 

For  all  that  deeply  moves  the  heart, 

"Within  these  sacred  walls  has  part ; 

Here  all  our  high  desires  are  stilled, 

Our  deepest  longings  are  fulfilled  ; 

"We  hear  of  God,  so  good  and  true,  , 

And  of  the  blessed  Christ-child  too; 

And  those  dim  yearnings  are  made  plain, 

"Which  oft  with  wonder  fill  your  brain  ; 

When  you  behold  the  heavens  wide, 

Or  in  your  parents'  love  confide. 

And  you,  my  child,  shall  go  one  day 

To  hear  the  deep-toned  organ  play  : 

Lo,  lo,  la;  la,  lu,  lu,  la  ! 

While  of  bells  the  joyful  peal 

Doth  unceasing  joys  reveal ! 

D:ng,  dong,  bell, 

Ding,  dong,  bell. 

Through  our  ears  it  moves  our  hearts, 

Oh  Avhat  gladness  it  imparts  ! 

La,  lu,  la  ;  la,  lu,  la,  la  ;  la,  lu,  lo.- -Amelia  Gurney. 

The  mother,  with  her  two  or  three-year-old  infant  on  her  lap,  sits  at 
the  window  on  Sunday  morning,  points  to  the  church  which  the  people 
are  nocking  into,  and  makes  the  child  represent  with  his  hands  the 

18 


274  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

shape  of  the  church  window.  She  then  sings  to  him  the  above  choral, 
at  the  end  of  which  the  pealing  of  bells  is  imitated. 

The  following  example  will  show  that  something  like  a  devotional 
mood  may  really  be  produced,  even  in  so  young  a  child,  through  the 
influence  of  sacred  music,  and  of  its  mother's  frame  of  mind. 

In  Frdbel's  room  one  day  there  were  assembled  a  number  of  children 
between  the  ages  of  one  and  a  half  and  four  years,  all  busily  occupied 
with  the  Kindergarten  gifts.  A  visitor  who  chanced  to  come  in  ventured 
to  question  Frobel's  assertion,  that  a  feeling  of  reverence  could  be 
called  up  in  even  the  youngest  of  these  children.  In  order  to  prove 
his  statement,  Frbbel  called  on  f-ome  of  his  older  pupils  to  sing  the 
choral  given  above,  and  it  was  curious  to  see  how  one  after  another  the 
children  put  down  their  playthings  and  listened  to  the  mu*ic  with  wide 
open  eyes,  and  an  expression  of  almost  holy  reverence  on  their  little 
countenances.  Now  it  is  certain  that  no  result  of  the  kind  is  ever  pro- 
duced by  the  kind  of  religious  instruction  which  i*  so  common  in  insti- 
tutions, and  even  in  families,  and  which,  with  the  best  desire  to  produce 
piety,  only  tends  to  make  sacred  things  wearisome  to  children. 

As  is  signified  in  the  motto  annexed  to  the  '•  Church  Window," 
Frobel  sees  the  first  direct  expression  of  the  child's  religious  instinct  in 
its  eager  desire  for  fellowship.  In  the  chapter  on  "  The  Child's  Utter- 
ances "  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  irresistible  impulse  of  children  to 
hasten  to  any  spot  where  they  see  a  number  of  people  collected  to- 
gether in  earnest  consultation,  or  where  a  crowd  is  assembled  for  a 
common  object,  is  only  part  of  the  strong  necessity  of  their  nature  to 
be  in  sympathetic  union  with  those  around  them.  It  is,  so  to  say,  a 
surrender  of  their  being  to  something  outside  their  own  personality,  to 
a  universal  power  which  is  beginning  to  make  itself  daily  felt  in  their 
souls.  And  what  else  is  true  religion  but  a  complete  suriender  of  self 
to  the  Highest  Being? 

It  is,  however,  necessary  that  the  Being  to  v  horn  one  thus  surrenders 
one's  self  should  be  loved.  Before  a  child  can  love  the  invisible  God  l<e 
must  love  visible  human  beings.  For  the  child,  as  once  for  humanity, 
God  must  become  man  ;  and  this  must  first  be  through  the  child's  parents. 
The  first  condition  of  all  religion  is  that  we  should  come  out  of  the 
narrow  circle  of  egotistic  self-love ;  and  therefore  love  for  its  parents, 
is  for  the  child  the  beginning  of  love  for  God. 

In  all  primitive  religions  sacrificial  offerings  play  a  principal  pail, 
and  it  is  because  the  offerings  signify  the  giving  up  of  s-elf,  of  the  per- 
sonality. If  the  child  is  made  to  feel  the  consequences  of  such  sur- 
render in  the  piety  of  its  parents  and  others,  in  their  manifest  union 
with  God,  the  unconscious  union  of  his  own  inner  li'e  with  the  High- 
est will  gradually  develop  into  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  consciousness. 
His  own  dormant  religious  faculties  will  awaken  if  he  sees  similar 
faculties  actively  expressed  by  those  around  him. 

Children  thus  brought  up  in  a  truly  religious  atmosphere,  accustomed 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD.  275 

to  refer  every  duty  fulfilled  towards  man,  every  service  of  love,  every 
trifling  action  of  daily  life,  to  God  as  the  highest  power,  who  requires 
of  us  good  in  every  shape,  such  children  will  when  they  are  grown  up 
make  their  lives  a  continuous  active  expression  of  Christian  love,  and 
not  merely  carry  I  hristianity  about  on  their  lips. 

First,  then,  God  must  become  more  or  less  objective  to  the  child 
through  nature,  and  then  He  must  be  personified  for  him  in  man. 

Just  as  mankind  needed  the  personification  of  the  Divine  in  a  com- 
plete and  perfect  man  whom  it  might  follow  as  its  pattern  and  ideal, 
so  the  child  needs  a  personal  example.  But  a  full-grown  }>erfect  being 
such  as  Christianity  recognizes  in  Jesus  Chri.-t  as  man,  cannot  serve  as 
a  pattern  for  children.  They  must  have  placed  before  them  an  ideal 
suited  to  their  stage  of  development— a  Divine  Child.  Hence  Frobel 
would  have  hung  up  in  Kindergartens  and  in  nurseries  pictures  of  the 
child  Jesus  on  his  mother's  lap,  in  the  Temple,  etc.  All  the  good  quali- 
ties of  children  lie  would  have  associated  in  their  minds  with  the  Holy 
Child,  and  when  they  do  wrong  he  would  have  them  reminded  that 
when  Jesus  was  a  child  he  was  always  obedient,  thankful  and  loving. 

In  this  way,  by  means  of  the  facts  and  events  of  their  own  lives, 
inward  and  outward,  associated  always  with  Jesus  as  a  child,  children 
will  acquire  a  perfect  living  ideal  of  childhood  by  which  they  will  be- 
come accustomed  to  measure  themselves,  and  with  the  aid  of  suitable 
Bible  narratives  they  wi:l  be  gradually  and  naturally  initiated  into  the 
central  truth  of  Christianity — of  God  made  manifest  in  man — without 
having  their  understandings  bewildered  with  dogmas,  which  can  only 
be  grasped  by  the  mature  mind.  Ideas  of  which  the  child  can  form  to 
it-elf  no  conception  are  worse  than  useless  to  him,  for  they  obscure  his 
mental  vision  and  thus  act  injuriously  on  his  development. 

Pictures  and  facts  appeal  to  the  childish  imagination,  and  Frbbel 
would  have  the  religious  instruction  of  children  based  also  on  this  prin- 
ciple. For  this  purpose  he  revived  the  old  custom  of  exhibiting  to 
children  on  Christmas  evening  a  pictorial  representation  of  the  birth  of 
Christ.  Middendorf  used  often  to  tell  how  impressive  this  festival  was 
wont  to  be  at  Keilhau,  when,  at  the  end  of  the  long  room,  filled  with 
t 'rightly-lighted  Christmas-trees  and  presents  of  all  sorts  for  the  chil- 
dren, a  transparency  would  all  at  once  appear,  representing  the  birth  of 
the  Divine  Child  surrounded  by  green  pine  branches  ;  how  Christmas 
hymns — most  of  them  written  by  Frobel  himself — were  then  sung  ; 
and  how  Frobel  used  himself,  to  fetch  the  poor  women  of  the  village 
with  their  youngest  children,  so  that  these  too  might,  as  he  used  to  put 
it,  have  a  "distinct  impression  "  of  the  meaning  of  Christmas.  To  the 
older  children  it  was  explained  in  simple  language  that  this  festival  was 
to  remind  people  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  had  redeemed  them 
from  sin  and  error  and  brought  back  great  happiness  to  the  world. 

It  all  depends  upon  the  manner  in  which  religious  impressions  are 


276  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

conveyed  to  children  whether  they  will  have  a  sacred  influence  on  thorn 
in  the  present,  and  be  a  blessed  recollection  in  the  future. 

The  profound  truths  of  the  Gospel  are  far  beyond  the  comprehension 
of  children,  but  for  this  very  reason  the  preparation  of  their  minds  to 
receive  them  later  cannot  begin  too  soon.  All  truths  which  take  shape 
in  the  world  are  the  blossoms  of  plants  whose  seeds  were  sown  thou- 
sands of  years  ago,  and  have  gone  on  germinating  for  centuries  before 
they  could  spring  up  in  the  mind  of  humanity  and  bear  flowers  and 
fruit.  And  the  same  process  which  has  gone  on  in  the  life  of  human- 
ity goes  on  in  that  of  the  individual,  beginning  in  infancy.  All  ideas 
and  conceptions,  and,  therefore,  also  all  religious  conceptions,  have 
their  origin  in  the  first  impressions  made  on  the  senses,  in  the  first 
childish  imaginations,  the  first  observations  and  comparisons  of  ob- 
jects in  the  outer  world.  All  the  faculties  of  the  soul  must  be  culti- 
vated up  to  a  certain  point  if  the  human  spirit  is  to  become  capable  of 
union  with  the  Divine  Spirit. 

Our  hopes  for  a  new  and  living  conception  of  Christianity  rest  on 
our  children.  If  we  can  only  preserve  to  them  the  freshness  and  sim- 
plicity of  their  early  innocence,  their  hearts  will  remain  open  to  the 
pure  and  childlike  spirit  which  breathes  in  the  writings  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  and  Bible  truths  will  no  longer  be  to  them  as  petri- 
fied fossils  of  a  bygone  age.  If  they  have  grown  up  in  loving  fellow- 
ship and  community,  which  is  the  true  church  for  children,  they  will 
be  able  to  carry  out  the  deepest  meaning  of  the  Gospels,  viz.,  the 
brotherhood  of  men,  and  the  conception  of  Divine  humanity  and  human 
divinity  will  become  a  reality  to  them. 

The  right  form  of  a  church  service  for  children  has  yet  to  be  discov- 
ered, but  the  Kindergarten  meanwhile  offers  all  the  necessary  elements 
for  the  purpose.  The  churches  of  grown-up  people  are  certainly  not 
the  places  for  children.  If  momentary  feelings  of  devotion  are  pro- 
duced in  their  minds  by  the  general  stillness,  the  music,  the  number  of 
people  collected  together,  these  cannot  last,  nnd  are  quickly  followed 
by  distraction  and  weariness,  for  the  service  is  too  long  for  the  chil- 
dren's powers  of  attention  and  beyond  their  understanding. 

And  this  does  not  only  apply  to  children  before  the  age  of  ten  ;  even 
at  a  later  age  their  powers  of  religious  apprehension  are  not  on  a  level 
with  those  of  grown  people.  A  boy  of  eleven  years  old,  on  being  once 
asked  what  was  the  subject  of  a  sermon  he  had  just  heard,  answered, 
£  The  reconciliation  of  Cl  rist,"  because  the  preacher  had  frequently 
alluded  to  the  work  of  reconciliation.  When  the  boy  was  further 
asked  the  meaning  of  this  word,  he  could  not  answer  at  all. 

So  it  is  in  the  majority  of  cases  :  children's  minds  are  crammed  full 
of  expressions  with  which  they  connect  no  meaning. 

We  give  as  a  last  example  from  the  "  Mutter  und  Koselieder "  the 
hand-game  called 


THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD.  277 


THE   FOOT   BRIDGE. 

Motto   :     "  Let  thy  child  in  play  discover 
How  to  bridge  a  chasm  over, 
Teach  it  that  human  skill  and  strength  4 
Will  always  find  some  means  at  length 
Things  most  widely  severed  to  connect— 
Union,  where  it  seemed  most  hopeless,  to  effect." 

SOXG. 

Along  the  meadow  flows  a  brook, 

A  child  stands  by  it  with  longing  look  ; 

He  sees  bright  flowers  on  the  other  side, 

But  can't  get  to  them — the  stream  's  so  wide. 

"  On  your  back,  take  me  over,"  he  cries  to  a  duck, 

"  Those  lovely  flowers  I  want  to  pluck  !  " 

Then  up  came  a  man  with  a  wooden  plank, 

He  laid  it  across  from  bank  to  bank  ; 

Safely  along  it  the  little  boy  ran, 

Crying — "  Thank  you,  oh  thank  you,  you  kind,  clever  man!" 

If  by  such  and  similar  examples  children  have  been  made  to  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  connecting  together  or  reconciling  things  that 
are  separated  ;  if,  according  to  Frobel's  system,  they  have  been  con- 
stantly occupied  in  their  own  little  labors  in  connecting  (or  reconciling) 
opposites,  the  application  of  the  word  "  reconciliation  "  to  visibly  sepa- 
rated objects  will  have  become  quite  familiar  to  them,  and  it  will  not 
be  difficult  to  explain  to  them  later  the  meaning  of  the  Christian  doc- 
trine ;  especially  as  they  will  also  have  become  familiar,  through  a  va- 
riety of  examples  and  applications,  with  the  analogies  between  the 
visible  physical  world  and  the  spiritual  one. 

That  such  teaching  by  analogy  or  parablt-s  is  necessary  for  the  com- 
prehension of  spiritual  truths  is  shown  by  the  frequent  use  of  it  in  the 
Gospel  itself.  But  to  many  of  our  readers  this  comparison  between  the 
connecting  together  of  physically  separated  things  and  the  union  or 
reconciliation  of  individual  imperfect  men  with  God  through  the  per- 
fect and  Divine  man,  will  seem  as  far-fetched  as  the  analogies  in  other 
cases  that  we  have  quoted.  It  is,  however,  the  fate,  not  only  of  new 
theories,  but  also  of  new  embodiments  of  old  theories,  to  produce  the 
impression  of  exaggeration  and  eccentricity,  and  so  it  must  be  with 
Frobel's  theory  of  the  analogy  between  the  outer  and  the  inner  world 
and  between  physical  and  spiritual  impressions,  until  by  frequent  repe- 
tition and  practical  application  it  has  become  familiar  to  the  world. 

Any  one  who  observes  the  present  methods  of  bringing  up  children, 
tit  id  considers  what  it  is  that  the  latter  -really  want,  must  be  of  opinion 
that  there  is  need  for  greater  attention  to  the  beginnings  of  moral  de- 
flection and  the  early  cultivation  of  religious  feeling. 

Children  can  no  more  become  religious  by  their  own  unaided  powers 
than  they  can  become  anything  else  that  is  desirable  for  them.  The 
fact  that  early  religious  teaching  has  hitherto  been  conducted  in  a  mis- 


278  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD. 

taken  and  senseless  manner  does  not  prove  that  it  cannot  be  done  in  a 
right  and  profitable  way.  This,  however,  is  beyond  all  question,  that 
unless  education,  and  especially  early  education,  be  established  on  a 
right  religious  basis,  the  next  generation  will  be  the  most  godless  that 
has  ever  lived  on  earth,  more  dissatisfied  and  melancholy  even  than 
the  present  one,  and  just  as  little  able  to  solve  the  great  problems  of  life. 

Veritable  progress  for  mankind  as  a  whole  is  unthinkable  if  religion 
be  left  out  of  account.  The  extension  of  material  knowledge,  the 
widening  of  man's  relations  to  nature  and  to  humanity  in  social  and 
communal  respects  necessitates  a  corresponding  expansion  in  our  rela- 
tion to  God  and  all  that  is  highest.  It  is  still  not  sufficiently  under- 
stood, that  while  on  the  one  hand  religion  and  Christian  truth  must  in 
their  essential  character  remain  always  the  same,  our  apprehension  of 
them  must  continually  increase  and  expand  until  we  come  to  realize 
their  connection  with  every  department  of  life. 

Not  until  men  have  gained  for  themselves  the  recognition  of  an  all- 
pervading  omnipresent  God,  a  firm  central  point  round  which  their 
whole  being  will  revolve,  in  which  laws,  politics,  science,  art,  and  all 
social  endeavors  will  culminate,  not  till  then  shall  we  see  a  regenerated 
society  which,  cemented  together  in  love,  will  realize  the  true  concep- 
tion of  humanity,  or  convert  into  a  living  reality  the  Christianity 
which  is  now  cramped  and  disfigured  and  deadened  by  church  system. 
It  is  grievous  to  see  how  much  outward  forms  and  dogmas  still  tnke 
the  place  of  true  religion  of  the  heart.  It  is  not,  however,  by  rational- 
ism and  irreligiousness  that  the  degenerate  Christianity  of  modern 
times  can  be  conquered,  but  by  a  new  generation  which,  itself  filled  full 
with  the  true  spirit  of  the  Divine  Teacher,  shall  let  this  regenerating 
power  stream  forth  through  society. 

The  religious  conflict  of  the  present  day  has  its  meaning  and  its  use, 
and  will  bring  forth  fruit  in  the  future ;  but  it  must  be  kept  as  much 
as  possible  removed  from  our  children.  If  they  are  to  be  capable  in 
time  to  come  of  restoring  harmony  to  a  world  of  discord,  of  re-adjusting 
balances  and  getting  rid  of  contradictions,  their  young  spirits  must  be 
left  undisturbed  to  strengthen  and  develop,  and  must  learn  to  soar  up 
in  love  and  enthusiasm  to  the  Infinite,  and  find  their  rest  only  in  the 
Highest.  Short  of  this  there  can  be  no  real  religion,  however  much  'he 
intellect  may  learn  to,  speculate  concerning  spiritual  things.  True  re- 
ligion is  the  continuous  action  of  a  whole  life — a  striving  after  God  in 
all  and  everything. 

It  is  the  high  office  of  mothers  to  consecrate  their  children  to  this 
life-service,  and  Frobel  offers  them  his  "  Muiter  und  Koselieder"  as  a 
guide  to  this  sacred  task. 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS.  27  Vf 


SUMMARY   VIEW    OF    FROEBEL's    PRINCIPLES. 

THE  leading  ideas  of  Frobel's  educational  system  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  following  statements  : 

1.  The  task  of  education  is  to  assist  natural  development  towards  its 
destined  end.     As  the  child's  development  begins  with  its  first  breath, 
so  must  its  education  also. 

2.  As  the  beginning  gives  a  bias  to  the  whole  after  development,  so 
the  early  beginnings  of  education  are  of  most  importance. 

3.  The  spiritual  and  physical  development  do  not  go  on  separately  in 
childhood,  but  the  two  are  closely  bound  up  with  one  another. 

4.  There  is  at  first  no  perceptible  development  except  in  the  physical 
organs,  which  are  the  instruments  of  the  spirit.     The  earliest  develop- 
ment of  the  soul  proceeds  simultaneously  with,  and  by  means  of  that 
of  the  physical  organs. 

5.  Early  education  must,  therefore,  deal  directly  with  the  physical 
development,  and  influence  the  spiritual  development  through  the  exer- 
cise of  the  senses. 

6.  The   right  mode   of  procedure   in  the  exercise  of  these  organs 
(which  are  the  sole  medium  of  early  education)  is  indicated  by  nature 
in  the  utterances  of  the  child's  instincts,  and  through  these  alone  can  a 
natural  basis  of  education  be  found. 

7.  The  instincts  of  the  child,  as  a  being  destined  to  become  reason- 
able, express  not  only  physical  but  also  spiritual  wants.     Education 
has  to  satisfy  both. 

8. /The  development  of  the  limbs  by  means  of  movement  is  the  first 
that  takes  place,  and,  therefore,  claims  our  first  attention. 

9.  The  natural  form  for  the  first  exercise  of  the  child's  organs  is 
play.     Hence  games  which  exercise  the  limbs  constitute  the  beginning 
of  education,  and  the  earliest   spiritual  cultivation  must  also  be  con- 
nected with  these  games. 

10.  Physical  impressions  are  at  the  beginning  of   life  the  only  possi- 
ble medium  for  awakening  the  child's  soul.     These  impressions  should 
therefore  be  regulated  as  systematically  as  is  the  care  of  the  body,  and 
not  be  left  to  chance. 

11.  Frobel\s  games  are  intended  so  to  regulate  the  natural  and  in- 
stinctive activity  of  the  limbs  and  senses  that  the  purpose  contemplated 
by  nature  may  be  attained. 

12.  Through  the  gradual  awakening  of  the  child's  will  this  instinct- 
ive activity  becomes  more  and  more  conscious  action,  which,  in  a  further 
stage  of  development,  grows  into  productive  action  or  work. 

13.  In  order  that  the  hand— which  is  the  most  important  limb  as 
regards  all  active  work — should  be  called  into  play  and  developed  from 
the  very  first,  Frobel's  games  are  made  to  consist  chiefly  in   hand- 


280  SUMMARY". 

exercises,  with  which  are  associated  the  most  elementary  facts  and  ob- 
servations from  nature  and  human  life. 

14.  Inasmuch  as  in  the  human  organism,  as  well  as  in  all  other  or- 
ganisms, all  later  development  is  the  result  of  the  very  earliest,  all  that 
is  greatest  and  highest  springs  out  of  the  smallest  and  lowest  begin- 
nings, education  must  endeavor  to  emulate  this  unbroken  continuity 
of  natural  dtvelopment.     Frobel  supplies  the  means  for  bringing  about 
this  result  in  a  simple  system  of  gymnastic  games  for  the  exercise  of 
the  limbs  and  senses ;  these  contain  the  germs  of  all  later  instruction 
and  thought,  for  physical  and  sensual  perceptions  are  the  points  of  de- 
parture of  all  knowledge  whatever. 

15.  As  the  earliest  awakening  of  the  mind  has  hitherto  been  left  to 
chance,  and  the  first  instinctive  activity  of  childhood  has  remained  un- 
comprehended  and  unconsidered,  there  has  of  course  been  no  question 
of  education  at  the  very  beginning  of  life.     It  was  Frobel  who  first  dis- 
covered a  true  and  natural  basis   for  infant  education,  and  in  his 
"  Mutter  und  Koselieder  "  he  shows  how  this  education  is  to  be  carried 
on  arid  made  the  foundation  for  all  later  development. 

It  is,  therefore,  essential  that  the  principles  and  methods  laid  down 
by  Frobel  should  be  attended  to  at  the  very  beginning  of  education,  if 
full  benefit  is  to  be  derived  from  the  Kindergarten. 

The  training  of  mothers,  and  all  who  have  the  management  of 
young  children,  in  the  application  of  Fi  o'bel's  first  principles  of  educa- 
tion, is  consequently  the  starting-point  for  the  complete  carrying  out  of 
bis  system,  and  consequently,  too,  of  immense  importance. 

The  little,  seemingly  insignificant  games  and  songs  devised  for  the 
amusement  of  infants  are  easy  enough  for  girls  of  the  lowest  degree 
of  culture  to  master.  The  true  development  of  women  in  all  classes 
will  best  be  accomplished  through  training  them  for  the  educational 
calling,  seeing  that  nature  has  pre-eminently  endowed  them  for  this 
work.  Simple  receipts  for  the  management  of  health  (and,  above  all, 
the  practical  application  of  them  in  the  care  of  children)  are  also  within 
the  grasp  of  women  of  all  degrees  of  culture.  By  placing  such  instruc- 
tion within  the  reach  of  women  of  all  classes  the  first  step  will  be  taken 
towards  the  full  and  perfect  training  of  the  female  sex,  of  all  who  have 
the  care  of  children,  of  all  future  mothers  in  all  ranks  of  society,  for 
their  educational  vocation. 


CHILD  LIFE  ACCORDING  TO  CHRIST. 

BY  KEY.    STOPFORD  A.    BROOKE. 


"FOR  OF  SUCH  is  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD."* 

It  is  a  happy  thought  that  the  children  who  climb  upon  our  knees  are  fresh 
from  the  hand  of  God,  living  blessings  which.have  drifted  down  to  us  from 
the  imperial  palace  of  the  love  of  God,  that  they  still  hear  some  of  the  faint 
notes  of  the  music  of  God's  life,  still  bear  upon  their  faces  traces  of  the 
uncreated  light.  Heathen  sage  and  Christian  poet  have  enshrined  the 
thought,  each  according  to  his  knowledge,  and  though  there  is  no  proof 
of  its  truth,  yet  we  cannot  neglect  as  quite  fruitless  in  wisdom  so  wide- 
spread an  intuition.  It  is  vain  to  sneer  at  it  as  poetry,  in  vain  at  least  for 
some  of  us.  He  cannot  scorn  this  thought  who  feels,  as  -his  children's 
faces  light  up  at  his  coming,  not  pleasure  only,  but  an  inner  sense  of 
gratitude  that  things  so  pure,  so  close  to  God,  should  give  to  him,  with 
the  sense  of  his  unworthiness  deep  within,  so  much  and  so  unsuspectingly. 
Their  trust  seems  to  carry  with  it  something  of  the  forgiveness  of  Heaven. 
The  man  sees  the  tolerant  tenderness  of  God  his  Father  in  the  child  whom 
He  has  sent  him— that  his  little  one  believes  in  him,  bestows  on  him  the 
blessing  of  an  ever-renewed  hope. 

Nor  can1  he  scorn  this  thought  who  on  philosophic  grounds  believes 
that  all  living  beings  are  held  in  God,  are  manifestations  of  part  of  the 
Divine  thought.  He  knows  that  a  phase  of  that  idea  which  God  has  of 
the  whole  race  is  incarnate  in  his  child,  that  his  child  is  destined  to  reveal 
it,  that  this  is  the  purpose  for  which  God  sent  it  into  the  world.  There- 
fore hidden  within  this  speck  of  mankind  he  recognizes  a  germ  of  the 
Divine  essence  which  is  to  grow  into  the  harvest  of  an  active  life,  with  a 
distinct  difference  from  other  lives. 

And  if,  born  of  these  two  thoughts,  a  sadness  succeeds  the  first  touch  of 
joy  and  gratitude,  when  the  parents  think  how  soon  the  inevitable  cloud 
of  life  will  make  dim  the  heavenly  light;  how  long,  how  evil,  may  be  the 
days  of  their  child's  pilgrimage ;  how  far  he  may  retreat  from  God — yet, 
we  who  believe,  not  in  a  capricious  idol  of  power,  but  in  a  just  Father 
who  loves — we  who  hold  that  there  is  nothing  which  is  not  in  God,  can- 
not distrust  the  end.  Our  children  are  in  His  hands;  they  will  some  time 
or  other  fulfill  the  work  of  revealing  God ;  they  must,  for  God  does  not  let 
one  of  His  thoughts  fail.  If  all  life  be  in  God,  no  life  ever  gets  loose 
from  God ;  it  is  an  absolute  imperative  of  the  philosophy  which  denies 
that  anything  can  be  which  is  not  of  God,  that  nothing  can  ever  finally 
divide  itself  from  Him.  Our  children,  like  ourselves,  are  already  saved 
by  right.  Years  of  what  we  call  time  will  be  needed  to  educate  them 

*  Child  Life.—K  Sermon  preached  in  St.  James'  Chapel,  London,  by  Rev.  Stopford  A. 
Brooke,  Chaplain-in-Ordinary  to  the  Queen.  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and 
forbid  them  not:  for  of  pucti  is  the  kingdom  of  God." — Luke  xviii,  16. 

F  1S 


282  CHILD  LIFE-BROOKE. 

into  unior  with  God  in  fact,  but  that  end  is  as  certain,  if  God  exist,  as 
God's  existence.  / 

This  thought  of  what  I  may  call  the  divinity  of  childhood  is  still  further 
supported  by  the  exquisite  relation  in  which  Christ  put  Himself  to  chil- 
dren. The  heart  of  woman  will  never  forget  that  beautiful  wayside  story 
where  He  consecrated  the  passion  of  motherhood.  The  religious  spirit 
will  never  cease,  when  disturbed  by  the  disputes  of  the  worldlier  life,  to 
remember  his  words  when,  bringing  the  disciples  back  to  the  sweetness  of 
early  charity,  He  took  a  child  and  placed  it  in  their  midst.  The  soul  dis- 
tressed with  questions  of  belief  remembers  with  a  touch  of  peaceful  pleas, 
ure  how  Christ  recalled  his  people  to  the  natural  simplicity  of  faith,  to 
that  higher  and  deeper  religion  which  lives  beyond  the  wars  of  the  under- 
standing, when  He  said,  "  Whoso  shall  receive  one  such  little  child  in  My 
name  receiveth  Me." 

And  when  mistaken  religious  persons  press  hard  upon  the  truth  and 
tenderness  of  the  relation  of  parents  to  children,  and  bid  the  one  look 
upon  the  other  as  children  of  the  devil — corrupting  with  their  poison  the 
sweetest  source  of  feeling  in  the  world  and  the  love  which  of  all  human 
love  links  us  closest  to  the  heart  of  God,  we  fall  back  in  indignant  delight 
upon  the  words  of  the  Saviour:  "Take  heed  that  ye  despise  not  one  of 
these  little  ones;  for  I  say  unto  you,  that  in  heaven  their  angels  do  always 
behold  the  face  of  My  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

And  once  more,  when  we  think  that  God  revealed  Himself  in  the  child- 
hood of  the  Saviour,  the  thought  of  the  divinity  of  childhood  becomes 
still  more  real.  To  us  it  is  much,  in  our  stormy  and  sorrowful  life,  to 
think  of  Christ  in  his  manhood  conquering  and  being  made  perfect 
through  suffering;  but  when  we  wish  to  escape  into  a  calmer,  purer  air, 
we  turn  from  the  image  of  our  Master  as  "the  man  of  sorrows  and  ac- 
quainted with  grief,"  dear  as  that  is  to  us,  and  look  with  infinite  pleasure 
on  the  earlier  days  at  Nazareth,  imagine  Him  playing  in  the  meadow  and 
rejoicing  in  the  sunlight  and  the  flowers,  taking  his  mother's  kiss,  and 
growing  in  the  peace  of  love — and  so  learn  to  dream  of  God,  revealed  not 
only  as  the  Eternal  Father,  but,  in  some  not  unworthy  sense,  as  also  the 
Eternal  Child. 

It  is  a  thought  which  bathes  all  orv  children  in  a  divine  light.  They 
live  for  us  in  the  childhood  of  Christ;  they  move  for  us  and  have  their 
being  in  the  childhood  of  God. 

In  the  directest  opposition  to  all  this — to  the  poetic  instinct  of  Greek 
and  Christian  poetry  and  philosophy,  to  the  natural  instincts  of  the  human 
heart,  to  the  teaching  and  acts  of  Christ,  to  the  revelation  of  God  in  child- 
hood— is  the  dreadful  explanation  which  some  have  given  of  original  sin. 
Children  are  born,  we  are  told,  with  the  consummate  audacity  of  theologi. 
cal  logic,  under  the  moral  wrath  of  God,  are  born  children  of  the  devil. 
I  have  already  denied  this  from  this  place,  and  stated  instead  of  it  the  fact 
— that  we  are  born  with  a  defective  nature  which  may  and  does  lead  to 
moral  fault,  but  in  itself  it  is  no  more  immoral  than  color-blindness.  I 
have  said  that  this  imperfectness  is  the  essential  difference  of  human 
nature;  that  which  makes  man  differ  from  God,  from  angels,  from  brutes; 
that  which  makes  him,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  only  being  in  the  universe 


CHILD  LIFE-BROOKE.  283 

capable  of  progress.  It  is  a  defectiveness  distinctly  contemplated,  dis- 
tinctly initiated  by  God,  who  wished  for  a  being  in  His  universe  the  hist- 
ory of  which  should  be  the  attainment  of  perfectness  through  struggle  and 
defectiveness.  As  such,  the  defectiveness  of  our  children,  us  well  as  our 
own,  has  in  it  a  thought  which  glorifies  it.  We  see  in  it  tirst  develop- 
ments, and  .in  the  way  in  which  the  spiritual  element  meets  it,  the  begin- 
ning of  that  noble  struggle  in  which  the  soul  will  have  the  glory  and 
pleasure  of  advance,  the  delight  of  conquest  as  well  as  the  misery  of  fail- 
ure; the  interest  of  a  great  drama,  and  the  linal  resurrection  into  freedom 
from  weakness,  error,  and  restraint. 

Whatever  way  we  look,  then,  upon  our  children,  our  first  feeling  should 
be  reverence  for  the  divine  within  them,  infinite  desire  to  help  them  to 
recognize  that  divine  idea,  and  to  express  it  through  life,  in  a  noble  form. 
This  should  be  the  basis  of  education.  If  it  were,  we  should  have  less 
bad  men  and  bad  women. 

For  we  should  remember  that  children  on  whom  we  can  make  almost 
any  impression  we  please,  so  ductile  is  their  wax,  will  become  what  they 
are  believed  to  be,  will  reverence  their  own  nature  when  they  feel  that  it 
is  reverenced,  will  believe  that  they  are  of  God,  and  know  and  love  him 
naturally  when  they  are  told  that  God  is  in  them. 

But  the  other  basis  of  education  has  an  irresistible  tendency  to  degrade 
them,  and  it  only  shows  how  near  they  are  to  God  that  it  does  not  degrade 
them  more.  What  conceivable  theory  is  more  likely  to  make  them  false, 
imtrustful,  cunning,  ugly-natured,  than  that  which  calls  them  children  of 
the  devil,  and  acts  as  if  the  one  object  of  education  was,  not  to  develop 
the  God  within  them,  but  to  lash  the  devil  out  of  them?  Let  them  think 
that  you  believe  them  to  be  radically  evil,  and  the  consequences  be  on 
your  own  head.  You  will  make  them  a41  you  think  them  to  be.  Every 
punishment  will  make  them  more  untrue,  more  fearful,  more  cunning; 
and  instead  of  day  by  day  having  to  remit  punishment,  you  will  have  to 
double  it  and  treble  it,  and  at  last,  end  by  giving  it  up  altogether  in  des- 
pair, or  by  making  your  child  a  sullen  machine  of  obedience. 

Instead  of  trusting  your  child,  you  will  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  con- 
stant suspicion  of  him,  always  thinking  that  he  is  concealing  something 
from  you,  till  you  teach  him  concealment  and  put  lies  in  his  mouth  and 
accustom  him  to  the  look  and  thought  of  sin;  and  then— having  done  this 
devilish  work  and  turned  the  brightness  and  sweetness  of  childhood  into 
gloom  and  bitterness,  and  having  trodden  into  hardened  earth  the  divine 
germs  in  his  heart — what  happens?  You  send  him  into  the  world  already 
a  ruined  character,  taught  through  you  to  live  without  God  in  his  soul, 
without  God  in  the  world,  to  believe  in  evil  and  not  in  good. 

Do  not  complain  afterwards  if  he  disappoint  you,  if  he  turn  out  a  cruel, 
or  a  dishonorable,  or  a  miserable  man.  It  is  you  who  have  made  him  so, 
and  God  will  have  a  dreadful  reckoning  with  you.  "  I  mistook,"  you  will 
say,  as  you  tremble  before  His  judgment-seat;  "I  did  it  for  the  best." 
Alas!  there  will  be  no  possible  excuse  for  you,  but  this,  which  links  you 
with  the  slayers  of  Christ,  "  Father,  forgive  me,  for  I  knew  not  what  I  did." 

Teach  your  children  to  believe  in  the  goodness  of  his  nature,  in  his 
nearness  to  God.  And  this  leads  me  to  the  first  characteristic  of  child- 
hood, faith;  faith,  the  quality  whose  outward  form  is  trust. 


284  CHILD  LIFE-BROOKE. 

It  speaks  well  for  the  beauty  of  the  human  quality  of  faith  that  it  is  so 
lovely  a  thing  to  us  when  we  see  it  pure  in  childhood.  No  pleasure  is  so 
great  as  that  which  we  receive  when,  in  their  hours  of  joy,  sliii  mor •„•  when 
sorrow  or  disease  attack  them,  we  see  the  light  of  our  children  s  iaitn  in 
us  shining  in  their  eyes. 

It  speaks  well  for  the  spiritual  power  of  this  quality  that  it  has  on  us 
such  winning  force.  We  grant  to  it  as  we  recognize  it,  what  we  should 
grant  to  nothing  else — we  cannot  hold  back  from  its  often  mute  request 
anything  which  is  not  wrong  for  us  to  give.  It  overcomes  the  wo.-. d  in 
us:  it  leads  us  to  make  a  thousand  sacrifices.  It  charms  our  weary  .lie,  it 
attracts  and  softens  our  sated  heart.  It  makes  us  feel  our  own  relation  to 
God,  and  what  it  should  be,  for  it  is  its  earthly  image.  The  parents  who 
have  not  encouraged  and  loved  this  quality  in  children  towards  them- 
selves, will  have  but  little  of  it  in  their  own  relation  to  God.  They  will 
give  no  pleasure  to  the  Divine  Father,  they  will  have  no  natural  power 
with  Him. 

Having  this  faith,  the  child  is,  as  long  as  it  is  unspoilt  by  us;  .'cai'icss, 
and  fearless  under  the  difficulties  of  a  vivid  imagination,  not  t^iu  nigh  im- 
agination which  composes  images  towards  an  artistic  end,  but  the. Untu- 
tored quality  which  works  without  an  impulse  or  an  aim.  On  the  child's 
receptive  heart  everything  makes  a  strong  impression,  numberless  images 
are  received.  And  at  night,  when  no  new  impressions  are  made  by  out- 
ward objects,  these  images  rise  up  a  thronging  crowd  in  the  braip.  And 
the  work  of  the  brain,  just  beginning  to  learn  itself,  and  as  yet  under  no 
ordinance  of  the  will,  composes,  combines,  contrasts  these  images  into  a 
thousand  fantastic  forms. 

Spoil  the  child's  faith  in  the  world  being  good  to  it  and  pleasant; 
frighten  it  with  falsehoods  to  keep  it  quiet,  tell  it  a  single  lie,  and  let  it 
lose  a  grain  of  its  divine  trust  in  you;  show  yourself  violent,  unreasonable, 
harsh,  or  cruel,  and  every  one  of  these  images  may  take  a  frightful  form. 
What  it  has  suffered  from  you,  the  distrust  it  has  gained  from  you,  will 
creep  like  a  subtle  element  of  fear  into  the  creations  of  its  fancy,  and 
terror  is  born  in  its  heart. 

Again,  this  unquestioning  faith  makes  the  child  think  that  everything  is 
possible,  and  as  many  things  are  possible  which  the  fear  which  reasons 
deters  us  from  attempting,  the  child  often  does  feats  which  astonish  us. 
So  nations  in  their  childhood,  and  men  inspired  by  intense  faith,  have, 
believed  in  themselves  and  done  things  called  miraculous. 

It  is  unwise  to  attack  too  rudely  even  this  self  confidence  of  childhood. 
Lessen  the  child's  faith  in  his  own  powers,  and  you  will  check  the  growth 
of  that  happy  audacity  which  in  boyhood  and  youth  wins  afterwards  so 
much — that  easy  daring  and  self-confidence  which,  when  it  is  limited  by 
good  manners,  is  so  charming  in  society. . 

Nature  herself  will  teach  him  humility  soon  enough,  and  you  had  better 
let  him  find  out  his  limits  in  this  direction  for  himself.  She  has  a  way  of 
teaching  which  is  irresistible;  which,  though  it  stops  audacity  with  firm- 
ness, yet  shows  that  she  is  pleased  with  the  audacity;  which  points  out  a 
way  of  conquering  herself.  And  in  the  child's  relation  to  his  home  and 
society,  you  yourself  can  check  the  fearless  self-confidence  when  it  degen- 
erates into  impertinence  or  thoughtlessness,  not  by  harsh  rebuke,  but  by 


CHILD  LIFE-I5KUOKE.  285 

appealing  to  the  natural  impulse  of  affection  The  limit  placed  by  saying 
and  enforcing  this — "Do  nothing,  my  child,  say  nothing,  which  will  give 
pain  to  others  "—is  not.  a  limit  which  will  crush  the  natural  boldness  of 
the  heart.  It  is  a  limit  which  appeals  to  love,  and  the  desire  to  be  loved 
is  an  element  in  the  child's  nature  as  strong  as  faith.  It  will  be  seen  to  be 
natural  and  reasonable;  it  will  be  accepted. 

Again,  as  to  this  faith  in  its  relation  to  God,  how  docs  it  take  a  religious 
form?     The  child's  religious  faith  is,  first,  faith  in  you— mother,  father, 
guardian;  to  early  childhood  you  are  God.     And  when  you  come  to  give 
a  name  to  the  dim  vision  of  the  growing  child,  and  call  it  God,  it  wrill 
grow  into  form  before  him,  clothed  with  your  attributes,  having  your 
character.     If  the  child  learn  to  worship  an  idol — a  jealous,  capricious, 
passionate  God— it  is  not  his  fault  half  so  much  as  yours.     What  were 
you  to  him  when  he  was  young?     Were  you  violent,  sulky,  exacting,  sus- 
picious, ruling  by  force  and  not  by  love?    Whatever  you  were,  his  God 
in  boyhood  will  wear  your  shape  and  bear  your  character,  and  he  will 
grow  like  the  character  he  contemplates.     As  he  grows  older,  he  needs 
more  direct  teaching.     He  asks  who  is  God,  what  is  His  character,  what 
His  will.     For  He  cannot  but  desire  to  know  these  things,  through  a 
vague  curiosity,  if  through  nothing  more.     For  by  and  by,  God  touches 
him.     Spiritual  impulses,  slight)  but  distinct,  come  to  him  in  hours  of 
temptation;  voices  make  themselves  heard  in  his  heart;  passion  renders 
life  exalted,  and  in  the  more  wakeful  state  it  genders,  the  germs  of  spirit- 
ual life  push  forth;    nature  speaks  her  dim  message  in  some  lonely 
moment  on  the  hills  or  in  the  wood,  and  he  is  conscious  of*  an  undefined 
want.     What  has  he  to  fall  back  on  then?    What  ideas  have  you  given 
him  to  which  he  may  now  fly  for  solution  of  the  growing  problem?  what 
forms  of  thought  which  the  new  powers  of  spiritual  faith  and  love  may 
breathe  upon  and  make  a  living  God?    The  whole  spiritual  future  of  his 
youth  then  trembles  in  the  balance.     Fathers  and  mothers,  you  do  not 
know  often  what  you  are  doing;  what  misery,  what  bitterness,  what  hard- 
ness of  heart,  what  a  terrible  struggle,  or  what  a  hopeless  surrender  of  the 
whole  question  you  have  prepared  for  your  child  by  the  dismal  theology 
and  the  dreadful  God,  and  the  dull  heaven,  which  you  have  poured  into 
the  ear  of  childhood.     Long,  long  are  the  years,  before  the  man  whose 
early  years  have  been  so  darkened  can  get  out  of  the  deadly  atmosphere 
into  a  clear  air,  and  see  the  unclouded  face  of  God. 

So  far  for  the  faith  of  childhood ;  on  its  love  I  need  not  dwell,  the  same 
things  apply  to  it  as  apply  to  faith;  but  on  its  joyfulness  and  the  things 
connected  therewith  we  speak  as  we  draw  to  a  conclusion. 

The  child's  joy  comes  chiefly  from  his  fresh  receptiveness.  His  heart 
is  open  to  all  impressions  as  the  bosom  of  the  earth  is  to  the  heavenly  airs 
and  lights.  Nothing  interferes  to  break  the  tide  of  impressions  which  roll 
in  wave  on  wave — no  brooding  on  the  past,  no  weary  anticipations  of  the 
future.  He  lives,  like  God,  in  an  eternal  present.  The  world  is  wonder- 
ful to  him,  not  in  the  sense  of  awaking  doubts  or  problems,  but  as  giving 
every  moment  some  miraculous  and  vivid  pleasure,  and  it  is  pleasure  in 
the  simplest  things.  His  father's  morning  kindness  makes  him  thrill ;  his 
food  is  to  him  the  apples  of  paradise.  The  sunlight  sleeping  on  the  grass, 


286  CHILD  LIFE- BROOKE 

the  first  fall  of  snow  in  winter,  the  daisy  stars  he  strings  upon  the  meadow, 
the  fish  leaping  in  the  stream,  the  warm  air  which  caresses  his  cheek  the 
passing  of  the  great  wagon  in  the  street,  the  swallows'  nest  above  his 
bedroom  window,  the  hour  of  rest  at  night,  and  his  prayer  at  his  mother's 
knee — all  are  loved  lightly  and  felt  keenly,  and  touch  him  with  a  poetic 
pleasure.  And  each  impression,  as  it,  comes,  is  clothed  in  simple  words — 
words  which  often,  in  their  spontaneousness,  their  fearless  unconscious- 
ness, their  popular  quality,  their  fitness  for  music,  have  something  of  a 
lyric  note,  something  of  the  nature  of  a  perfect  song.  For  the  child  lives 
in  a  world  of  unconscious  art.  He  is  fearless  in  his  delight,  and  when  he 
is  happy  he  trusts  his  own  instincts  as  revelations:  and  if  we  could  get 
back  in  after-life  something  of  this,  we  should  all  be  artists  in  heart.  One 
knows  in  the  highest  genius  that,  united  with  manhood's  trained  power  of 
expression,  there  is  an  eternal  element  of  childhood.  Take,  for  example, 
the  perfect  song,  such  as  the  songs  of  Shakespeare  were.  They  were 
spontaneous,  sudden,  popular,  simple,  and  able  to  be  sung.  But  above 
all.  they  derive  their  magic  and  winning  power  from  the  poet's  fearless- 
ness, from  his  trust  in,  and  his  delight  in  his  instinctive  emotions.  The 
songs  of  other  poets  are  spoiled  by  their  fear  of  their  simplicity  being 
called  absurd  by  the  public,  by  that  doubt  whether  the  thing  is  quite 
right,  that  thinking  about  thought,  that  shyness  of  one's  own  feeling 
which  come  from  want  of  that  unconscious  trust  in  his  right  ness  and  de- 
light in  it  which  a  child  possesses.  The  kingdom  of  a  perfect  song,  the 
kingdom  of  a  perfect  work  of  art,  is  like  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  one 
must  enter  it  like  a  little  child. 

"Fostered  alike  by  beauty  and  by  fear,"  fear  which  has  its  thrill  of  joy, 
the  child  grows  into  union  with  the  world,  and  into  consciousness  of  his 
own  heart,  till  "  the  characters  of  danger  and  desire"  are  impressed  upon 
all  outward  forms,  and  day  by  day  more  vividly  that  great  enjoyment 
swells  which  makes 

The  surface  of  the  universal  earth 

With  triumph  and  delight,  with  hope  and  fear, 

Work  like  a  sea. 

And  in  quieter  moments,  calmer  pleasures  are  his — pleasures  of  love  given 
and  received,  pleasures  of  childish  friendship,  pleasures  of  first  successes 
in  learning  and  in  new  pursuits,  pleasures  of  obscure  feelings  just  touched, 
not  understood,  which  make  in  after-life 

Those  recollected  hours  that  have  the  charm 

Of  visionary  things,  those  lovely  forms 

And  sweet  sensations  which  throw  back  our  life, 

And  almost  make  remotest  infancy 

A  visible  scene,  on  which  the  sun  is  shining. 

We  look  back  on  them  with  reflection,  but  there  was  no  reflection,  or  but 
little,  then;  the  life  was  natural,  unthoughtful,  only  now  and  then,  amid 
the  full  movement  of  unconscious  pleasure,  flashes  of  deeper  thought 
arose  and  passed  away,  a  faint  touch  of  something  to  come,  a  weight 
within  the  pleasure,  a  dim  sense  of  sublimity  or  calm,  a  suspicion  of  what 
duty  meant,  just  came  and  were  forgotten,  but  did  not  die.  They  went 
to  form  the  heart,  to  build  up  that  which  was  to  become  the  man,  and 
they  arose  afterwards  in  maturer  life  to  impregnate  and  to  elevate  the  mind. 


CHILD  LIFE  -BROOKE.  287 

We  spoil  all  this  divine  teaching  of  God  and  nature  by  forcing  the  dm 
out  of  his  unconsciousness  into  self-consciousness,  by  demanding  of  hi;i 
reflection,  by  checking  the  joy  of  his  receptiveness  by  too  much  teaching, 
too  much  forcing.  Let  him  remain  for  a  lime  ignorant  of  himself,  and 
abide  in  his  heavenly  father's  hands;  let  him  live  naturally,  and  drink  in 
his  wisdom  and  his  religion  from  the  influences  which  God  makes  play 
around  him.  Above  all,  do  not  demand  of  him,  as  many  do.  convictions 
of  sin,  nor  make  him  false  and  hysterical  by  calling  out  from  his  imitative 
nature  deep  spiritual  experiences  which  he  cannot  truly  feel.  Let  him 
begin  with  natural  religion,  leave  him  his  early  joy  untainted,  see  that  he 
knows  God  as  love  and  beaut}''  and  sympathy.  It  is  horrible  to  anticipate 
for  him  the  days,  soon  enough  to  come,  when  sorrow  and  sin  will  make  of 
life  a  battle,  where  victory  can  only  be  bought  by  pain. 

But  if  we  keep  these  early  days  pure  and  joyful,  full  of  the  blessedness 
of  uninjured  faith  and  unconscious  love,  we  i.ive  to  the  man  that  to  which 
he  can  always  look  back  with  hope,  and  use  for  the  kindling  of  effort  and 
aspiration.  For  the  dim  remembrance  of  their  pure  and  powerful  pleas- 
ure, the  divinity  within  them,  have  virtue  to  recall  us  in  after-life,  when 
high  feeling  is  dulled  with  the  cares  of  this  world,  to  loftier  and  better 
thoughts;  to  nourish  and  repair  imagination  when  its  edge  is  blunted  by 
distress  and  doubt;  to  exalt  the  soul  with  hope,  that  though  innocence  is 
lost,  yet  goodness  remains  to  be  won;  to  tell  us,  in  the  midst  of  the  tran- 
sient and  the  perishable,  that  our  life  is  hidden  in  God,  and  our  spirit,  at 
home  in  immortality.  It  is  true  that  inimitable  innocence,  that  perfect  trust, 
that  belief  that  nothing  is  impossible,  that  fresh  and  honest  freedom,  that 
divine  joy,  cannot  be  the  blessing  of  the  man.  He  has  been  driven  out  of 
Eden,  and  the  swords  wave  forever  over  the  gate  and  forbid  return.  But 
there  is  a  nobler  paradise  before  us,  the  paradise  of  the  soldier  spirit  which 
has  fought  with  Christ  against  the  evil,  and  finished  the  work  which  t^e 
Father  has  given  him  to  do.  There  the  spirit  of  the  child  shall  be  min- 
gled with  the  power  of  the  man,  and  we  shall  once  more,  but  now  with 
ennobled  passion  and  educated  energies,  sing  the  songs  of  the  fearless 
land,  children  of  God,  and  men  in  Christ. 

It  is  true  that,  tossed  with  doubt,  and  confused  with  thoughts  which  go 
near  to  mastering  the  will,  we  are  tempted  to  look  back  with  w*ild  regret 
to  the  days,  when  children,  we  dreamt  so  happily  of  Cod,  and  lived  in  a 
quaint  and  quiet  heaven  of  our  own  fanciful  creation,  and  took  our  dreams 
for  realities,  and  were  happy  in  our  belief.  But  after  all,  though  the 
simple  religion  is  lost,  its  being  now  more  complex  does  not  make  it  less 
divine;  our  faith  is  more  tried,  but  it  H  stronger;  our  feelings  are  less 
easily  moved,  but  they  are  deeper;  our  love  of  God  is  less  innocent,  but 
how  much  more  profound;  our  life  is  not  so  bright  in  the  present,  but  its 
future  is  glorious  in  our  eyes.  We  aie  men  who  know  that  we  shall  be 
made  partaker's  of  the  child's  heart  towards  our  Father,  united  with  the 
awe  and  love  and  experience  of  the  man.  And  then,  through  death,  again 
we  enter  the  imperial  palace  whence  we  came.  We  hear  the  songs  and 
voices  which  of  old  we  heard  before  we  left  our  home,  but  we  hear  them 
now  with  fuller,  more  manly  comprehension;  we  see  again  the  things 
which  eye  hath  not  seen,  but  our  vision  pierces  deeper.  We  worfh'p  God 
with  the  delight  of  old,  before  we  went  upon  our  Wander- Year,  but  the 


283  CHILD  LIFE— BROOKE. 

joy  is  more  stately,  for  it  is  now  the  joy  of  sacrifice;  and  all  Urines  now 
are  new  to  us,  for  we  have  grown  into  men,  and  we  feel  the  power  and 
joy  of  progress.  But  never,  as  we  look  to  Him  who  led  us  all  our  life 
long  until  this  day,  shall  we  lose  the  feeling  of  the  child.  Through  all 
eternity  the  blessing  of  the  child's  heart  shall  be  ours.  In  the  midst  of 
our  swiftest  work,  in  the  midst  of  our  closest  pursuit  of  new  knowledge, 
in  the  midst  of  all  the  endless  labor  and  sacrifice  of  the  heavenly  life,  we 
shall  always  turn  with  .the  sense  of  infinite  peace  to  Gocl,  and  say,  Our 
Father,  suffer  a  little  child  to  come  to  Thee. 


THE   GREEN  PASTURES. 
I  WALK'D  in  a  field  of  fresh  clover  this  morn, 

Where  lambs  play'd  so  merrily  under  the  trees, 
Or  rubbed  their  soft  coats  on  a  naked  old  thorn, 

Or  nibbled  the  clover,  or  rested  at  ease. 
And  under  the  hedge  ran  a  clear  water  brook, 

To  drink  from,  .when  thirsty  or  weary  with  play; 
And  so  gay  did  the  daisies  and  buttercups  look, 

That  I  thought  little  lambs  must  be  happy  all  day. 
And  when  I  remember  the  beautiful  psalm, 

That  tells  about  Christ  and  his  pastures  so  green, 
I  know  he  is  willing  to  make  me  his  lamb, 

And  happier  far  than  the  lambs  I  have  seen. 
If  I  drink  of  the  water?,  so  peaceful  and  still, 

That  flow  in  his  field,  I  forever  shall  live; 
If  I  love  him  and  seek  his  commands  to  fulfill, 

A  place  in  his  sheep-fold  to  me  he  will  give. 
The  lambs  arc  at  peace  in  the  fields  when  they  play, 

The  long  summer's  day  in  contentment  they  spend; 
But  happier  I,  if  in  God's  holy  way 

I  try  to  walk  always  with  Christ  for  my  friend. — Mrs.  Duncan, 

THE  CHILD'S   DESIRE. 

I  think,  as  I  read  that  sweet  story  of  old, 

When  Jesus  was  here  among  men, 
How  He  called  little  children  as  l^mbs  to  His  fold, 

I  should  like  to  have  been  with  them  then. 
I  wish  that  His  hands  had  been  placed  on  my  head, 

That  His  arms  had  been  thrown  around  me, 
And  that  I  might  have  seen  His  kind  look  when  He  said, 

"Let  the  little  ones  come  unto  me." 

But  still  to  His  footstool  in  prayer  I  may  go, 

And  ask  for  a  share  in  His  love; 
And  if  I  thus  earnestly  seek  Him  below, 

I  shall  see  Him  and  hear  Him  above, 
In  that  beautiful  place  He  has  gone  to  prepare 

For  all  that  are  washed  and  forgiven; 
And  many  dear  children  are  gathering  there, 

"For  such  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven." — Mrs.  Luke. 


FROBEL'S  SYSTEM  IN  CONGRESS  OF  PHILOSOPHERS. 

SESSION  HELD  AT  FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN,  IN  OCTOBER,   1869. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  Congress  of  Philosophers  first  met  at  Prague,  on  the  call  of 
Prof,  von  Leohnardi,  of  that  University,  on  the  26th  of  September, 
and  continued  in  session  till  the  4th  of  October,  1868.*  There 
were  fifty-five  members  present,  and  one  hundred  more  responded 
in  letters  of  sympathy,  representing  the  prominent  chairs  of  phi- 
losophy in  European  Universities.  It  had  a  section  of  Pedagogy  in 
which,  among  other  phases  of  education,  Frobel's  system  and  the 
Kindergarten  were  discussed.  The  meeting  decided  to  hold  a  sec- 
ond session  in  October  and  November,  1869.  In  May,  1869  a  circu- 
lar was  issued  in  the  Augsburger  Allgemeine  Zeitung,  in  which  due 
prominence  is  given  to  the  Pedagogical  section. 

True  philosophy,  as  an  educator,  is  ever  active  to  clear  away  the  barriers 
that  stand  in  the  way  of  clear,  unbiased  comprehension  of  science  and  life  in 
their  relations  and  integrity,  Philosophy  raises  the  banner,  not  of  any  one 
special  science,  but  of  human  culture,  and  however  regarded  by  the  material- 
ists of  the  day  as  a  foolish  pursuit,  it  is  the  only  basis  of  rightful  education — 
nothing  less  than  which  has  been  the  aim  of  all  the  eminent  educators  of  our 
time,  such  as  COMENIUS,  PESTALOZZF,  DIESTERWEG,  FBOBEL.  So  far  as  the 
General  German  Teachers'  Convention  and  the  Austrian  Teachers  build  on  the 
foundations  these  men  have  laid,  they  work  for  the  same  ends  as  the  Philoso- 
phers' Congress,  from  which  they  are  only  distinguished  in  this,  that  they  have 
special  educational  aims,  while  the  Philosophers'  Congress  takes  into  considera- 
tion all  questions  of  interest  to  cultivated  persons  and  society  at  large.  A  del- 
egation was  sent  to  the  Teachers'  Convention  at  Berlin,  asking  them  to  take 
part  in  the  Congress  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  ;  to  aid,  by  word  and  co-opera- 
tion, to  solve  the  educational  problems  of  the  present,  the  most  prominent  of 
which  are  the  completing  and  remodeling  of  the  public  schools,  especially  the 
establishing  and  reorganizing  of  Kindergartens,  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
of  FRO'BKL. 

One  problem  to  be  solved  in  the  establishing  of  a  philosophical  normal  school 
for  the  training  of  educators  and  teachers,  by  which  not  only  a  remodeling  and 
improvement  of  the  primary,  but  also  of  the  high-schools,  shall  be  attained. 
Finally  they  will  ask  for  an  improvement  in  female  education,  in  accordance 
witli  the  demands  of  the  present  time  and  the  vocation  of  the  female  sex.  As 
these  points  are  felt  to  be  of  importance  by  every  thinking 'educator,  it  is  be- 
lieved that  all  the  teachers  will  meet  with  confidence  and  good-will,  a  conven- 
tion of  thinking  friends  of  humanity,  to  devise  means  for  its  welfare. 

The  Berlin  Teachers'  Convention  responded  favorably,  and  was 
present  in  force  at  the  session  held  in  Frankfort,  Oct.  26,  1869. 

*  We  are  referred  by  Dr.  Hnrris,  to  tho  Jlupsbitrper  Allgemeine  Zeitung  for  October,  1868,  and 
the  Philosophise  Mnnertshafte,  Vol.  I,  p.  514,  Vol.  II.  p.  139,  236,  322,  424  ;  and  Leohnnrdi's 
Die  Neuve  Zeit  for  1867-9,  for  a  full  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Philosophers'  Congress. 

19  (289) 


290 


FROEBEL  IN  PHILOSOPHERS'  CONGRESS. 


"In  the  beginning  of  our  century,  education  needed  a  new  impulse;  and  it 
was  given  by  PESTALOZZI  and  FIGHTE  who  broke  the  road  for  the  national  edu- 
cation of  Germany.  But  the  question,  what  is  the  true  humane  mode  of  educa- 
tion, applicable  to  all  men  every  where,  comes  up  anew,  and  asks  for  the  right 
means  to  fulfill  its  mission. 

'•FRIEDKIUK  FUOBEL,  the  great  educational  reformer  of  our  era,  in  his  sys- 
tem of  education,  promises  these  means.  But,  as  yet,  his  method  has  been  only 
partly  and  inadequately  carried  out  in  the  widely-multiplying  Kindergartens. 
It  asks  for  a  thorough  investigation,  on  the  part  of  scientific  men,  of  the  princi- 
ples on  which  it  is  based  ;  and  if  its  claims  prove  to  be  well  founded,  it  should 
be  recommended  to  all  governments  and  communities,  and  its  adoption  decreed. 
In  view  of  the  great  importance  of  this  question,  an  educational  committee, 
which  counts  eminent  scientific  men  among  its  members,  was  formed  last  year 
in  Berlin,  during  the  teachers'  convention,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  matter 
into  consideration;  and  they  are  invited  to  attend  the  Philosophers'  Congress 
as  members,  taking  active  part  in  it,  discussing  the  general  educational  questions, 
and  devising  means  to  establish  a  central  normal  school  for  the  education  of 
male  and  female  teachers,  who  may  meet  all  the  demands  of  our  time  in  all 
directions ;  and  an  address  to  the  government  and  school  authorities  of  Ger- 
many for  the  reform  of  -the  normal  schools,  will  be  submitted  for  discussion." 

The  subjects  thus  announced  in  the  manifests  of  the  Berlin  Teach- 
ers' Convention  were  discussed  in  the  Pedagogical  Section  of  the 
Philadelphia  Congress  at  Frankfort  from  Oct.  26th  to  Nov.  4th,  and 
the  conclusions  reached  in  the  field  of  popular  education,  were  em- 
bodied in  a  Report  of  a  special  committee  of  which  Prof,  von  Fichte 
was  chairman.  During  the  session,  the  Baroness  von  Marenholtz- 
Biilow  gave  four  public  lectures  in  Frankfort  which  were  largely  at- 
tended, and  took  the  initiatory  steps  for  the  establishment  of  a 
"General  Educational  Union,"  which  was  organized  in  1871-72. 

PROF.  I.  H.  VON  FICHTE,  the  author  of  the  following  Report, 
was  a  philosopher  and  writer  of  great  eminence  and  remarkable 
versatility.  He  was  born  July  8,  1797,  the  son  of  the  distinguished 
philosopher  Johann  Gottlieb  Fichte,  whose  writings  and  personal 
influence  are  world  renowned,  and  who  died  the  27th  of  June, 
1814.  His  widow  died  five  years  later.  The  son  took  his  degree 
as  Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  1818,  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  where 
for  a  short  time  he  was  established  as  Privat-docent.  Later  he 
became  a  Gymnasial  teacher  in  Saarbrucken,  and  subsequently  in 
Diisseldorf.  For  several  years  till  1840,  he  was  Professor  Extraor- 
dinary of  Philosophy  in  Bonn.  In  1842  he  was  called  to  Tubingen 
as  Professor  of  Philosophy,  where  he  remained  till  1863,  when 
he  resigned  and  removed  to  Stuttgart,  where  he  resided  till  his 
death,  at  the  age  of  83.  He  was  a  voluminous  writer  upon  a  vari- 
ety of  subjects,  on  Philosophy,  Ethics,  Pedagogics,  and  Theology, 
singularly  clear,  candid,  and  sensible,  earnestly  theistic  and  Chris- 
tian. He  founded  the  journal  which  bears  his  name  and  has 
reached  the  78th  volume,  and  is  highly  esteemed  in  Germany  and 
wherever  German  Philosophy  is  studied. 


THE  NATIONAL  EDUCATION  DEMANDED  BY  THE  AGE, 

CONSIDERED    IN    CONNECTION    WITH    THE    EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEM    OF    FRIEDR1CH    FROBEL. 

By  Prof.  J.  H.  Von  Fichte.* 


I.     EDUCATION — THE   PROBLEM   OF   THE   AGE. 

SINCE  Pestalozzi's  great  movement,  it  has  become,  at  least  in  Germany, 
a  universally  recognized  conviction,  that  only  by  means  of  an  improved 
popular  education,  can  the  many  defects  of  civil,  social  and  family  life 
be  thoroughly  corrected,  and  a  better  future  be  assured  to  our  posterity. 
It  may  be  asserted,  still  more  universally,  that  the  fate  of  a  people,  its 
growth  and  decay,  depend,  ultimately  and  mainly,  on  the  education 
which  is  given  to  its  youth.  Hence  follows,  with  the  same  indisputable 
certainty,  the  next  axiom  :  that  nation  which,  in  all  its  classes,  possesses 
the  most  thorough  and  varied  cultivation,  will,  at  the  same  time,  be  the 
most  powerful  and  the  happiest,  among  the  peoples  of  its  ctntury;  invin- 
cible to  its  neighbors  arid  envied  by  its  contemporaries,  or  an  example 
for  them  to  imitate.  Indeed,  it  can  be  asserted,  with  the  exactness  of  a 
mathematical  truth,  that  even  the  most  reliable  preparation  for  war 
can  be  most  surely  reached  through  the  right  education  of  physically- 
developed  young  men.  This  conviction  also  gains  ground  in  Germany  ; 
and  renewed  efforts  are  now  made  to  introduce  gymnastics  (turneri)  into 
the  system  of  common  school  education,  freed  from  all  cumbersome 
modifications,  and  restored  to  their  simple,  first  principles. 

But  the  problems  of  national  education  are  far  from  being  limited  to 
these  immediate,  practical  aims.  Its  workings  must  not  alone  cover  the 
present  and  its  necessities  ;  the  great  plan  of  national  education  must 
comprehend  unborn  generations,  the  future  of  our  race,  the  immediate 
and  therefore  the  most  distant.  Finally,  man  must  not  be  educated 
for  the  State  alone  (after  the  manner  of  Greece  and  Rome),  but  the 
highest  civil  and  educational  aim  must  be  to  lead  the  individual  and 
the  whole  race  toward  their  moral  perfection.  National  education  must 
therefore  extend  beyond  the  popular  and  expedient;  must  construct 
its  foundations  on  pure  and  universal  humanity,  and  then  raise  upon 
these  whatever  national  and  professional  wants  require.  This  grada- 
tion of  requirements  strictly  held,  will  prove  to  be  a  guiding  rule  of  great 
importance. 

Here  now,  it  may  seem — and  "  idealizing  educators  "  have  frequently 
received  such  reproaches — as  if  in  these  demands,  far  off,  impossible 

*  Translated  by  Emily  Meyer,  with  slight  verbal  alterations  nnd  abridgements. 


292  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

problems  were  treated  of,  as  if  educational  Utopias  were  desired,  instead 
of  looking  after  what  is  nearest  and  most  necessary.  And  one  could  say, 
even  with  an  appearance  of  right,  that  inasmuch  as  we  perform  what  is 
near  and  sure,  we  approach,  at  least  progressively,  our  highest  goal. 
For  national  education  is  a  work  so  comprehensive,  complicated  and 
prodigious,  that  it  can  be  realized  only  in  favorable  periods  and  within 
very  circumscribed  limits. 

Admitting  this  last,  we  hope  still  to  show  how  directly  practical  the 
consideration  of  that  universal  question  of  principle  is,  and  that  the  edu- 
cation of  the  present  will  only  reach  its  r.irn  by  beginning  at  this  point. 
We  are  undeniably  entering  a  new  era.  We  are  preparing  to  cast  aside 
the  last  remnants  of  the  middle  ages.  Inherited  rights  are  precarious,  or 
at  least  they  can  claim  no  legal  sanction,  while,  nevertheless,  much  in 
our  manners  and  customs  remind  us  of  the  past,  No  one  is  compelled 
to  serve  another,  and  no  individual  enjoys  in  idleness  the  profits  of 
another  man's  labor ;  but  for  each,  labor  and  capacity  are  to  be  the  sole 
supports  of  his  position  in  life.  Thus  each  is  thrown  upon  his  own 
exertions,  and  the  path  of  unlimited  competition  and  zealous  effort  is 
opened  to  all. 

For  this  reason  there  should  no  longer  be  a  privileged  class,  but  to 
each,  approximately  at  least,  must  be  offered  every  thing  which  belongs 
to  a  universal  human  culture,  and  what  his  particular  capacities  de- 
mand or  are  able  to  appropriate.  Only  upon  these  two  conditions  can 
the  citizen  of  the  commonwealth  be  fitted  for  the  future  "  struggle  for 
existence,"  to  continue  equal  to  the  increased  requirements,  and  fulfill 
ably  his  chosen  calling. 

This  new  great  principle  of  the  equal  rights  of  all  to  all  which  their 
talents  can  grasp,  demands  a  plan  of  education  fundamentally  renovated 
and  readjusted.  In  every  given  case,  the  education  must  be  strictly 
proportional  to  the  conditions  which  the  period  offers.  But  it  can  not  be 
denied,  that  in  the  present  period  this  proportional  relation  has  not  been 
reached ;  yes,  there  is  even  danger  that  it  may  be  missed  of,  by  a  mis- 
taken arrangement  of  details.  For  this  reason,  those  upon  whom  the 
responsibility  of  educating  rests,  must  recognize  clearly  the  final  aim  of 
the  same,  and  prepare  it  with  practical  certainty,  through  all  the  neces- 
sary grades.  Above  all,  therefore,  theoretically  there  must  be  no  vacil- 
lation in  principles,  practically  no  failure  in  the  correct  issues!  If  we 
should  succeed  only  in  spreading  a  wholesome  light  over  these  two 
points,  we  should  feel  that  we  had  solved  our  present  problem. 

Our  politicians  and  State  educators  differ  widely  in  regard  to  that  aim; 
and  this  is  the  next  ground  where  the  struggle  should  begin.  Whoever 
considers  a  republic  the  highest  goal  to  which  a  State  can  attain,  laments 
that  he  sees  no  republicans  around  him  ;  these  true  education  must 
make.  But  what  the  republican  spirit,  in  which  the  people  are  to  be 
educated,  really  is,  there  is  no  thorough  insight.  This  spirit  is  the  op- 
posite of  that  which  has  till  now  existed,  and  which  sees  true  freedom 


PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

only  in  a  leveling  equality,  and  the  overthrow  of  old  authority  and  social 
barriers  ;  and  above  all  admits  no  civil  compulsion  in  education.  Each 
individual  must  cultivate  himself  for  such  practical  purposes  as  he 
chooses,  and  as  well  as  he  can.  Education  and  its  institutions  must  be 
entirely  HQ trammeled.  As  a  fitting  example  we  can  refer  to  what  is 
related  of  North  America,  where  the  educational  conditions,  and  the 
consequent  family  life,  are  free  in  general.  The  pupil  is  prepared,  as 
early  as  possible,  to  help  himself  onward,  in  some  form  of  profitable- 
business.  The  greatest  activity,  and  the  richest  accumulation  of  prop- 
ert}',  is  the  aim  of  each.  Though  German  republicanism  may  reject 
these  principles,  it  must  still  admit  that  there  is  consistency  in  them, 
and  that  if  the  State  has  no  higher  aim  than  to  become  a  great  indus- 
trial and  fiscal  institution,  an  immense  phalanstery  for  the  most  enhanced 
pleasures  of  this  mortal  life,  this  purpose  is  being  realized  on  the  other 
side  of  the  ocean,  in  a  highly  practical  way,  and  without  unnecessary 
complications ;  not,  indeed,  without  already  displaying  the  moral  evils 
which  unavoidably  accompany  its  progress,  and  to  which  our  republican 
sages  persistently  shut  their  eyes. 

Those  who  find  their  ideal  state  in  old  feudalism,  in  simple  submission 
to  the  fatherly  care  of  u  princes  by  the  grace  of  God,"  and  see  in  a  full 
return  to  such  conditions  the  only  safety  from  the  dangers  of  the  present, 
must  also  contemplate  a  reform,  indeed  a  retrograde  movement,  of  the 
educational  system.  They  will  insist  upon  clinging  to  old  things,  even  to 
preserving  what  is  decayed,  solely  because  it  is  consecrated  by  author- 
ity. Nor  are  we  without  example  of  this  ;  for  we  find  a  North  German 
State,  betra}7ing  a  lamentable  inconsistency  and  blindness  in  settling  * 

the  most  important  question  of  popular  education,  limits  the  range  and 
thoroughness  of  instruction,  and  thus  destroys  the  germs  of  its  future 
growth  as  a  State. 

These  two  parties — we  have  mentioned  only  their  extreme  character- 
istics, while  numerous  intermediate  grades  exist — designate  only  the 
extreme  limits  of  the  antithesis,  which  touches  all  the  political  and  social 
questions  of  the  age.  They  stand  upon  the  broad  field  of  the  literature 
and  opinions  of  our  time,  as  if  separated  by  a  wide  chasm,  and  in  irre- 
concilable hostility.  They  could,  however,  by  returning  to  their  first, 
true  principles,  and  acquiring  a  clearer  insight,  be  brought  to  recognize 
each  other  ;  and,  instead  of  incessantly  quarreling,  be  made  to  acknowl- 
edge their  relative  rights,  and  work  harmoniously  upon  the  common  task 
of  improving  the  education  of  the  people.  We  consider  it  not  only  de- 
sirable, but  possible,  that  the  work  of  reconciliation  should  begin  with  a 
true  appreciation  of  popular  education,  which  is  the  common  aim  of 
both  sides.  By  this  we  mean  that  the  conservatives,  who  will  sacrifice 
nothing  which  is  sanctified  by  age  and  authority,  do  not  see  how,  in 
thus  destroying,  that  which  is  truly  valuable  and  enduring  can  be  pre- 
served. For  the  new  form  in  which  it  is  to  arise  more  enduringly,  does 
not  present  itself  so  distinctly  that  they  can  recognize  it.  This  gives 


OQ4  T11E  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

them  a  right  to  protest  that  it  is  better  to  retain  the  oldest  positive  form 
than  sink  into  the  nothingness  of  a  bare  negation ;  no  new  form  should 
be  introduced  which  is  not  at  least  a  full  compensation  for  the  old. 

On  the  other  side,  we  see  reformers  too  frequently  losing  themselves 
in  what  is  external  or  unessential.  They  do  not  often  get  beyond  empty 
plans  of  abolition.  They  are  clear  as  to  what  they  do  not  want,  but  do 
not  perceive  as  clearly  what  is  permanently  to  fill  the  place  of  that  which 
they  reject.  They  are  deeply  mistaken  if  they  think,  that,  in  ridding 
themselves  of  certain  hindrances,  they  gain  creative  freedom,  the  power 
to  erect  a  positive  structure.  We  can  not  err,  in  asserting  that  most 
revolutions  have  failed  and  become  unfortunately  retrogressive,  because 
their  leaders  did  not  know  what  they  wanted,  or  at  least  what  they 
ought  to  want. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  necessary  to  understand  the  past  correctly,  and 
to  recognize  clearly  what  in  it  has  still  a  relative  right  to  continue,  and 
what  must  serve  as  a  transitional  basis  and  means  for  that  which  is  new 
and  necessary.  The  law  of  continuity,  of  gradual  transition,  which  we 
see  ruling  organic  life  with  irresistible  sway,  has  also  in  all  intellectual 
processes,  whether  political  or  social,  its  highest  authorization,  the  vio- 
lation of  which  never  escapes  punishment.  We  might  call  it  the  educa- 
tional law  of  the  world's  history. 

If  we  may  be  allowed  to  presume  that,  as  a  general  thing,  the  best 
thinkers  agree  upon  these  fundamental  principles,  then  we  may  consider 
the  following  inference  as  admitted.  It  is  plain,  namely,  that  the  path 
of  this  gradual,  complete,  and  peaceful  transition  from  the  present  into 
the  new  period,  must  take  place  in  the  field  of  education  ;  for  in  the 
growing  race,  the  old  and  new  time,  the  decaying  past  and  vigorously- 
developing  future,  meet  and  are  reconciled.  And  thus  in  this  direction, 
the  decisive  truth  is  proved  : 

All  political  and  social  controversies  of  the  present  concentrate  finally 
in  the  question  of  education;  lut  not  only  in  regard  to  what  must  le 
done  in  detail  and  immediately,  but  more  universally  still,  in  this: 
What  is  the  only  true  education,  the  education  worthy  of  the  human 
being  ? 

,  This  is  plainly  a  psychological-ethical  question.  It  can  be  decided — 
with  the  permission  of  our  practical  teachers — only  on  philosophical 
gi'ound.  Not — and  here  experience  must  be  our  guide — not  that  a  cer- 
tain philosophical  system  is  to  construct  for  all  time,  an  educational  plan 
which  all  must  follow,  but  that  correct  insight  into  the  nature  of  the 
human  intellect  must  first  fix  the  nature  and  the  end  of  all  human  edu- 
cation, and  must  at  the  same  time  designate  the  fundamental  principles 
b}'  which  the  several  questions  of  education  and  instruction  are  to  be 
decided.  Thus  we  shall  be  able  to  dispose  of  the  final  question :  Which 
one,  of  the  now  ruling  educational  systems,  is  best  adapted  to  the  nature 
of  the  human  mind  ? 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


295 


Without  prolonging  the  discussion  unreasonab!}7,  we  can  not  omit,  at 
least  not  completely,  the  psychological  questions  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  soul — what  is  received  from  without  into  its  growing  consciousness, 
and  on  the  other  hand  how  much  its  original  capacities  contribute  to  its 
development.  The  controversy  concerning  these  psychological  princi- 
ples is  by  no  means  concluded,  and  it  can  not  be  even  briefly  discussed 
here.  It  will  suffice  to  point  out  historically  the  tendencies  which  have 
become  prominent,  as  far  at  least  as  they  have  had  an  influence  upon  the 
science  of  instruction. 

II.       PHILOSOPHICAL    PRINCIPLES    IN    POPULAR    EDUCATION. 

At  present,  there  are  only  two  philosophical  systems  which  have  had 
a  controlling  influence  in  this  direction ;  those  of  Herbart  and  Beneke. 

Johann  Friedrich  Herbart. 

Herbart  deserves  particular  attention,  because,  as  he  himself  confesses, 
it  was  his  educational  studies  which  incited  him  to  psychological  re- 
searches. He  says,  "The  incentive  to  these  researches,  which  are  not 
easy,  was  my  conviction  that  a  great  part  of  the  defects  of  our  ed- 
ucational systems  was  traceable  to  an  ignorance  of  psychology,  and  that 
we  must  first  understand  this  science,  indeed  must  destroy  the  blind 
which  we  now-a-days  call  psychology,  before  we  can  safely  say  what  work 
we  have  performed  correctly  and  what  incorrectly  in  our  teachings." 

He  starts,  in  his  system,  with  strict  consistency,  from  the  conception 
of  the  soul  as  a  simple  and  in  itself  an  unchangeable  essence.  Intuition 
may  be  called  acts  of  self-assertion  on  the  part  of  the  soul,  with  which 
it  responds  to  impulses  which  act  on  it  from  without.  Consciousness  is 
only  the  sum  of  the  relations  between  the  soul  and  the  external  world. 

Out  of  this  arises  the  necessity  of  education,  i.  e.,  a  correct  outward 
influence  upon  the  undeveloped  man.  For  the  soul  possesses  no  fixed 
original  capacities;  man  is  only  physically  a  being  who  brings  with 
him,  into  the  world,  the  germs  of  his  future  shape ;  on  the  contrary,  his 
soul  may  be  compared  to  a  machine,  constructed  wholly  and  entirely 
of  ideas. 

For  this  very  reason,  it  possesses  an  unlimited  capacity  of  culture,  and 
this  decides,  on  the  whole,  the  possibility  of  education.  A  systematic 
education  should  seek  to  preserve  the  pupil  from  ruin,  and  raise  him  to 
inner  freedom,  by  teaching  him  guiding  conceptions  and  by  rousing  his 
intellectual  interests,  while  in  the  midst  of  its  present  life  and  under  its 
influences,  from  which  it  is  neither  possible,  nor  advisable  to  withdraw 
him  ; — moral  culture  is  its  aim. 

The  object  of  education,  is  k*  an  equally  developed  variety  of  intellect- 
ual interests,"  subject  to  the  aim  of  moral  culture.  "All  must  be  lovers 
of  every  thing,  each  one  must  excel  in  one  branch."  This  is  Hcrbart's 
highest  canon  for  education  and  instruction.  This  signifies,  if  it  is  cor- 
rectly and  comprehensively  understood,  the  height  to  which  human  cul- 


296  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

ture  can  attain.  Herbart's  premises,  in  his  conception  of  the  soul,  we 
must  consider  insufficient  (why,  and  why  also  to  the  injury  of  his  peda- 
gogical theories,  we  shall  show  below),  but  he  has,  nevertheless,  given  us 
safe  guides  for  education  and  instruction,  in  his  conception  of  the  capac- 
ity of  culture  and  his  sharp  and  unprejudiced  study  of  child  and 
man,  and  above  all,  in  his  psychological  observations  of  the  inner  gra- 
dations, through  which  the  growing  consciousness  passes,  especially 
those  that  banish  what  is  injuriously  eccentric  and  extravagant,  and 
preserve  what  is  essential  and  necessary.  We  find  in  almost  no  work, 
as  far  as  pedagogical  literature  is  known  to  us,  so  many  practically  com- 
prehensive hints,  precepts  and  warning ',  in  as  small  space,  as  in  Herbart's 
"Outlines  of  pedagogical  lectures."  They  betray  every  where,  the  sharp 
glance  of  the  experienced  teacher  which  Herbart  really  was. 

The  following  are  the  reasons  why  the  principles  of  his  pedagogism 
do  not  satisfy  us.  They  are  the  same  which  compelled  us  critically 
to  oppose  his  fundamental,  psychological  views.  Here  we  will  take  note 
only  of  what  has  flowed  from  his  psychological  into  his  pedagogical 
reasonings,  which  he  has  conducted  with  sharp,  steadfast  logic. 

According  to  those  principles,  the  conscious  condition  of  the  soul,  each 
given  moment,  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  conceptions  which,  through  the 
psychical  mechanism,  have  collected  in  it,  by  means  of  the  relations 
which  exist  between  the  soul  and  other  beings ;  and  the  course,  the 
change  of  its  conscious  condition,  is  again  strictly  dependent  upon  this 
psychical  mechanism.  The  soul  itself  is  only  to  be  considered  as  es- 
sentially idealess,  as  the  unalterable  soul-unit  which  is  roused  to  self- 
assertion,  by  objective  influences.  Each  conscious  state  of  the  soul 
is  thus  a  common  product  of  those  two  factors,  one  formal  (because  it 
does  not  disturb  the  fundamental  nature  of  the  soul)  self-assertion,  on 
the  part  of  the  soul,  and  one  variously  composed  excitement  of  ideas, 
on  the  part  of  the  object,  by  which  (as  a  critic  of  Htrbart's  theory  says) 
"the  definition  of  objective  truth  is  naturally  lost  to  our  recognition." 

Each  single,  so  created  idea  expresses  it<elf  in  consequence  of  its  op- 
position to  others,  as  a  "  force,"  by  which  a  mutual,  greater,  or  smaller 
check  is  caused  among  the  ideas.  Through  this,  motion  is  first  intro- 
duced into  the  mass  of  ideas,  which  form  among  themselves  combina- 
tions, complications,  and  groups.  The  relations  between  objects  and 
their  corresponding  ideas  are  not  all  equally  strong;  one  displaces, 
strengthens,  obscures  the  other;  the  suppressed  ideas  wait  at  the 
threshold  of  consciousness,  until  the}r  can  rise  again  and  unite  with  simi- 
lar ones}  and  then  press  forward  with  combined  power.  The  working 
ideas,  rcpdled  at  the  threshold  of  consciousness,  waiting  only  in  the 
dark,  we  call  sensations. 

Th;-y  express  themselves,  in  proportion  as  their  struggles  forward  are 
more  or  less  successful,  as  "desires."  Desire  becomes  will,  when  it  is 
united  to  the  hope  of  success.  Will  is  not,  according  to  this  definite  ex- 
planation, a  real  and  acting  self-determination,  arising  out  of  the  funda- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


297 


mental  nature  of  the  soul,  against  excitements  from  without,  but  only  a 
manifestation  of  ideas,  which  forms  itself  in  the  soul  by  means  of  an  in- 
voluntary, psychological  mechanism.  We  believe  that  we  ourselves  will, 
but  both  the  will  and  the  belief  in  it  are  only  the  necessary  products 
of  the  continuously  running  machine  within  us.  We  will,  because  we 
must,  i.  e.,  because  the  forward  struggling  mass  of  ideas  is  finally  concen- 
trated into  the  idea  of  a  subject  which  wills,  and  an  object  which  is  willed. 
According  to  this,  what  is  called  in  common  language,  fancy,  memory, 
understanding,  reasons,  desires,  will,  etc.,  or  what  is  cited  as  the  sup- 
posed faculties  of  the  soul,  is  only  a  certain  activity,  in  a  certain  mass 
of  ideas,  the  conduct  of  the  ideas  toward  each  other. 

The  question  of  the  possibility  of  education  presupposes  a  mutability 
in  the  mind  of  the  pupil,  in  the  course  of  his  ideas,  which  the  educator 
must  be  able  to  control,  at  least  under  certain  conditions.  He  can  direct 
his  attention  to  those  states  only,  not  however  to  their  real  subject,  which, 
as  soul,  is  the  immutable  foundation  upon  which  the  intellectual  life,  i.  e., 
the  variety  of  results  occurring  in  and  between  the  ideas,  constructs, 
ennobles  or  degrades  itself,  and  in  which  appear  the  principal  tenden- 
cies through  which  the  signs  of  human  nature  first  become  visible. 

It  follows  from  this  that  psychology  must  become  the  fundamental 
science  of  pedagogism.  As  pedagogism  is  first  brought  to  perfection  as 
a  doctrine  by  the  aid  of  thorough  psychological  knowledge,  so  again, 
through  the  same  knowledge  alone  can  educational  activity  rise  to  the 
rank  of  art.  Psychology  shows  finally  the  causes  of  the  fluctuations 
of  minds  between  truth  and  error,  between  good  and  evil,  and  thus 
teaches,  that  a  need  of  education  is  present  in  them,  and  that  this  is 
even  necessary,  in  order  to  plant  what  is  essentially  human  in  the  soul. 

All  educational  activity  may  be  divided  into  the  three  functions,  gov- 
ernment, instruction,  discipline.  The  child  is  born  without  a  will ;  a 
personal  will  is  formed  gradually  in  him.  During  this  time,  all  kinds  of 
disorder  and  impetuosity  make  their  appearance;  it  is  the  business  of 
government  to  keep  these  within  bounds.  What  nature  teaches  by  ex- 
perience and  intercourse,  is  too  imperfect  and  irregular,  is  scattered  and 
fragmentary.  An  artistic  activity  must  perfect,  arrange,  and  unite  the 
mass  of  ideas  thus  collected.  This  artistic  activity  is  instruction. 

The  goal  of  instruction  is  not  solely  or  chiefly  to  be  the  imparting  of 
knowledge  or  the  acquisition  of  an  outward  technical  skill,  but  directly 
the  improvement  of  the  pupil  by  its  means,  the  most  important  part  of 
education.  Therefore,  education  more  closely  defined,  is  the  systematic 
conception  and  cultivation  of  ideas,  as  the  elements  of  the  soul's  life, 
until  that  "  variety  of  interests "  is  attained,  out  of  which  spring  the 
ability  and  readiness  to  will,  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other,  "taste," 
or  "moral  aesthetic  judgment." 

Discipline — Self  -  Education. 
The  idea  of  discipline  points  at  something  which  does  not  yet  exist, 


298 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


but  that  is  hoped  and  intended,  for  the  future,  to  which  the  pupil  must 
first  be  led.  Discipline  is  principally  applied  to  the  will.  It  consists  in 
influencing  the  mind  of  the  pupil,  with  the  view  of  ennobling  him  and 
developing  him  morally,  which  can  only  be  done  by  training  his  will  to 
be  correct  and  steadfast.  Its  object  is  the  formation  of  character. 
Character  is  the  art  of  ruling  the  will,  the  peculiar  individual  construc- 
tion of  the  inclinations,  in  their  quantitative  relations.  The  subjective 
part  of  character  is  "  taste,"  moral  aesthetic  judgment,  whose  office  it  is 
to  criticise  the  objective  element. 

Finally,  the  highest  goal  and  most  perfect  success  of  education  is  the 
ability  of  self-education.  Out  of  the  moral-aesthetic  power  of  u  con- 
scientious judgment,"  can  arise  a  pure,  unselfish  enthusiasm  for  good- 
ness, united  with  courage  and  prudence,  through  which  genuine 
morality  is  strengthened  into  character,  and  by  means  of  which  the  in- 
dividual practices  a  preserving,  restoring  and  improving  art  upon  him- 
self— self  education. 

In  accordance  with  these  three  aspects  of  government,  instruction,  and 
discipline,  special  maxims  and  precepts  are  developed  whose  truth  and 
manifold  practical  value  can  not  be  disputed,  even  though  one  may  not 
acknowledge  these  principles.  They  are  emphatically  recommended 
to  the  earnest  consideration  of  every  educator,  particularly  every 
teacher,  and  to  constant  self  trial  for  his  educational  deportment.  We 
scarcely  presume  too  much,  when  we  assert  that  Herbart  was  the  first 
among  £11  the  German  pedagogical  writers,  to  introduce  order,  light,  and 
a  comprehensive  gradation  of  pedagogical  problems,  as  also  a  quiet  in- 
sight into  pedagogical  procedures,  into  the  previously  fragmentary  mass 
of  observations  and  precepts. 

Others  followed  their  instincts,  or  tradition,  and  a  certain  practiced 
routine,  whose  results  might  be  successful  or  not ;  and  this  is  still  gen- 
erally done.  Herbart  rejects  this  entirely ;  he  demands  for  the  whole, 
an  educational  art  which  shall  reach  back  to  the  first  principles  of  psy- 
chological life,  and  carefully  follow  its  development,  thereby  founding  a 
soundly  arranged,  educational  art;  for  details,  a  constantly  conscious, 
psychologically  controlled  application  of  those  universal  precepts.  He 
has  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  the  science  of  pedagogism. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  no  contradiction  in  asserting,  that  the  excel- 
lence of  these  pedagogical  precepts  is  by  no  means  a  guaranty  for  the 
truth  of  his  psychological  first-principles,  and  for  the  correctness  of  his 
conception  of  the  nature  of  the  soul.  For  if  we  look  more  closely,  we  do 
not  find  that  these  precepts  are  deduced  from  this  as  a  principle,  or  are 
simply  confirmed  by  it  even,  and  that  they  would  be  untenable  without 
it,  but  that  they  are  derived  from  sharp  and  extensive  observation,  and 
thus  possess  an  absolute  value,  independent  of  the  judgment  which 
one  may  be  obliged  to  pronounce  upon  the  principle  itself. 

On  the  contrary,  we  might  say,  as  far  as  the  principle  has  had  any 
real  influence  upon  Herbart's  pedagogical  theories,  it  has  placed  them  in 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  299 

open  contradiction  to  experience.  His  theory  of  the  formal  simplicity 
of  the  soul's  nature,  of  its  deficiency  in  all  original  capacities,  has  com- 
elled  him  to  exaggerate  the  work  of  instruction,  and  ascribe  to  it  a  value 
which  experience  by  no  means  confirms.  This  contradiction  does  not 
arise  because  the  educational  art  recommended  by  Herbart  is  a  faulty 
one,  but* from  the  deeper  and  more  universal  cause,  that  the  nature  of 
the  human  soul  is  quite  different,  more  richly  gifted,  than  Herbart, 
compelled  by  metaphysical  and  not  psychological  reasons,  can  ac- 
knowledge. 

According  to  that  principle,  of  course,  education  can  make  what  it 
pleases  out  of  the  wholly  indifferent  soul ;  it  needs  only,  after  its  known 
laws  of  psychical  mechanism,  to  supply  it  with  correct  ideas,  in  appro- 
priate strength,  order,  and  clearness,  in  order  to  make  them  the  con- 
trolling ones,  in  its  consciousness,  against  which  the  others,  conceived 
by  chance  and  unfit,  are  powerless.  As  he  holds  further,  that  the 
human  soul  is  deficient  in  all  original  gifts,  so  it  must  follow,  that,  by 
means  of  education,  instruction,  and  discipline,  each  can  become  what 
educational  art  intends  to  make  of  him,  if  only  outward  circumstances — 
not  inner  endowments — allow  the  completion  of  the  educational  work. 
For,  according  to  these  fundamental  views,  man,  in  his  intellectual  per- 
manence and  grade  of  culture,  is  the  product  of  outward  influences,  be 
it  of  chance,  which  ought  not  to  be,  or  of  art,  which  just  education 
must  accomplish.  Every  thing  is  brought  into  the  empty  soul  by  in- 
culcation. This  view  can  not  recognize  original  talents,  fundamental  im- 
pulses, and  various  predispositions  for  one  thing  and  against  another; 
which  belongs  to  the  "myths"  of  the  old  psychology.  On  the  contrary, 
we  might  expect,  that,  by  means  of  an  extensive,  psychological  calcula- 
tion, the  strength  could  be  exactly  stated,  which  an  idea  in  the  consci- 
ousness must  receive,  in  order  to  make  it  victorious  over  all  others.  And 
on  the  whole,  it  would  be  only  necessary  to  apply  that  calculation  to 
each  pupil  correctly,  in  order  to  insure  the  success  of  instruction.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  prove  that  this  collective  view  of  man  contradicts 
collective  experiences,  and  not  only,  by  daily  confirmed  examples,  that 
the  same  education  produces  different  results  in  different  persons,  which 
necessarily  presupposes  the  existence  of  different  intellectual  prelimi- 
nary conditions,  but  more  thoroughly  still,  when  we  examine  the  deeper, 
psychological  conditions  which  make  historical,  and  cultivated  progress 
possible.  We  can  speak  of  this  briefly  here,  inasmuch  as  our  psychology 
may  hope  to  have  answered  the  question,  by  proving  a  universal  in- 
dividuality. The  simple  consideration  is  here  sufficient,  that  what  is 
brought  into  the  intellect  from  without,  by  inculcation,  can  still  be  only 
something  old  and  previously  existing ;  that,  in  admitting  that  every 
thing  in  the  soul  originates  in  this  way,  we  deny  just  that  principle 
which  constitutes  the  signature  of  all  real  individuality  (genius),  the 
creative,  inventive  power  of  the  intellect,  through  which  alone  all 
which  is  important  and  universally  historical,  and  all  progressive  cul- 


300 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


ture,  has  entered  into  human  history.  After  this  comprehensive  obser- 
vation, it  will  be  necessary  to  seek  also  for  another  psychological,  basis. 

On  the  other  side,  nevertheless,  the  relative  or  subordinate  claims  of 
Herbart's  pedagpgism  can  not  be  denied ;  and  we  would  like  to  say  the 
same  of  it,  which  our  psychological  criticism  asserted  of  his  conception 
of  the  soul ;  that  it  is  not  incorrect,  but  it  is  incomplete,  and  only  when 
it  is  rightly  completed,  can  it  maintain  its  independent  claim. 

Here  is  something  perfectly  analogous.  We  can  have  the  utmost  con- 
fidence in  his  pedagogical  precepts,  even  though  we  reject  the  curious 
deductions  which  are  a  necessary  consequence  of  his  conception  of  the 
soul ;  for  those  have  an  universal  value ;  we  shall  even  find  that  they 
are  capable  of  more  varied  applications,  when  we  underlay  them  with 
another  definition  of  the  soul,  more  in  keeping  with  our  experience. 

Friedrich  Eduard  Benelce* 

Beneke's  services  consist  in  having  exposed,  in  a  very  apt  manner, 
the  cause  of  the  one-sidedness  which  we  meet  in  Herbart's  pedagogism. 
He  says  Herbart's  theory  is  indeed  based  upon  experience,  but  the  con- 
ceptions of  experience,  in  their  direct  form,  appear  to  him  full  of  con- 
tradictions which  must  be  removed,  not  through  an  extensive  and  exact 
examination  of  facts,  and  hence  through  a  more  searching  experience, 
but  in  an  artificial  way,  by  means  of  a  logical  process  of  thought.  So  we 
see  him  resume  already  in  the  second  step,  the  construction  out  of  mere 
conceptions  of  that  which  he  had  rejected  in  the  first.  He  has  arrived 
at  his  conception  of  the  soul  along  this  path  of  logical  metaphysical  con- 
struction. Because  it  is  a  logical  contradiction  to  think  of  a  reality  with 
several  qualities,  we  should  insist  upon  considering  the  soul  as  a  strictly 
simple  being,  essentially  unchangeable,  as  the  really  normal  unit  of  the 
changes  which  are  wrought  upon  and  not  by  it.  For  the  same  empty 
logical  methodological  reasons,  he  has  rejected  the  harmless  and  even 
fruitful  conception  of  faculties,  instead  of  determining,  by  careful  observa- 
tion and  treatment  of  psychical  facts,  what  the  soul  really  is,  and  what 
preliminary  conditions  underlie  its  growing  consciousness.  Finally,  he 
has  retained,  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  psychology,  the  most  universal  culti- 
vating form  of  the  already  conscious,  cultivated  soul  ("  the  forming  of 
ideas")  incorrectly,  as  a  realty  original  and  universal,  fundamental  form 
of  the  same,  and  operates  further  with  the  ideas  as  if  they  were  real  be- 
ings, independent  of  each  other. 

These  critical  objections  to  Herbart's  psychology  fully  account  for 
the  principal  deviation  in  Beneke's  fundamental  pedagogical  views. 
Beneke's  dependence  upon  Herbart  has  been  too  strongly  and  incor- 
rectly intimated.  It  is  none  other  than  that  the  follower  has  the  right, 
yes,  is  in  duty  bound  to  criticise  his  scientific  predecessors.  One  may 
assert  that  Beneke's  psychology  is  fashioned  intrinsically  upon  an  antith- 
esis to  Herbart's,  and  if  his  educational  precepts  do  not  widely  differ 

*  See  Barnard's  Journal  of  Education,  xxviii,  p.  50. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


301 


from  Herbart's,  this  may  be  less  a  dependence  upon  him,  than  a  con- 
formity of  their  practical  judgments,  which  also  in  Herbart's  theory 
have  shown  themselves  tolerably  independent  of  his  own  psychological 
principles. 

The  cardinal  question  of  all  psychological  art  is  this,  what  does  the 
soul  contribute  from  itself,  in  its  unconscious  being,  to  the  process  of 
consciousness,  and  what  comes  to  it  from  without? 

Beneke  answers  this  question  quite  differently  from  Herbart,  but  we 
are  convinced  not  search ingly  and  therefore  not  in  a  way  that  touches 
upon  the  real  point  of  difference.  He  starts  from  the  fundamental 
thought  that  the  soul  is  not  simple,  but  consists  of  a  plurality  of  single 
powers,  and  that  the  abilities  of  the  soul  are  not  at  all  fundamental 
powers.  All  kinds  of  intellectual  activity,  as  the  ideas  of  the  imagina- 
tion, conceptions,  conclusions,  etc.,  are  to  be  considered  as  derived,  from 
their  relation  to  the  sensuous  perceptions.  For  perceptions  first  furnish 
the  material  for  the  ideas  and  conceptions ;  these  again  are  the  founda- 
tions for  judgments  and  conclusions,  up  to  the  most  complicated  proces- 
ses of  thought.  But  even  the  sensuous  perceptions  arc  not  the  first  and 
most  simple.  Every  perception  is  a  complex  of  sensations  and  only  in 
these  do  wre  possess  that  which  is  really  original  and  first  in  the  con- 
sciousness. But  the  ability  of  the  soul  u to  feel"  is  not  abstract  and 
uncertain,  it  is  divided  into  sharply  defined  provinces,  into  sensations 
of  sight,  hearing,  taste,  etc.  And  these  simple,  sensuous  powers  of 
feeling  must  be  accepted  finally,  as  that  which  is  truly  primitive  and 
inherent  in  the  human  soul. 

These  primitive  abilities,  however,  need  a  stimulus  to  awaken  them, 
and  thus  arises  what  we  call  sensation.  The  soul  retains  a  trace  of  every 
action,  where  the  stimulus  excites  the  ability.  Accordingly,  the  forces 
and  abilities  of  cultivated  souls  consist  of  previously  excited  sensations. 

If  the  stimulus  is  only  sufficient  to  fill  the  ability,  perception  arises; 
if  it  is  too  small  for  the  receiving  ability,  displeasure ;  if  it  is  overflow- 
ing, the  sensation  of  pleasure ;  if  it  is  gradually  increased  to  super- 
fluity, satiety  and  stupefaction  ;  if  the  superfluity  is  sudden  and  strong, 
pain. 

If  several  impressions,  left  by  perception,  are  homogeneous  and  mix, 
they  become  ideas.  If  the  same  perception  is  repeated  upon  differ- 
ent things,  it  is  accepted  as  common  to  all  things;  a  conception  is 
formed.  All  conceptions  together  constitute  the  understanding.  If  a 
new  perception  is  added  to  a  conception,  what  is  common  to  both  mixes 
and  forms  a  conclusion  ;  the  sum  of  conclusions  is  the  ability  of  making 
conclusions. 

Sufficient  ftimulants  furnish  clear  ideas  and  thus  satisfaction  and 
pleasure;  insufficient  stimulants  form  positive  dissatisfaction  and  dis- 
pleasure. According  to  the  nature  of  the  stimulants,  and  their  re- 
sults, there  arise  in  the  soul,  inclination  or  aversion,  propensity  and 
passion.  That  which  affords  satisfaction  is  a  treasure  which  the  soul 


3Q2  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

strives  after,  the  opposite,  an  evil  which  it  repels.  Single  endeavors 
mix,  after  the  law  of  analogy,  and  arrange  themselves  in  ranks  and 
groups.  These  ranks  and  groups  are  wishes,  and  the  sum  of  all  the 
endeavors  and  wishes  of  the  soul,  is  the  will. 

The  form  of  feeling  is  not  in  the  same  degree  a  fundamental  form,  as 
that  of  ideas  and  desires.  Feeling  is  based  upon  ideas,  and  the  differ- 
ence of  the  simultaneously  and  rapidl}r  arising  ideas,  and  the  aroused 
volition,  thus  appears  in  the  soul  as  feeling.  The  difference  of  the 
feelings  develops  with  the  ideas,  and  their  vivacity  is  in  a  correct  pro- 
portion to  the  vivacity  of  the  ideas  in  which  they  originate.  In  the 
greater  vigor,  vivacity,  and  susceptibility  of  the  higher  senses,  which, 
above  all  .others,  create  in  us  those  ideas  out  of  which  conceptions  and 
conclusions  are  formed  whose  contents  arc  both  goodness  and  beauty, 
lies  the  reason  why  feelings  for  truth,  goodness  and  beauty  are  found  in 
all  men.  Therefore,  the  rank  which  the  individual  will  win  in  intellect- 
ual culture  and  moral  freedom,  depends  upon  the  correct  proportion  in 
which  the  higher  senses  develop,  in  opposition  to  the  lower. 

This,  according  to  Beneke,  is  what  is  common  to  all  men.  The  in- 
dividualizing momentum,  he  places  in  the  various  grades  of  u  force" 
"vivacity"  and  "susceptibility,"  with  which  those  original  abilities  are 
endowed.  Intellectual  activity  is  more  or  less  strong  and  compre- 
hensive, in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  force,  in  proportion  to  the  de- 
gree of  susceptibility,  more  or  less  rapid  and  mobile.  In  proportion  to 
this  vivacity,  one  person  can,  in  the  same  time,  form  and  retain  a 
greater  number  of  ideas  than  another. 

But  he  reminds  us  at  the  same  time  that  these  three  forms  of  temper- 
ament by  no  means  cover  equally  all  inherent,  primitive  abilities ;  that, 
on  the  contrary,  each  may  have  its  peculiar  fundamental  nature,  so  that 
the  same  man  may  have  as  many,  possibly  different  temperaments,  as 
he  has  sensuous  original  abilities;  (a  position  which  single  observations 
seem  indeed  to  confirm,  but  with  which  scarcely  one  psychology,  based 
upon  the  laws  of  "  psychophysies,"  and  holding  fast  to  the  idea  of  the 
unity  of  the  soul,  can  coincide).  The  aforementioned  phenomenon  has 
a  deeper  source,  lying  in  the  individual,  fundamental  quality  of  the  soul, 
and  in  its  original,  but  variously  distributable  measure  of  force. 

Every  degree  of  susceptibility  can  originally  unite  with  every  degree 
of  force,  to  which  then  later  acquirements  are  added;  for  the  soul  re- 
tains a  trace  of  every  thing  which  is  developed  perfectly  ;  and  in  that 
inherent  difference,  and  in  the  quality  of  those  traces,  in  the  number 
and  peculiar  shapes  of  these  connections,  originate  not  merely  the  most 
heterogeneous  knowledge,  skill,  habits,  but  also  inclinations  and  per- 
sonal characteristics. 

Finally,  the  individual  differences  which  we  meet  among  men  are 
created  and  explained  by  the  co-operation  of  all  those  traces  and  the 
consequent  capacities  of  the  soul.  This  individuality  is,  in  its  contents 
and  peculiar  construction,  the  collective  result  of  what  is  imparted  to 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


303 


the  soul  from  without.  The  formal  emrgy,  the  degree  of  "susceptibil- 
ity," "vivacity"  and  "vigor"  are  all  which  is  inherent.  These  can  he 
cherished  and  increased  by  education  and  culture,  but  not  extended 
beyond  its  original  limits.  For  to  what  is  inherent  is  added,  as  individ- 
ualizing momentum,  only  the  difference  of  the  degree  with  which  the 
susceptibility  meets  the  different  provinces  of  the  senses. 

Thus  Beneke,  in  keeping  with  his  principles,  completely  answers  the 
question,  what  is  inherent  in  the  soul,  and  what  enters  our  conscious- 
ness from  without?  The  cultivated  man  is  not,  as  Herbart  holds,  the 
product  of  his  surroundings,  education,  and  culture;  his  individuality 
does  not  lie  in  any  ideal  capacity  of  the  intellect,  but  in  the  original 
differences  of  temperament.  For  nothing  is  inherent  in  the  human  soul, 
except  the  universal  quality  of  its  sensuous  foundation,  certain  degrees 
of  susceptibility,  vivacity,  and  force. 

From  the  preceding  outline  of  psychological  theory,  one  can  judge 
as  to  what  Beneke  has  contributed  to  pedagogism.  According  to  him, 
the  educator  has  no  other  direct  means  of  influencing  the  pupil,  than 
through  the  sensuous  sensations  and  perceptions  which  he  excites  in 
him,  either  of  himself  or  of  other  things.  This  course  can  have  a  three- 
fold purpose ;  the  perceptions  are  furnished  him  for  their  own  sakes, 
or  for  the  sake  of  the  traces  which  arc  retained,  or  for  the  sake  of 
the  inner  capacities  which,  through  them,  can  be  awakened  and  culti- 
vated. To  the  first  and  second  belong  the  foundations  of  all  element- 
ary, inner  culture;  the  third  includes  the  combinations  and  other  changes 
and  improvements  of  that,  of  which  the  elements  already  exist  in  the 
soul.  The  direct  influence,  considered  alone,  is  essentially  the  same  in 
the  first  moments  of  the  child's  life  as  in  the  latest  periods  of  education, 
and  even  beyond,  throughout  the  whole  life.  Only  with  regard  to  what 
is  to  be  developed  from  within,  do  the  educational  means,  which  are 
suitable  to  different  ages,  differ. 

Beneke  recognizes  the  prominent  worth  and  importance  for  education 
of  those  elementary  materials  of  culture,  and  imparts  at  the  same  time 
a  succession  of  practically  useful  precepts  for  first  instruction,  which 
also  includes  th;  commencements  of  training.  But  these  precepts  are 
chiefly  of  a  preventive  kind  ;  are  rather  warning  against  the  mistakes 
of  the  previous  educational  and  instructional  method,  than  positive 
directions  haw  th-j  self-activity  of  the  pupil  is  to  be  aroused,  early,  and 
in  every  direction;  and  they  do  not  reach  back,  energetically  and  with 
clear  consciousness,  to  that  starting  point  of  all  education,  in  which  we 
shall  find  the  signal  merits  of  FrObel's  educational  thought.  Beneke 
demands  for  the  development  of  the  sensuous  sensations  and  percep- 
tions, that  the  child  should  not  be  burdened  and  stupefied  by  over  stim- 
ulation, should  not  be  urged  from  one  thing  to  another,  thus  preventing 
it  from  comprehending  the  details  and  arriving  at  a  correct  contemplation 
of  its  sensations;  that  one  should  give  the  child  the  object  itself,  rather 
than  the  picture  or  model  of  it,  that  one  should  give  him  complete  in- 


304  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

tuitions,  rather  than  words,  clear  ideas,  rather  than  conceptions,  alto- 
gether what  is  simple  and  concrete  and  thoroughly  definite,  rather  than 
the  abstract  and  universal.  The  formation  of  ideas  must  also  precede  the 
ability  to  understand,  judge  and  decide ;  the  perfection  of  the  growing 
understanding  depends  upon  the  perfection  with  which  the  separate 
ideas  were  originally  formed  and  preserved,  as  "  the  conception  origi- 
nates only  in  the  attraction  of  the  equal  constituents  of  the  single  ideas 
and  sensations."  Nothing  is  more  injurious  to  the  growth  of  the  un- 
derstanding, than  an  inattentive  apprehension,  a  mere  heaping  up  of 
superficial  material.  The  sooner  the  abstract  working  up  of  the  intui- 
tions begins,  the  less  will  be  collected,  the  sooner  will  the  material  be 
exhausted.  He  lays  down  the  universal  canon  :  u  Nature  means  that 
man  should  be  at  first  predominantly  sensuous,  then  predominently  re- 
productive, and  then  last  of  all  become  productive  in  intellectual  things. 
The  educator  should  not  disturb  this  order." 

Who  can  not,  even  with  wider  fundamental  views,  coincide  with  this 
useful,  in  most  points,  desirable  advice?  Beneke,  hand-in-hand  with 
Pestalozzi's  simple,  great  idea — to  base  all  instruction  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  elementary  intuitions,  and  thus  at  the  same  time  rouse 
the  self-activity  of  the  pupil— has  always  sought,  through  these  prin- 
ciples, to  promote  the  cultivation  of  the  higher  intellectual  capacities, 
memory  and  thought ;  and  his  influence  has  certainly  been  beneficial  to 
elementary  instruction  in  many  parts  of  Germany.  For  he  has  found 
scholars  and  followers  who  have  defended  his  principles  theoretically, 
and  introduced  them  into  practice. 

But  what  is  wanting  in  his  theory  of  education,  what  shows  it  to  be 
unsuitable  to  become  the  starting  point  of  a  reformatory,  entirely  re- 
modeled system  of  education  and  instruction,  such  as  the  present  needs, 
is.  as  with  Herbart,  the  faults  of  his  psychology.  It  is  predominently 
sensualizing;  it  has  also  injured  his  pedagogism.  It  does  not  recognize, 
or  mistakes  what  is  intellectually  original  in  man,  his  (a  priori)  uncon- 
scious, fundamental  tendencies.  Consequently,  it  does  not  gain  a  com- 
plete insight  into  the  organizing  centre  of  all  education,  and  its  final 
goal.  According  to  him,  the  pupil  is  born  only  with  the  capacity  to  re- 
ceive sensuous  sensations  and  intuitions,  to  cherish  them,  to  unite  and 
separate  them  in  proportion  to  their  similarity  and  dissimilarity,  to  culti- 
vate the  inclinations  to  which  they  have  given  rise,  etc.,  etc. 

The  work  of  education  can  only  be  to  bring  art  and  rule  into  this 
psychological  process,  which  is  self-forming,  and  .only  defined  by  out- 
ward things.  In  this,  there  can  be  no  'ideal  of  education  whose  pur- 
pose is  to  conduct  men  toward  their  common  ethical  destiny ;  for  the 
psychological  consequences  of  this  theory  do  not  allow  of  such  a  com- 
mon destiny.  Each  becomes  only  that  which  his  surroundings  make  of 
him,  (accidentally  or  through  education).  Thus,  on  the  one  side,  an  all- 
determining  success  is  ascribed  to  education,  which  it  does  not  in  reality 
possess;  on  the  other  side,  its  final  value  is  still  a  subordinate  one,  for 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


305 


it  concerns  only  the  preparation  of  the  pupil  for  the  position  which  he  is 
to  occupy  in  life,  and  not  the  cultivation  of  his  intellectual  individuality. 
As  Beneke's  psychology  has  not  paid  due  attention  to  this  deeper 
study  of  man,  so  his  pedagogical  principles  have  not  been  able  to  re- 
trieve it;  and  so  the  pedagogical  debate  can  only  be  carried  to  decisive 
conclusion  upon  another,  the  psychological  field. 

III.      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PRINCIPLE    IN   MODERN   PEDAGOGY. 

Thus  far,  our  examination  shows  us  two  things,  the  pedagogical  ques- 
tion is  at  all  times  and  in  the  last  degree  a  psychological  one.  The 
previous  criticisms  have  given  us  the  right  to  turn  from  the  two  psy- 
chological systems  which  were,  till  now,  busy  in  remodeling  pedagogism, 
and  to  seek  another  psychological  fundamental  view  of  man.  The  author 
can  not  be  blamed  for  returning  to  his  own  psychological  results,  which 
he  has  made  known  in  his  two  principal  wrorks  upon  man,  "  Anthro- 
pology"  and  ''  Psychology,"  as  also  in  his  "Ethics."  They  will  be  here 
judged  from  a  new  point  of  view  that  we  may  learn  if  a  more  successful 
reform  of  education  may  be  expected  from  them,  than  from  previously 
accepted  principles. 

At  the  same  time,  the  curious  fact  will  appear,  that  what  our  psychol- 
ogy ought  to  demand  of  a  future  educational  theory,  is  already  furnished 
us  in  the  underlying  thought  of  Frobel's  educational  method.  Both 
agree  in  what  we  hold  to  be  the  decisive  starting  point  of  all  in- 
structional reforms,  while  at  the  same  time  we  must  assert,  that  in  both 
systems,  this  is  not  recognized  or  at  least  not  sufficiently.  Education 
can  create  nothing  in  the  pupil,  can  not  give  him  any  thing  from  with- 
out; it  can  only  develop  into  consciousness  the  talents  which  he 
already  possesses,  by  arousing  his  activity.  Only  what  he  has  produced 
in  himself  and  can  continue  to  produce,  has  an  enduring  value,  for  that 
becomes  a  constituent  part  of  his  conscious  being.  Every  thing  else 
is  an  accidental  or  fleeting  possession.  Education  and  instruction  should 
concern  themselves  with  this  latter  only  in  a  secondary  degree,  for  it  is 
only  a  means  for  that  first  and  real  aim  of  education. 

To  realize  the  extensive  importance  of  this  axiom,  we  must  consider 
the  following  :  No  sharp  observer  of  men  has  ever  been  able  to  avoid 
the  reflection,  that  every  human  individual,  not  only  in  consequence  of 
his  manner  of  living,  but  already  in  his  earliest  childhood,  differs  dis- 
tinctly from  his  companions  who  have  grown  up  in  the  same  circum- 
stances. .  It  is  well  known,  that  children  of  the  same  father  and  mother 
are  quite  dissimilar  from  the  begirfning;  that  talents  suddenly  appear  in 
the  sons,  of  which  the  parents  have  never  shown  a  trace,  and  that,  on 
the  contrary,  they  lack  capacities  in  which  their  ancestors  were  rich.  A 
new  intellectual  element  enters  into  that  which  is  undeniably  inherited, 
beyond  the  control  of  the  parents,  but  is  still  of  an  origin  prior  to  the 
consciousness  of  the  individual.  In  another,  the  thread  of  inherited 
peculiarities  is  lost,  or  reappears  periodically  in  the  grandchildren.  In 
20 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

this,  there  is  much  that  is  apparently  lawless  and  ambiguous;  but  the 
more  reliable  is  the  universal  fact,  that  each  human  being  is  peculiarly 
constructed,  and  not  merely  a  similar  sample  of  his  species;  that  further, 
this  peculiarity  does  not  come  to  him  from  without,  but  is  the  most  orig- 
inal dowry  out  of  that  region  of  his  being,  which  precedes  consciousness. 
It  is  just  as  undeniable  an  experience,  that  these  original  peculiarities 
are  never  fully  extinguished  or  transformed  into  others,  through  life; 
but  that,  instead,  they  are  all  which  is  really  enduring  in  the  changes  of 
the  same,  and  they  peep  involuntarily  through  the  highest  culture, 
through  the  best  controlled  character,  quite  perceptibly  at  least  to  the 
possessor.  Tt  is  true  of  the  human  being,  what  the  poet  says, 

'•  So  must  thou  be,  ciinst  not  escape  thyself. 
And  neither  time  nor  power  crui  ever  crumble 
The  conscious  form  which  life  develops." 

In  more  strongly  endowed  individuals,  who  on  that  account  are  called 
talented  geniuses,  this  individuality  is  mostly  a  prevailing  fundamental 
force,  around  which,  as  around  a  centre,  the  others  gather  and  support 
it,  or  at  least,  are  subordinate  to  it  in  strength.  This  force  is  never 
directed  towards  anything  merely  Utopian  and  unreal;  but. in  deep, 
inner  interchange  with  the  objective  world,  finds  in  it  its  sure  comple- 
ment, which  finding,  however,  does  not  consist  in  passive  reception,  but 
in  self-active  appropriation.  Every  thing  intellectually  creative  and 
progressive  springs  from  such  inherent,  fundamental  forces. 

It  may  be  doubted,  and  this  doubt  would  be  a  principal  objection  to 
the  fundamental  view  of  man  which  we  here  defend,  if  this  quality  of 
genius  reaches  down  to  the  countless  crowd  of  unimportant  men,  whom 
experience  shows  us,  at  a  superficial  glance,  to  be  mere  samples  of  the 
human  species  only,  because  of  the  worthless  and  disagreeable  aspects 
which  sensual  impulses  and  passions  have  stamped  upon  them.  If  this 
doubt  had  any  foundation,  then  mankind  would  be  separated  by  a  deep 
chasm,  it  would  be  a  strictly  divided  double  race ;  on  the  one  side,  a 
thinly  scattered  community  of  intellectually  gifted,  progressive  geniuses, 
on  the  other,  a  stationary  mass,  incapable  of  being  intellectually  aroused. 

The  violence  of  the  rent  which  would  be  the  unavoidable  consequence 
of  this  supposition,  should  teach  us  how  daring  and  untimely  such 
a  conception  would  be.  By  the  unlimited  gradations  of  real  culture, 
and  possible  capacity  of  culture,  which  are  visible  in  the  human  race,  it 
is  actually  impossible  and  contradictory  to  draw  an  absolute  border  line 
between  this  side  and  that  one,  where  genius  might  still  exist,  and 
where  it  might  be  completely  extinguished. 

But  experience  contradicts  this  disparagement  of  the  human  race  still 
more  directly.  Where  we  succeed  in  approaching  the  apparently  most 
stupid  race  of  human  beings,  that  which  is  perverted  by  entire  want  of 
culture,  or  wholly  incorrect  culture,  near  enough  to  study  it  closely,  we 
shall  discover  also  in  it  the  first  beginnings  of  a  present,  or  the  (ruin- 
ous) remnants  of  a  vanished  cultivation.  Not  a  tribe  is  so  animalized, 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


307 


that  it  is  incapable  of  rising  above  mere  natural  needs ;  every  where  we 
find  attempts  of  human  invention  to  improve  the  purely  natural  state, 
with  the  dimly  working  impulse,  to  choose  practically  among  different 
means;  every  where  we  find  the  beginnings  of  customs  and  habits 
which  regulate  social  life.  But  even  the  weakest  examples  of  this  hu- 
manity can  not  be  thought  of,  without  presupposing  a  creative  capacity, 
not  imposed  from  without,  but  originating  within,  which  responds  to  the 
willing  imitation  of  the  majority  of  mankind.  In  short,  we  must  recog- 
nize also  here  a  process  of  culture,  small  and  of  limited  operation ;  but 
so  weak  and  sporadic,  that  no  progressive  cultivation  like  that  of  the 
"civilized  races"  can  be  developed  out  of  it. 

Psychology  has  treated  all  this,  according  to  its  deep,  fundamental 
conditions,  under  the  names  of  "active"  and  "passive,"  "imparting 
and  receiving  genius,"  sufficiently,  to  venture  this  assertion,  based  upon 
experience,  that  individuality  is  every  where  present  in  all  human  races. 
And  the  cherishing  of  just  this  element  is  assigned  to  education. 

This  gives  a  much  wider,  thoroughly  universal  significance  to  educa- 
tion itself.  The  more  advanced  civilized  races  can  and  must  become 
educators  of  the  backward  ones,  in  a  full  and  real  sense;  all  the  activity 
of  foreign  missions,  all  missions  to  the  heathens,  ought  to  have  only 
this  meaning  and  result ;  i.  e.,  it  should  offer  nothing  foreign,  or  obtrude 
its  own  outlived  and  decaying  precepts :  but  in  the  first  place,  develop 
the  universal  consciousness  of  human  morality,  and  then,  just  as  with 
the  child,  rouse  the  slumbering  religious  feelings,  which,  in  the  begin- 
ning,  should  not  be  in  the  least  dogmatical.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  no 
secret,  how  little  in  accordance  with  pcdagogism  the  missionaries  have 
performed  their  high  work  ;  and  thus  it  is  clearly  explained,  why  they 
have  not  succeeded  in  bringing  forth  healthy  and  lasting  fruits. 

The  foregoing  shows  that  the  uncertain  results  of  single,  "practical" 
observations,  do  not  suffice  finally  and  thoroughly  for  a  decisfon  upon 
the  cardinal  points  of  culture  and  education,  but  that  neither  does  an 
abstract  theory,  m.ide  up  of  imperfect  premises;  that  we  must  inquire 
of  experience,  and  only  of  experience,  but  experience  of  the  widest 
possible  kind.  The  question  is,  what  are  the  common  fundamental  im- 
pulses in  man? 

To  develop  these,  and  to  bring  them  into  ruling  and  serving  harmony 
with  each  other,  is  certainly  the  real  aim  and  highest  success  of  educa- 
tion, in  the  collective  people's  life,  as  well  as  in  the  narrower  province 
of  pedagogism.  But  this  success  will  first  be  assured,  when  the  con- 
trolling fundamental  forces  are  raised  out  of  the  natural  form  to  the 
level  of  character,  clear  insight,  and  free,  conscious  will.  This  self 
emancipation,  this  transition  from  obedience  and  trusting  subjection  to 
authority,  to  self-education  and  self-control,  education  should  make  its 
second  principal  aim,  while  it  prepares  the  pupil  through  gradual  de- 
velopment for  that  self-control.  The  starting  point  and  goal  of  all  ed- 
ucation and  human  culture  is  thus  designated ;  man's  education  is  never 


30g  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

truly  finished,  as  long  as  he  lives.  Tt  should  only  be  withdrawn  more  and 
more  from  outward  influences,  and  enter  into  original,  free,  conscious 
self  determination. 

Thus  far,  however,  we  have  only  given  the  framework  of  certain 
universal  conceptions,  which,  as  such,  can  claim  to  be  truthful,  but 
which  are  practically  too  abstract  and  indefinite  to  afford  a  basis  for  edu- 
cational laws.  For  that,  it  is  necessary  to  study  more  closely  our  funda- 
mental impulses  and  their  innermost  relation  to  each  other,  also  to  dis- 
cover what  "  temperament  "  and  what  "  character  "  signify,  and  how  the 
direct  natural  form  of  the  will  may  be  raised  gradually  into  character. 
All  this,  rich  and  comprehensive  as  it  is,  can  only  be  disposed  of  by 
scientific  psychology.  May  we  be  allowed  to  express  the  results  of  our 
researches  in  a  brief  statement? 

1.  Man  enters  life,  through  conception  and  birth,  as  a  psychical  indi- 
vidual, a  specifically  limited  u  sensuous  being,"  along  with  other  partially 
similar,  partially  lower  beings,  who  are  endowed  with  the  impulses  of 
this  sensuous  being.  Seen  in  this  light,  man  is  only  the  impulse  of  self- 
preservation.  It  would  be  insufficient  to  say  he  has  this,  like  other 
transitory  impulses.  For  the  uninterruptedly  accompanying  feeling 
(consciousness)  of  himself,  changes  as  uninterruptedly  into  the  impulse 
of  the  assertion  (preservation)  of  himself.  Therefore  this  impulse  ac- 
companies him  with  equal  certainty  through  the  most  various  changes 
and  disguises  of  real  selfishness;  as  its  dual  form  ("individual"  and 
"  sexual  "  impulse)  is  the  most  energetic  and  obstinate.  It  must  there- 
fore, in  both  respects,  become  the  principal  object  of  watchful  educa- 
tional activity. 

That  impulse  appears  in  the  child  with  the  first  signs  of  life,  as  yet 
only  in  an  ingenuous  natural  form.  It  is  far  from  conscious  selfishness. 
But  because  of  the  feeling  of  weakness  and  helplessness,  it  acts  involun- 
tarily, as  self-aim,  treating  every  thing  else  as  a  means.  In  opposition 
to  this  instinctive  feeling  for  self,  education  must  develop,  as  early  as 
possible,  the  feeling  of  obedience,  subjection  to  foreign  authority.  It 
will  be  shown  out  of  what  slumbering  capacity  this  is  possible. 

As  long  as  the  child  is  growing,  and  has  not  attained  to  the  full  feel- 
ing of  his  individuality,  only  one  side  of  the  impulse  of  self-preserva- 
tion prevails,  viz.,  the  impulse  of  individuality.  When  the  human 
being  is  advanced  (grown  up)  to  organic  full  personality,  then  there 
comes  out  upon  the  dark  background  of  his  being,  which  is  based  upon 
the  oneness  of  the  sexes,  and  includes  all  human  individuals,  the  sexual 
impulse,  the  second  form  of  the  fundamental  impulse.  This,  however, 
proves  to  be  the  mightiest  and  most  profound  form  of  the  self-preserving 
impulse,  because  in  it,  not  only  the  individual,  but  also  the  race  is 
affirmed.  Therefore,  it  works  as  something  overpowerful,  more  than 
individual,  in  and  through  the  individual;  it  destroys  involuntarily  its 
reserved  self-satisfaction,  and  compels  it  to  open  itself  to  the  completing 
other,  to  find  first  in  this  union  its  self-satisfaction, — at  the  risk  of  losing 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


309 


its  individuality  ;  so,  surely,  this  inner  relation  of  both  impulses  announ- 
ces already  upon  the  plane  of  temperament,  that  the  solitary  individual 
is  without  value  ami  importance,  and  first  receives  these  when  it  yields 
self-sacriftcingly  to  the  whole,  the  race. 

Now  it  is  most  significant,  and  a  strong  proof  that  man,  already  con- 
sidered as  a  sensuous  being,  is  more  than  a  mere  sensuous  being,  that 
sexual  love,  in  order  to  preserve  the  human  form,  must  be  feelingly 
individualized  from  the  heart.  The  one  sex  does  not  seek  the  other  till 
an  individually  sympathetic  choice  takes  place.  The  impulse  receives 
the  character  of  tender  inclinations  (gernuthsneigung),  which  for  good 
reasons,  is  most  easily  recognized  and  prominent,  as  a  normal  appear- 
ance, in  the  sexual  love  of  women. 

As  the  moral  fostering  of  this  impulse  as  a  rule  lies  beyond  real  ed- 
ucation and  should  be  left  to  self-education,  we  shall  not  consider  these 
important  and  interesting  relations  in  the  following  remarks.  But  for 
the  sake  of  comprehensive  completeness,  we  will  hint,  that  just  the 
tender  form  of  human  sexual  love  should  become  the  means  of  raising 
this  whole  province  of  feeling  into  the  specially  moral  one.  In  mar- 
riage, in  the  family,  the  whole  supplementary  "idea  of  communion,'1 
the  real  principle  of  morality,  is  placed  in  direct,  natural  form  before 
the  eyes  of  men. 

Moreover,  we  must  suggest,  and  this  view  is  very  important,  that 
man  is  not  yet  really  individualized  within  the  sphere  of  the  impulse  of 
self-preservation,  or  as  a  sensuous  being.  That  double  impulse  is  com- 
mon to  all  without  exception;  and  it  must  be  so,  for  it  is  the  strong  in- 
dispensable foundation,  by  means  of  which  the  individual  and  the  race 
is  able  to  assert  itself;  therefore,  it  is  at  the  same  time,  the  universal 
condition  out  of  which  the  other  individualizing  impulses  can  spring. 
The  individual  difference  of  that  double  impulse  consists  solely  in  the 
relatively,  greater  or  smaller  strength  with  which  it  maintains  itself  in  the 
consciousness  of  different  individuals,  which  degree  of  strength  is  also 
original  and  involuntary.  It  can  indeed  be  modified  by  education  and 
culture,  but  it  is  always  essentially  felt,  and,  where  it  is  strong,  needs 
constant,  self-educating  watchfulness. 

2.  Now  psychology  proves  through  the  presence  of  "ideas"  in  human 
consciousness,  that  man's  individuality  is  not  alone  the  sensuous  and 
superficial  one,  whose  fundamental  impulse  and  its  dependent  instincts, 
as  is  the  case  in  the  animal  world,  reach  their  goal  and  destiny  in  the 
double  preservation  of  the  individual  and  species,  but  that  man  is  at  the 
same  time  intellectually  individualized  through  the  peculiar  direction  of 
his  knowledge,  feeling  and  will,  in  which  all  originally  differ.  We  have 
called  this  individuality  "  genius,"  and  already  upon  this  ground  assert- 
ed the  universality  of  genius,  as  a  point  of  experience. 

These  points  of  individuality  are,  therefore,  only  the  realizing  means 
and  the  matter,  in  which  this  higher  individuality  forms  itself.  Genius 
becomes  sensualized  by  these  natural  conditions,  but  while  it  degrades 


310 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


them  to  its  means,  it  spiritualizes  them  at  the  same  time;  the  human 
organization  is  elevated,  gradually,  to  a  copy  as  well  as  an  instrument 
of  the  spirit.  The  former,  in  physiognomy,  glance,  voice,  in  all  the 
bodily  motions  which  mirror  the  intellectual  character ;  the  latter  in  the 
practical  functions  and  technical  arts,  in  which  the  body  is  practiced ; 
finally,  in  the  control  and  harmony  of  the  sensuous  feelings  and  impul- 
ses, which,  being  subjected  to  a  spiritual  aim  of  life,  cease  to  claim  in- 
dependent rights  and  to  find  their  own  aim  in  their  gratification.  We 
characterized  this  as  "the  making  the  impulses  ethical"  (ethisirung), 
and  its  collective  result  is  what  can  be  called  human  culture. 

The  work  of  leading  the  growing  being  in  all  these  ways  toward  hu- 
mane culture  must  begin  at  the  beginning.  This  work  is  many  sided  and 
makes  great  demands,  but  its  value  is  only  introductory.  It  prepares 
man  to  become  the  capable  active  instrument  of  'the  idea';  but  it  does 
not  awaken  him  to  the  consciousness  of  what  the  nature  of  the  idea  is, 
or  in  what  peculiar  form  it  is  represented  in  his  endowments.  This  is 
the  essential,  positive  work  of  education,  its  centre  and  goal. 

For  even  as  genius  is  that  which  truly  individualizes  man,  so  it  is  plain 
that  the  only  purpose  of  human  historical  existence,  is  to  develop  this 
genius  to  its  full,  conscious  realization,  at  least  approximately,  and  in 
harmony  with  the  conditions  which  its  earthly  existence  and  particular 
social  position  allow. 

But  there  is,  in  the  first  place,  a  highly  injurious  error  to  combat,  an 
error  which  must  paralyze  all  true  educational  progress,  as  it  would  prac- 
tically serve  to  justify  all  the  retarding  regulations  in  Germany,  which  we 
now  lament.  It  is  the  almost  universal  idea,  that  genius  is  indeed  a  very 
desirable,  but  only  exceptional  gift  of  privileged  intellects,  of  which  no 
trace  can  be  discovered  among  the  majority  of  men  ;  but  that  education 
has  only  to  consider  this  majority,  the  average  of  men.  And  this  opin- 
ion is  thus  further  expressed;  that  if  that  ''highest"  measure  be  ap- 
plied to  education,  it  would  become  wholly  impracticable,  would  neg- 
lect the  common  needs,  and  merge  into  an  extravagant  chase  after  the 
impossible,  in  order  to  satisfy  an  idealistic  phantom.  And  indeed  all  the 
controversies  against  the  "  hollow  educational  theories  of  the  present 
time,"  against  the  "haughtiness"  which  they  nurse  in  man,  against  the 
rebellious  spirit  which  denies  all  authority  and  even  attacks  the  sancti- 
fied truths  of  faith,  in  short,  all  that  which  we  see  in  education,  state  and 
church  rising  up  against  the  new  reformatory  efforts,  can  be  traced  back  to 
the  common  dogma,  that  the  majority  of  men  are  only  similar  samples  of 
their  species,  who  must  be  led  by  authority,  that  nothing  savoring  of  ge- 
nius, nothing  peculiar,  can  be  discovered  in  them,  which  would  capaci- 
tate them  for  intellectual  freedom  and  independence. 

This  is  really  the  old,  truly  pagan  illusion,  that  an  impassable  divis- 
ion line  exists  in  the  human  race,  which  destines  the  majority  to  believe, 
obey  and  serve,  and  provides  only  the  few  with  the  right  to  rule  and 
command.  Also,  that  the  truths  of  faith  are  finished  and  complete,  and 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  31  j_ 

that  conscience  has  only  to  receive  and  submissively  acknowledge  them. 
Its  maxim  is,  education  should  prepare  the  way  for  this  spirit  of  submis- 
siveness.  Formerly  and  again  recently,  various  means  for  such  educa- 
tional training,  indeed  a  whole  system  of  directions  for  it,  have  been  con- 
trived. And  even  though  the  wiser  rulers  and  teachers  of  the  present 
have  turned  away  from  the  generalities  of  that  principle,  they  still  do  not 
dare  to  reject  its  consequences  and  workings  and  to  clearly  confess  to 
themselves  that  education  should  strive  towards  just  the  opposite  goal ; 
to  develop  the  independence  and  peculiarities  of  men  at  all  (fancied) 
risks,  and  in  spite  of  all  difficulties  which  lie  in  the  way  of  the  fuU 
fill  merit  of  this  great  work. 

The  way  in  which  individuality  is  still  treated,  when  it  appears,  may 
serve  as  a  proof,  that  this  warning  picture  is  not  exaggerated.  Where  it 
really  forces  a  path  for  itself,  it  can  not  be  killed,  but  it  is  willingly  al 
lowed  only  in  the  impracticable  province  of  art,  or  in  the  department  of 
useful  and  practical  inventions.  When  it  seeks  to  work  productively  in 
the  state,  and  church,  in  science  and  education,  it  is  considered  highly 
inimical  and  inconvenient  and  must  expect  most  obstinate  resistance. 

3.  It  will  indeed  not  be  easy  to  extirpate  these  fatal  and  far  reaching 
errors  in  their  principle  and  its  roots.  It  can  only  be  done,  finally  and 
completely  (which  must  be  said,  even  though  it  will  not  be  willingly 
heard),  through  philosophical  culture,  by  exhaustive  psychology  and 
ethics,  inasmuch  as  these  actually  prove,  by  a  complete  exposition  of  all 
the  forms  of  genius  (individuality),  that  in  this  genius  alone  lies  the 
true  and  most  effectual  incentive  to  all  the  intercourse  among  men, 
which  is  not  based  upon  direct  sensual  aims.  Only  because  men's  origi- 
nal capacities  are  intellectually  different,  are  they  involuntarily  and  con- 
stantly urged  to  mutual  completion,  even  to  the  intercourse  of  the 
sexes.  Altogether,  each  can  arrive  to  full  self-development  only  in  sup- 
plementary association  with  others,  influencing  and  being  influenced  by 
them.  This  is  because  others  are  able  to  offer  them  something  peculiar, 
and  also  to  receive  the  like  from  them,  i.  e.,  it  is  because  of  the  originally 
different  endowment  of  each,  or  as  psychology  expresses  it,  the  relative 
u productive"  and  u  receptive"  genius. 

Further  still  this  mutual  devotion  is  the  .source  of  true  morality.  Men 
can  enduringly  and  successfully  conquer  this  most  mighty,  continually 
wakeful  power  within,  this  impulse  of  individuality  (self  preservation 
impulse)  only  by  being  compelled  to  subordinate  and  sacrifice  himself  for 
the  good  of  others  and  the  community.  Only  the  mightier  incentive,  the 
higher  love,  is  able  effectually  to  weaken  and  obliterate  the  lower. 

But  just  this  becomes  the  most  enduring  spring  of  man's  self  satisfac- 
tion, objectively  of  his  perfection,  subjectively  and  in  the  feeling  of  thu 
perfection,  of  his  felicity.  It  is  so  continually  affirmed  by  experience, 
that  this  can  be  found,  not  in  hollow  brooding  over  one's  self,  or  in  self- 
ish plans  and  velleities,  but  alone  in  devotion  to  the  community  and  in 
enthusiastic  love  for  it,  that  it  needs  here  no  further  proof.  That  com- 


312  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

munity  is,  therefore,  with  ail  which  depends  upon  it  and  all  which  it 
helps  to  realize,  the  objective  good  for  all,  and  for  each,  in  a  peculiar  way 
his  own  good,  the  source  of  his  perfection,  of  his  morality,  of  his  felicity. 

4.  If  now  beyond  all  doubt  the  true  goal  of  the  collective  education  of 
youth,  and  of  every  continued  self-education,  is  only  to  be  found  by 
making  the  individual  more  fit  for  that  ethical  intercourse,  it  follows 
that  this  can  be  done  on  principle  and  primarily,  only  by  developing  his 
intellectual  faculties  on  all  sides  into  consciousness,  into  free  conscious 
possession  and  enjoyment,  or,  as  ethics  more  clearly  and  universally  ex- 
presses it,  by  raising  man  out  of  the  form  of  temperament,  which  is  ser- 
vile and  instinctive,  into  that  of  character,  which  is  conscious  and  self- 
recognizing.  The  forming  of  character  in  a  word  in  that  universal  and 
pregnant  sense,  is  the  only  goal  of  all  education  and  the  certain  result  of 
a  successful  one. 

Every  other  principle  of  education  be  it  wholly  or  only  partially  at 
variance  with  these  views,  should  be  rejected  as  false,  or  at  least  insuffic- 
ient. This  conception  can  also  serve  as  a  critical  rule,  by  which  to  clas- 
sify previous  instructional  theories,  according  to  their  worth  or  worth- 
lessness.  For  one  who  has  not  the  richest  and  deepest  conception  of 
man,  can  not  grasp  fully,  and  not  in  its  depths,  the  work  of  his  educa- 
tion. Let  it  not  be  considered  presuming,  therefore,  if  we  are  obliged 
to  assert,  supported  by  those  philosophic  fundamental  views  of  man,  that 
the  highest  precepts  of  education  have  not  yet  been  discovered,  or  if  dis- 
covered, have  at  least  not  yet  been  referred  to  their  final  clearly  con- 
scious principle. 

It  can  not  be  denied  that  the  instinct  of  genius,  a  sure  practical  glance, 
has  often  hit  upon  the  right  thing;  indeed  it  should  be  emphatically  recog- 
nized. If  it  is  demanded,  which  demand  certainly  can  not  be  refused,  that 
this  partial  success  be  insured,  that  the  fundamental  thought  contained 
in  it  be  raised  to  its  full  and  enduring  recognition  and  at  the  same  time 
be  realized  for  all  pedagogical  needs,  this  can  be  attained  only  through 
clear  insight  into  principles,  and  the  greater  portion  of  this  work  is  still 
left  for  the  future  to  do,  but  for  a  future  which  may  begin  immediately  ; 
for  that  highest  principle  is  discovered,  at  least  on  the  part  of  philoso- 
phy through  the  theory  of  th*  universality  of  genius. 

IV.    THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  ALL  EDUCATION. 

On  another  occasion  we  ventured  the  assertion,  that  the  theory  which  we 
represent,  is  the  first  which,  at  least  through  its  principle  and  with  the  de- 
cided consciousness  of  its  opposition  to  all  previous  views,  is  qualified  to 
found  a  science  of  the  intellect,  suitable  to  the  present  Christian  plane  of 
the  world.  For  what  it  proves  of  the  endowment  which,  previous  to  all 
experiments,  lies  in  every  human  being,  and  which  is  destined  to  leave 
its  concealment  and  appear  in  the  light  of  consciousness,  is  precisely 
the  same  which  the  Christian  faith  has  announced  as  its  fundamental 
truth,  which  on  the  contrary  was  and  always  remained  inaccessible  to 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  3^3 

the  ancient  world,  in  oriental  culture  and  in  the  reasonings  of  the 
classical  people  ;  that  all  men  without  exception,  are  equal  before  God, 
because  they  are  created  in  his  "image,"  are  his  "children,"  i.  e.,  are 
spirits  in  that  words'  deepest  significance. 

This  has  henceforth  become  the  new,  practical  principle  of  the  Chris- 
tian world,  containing  a  fullness  and  depth  of  blissful  consequences, 
which  have  scarcely  begun  to  be  fathomed.  But  at  the  same  time,  the 
whole  experienced  consciousness  of  a  cultivation  which  develops  all  ideas 
"was  necessary,  in  order  to  perceive  the  omnipresence  and  intensive  power 
of  genius,  and  to  remodel  after  it  the  science  of  the  intellect. 

We  can  say  the  same,  and  for  just  the  same  reason,  of  the  principle 
of  the  education  which  is  to  satisfy  the  Christian  era  of  the  world. 

According  to  the  fundamental  law  of  all  intellectual  life,  that  knowl- 
edge and  theory  can  only  be  formed,  when  the  fact  has  been  ascertained, 
with  all  its  power  and  essentiality,  here  also  the  correct  method  and  the 
complete  execution  of  the  same,  can  first  appear  when  all  preparatory  at- 
tempts have  been  tested,  their  unfitness  discovered,  and  urgent  practical 
needs  have  proved  indisputably  the  necessity  of  something  new. 

We  believe  we  have  proved,  in  the  foregoing  remarks,  that  this  moment 
has  now  arrived  ;  nevertheless  it  will  surprise  no  one,  if  wo  add  that,  on 
this  account,  the  direct  practical  demands  should  not  be  too  exorbitant. 
Also  for  education,  all  the  consequences  of  the  Christian  principle  are  not 
yet  deduced,  nay  are  scarcely  hinted  at.  And  when  science  does  it,  it 
should  add  the  cautious  acknowledgement,  that  this  is  only  an  ideal 
project,  which  can  not  be  put  into  execution  either  immediately,  or  in  all 
its  parts  simultaneously.  Nevertheless,  it  is  invaluable  ;  for  it  casts  a 
sure  light  upon  future  development  and  the  nearest  problems,  and,  what  is 
most  important,  it  shows  what  the  only  correct  beginning  of  all  educa- 
tion must  be,  to  enable  us  to  turn  safely  into  the  new  road.  It  destroys 
forever  false  starting  points  and  mistaken  premises.  Finally  it  offers  a 
sure  critical  measure  by  which  to  recognize  what  was  insufficient,  false, 
even  preposterous,  in  the  previous  practice.  And  it  is  also  a  very  im- 
portant practical  point,  to  devote  the  latter  to  destruction,  unrelentingly 
and  immediately.  "  To  understand  every  thing  "  is  not  only  to  u  forgive 
every  thing"  as  was  once  correctly  said,  but  also  to  designate  clearly  the 
limits  of  forgiveness  and  the  moment  of  reform,  in  order  to  break  the  road 
decisively  for  the  change. 

FUNDAMENTAL    PRINCIPLES    OF   EDUCATION. 

The  first  axiom  of  Christian  pedagogism,  based  upon  the  principle  of 
the  equality  of  all  men  before  God — and  just  this  is  the  fundamental 
truth  of  the  new  period — can  only  consist  in  this;  that  equal  education, 
nurture,  and  care  should  be  furnished  to  each  child,  from  the  first  mo- 
ment of  being.  The  fact  that  this  wTork  is  unattainable  Jn  its  full  ac- 
tual permanence,  should  not  prevent  us  from  seeking  its  solution,  at  least 
approximately,  and  step  by  step. 

(1.)  It  includes  two  things:   All  education  should  be  popular  or  gene- 


3J4  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

ral,  and  the  first  object  of  this  education  should  be  to  cherish  the  body 
and  its  health.  This  is  the  only  thorough  beginning  of  all  education,  for, 
as  a  solid  basis,  it  is  indispensable  to  future  culture.  It  will  be  shown 
at  the  close,  what  direct  practical  results  of  the  highest  importance  follow 
from  this  principle. 

(2.)  Hence,  education  should  begin  in  the  lap  of  the  family  and  remain 
in  this  circle  as  long  as  possible.  With  this  assertion,  pedagogism 
reaches  back  to  the  ethical-political  problem,  to  found  a  better  family 
life,  to  cultivate  proper  parents,  conscientious  fathers,  wise  and  dutiful 
mothers  ;  so  that  upon  these  conditions,  the  results  of  a  better  education 
must  be  already  presupposed,  in  order  to  make  the  commencement  of 
correct  education  for  the  future  generation  possible,  otherwise  it  would 
never  come  to  this  commencement. 

The  practical  circle  which  here  lies  before  us,  meets  us  in  all  great 
problems  of  historical  culture.  What  is  new  and  what  is  to  be  in  the 
future,  fhust  nevertheless  already  exist  in  order  to  insure  that  future  for 
the  community.  Human  history,  or  more  correctly  the  more  than 
human  power  ruling  in  human  history,  which  we  fitting^  call  "  provi- 
dence," breaks  this  circle  energetically  by  rousing  up  geniuses  in  the 
right  places  and  at  the  moments  of  the  greatest  needs.  To  the  future  of 
what  is  to  be,  it  sends  beforehand  more  highly  gifted  individuals  who, 
enthusiastically  full  of  the  new  idea,  hold  up  a  picture  of  the  same,  as  a 
problem,  to  the  gaze  of  the  backward  race,  and  are  thus  the  practical 
prophets  of  that  future.  In  this  way  every  idea  of  culture  first  en- 
tered into  history;  it  urges  on  kindred  minds,  and  these  do  not  rest 
until  they  have  given  it  its  appropriate  realization. 

It  does  not  follow  from  this,  (and  this  fact  should  be  noted),  that  the 
idea  must  appear,  in  its  clearness  and  ripeness,  in  him  who  is  first  moved 
by  it,  for  much  that  is  foreign  and  unsuitable  to  the  fundamental  princi- 
ple may  indeed  be  mixed  with  it,  either  through  incompleteness,  or  one 
sided  extravagance.  This  classification  must  be  left  to  the  future;  and 
we  shall  also  have  grounds  in  the  present  case  for  referring  to  these  fair 
cautions. 

(3.)  The  second  axiom,  the  result  of  more  thorough  psychological  in- 
sight, would  read  thus  ;  that  education  and  instruction  should  bring 
nothing  into  the  pupil  from  without,  because  indeed  this  is  impossible 
if  what  is  won  is  to  become  his  lasting  possession.  The  right  educa- 
tion can  only  develop  gradually  the  capacities  which  already  exist  in 
him,  and  that  portion  of  instruction  which  is  to  be  won  by  inculcation 
only,  must  be  referred,  as  much  as  possible,  to  the  self-activity  of  the  pu- 
pil. On  the  whole  the  principle  must  be  asserted  ;  no  knowledge  except 
it  aims  at  development  by  performance. 

At  a  first  glance,  one  would  think  that  the  more  cultivated  pedagogues 
of  the  presenl  time  must  already  coincide  on  this  point.  When  we  look 
more  closely,  however,  we  shall  see  that  the  necessary  clearness  in  regard 
to  the  highest  and  final  consequences  of  it,  has  not  yet  been  attained. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  315 

Also  here,  a  profound  antagonism  of  principles  still  divides  the  previous 
methods  of  education  from  those  whose  beginnings  in  the  present  and 
whose  completion  in  the  future  we  wish  to  vindicate.  The  wide-spread 
view  which  we  saw  strengthened  by  the  theories  of  Herbart  and  Beneke 
holds  that  education  with  a  certain  omnipotence  can,  through  the  right 
application  of  artificial  means,  make  what  it  chooses  out  of  the  pupil. 
This  illusion  rests  mainly  upon  the  prejudice  that  what  is  true,  good,  and 
holy  can  be  imparted  to  man,  can  be  taught  him,  and  thus  become  a 
part  of  his  mind  forever,  and  make  a  new  man  of  him.  Daily  experi- 
ence must  convince  educators  and  teachers  of  the  people,  that  this  is  not 
possible.  While  they  seek  the  cause  of  their  failure  in  the  wrong  place, 
they  neglect  to  attend  to  right  and  more  effectual  means,  to  the  develop- 
ment of  those  high  powers  which  are  originally  given  to  man,  but  which 
these  teachers  wish  to  furnish  him  from  without. 

(4.)  Upon  the  neglect  of  what  is  inherent  in  man  depends  the  funda- 
mental view  which,  in  religious  education,  and  in  the  most  important 
part  of  instruction,  the  religious,  has  brought  its  injurious  results  into 
the  present,  period,  where  it  still  strives  to  gain  ground.  It  asserts  that 
the  "natural"  man  is  corrupted  by  the  "fall,"  by  "original  sin,"  bur- 
dened with  an  original  capacity  for  evil;  out  of  himself,  out  of  this  natu- 
ralness, no  good  can  come.  He  must  be  awakened  by  "grace,"  must  be 
born  again.  But  this  "grace"  can  not  come  to  him  through  or  out  of 
himself,  but  from  without,  through  faith  in  divine  revelations,  and 
through  the  "way  of  salvation,"  described  therein. 

We  surely  do  not  wish  to  ignore  the  deep  eternal  truth  which  is  con- 
tained in  these  expressions,  nor  to  attack  it.  But  it  must  submit  to  being 
freed  from  its  psychologically  incorrect  form,  it  will  then  expand  in  itself. 
The  abrupt  and  direct  dualism  which  is  arbitrarily  erected  between  the 
natural  and  renewed  spirit  of  man,  will  not  escape  a  psychological  revis- 
ion. It  must  be  led  back  to  the  energetic  distinction  between  "tempera- 
ment" and  "character."  If  the  hypothesis  of  the  "fall"  (historical  or 
prehistorical)  is  necessary  to  explain  the  presence  of  "radical  evil  "  in 
man,  that  is,  as  Kant  very  cautiously  expresses  it,  "  the  predominant  in- 
clination to  receive  into  his  will  sensuous-selfish  motives,"  it  should  be 
left  to  the  decision  of  psychology,  and  pedagogism  should  not  be  bur- 
dened with  its  very  precipitate  consequences.  The  facts  alone  on  which 
psychology  is  based  will  not  be  changed  by  it. 

The  asserted  outwardness  of  the  appropriation  of  faith,  and  the  histo- 
rical form  which  is  given  to  revelation,  must  submit  to  a  thorough  cor- 
rection. They  are  not  only  unessential  additions  which  may  be  carried 
as  harmless  ballast,  but  through  the  exclusive  importance  which  is  at- 
tached to  them,  they  mislead  one  to  mistake  the  real  kernel  of  life  in 
those  truths,  and  lead  to  errors  which  have  not  only  injured  the  religious 
life  of  the  church,  but  also  the  effectual  awakening  of  religion  in  young 
minds, — and  religious  pedagogism,  the  most  important  part  of  the  whole. 

(5.)  This   finally  brings  us  to  the  third,  and  most   important  point. 


316  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

What  must  be  the  highest  goal  and  central  point  of  all  education  and  hu- 
man culture  ?  And  here,  least  of  all,  can  doubt  or  disagreement  exist. 
u  The  formation  of  moral  character,"  is  this  goal ;  the  ancients  called 
it  "wisdom;"  the  present  time  calls  it,  the  rule  of  whatever  is  good 
and  purely  human,  u  humanity."  There  has  never  been  any  division 
in  opinion,  as  to  what  is  the  nature  of  moral  will,  the  character  of  "good- 
ness," the  sign  of  humane  intention  for  what  is  good,  what  ought  to  be, 
bears  in  itself  its  unmistakable,  never  denied  token. 

(6.)  An  essential  difference  of  opinion  still  exists  about  the  road  to  this 
goal  and  the  secondary  conditions  which  insure  its  attainment,  which  we 
can  not  thoroughly  discuss  here  (this  was  done  in  our  previously  men- 
tioned works),  and  in  regard  to  which,  therefore,  it  is  sufficient  to  explain 
which  of  the  two  alternatives  we  choose.  These  are  vital  questions  of  such 
far  reaching  importance,  that  an  exhaustive  discussion  of  tbern  would  re- 
quire comprehensive  expositions.  If  one  may  be  allowed  to  refer  to 
such,  then  he  has  the  right  to  give  a  summary  decision,  without  having 
to  fear  the  reproach  of  superficialty  or  unnecessary  arbitrariness. 

Some  one  speak  of  human,  self-conceived  morality,  either  acquired  or 
based  upon  instinct;  of  its  being  entirely  independent  of  religion  and 
pious  emotions,  and  not  in  the  least  influenced  by  the  religious  emotions 
of  fear  or  hope;  and  that  it  is  self-sufficient  and  in  itself  its  own  re- 
ward, as  it  is  only  the  involuntary  expression  of  a  .noble  nature  full  of 
humane  feeling.  We  shall  not  omit  to  consider  the  claims  of  this  view. 

(7.)  If  any  are  not  satisfied  with  such  sober  morality,  planted  in  mere 
unconscious  impulses,  and  instinctive  emotions,  they  must  remember 
that  this  morality,  with  all  its  forms  and  expressions,  still  continues  upon 
the  natural  plane,  has  not  risen  to  the  form  of  conscious  "  character," 
alone  worthy  of  man.  They  are  the  still  dark  and  sporadically  working 
unenlightened  impulses  of  the  originally  present  (a  priori)  idea  of  good, 
but  which,  mixed  with  other  impulses  as  changeable,  can  offer  no  picture 
of  conscious,  therefore  in  itself  certain,  morality.  Therefore,  because  it 
is  wanting  in  continuance,  this  form  of  morality  is  a  very  frail  dowrry  for 
lift-,  and  it  can  not  in  the  least  give  to  man  the  inner  satisfaction  which 
religion  yields  him.  Therefore,  they  further  assert,  with  very  good  rea- 
son, that  the  perfected  morality  which  is  clearly  conscious  in  its  motives, 
the  "ethos"  upon  the  plane  of  character,  can  only  be  won  within  the  pale 
of  religion.  For  the  will  first  frees  itself  from  all  wavering  variance  and 
deviation  upon  the  plane  of  religious  morality,  because  in  each  moral 
achievement,  even  down  to  the  single  deed,  it  seeks  to  satisfy  only  the 
one  idea  of  goodness,  (or  as  Kant  more  formally  expresses  it,  "  duty  for 
duty's  sake").  We  have  thus  become  one  with  the  eternal  will  of  good- 
ness, and  its  instrument,  at  least  in  intention  and  conscious  sentiment. 
This  conception  is  here  decisive,  because  it  first  fully  explains  the  whole 
fact  of  conscious  morality.  That  an  eternal  will  of  goodness  is  in  God 
we  experience  in  ourselves,  when  we  are  truly  moved  by  that  moral  en- 
thusiasm which  transforms  our  self-will.  For  this  reason  morality  has 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  317 

become  religion,  not  so  that  it  alternates  with  religion  or  supplants  it,  but 
in  this,  that  it  perfects  itself  in  religion  by  receiving  from  it  the  clearest 
and  highest  discernment  of  its  own  true  being  and  with  it,  the  feeling 
of  sincerest  self-certainty. 

(8.)  True  religion  or  piety  in  its  culmination  is  nothing  more  than  the 
continually  present  consciousness  of  the  true  source  out  of  which  we  draw 
our  moral  strength,  and  through  which,  alone,  every  moral  consumma- 
tion is  possible.  It  is  continual  devotion  to  God,  for  it  is  conscious  that 
it  works  only  out  of  that  highest  and  holy  will ;  hence  it  attributes  all  its 
single  achievements  to  him,  not  to  itself.  This  is  the  deepest  and  indis- 
soluble oneness  of  religion  and  morality.  Inversely,  this  restores  its 
highest  value  and  essential  truth  to  theoretical  religion,  in  regard  to  what 
"  faith  "  is,  and  what  it  is  essential  to  teach. 

On  the  contrary,  a  morality  without  religion  is  without  foundation  and 
superficial,  therefore  cold  and  barren  ;  for  it  lacks  its  inspiring  incentive. 
A  religion  without  morality  would  be  abstract  and  dead,  a  mere  thing  of 
perception,  or  better,  an  outwardly  received  faith,  remaining  a  stranger 
to  our  innermost  being.  Both  lack  that  enthusiasm  which  penetrates 
and  sanctifies. 

(9.)  The  foregoing  hints,  while  they  can  not  scientifically  exhaust  the 
matter,  are  still  fulty  sufficient  to  conduct  us,  to  the  highest  and  conclud- 
ing axiom,  in  regard  to  the  educational  question. 

To  rouse  true  piety  in  us,  in  the  sense  designated  above,  to  make  re- 
ligious opinion  the  constant  supporter  and  companion  of  our  life  and 
deeds,  must  constitute  the  highest  aim  of  education,  the  goal  of  all  its 
special  achievements;  for  the  formation  of  moral  character,  in  an  endur- 
ing and  clearly  conscious  manner,  is  only  to  be  attained  by  true  piety. 

Hence,  the  religious  sentiment  in  the  pupil  should  not  be  nourished  in- 
cidentally and  sporadically,  but  every  thing  in  perception,  emotion  and 
will  should  awaken  this  sentiment,  confirm  it  and  help  to  found  it  in  the 
right  way.  But  this  is  only  possible  when  religion  wins  a  universally 
humane  form,  when  it  harmonizes  with  and  is  confirmed  by  all  the  most 
reliable  researches  of  science,  and  by  the  noblest  fruits  which  art  and 
human  culture  are  able  to  offer. 

(10.)  The  greatest  injury  however — and  this  pedagogical  mistake 
ought,  first  of  all,  to  be  removed — is  when  the  young  deeply  sensitive 
mind  is  expected  to  receive  doctrines  of  faith  which  are  unintelligible,  in- 
deed wholly  unapproachable  by  it,  and  which  afterward — this  is  the 
unavoidable  result — must  be  denied  by  his  maturer  judgment,  and 
reckoned  the  trumpery  of  an  obsolete  religious  culture.  Thus,  in  the 
most  important  questions  in  regard  to  which  man  needs  clear  convic- 
tion from  the  beginning  of  his  cultivation,  doubt  and  discord  are  sown, 
where  peace  and  the  strongest  confidence  should  be  implanted.  It  is 
scarcely  to  be  surveyed  in  detail  how  much  has  been  missed  or  over- 
rated by  wiser  religious  teachers,  in  the  well-meant,  but  short-sighted 
fear  of  deviating  from  old  traditions.  But  that  the  results  are  most  un- 


318  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

profitable,  is  shown  by  the  inefficiency  for  after  life  of  the  religions  cul- 
ture thus  received.  And  indifference,  dull  listlessness  are  not  the  worst 
results  of  such  a  mistaken,  wholly  unpedagogical  treatment  of  the  most 
important  subject.  In  stronger,  more  resolute  spirits,  disinclination  and 
disgust  are  the  natural  results  ! 

We  acknowledge,  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  in  the 
religious  reform  of  our  time — and  no  sensible  person  will  deny  the  need 
of  such  a  reform — to  form  something  new  and  eternally  valuable  out  of 
what  is  old  and  superfluous,  gradually,  and  in  such  a  way,  that  no  of- 
fense shall  be  given  to  pious  spirits,  while  what  is  superfluous  shall  be 
less  and  less  valued.  Perhaps  it  will  be  the  best  practical  means  of  lead- 
ing the  older  part  of  the  community  to  a  freer,  sincerer  and  clearer  view  of 
Christianity,  when  they  see  the  wholesome  workings  of  the  same  upon 
their  children.  Numerous  attempts  at  an  improved  religious  instruction 
have  been  made  in  Germany.  None  have  been  found  reliable,  and  thus 
the  subject  has  remained  an  open  question.  But  it  must  be  solved,  be- 
cause of  its  urgent  importance.  A  thorough,  enduring  reform  can  also 
here  first  come  from  above ;  the  future  preacher  should  be  allowed  a 
free  philosophical  theological  culture,  he  should  be  released  from  all  dog- 
matical compulsion,  and  freedom  should  be  afforded  him  to  proclaim  un- 
hindered his  religious  conviction  as  his  own — as  we  have  seen  philoso- 
phers and  naturalists,  who  have  done  this,  have  particular  effect  upon  be- 
lievers also,  because  their  word,  bursting  forth  out  of  their  independent 
convictions,  just  as  convincingly  worked — and  from  this  renewed  and 
deepened  religious  life  at  the  head  of  the  parish,  a  better  and  more  ef- 
fective introduction  into  the  Christian  faith  may  be  expected  also  for  the 
growing  believers. 

It  is  desired  that  the  oil  faith  of  our  ancestors  may  be  restored  to  us. 
We  share  in  this  wish  with  our  most  fervent  convictions;  we  also  are  not 
willing  to  miss  any  of  the  power  and  blessings  of  this  faith.  But  it  can 
no  longer  be  forced  upon  us  with  the  old  means;  no  road  leads  back- 
ward. The  new  period  must,  in  accordance  with  its  collective  culture, 
reconstruct  it  out  of  the  eternally  flowing  spring  of  religion  ;  this  new 
form  does  not  therefore  reject  what  is  historical  in  it,  but  wins  it  again  in 
a  full  historical  sense.  And  this  is  not  merely  an  indefinite  wish,  a  vain 
effort;  the  process  of  this  "discernment  of  faith"  has  already  begun. 
One  must  resign  himself  to  it,  only  gazing  forward  and  trusting  to  the 
indestructible  power  of  religion. 

V.    THE  IDEA  OF  NATIONAL  EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  THIS  PRINCIPLE. 

From  this  outline  of  universal  principles,  and  the  highest  goal  of  all 
education,  we  may  claim  the  right  to  decide  the  practical  question  also; 
where,  in  the  present,  is  the  only  correct  starting  point  given,  from  which 
to  remodel  education  and  instruction  in  accordance  with  the  higher  de- 
mands of  our  time? 
.  We  can  expect  before  hand,  and  our  fatherland  may  be  exceedingly 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  3^9 

proud  of  it,  that  this  most  important,  not  only  national,  but  universally 
human  question  will  first  be  solved  in  Germany,  where  it  was  first  pro- 
posed. Just  as  the  church  reformation  could  only  proceed  out  of  the 
religious  depths  of  the  German  spirit,  so  the  two  most  important  prob- 
lems of  the  present:  a  new  reform  of  the  church,  growing  out  of  a  con- 
tinuously developed  theology,  and  a  national  education  which  is  also 
destined  to  be  the  elementary  culture  of  the  whole  race  can  only  be  ex- 
pected from  the  energy  and  depth  of  the  German  mind.  Both  problems, 
however,  the  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  the  pedagogical,  are  more  interiorly 
connected  than  may  seem  at  a  glance.  We  have  learned  that  all  educa- 
tion finds  in  the  cultivation  of  religious  sentiment  its  final  goal  and 
firmest  support.  A  more  effectual  and  thorough  religious  education 
will  be  satisfied  only  with  a  spiritually  renewed  church,  and  inversely, 
religious  education  can  go  hand  in  hand  only  with  a  settled  religious  re- 
form. For  the  best  understanding  must  exist  between  the  liberal  peda- 
gogue and  the  church  believer,  if  it  is  to  go  well  with  the  religious  cul- 
ture of  the  parish.  We  will  leave  it  to  unprejudiced  observers  to  judge 
if  this  harmony  already  exists.  In  both  respects  we  are  referred  to  the 
future,  but  to  a  future  whose  commencements  are  already  given. 

Pestalozzi — Intuitional  Method. 

As  regards  the  pedagogical  part,  we  have  already  proclaimed  at  the 
beginning  of  our  article,  and  we  believe  we  have  thus  asserted  nothing 
new  or  objectionable,  that  we  recognize  that  memorable  starting  point 
in  Johann  Heinrich  Pestalozzi,  because  he  has  discovered  the  only  cor- 
rect foundation  for  the  elementary  education  of  the  child.  It  may  be 
still  less  known  in  all  circles,  what  in  his  intended  educational  and  in- 
structional reform  is  eternally  true  and  should  be  consistently  developed. 
We  consider  it  not  yet  superfluous  to  return  to  Pestalozzi's  fundamental 
thought,  in  order  to  judge  of  its  scope,  and  where  something  else,  partly 
supplementary,  and  partly  corrective,  can  be  added. 

What  we  hold  to  be  the  really  memorable  deed  of  Pestalozzi,  what 
through  him  is  forever  won  for  human  culture — is  the  simple  triith,  that 
a  systematic  development  of  the  child's  earliest  consciousness  must  pre- 
cede all  real  instruction — an  achievement  full  of  infinite  blessings,  not 
only  in  its  direct  pedagogical  operations,  but  also  in  the  incidental,  subor- 
dinate result,  that  it  has  opened  the  way  for  a  physical  care  and  hygiene 
of  childhood,  more  in  harmony  with  nature.  And  just  here,  Friedrich 
Frobel,  his  highly  deserving  follower,  inaugurated  his  plan  of  reform. 
He  has  decidedly  promoted  that  educational  art  of  childhood,  and  if  we 
do  not  err,  completed  it.  But  there  remains  an  unlimited  amount  of 
work  to  be  done  for  the  realization  and  propagation  of  this  educational 
idea.  There  have  been  but  few  beginnings  made  and  these  are 
really  sporadic  and  incidental,  the  varied,  highly  important  work  is  not 
yet,  as  a  whole  and  in  the  intrinsic  parts,  a  national  question.  It  must 
be  raised  up  out  of  the  sphere  of  mere  personal  and  private  efforts,  it 


320  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

must  be  given  to  the  legal  organs  of  state  government,  to  be  put  into 
execution.  In  what  way,  and  within  what  limits,  we  shall  here  show. 

Pestalozzi  has  confessed,  with  a  touching  conscientiousness,  that  nu- 
merous partially  unsuccessful  attempts  were  necessary,  before  he  could  see 
clearly  into  the  fundamental  thought  of  his  educational  re%rm.  As  it 
was  merely  a  starting  point  which  he  won,  and  indeed  only  one  of  the 
starting  points,  as  will  be  shown;  as  further  he  and  his  followers  held 
the  one  for  the  whole :  so  it  will  be  understood,  how  it  could  be  spun  out 
to  such  a  superfluous  and  helpless  breadth,  that  there  was  danger  that 
the  principle  might  be  forgotten  or  overlooked.  Pestalozzi  designated  the 
old  style  of  instruction  as  the  "monkish-gothic  "  educational  indolence, 
congealed  in  superstitiously  honored  formulas.  We  may  have  shaken 
off  the  "  monkish-gothic,"  but  not  the  countless  remnants  of  superfluous 
trumpery,  which  every  new  educational  method  carries  with  it,  as  life- 
less dregs,  and  from  which  its  representatives,  through  indolence  or  habit, 
expect  the  real  success. 

Every  educational  method  is  in  danger  of  this  ossification,  this  diffu- 
sion into  an  unnecessary  breadth,  if  it  prematurely  mistakes  its  details 
for  generalities,  the  mere  beginning  for  the  end,  the  part  for  the  whole. 
In  this  case  what  is  unessential,  changeable  and  indifferent  will  be  over: 
rated,  and  an  illusory  value  attached  to  it,  which  gives  the  opponents  an 
unfailing  opportunity  to  declare  the  whole  principle  to  be  false  and  worth- 
less. We  must  remark  alreadj'that  Frobel's  theory  appears  to  have  ar- 
rived .at  the  same  dangerous  point  which,  in  the  beginning,  threatened 
the  method  of  his  predecessor,  Pestalozzi,  and  a  chief  design  of  the 
following  discussions  is  to  free  it  from  this  danger. 

Pestalozzi  speaks  with  decisive  clearness,  in  one  of  his  later  works,  of 
the  principle  of  his  educational  and  instructional  method,  at  the  same 
time  indirectly  designating  its  limits. 

"When  I  look  back  and  ask  myself  what  have  I  accomplished  for  the 
progress  of  the  human  race,  I  find  I  have  placed  the  first  principle  of  in- 
struction in  the  recognition  of  intuition,  as  the  absolute  basis  of  all 
knowledge,  and  by  the  rejection  of  all  single  theories,  sought  to  discover 
the  essence  of  the  theory  (of  learning  and  teaching)  and  the  primal  form, 
through  which  nature  itself  must  determine  the  culture  of  our  race." 
By  "nature,"  Pestalozzi  means  here,  as  the  sense  of  the  whole  requires, 
not  the  outwardly  objective,  but  the  interior  nature  of  man,  his  original 
capacities.  These  and  only  these  should  be  roused  to  self-consciousness, 
in  order  to  discover  the  "  primal  form"  of  their  culture. 

He  expresses  very  clearly  what  he  means  by  the  cultivation  of  the 
"  theory  of  intuition,"  by  the  "  art  of  intuition."  The  "intuition,"  from 
which  all  knowledge  must  proceed,  to  which  it  must  be  referred,  or 
through  which  it  must  be  controlled,  does  not  consist  of  passive  acqui- 
escence, but  of  self-nctive  reception.  From  the  tenderest  age,  the  child 
must  be  practiced  in  attentive  observation,  in  discerning  between  what 
is  accidental  and  essential,  and  must  be  guarded  against  all  merely  play- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  321 

ful  inspection.  At  the  same  time,  the  pedagogical  intuition,  by  means  of 
certain  psychologically  arranged  exercises,  must  become  the  "art  of  in- 
tuition" which  afterwards  draws  into  its  circle,  moral,  aesthetic  and  intel- 
lectual intuitions. 

Out  of  the  "intuition"  of  the  thing,  won  in  this  way,  its  "name" 
arises.  (Tho  child  should  hear  no  name  which  must  remain  for  him 
empty  word-sounds,  which  he  can  neither  sec  nor  understand ;  a  highly 
important  unexceptional  form  of  all  instruction,  which  we  still  utter,  as 
a  warning,  for  all  teachers  of  morality  and  religion.)  After  naming  it, 
we  should  proceed  to  designate  its  qualities;  the  definition,  the  distinct 
"  conception "  of  the  thing,  is  developed  from  its  clear  description. 
"Definitions  without  intuitions  create  a  baseless,  fungous  wisdom  which 
quickly  dies  under  a  cloudless  sky,  sunlight  being  the  poison  of  its  exis- 
tence." How  true  is  this  last  remark  of  the  immature  and  unfinished  • 
wisdom  which  is  furnished  to  the  child ! 

It  is  well  known  that  Pestalozzi  first  developed  this  art  of  intuition 
from  the  simplest  geometrical  forms,  from  numbers  and  speech ;  hence 
numbers,  form  and  speech  are  the  elementary  objects  of  an  analytical 
dissection  which  he  has  most  extensively  cultivated.  Unfortunately  for 
his  method,  it  was  long  ago  condemned,  and  not  on  its  own  account 
is  it  mentioned  here,  but  only  to  warn  against  a  similar  fault  in  the 
present  case.  A  method,  fundamentally  inspiriting  and  influential,  can, 
by  pausing  too  long  at  the  beginning,  work  itself  into  an  empty,  burden- 
some formality  which  detains  the  pupil  wearisomely  upon  the  lowest 
plane.  That  which  can  and  should  enliven,  has  then  just  the  opposite 
result,  it  becomes  a  deadening  mechanism.  Also  what  is  unessential 
and  incidental  is  easily  stamped  as  essential  and  characteristic.  Finally, 
unintellectual  mediocrity  takes  hold  of  it,  makes  these  unesscntials  the 
peculiar  domain  of  its  efforts,  and  caricatures  a  noble  thing. 

What  Pestalozzi,  in  the  depth  and  originality  of  his  conviction  meant, 
and  what  has  become  the  kindling  spark,  indeed  still  more  what  it  can 
become,  now  and  for  all  time,  is  the  thought  that  only  that  can  become 
the  true  and  intellectual  property  of  the  child  and  also  the  man,  which 
he  has  raised  to  transparent  intuition  i.  e.,  thought  through  and  through, 
and  in  free  perceptive  activity,  brought  forth  out  of  himself.  It  is  then 
for  the  first  time  one  with  his  consciousness,  his  conviction,  which  he 
can  commmand  theoretically  and  practically  every  moment  of  his  life. 

And  it  was  this  also  which  J.  G.  Fichte  has  greeted  as  the  memora- 
ble deed  of  Pestalozzi,  constituting  an  epoch,  as  the  only  means  of  heal- 
ing an  age  sunken  in  dead  traditions.  A  national  education,  based 
upon  this  principle,  and  continued  energetically  through  several  genera- 
tions, must  awaken  a  new  popular  spirit;  even  more,  must  place  man  in 
this  latter  period  of  his  existence,  "for  the  first  time,  upon  his  own 
feet."  Verily,  the  often  lamented,  idealistic,  extravagant  boldness  of 
this  assertion,  does  not  consist  in  this,  that  the  thought  is  in  itself  false, 
or  controvertible — it  is  rather  perfectly  evident — but  essentially  because 
21 


392  TflE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

its  execution  is  not  impossible,  but  subject  to  very  mediate,  preliminary 
conditions ;  hence  that,  in  its  intelligible  operations,  it  can  become 
visible  only  gradually  and  late.  Fichte  wanted  immediate  results ; 
he  wished  the  instant  rise  of  a  new  generation  through  that  means ; 
and  in  that  he  erred,  or  rather — in  order  to  expose  the  essence  of  his 
reasonings — he  wanted  to  fulfill  a  clearly  recognized  duty,  to  place  that 
goal  before  all  eyes,  unconcerned,  or  leaving  it  undecided  whether  that 
goal  could  be  reached  through  his  suggestions  or  not. 

And  yet  neither  Pcstalozzi  nor  Fichte  have  spoken  in  vain.  They 
flung  the  ferment  into  futurity;  the  claims  of  a  national  education  are 
universally  admitted,  and  its  commencement  established;  but  its  accom- 
plishments must  be  continually  sifted  and  improved,  by  constant  refer- 
ence to  the  principles  on  which  it  rests. 

VI.    WHAT  THE  PRESENT    HAS  ACCOMPLISHED  THROUGH  PESTALOZZI,  STILL  MORE 
THROUGH  FR.   FRoBEL. 

But  this  principle  itself  first  needs  to  be  supplemented  and  underlaid 
by  a  deeper  lying,  two-fold  element.  We  must  here  consider  two  things, 
namely : — 

First,  The  earliest  spiritual  life  of  man,  of  the  child,  does  not  by  any 
means  consist  chiefly  in  the  appropriation  and  independent  working  up 
of  the  u  intuitions,"  but  intuition  is  preceded  by  sensations,  involuntarily 
accompanied  by  ''feelings"  of  comfort  and  discomfort,  of  acceptableness 
and  offensiveness,  whose  collective  contents  must  first  be  sifted,  and 
separated  into  distinct  groups,  out  of  the  obtrusive  confusion  with  which 
they  burden  awakening  consciousness. 

The  child  lies  in  a  dull  chaos  of  such  sensations  and  feelings,  which 
ceaselessly  change  and  urge  him  on  with  them.  How  does  he  ever  raise 
up  out  of  this  confusion  any  thing  single  and  certain;  still  more,  how 
does  he  himself  rise  out  of  that  flood,  and  "give  birth  to  himself  as  I," 
as  Fichte  designates  it,  and  in  which  he  correctly  finds  the  first  germ  of 
all  that  is  specifically  human? 

Surely  this  "growing  I,"  this  self-birth  of  I,  can  still  less  be  given  him 
from  without,  poured  into  him,  than  any  thing  else  which  he  is  himself  to 
become.  His  own  inner  power  must  raise  him  to  it.  But  the  birth  can 
be  lightened,  forwarded,  the  whole  beginnings  of  consciousness  contained 
in  it  gain  an  advantage  in  clearness  and  energy,  which  will  place  the  pu- 
pil, thus  cultivated,  a  grade  higher  in  his  general  spiritual  ability. 

This  first   transition   of  man  to  "  I,"  to  a  more  conscious,  energetic, 

*  In  a  pamphlet  hitherto  little  esteemed,  written  in  1807  for  a  particular  occasion,  "  The  Patriots," 
two  conversations  issued  hefore  the  Address  to  the  German  nation,  he  makes  the  following  retort, 
in  answer  to  the  inquiry  "  whether  he  renlly  hoped  to  persuade  those  who  stand  in  the  high 
places  of  the  nation  so  much  as  to  grasp  the  idea  of  a  national  system  of  education,  not  to  men- 
tion the  resolution  to  incur  the  necessary  expense  of  such  a  system  ?" 

"As  I  have  already  stated,  [  do  not  care  to  make  up  my  mind  as  to  whnt  is  or  is  not  to  be 
hoped;  and  among  all  the  obscurities  which  may  exist  in  my  knowledge,  this  is  the  only  one 
which  I  am  well  content  to  endure,  and  which  J  do  not  wish  to  have  cleared  up." 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


323 


finally  inseparable  self-comprehension,  in  opposition  to  all  outwardness 
(all  not  I) ;  this  absolutely  epoch-making  transition  (for  human  existence), 
must  not  be  left  to  chance  or  the  unsystematized  operations  of  the 
child's  first  surroundings,  but  education  must  strive  to  guide  him  by 
psychological  art,  if  he  is  to  become  conscious  of  his  correct  beginning. 

This  is  done,  in  the  first  place,  by  clearing  up  the  earliest  conscious- 
ness as  to  its  elementary  sensations,  according  to  a  firm  rule  and  a  grada- 
tion in  which  the  consciousness  itself  develops.  The  child  must  first  be 
made  capable  of  deciding  whether  he  is  hungry  or  sleepy,  whether  he 
tastes  or  smells,  etc.  Out  of  this  tha  discrimination  between  the  various 
sensuous  regions  must  develop,  and  the  elementary  sensations  within  the 
same,  the  fundamental  colors,  simplest  figures  and  proportions  of  sound, 
fundamental  tastes,  and  whatever  else  in  this  region  of  sensation  and 
feeling  is  found  capable  of  culture,  must  be  brought  to  plainly  discerning 
consciousness;  and  what  is  inseparable  from  it,  be  designated  by  fixed 
signs.  Here  is  the  true  beginning  of  the  "theory  of  words,1'  and  not, 
as  Pestalozzi  thinks,  in  the  naming  of  already  finished  objects,  burdened 
with  complicated  qualities,  in  order,  as  he  says,  "  to  make  the  pupil  ac- 
quainted as  early  as  possible  with  the  whole  compass  of  the  word  and 
names  of  familiar  things."  This,  on  the  contrary,  plunges  the  pupil 
immediately  into  the  misty  world  of  opaque,  unintelligible  and  thence, 
for  him,  empty  ideas,  and  imparts  to  him  the  first  sample  of  all  later  su- 
perficiality of  discernment ;  he  is  satisfied  now,  as  well  as  later,  with 
transmitted  words,  instead  of  really  recognized  objects.  All  that  the 
pupil  upon  this  plane  can  really  understand  and  consequently  designate, 
is  the  world  of  sensations  and  feelings  which  he  has  lived ;  it  is  also  for 
him,  that  which  is  first  evident  and  irrevocable,  in  which  he  can  first  ex- 
perience the  highly  important,  even  through  dim  consciousness  of  con- 
viction, according  to  the  decisive  canon  of  all  education  and  all  human 
culture,  that,  only  that  has  become  our  conviction,  which  we  have  in- 
wardly experienced  and  thus  embodied  in  our  consciousness. 

This  then,  is  the  first  foundation  which  should  be  laid  under  Pes- 
talozzi's  theory.  The  "A.  B.  C.  of  intuition"  which  he  gave  in  his 
"Book  for  Mothers,"  should  be  preceded  by  an  "A.  B.  C.  of  sensations 
and  feelings,"  which  should  be  the  very  first  book  for  mothers.  It  will 
•be  shown  what  has  been  done  toward  such  an  one.  But  we  must  re- 
mark that  in  just  these  beginnings  of  education  which  are  to  be  left  to 
the  mother,  or  family  surroundings,  the  execution  will  always  remain 
most  defective  and  insufficient.  What  mother  is  in  the  position,  even 
though  she  were  intellectually  sufficiently  cultivated,  to  devote  her- 
self to  the  youngest  child,  aside  from  the  others,  so  as  to  make  its  sensa- 
tions and  feelings  clear  to  it,  and  to  keep  its  first  attempts  at  speech  in 
continual  and  exact  relation  to  these  sensations  and  feelings! 

And  this  is  the  perfectly  coinciding  objection  which  can  be  made  to 
the  introduction  of  such  exercises,  particularly  when  they  strive  after 
a  certain  systematic  thoroughness,  as  indeed  has  already  been  attempted. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

Hence,  though  we  hold  fast  to  the  general  thought,  we  must  neverthe- 
less still  declare  such  systematic  breadth  theoretically  superfluous,  prac- 
tically even  wearying  and  weakening  ;  for  it  is  not  necessary,  for  the 
pedagogical  aim,  to  experiment  with  the  child  through  the  whole  system 
of  human  senses  and  sensuous  feelings,  but  rather  to  waken  it  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  what  is  nearest  and  most  obtrusive,  and  within  this  com- 
pass at  least,  accustom  it  to  give  close  attention. 

Notwithstanding  this,  or  perhaps  on  this  account,  it  is  necessary  for  a 
complete  system  of  pedagogics  to  designate  this  problem,  at  least  in  its 
general  outlines,  and  to  call  attention  to  its  fundamental  significance  for 
the  life  of  childhood,  leaving  to  a  detailed  practice  to  use  what  it 
can  of  it.  We  will  show  later  what  Frobel  has  done  in  this  direction. 
But  the  nature  of  man  is  by  no  means  merely  theoretical,  least  of 
all  the  nature  of  the  child.  The  impulse  of  self  activity  is  just  as  origi- 
nally awake  in  him;  and,  as  in  his  later  life,  his  actions  and  knowledge 
must  continually  harmonize,  so  also  must  that  inherent  impulse  of  activity 
be  early  developed  in  the  child,  led  into  regulated  paths,  and  also  be  made 
the  earliest  element  of  his  cultivation.  By  these  means,  the  real  central 
point  of  the  intellect,  the  inner  unit  of  its  inseparable  theoretical  and 
practical  forces  is  first  touched ;  for  in  reality,  there  can  be  no  knowl- 
edge which,  through  its  involuntarily  accompanying  feeling,  does  not  call 
forth  a  fixed  practical  conduct,  just  as,  inversely,  each  practical  fulfill- 
ment must  be  guided  by  theoretical  activity  (thus  involuntarily  awak- 
ening attention  and  judgment)  upon  the  development  of  knowledge. 

First,  and  this  is  the  second,  still  more  important  supplement 
which  FrObel — for  he  must  be  referred  to  again  here — has  added  to 
Pestalozzi's  method.  He  has  gone  back  to  the  original  impulse  of  ac- 
tivity in  the  child  ("impulse  of  play''),  and  has  made  a  fruitful  ground 
of  varied  preparatory  cultivation  out  of  this  previously  neglected,  barren 
or  rankty-growing  spiritual  element.  This  is  what  is  new  and  memora- 
ble in  his  pedagogical  accomplishment.  But  we  are  first  able  to  appreciate 
this,  when  we  understand  the  fundamental  thought  of  his  system. 

We  also  believe,  we  should  not  consider  ourselves  obliged  to  follow  all 
of  Frubel's  propositions,  directions,  and  precepts.  To  us,  these  seem 
often  to  be  lost  in  trifles  and  peculiarities,  even  in  extravagances  or 
absurdities.  And  these  externals  which  have  been  seized  and  cherished 
by  his  common  followers,  have  obscured  the  great  importance  of  his 
pedagogical  principles,  or  at  least  have  prevented  their  universal  recog- 
nition. Instead  of  such  externals,  we  must  obtain  possession  of  the 
deeper  lying,  fundamental  thought  which  is  capable  of  most  varied  and 
heterogeneous  cultivation,  and  adapt  the  practical  application  of  the  same 
to  the  given  circumstances. 

Frubel  is  the  psychologian  of  the  life  of  childhood.  With  rare  individ- 
uality and  instinctive  comprehension,  he  has  thought  himself  back  into 
the  beginnings  of  the  child,  and,  permeated  by  the  deeply  religious  and 
humane  belief  that  primitive  human  nature  can  contain  nothing  false 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


325 


or  delusive,  seeks  only  to  develop  its  inherent  capacity,  gradually,  and  in 
every  direction.  This  is  the  collective  work  of  earliest  education. 

Therefore,  this  education,  at  first,  must  offer  nothing  new  to  the  child, 
plant  in  him  nothing  alien  ;  neither  can  it  do  it,  it  can  only  call  forth 
what  was  already  concealed  and  present  in  him.  For  the  young,  grow- 
ing, human  being  will  yet  wish,  even  though  unconsciously,  for  what 
is  best  in  itself  and  for  him,  and  moreover,  in  the  appropriate  form  which 
he  feels  he  has  the  capacity,  power  and  means  to  produce  as  can  be  ex- 
plained by  analogous  examples  of  animal  life.  Hence,  every  active, 
prescribing,  determining  and  encroaching  theory,  instruction  or  educa- 
tion, must  necessarily  operate  destructively  upon  the  normal  human  being. 

This  fundamental  thought  which  Frubel  continually  enjoins  in  all*  its 
variations,  leads  to  a  deeper  one  which  has  also  not  escaped  his  notice. 
He  expresses  this  only  axiomatically  indeed,  in  the  following  form. 

"In  every  thing  there  rules  and  operates  an  ''eternal  law,"  which  is 
always  expressed  with  equal  clearness,  outwardly  in  nature,  inwardly  in 
the  spirit,  and  in  life,  which  is  the  union  of  the  two.  An  omnipotent  unit 
underlies  this  omnipotent  lawr — God.  The  Godlikeness  reposes,  operates 
and  rules  in  all  things.  And  all  things  exist  only  through  the  Godlike- 
ness  which  'operates  in  them,  and  the  Godlikeness  operating  in  every 
thing  is  the  essence  of  this  thing. 

"  Therefore  the  destination  and  the  vocation  of  every  thing,  is  to  develop 
and  represent  its  essence,  its  Godlikeness,  to  manifest  and  reveal  God, 
through  outwardness  and  transitoriness. 

"The  particular  destination,  the  particular  vocation  of  every  perceiving 
and  reasonable  human  being  is  to  become  himself,  fully  conscious  of  his 
essence,  his  Godlikeness,  to  win  a  vigorous  and  clear  insight  into  it,  so 
as  to  practice  it,  self  determinedly  and  freely  in  his  own  life,  and  to  make 
it  effectual  in  all  the  directions  which  are  prefigured  in  his  inner 
capacity. 

"  The  awakening  (the  treatment  of  man  as  a  being  of  growing  con- 
sciousness) to  the  inviolate  representation  of  the  inner  law,  of  the  God- 
likeness,  with  consciousness  and  self  determination,  and  the  supplying  of 
the  means  for  it,  is  the  education  of  man." 

"The  aim  of  education  is  the  representation  of  a  dutiful,  pure,  invio- 
late and  therefore  holy  life;  the  Godlikeness  in  man,  his  essence,  is  to  be 
developed  and  raised  to  consciousness  by  education,  and  thus  he  is  to 
attain  self  knowledge,  peace  with  the  world,  and  union  with  God." 

Thus,  for  him,  the  whole  human  culture  culminates  in  religion.  It  is 
for  him  at  the  same  time  the  starting  point,  centre  and  goal  of  all  true, 
successful  education.  But  this  religious  education  urges  immediately  to 
industry.  "  As  early  culture  is  highly  important  for  religion,  so  is  it  just 
as  important  for  genuine  industry.  Early  labor,  its  inner  significance 
judiciously  directed,  enhances  and  confirms  religion.  Religion  without 
industry  is  in  danger  of  becoming  empty  dreaminess;  just  as  labor 
without  religion  makes  of  man  a  beast  of  burden  and  a  machine.  But 


326  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

religion  and  labor  should  not  only  operate  outwardly,  they  should  also 
react  upon  the  interior  man.  Thus  abstinence,  temperance  and  econo- 
my will  be  produced.  Where  religion,  diligence  and  sobriety  work  in 
union,  there  is  an  earthly  heaven,  there  is  peace,  joy,  grace  and 
blessing." 

The  fundamental  condition  of  all  this,  however,  is,  that  each  shall 
really  find  in  life  his  appropriate  vocation,  the  destination  which  his 
being  demands,  or  at  least,  that  education  shall  prepare  him  for  it,  and 
thoroughly  capacitate  him  for  the  fulfillment  of  such  vocation. 

But  the  practical  application  of  these  pedagogical  principles  shows 
immediately  a  highly  important  result.  Where  education  really  permits 
an  "unhindered,  inviolate  development  of  the  original  capacities,  there  the 
inherent  diversity  among  individuals  becomes  instantly  visible,  in  con- 
sequence of  which,  each  child,  even  though  only  in  the  germ,  is  distin- 
guishable from  other  children.  It  follows  from  this,  that  the  correct, 
conscientious  education  must  never  generalize,  but  instead,  must  be  cal- 
culated for  the  individual  capacity. 

But  this  result  is  not  less  important  for  the  psychological  view  of  man, 
than  for  pedagogism.  It  is  the  actual  proof  won  by  careful  pedagogical 
observations:  first,  that  each  otherwise  healthy  and  normal  human 
being,  a  fixed  variety  of  spiritual  capacities  and  impulses  unite  in  the 
unit  of  essence,  through  which  it  is  distinguished  from  all  the  rest  of  its 
kind;  secondly,  that  these  capacities  and  their  peculiar  union  do  not, 
through  education  or  artificial  culture,,  enter  into  him  from  without,  but 
that  they  are  present  in  him,  as  an  original  dowry,  before  his  conscious- 
ness develops,  and  are  the  conditions  of  the  development  of  that  con- 
sciousness, are  what  may  be  called  the  "Godlikeness"  speaking  after 
Frobel's  manner,  and  according  to  our  own  definition,  the  u  genius"  or 
individuality  of  each  mind. 

Branching  off  a  moment  into  philosophical  definitions,  we  express  it  in 
other  words :  FrObel  found,  through  pedagogical  insight  and  personal 
experience,  the  same  thesis  which  the  psychological  study  of  man  shows, 
as  its  highest  and  deepest  result.  It  is  what  we  have  called  the  u  uni- 
versal prevalence  of  genius  "  in  the  human  race. 

That  nevertheless  this  only  scientifically  recognized  truth,  if  it  should 
become  universal  conviction,  if  it  should  enter  into  life  with  all  its  prac- 
tical consequences,  would  cause  a  complete  transformation  of  our  civil 
and  social  affairs,  would  open  to  us  a  kingdom  of  freedom  u  by  the  grace 
of  God," — this  assertion  will  not  seem  extravagant,  when  we  have  learn- 
ed what  the  root  of  all  the  misery,  discontent  and  moral  corruption 
of  the  human  race  really  is  ;  the  stinting,  the  restriction,  even  the  at- 
tempted extermination,  of  its  original  capacities. 

We  must  leave  this  path  of  ever  increasing  depravity ;  and  in  this 
simple  demand,  all  the  various  social  problems  of  the  present  can  be 
summed  up.  And  it  also  includes  the  solution  of  the  religious  problem, 
that  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  become  for  the  first  time,  a  complete  truth. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  327 

Neither  is  it  necessary  to  show  how  immeasurably  important  educa- 
tion is  for  this  process  of  the  restoration  of  humanit}'.  The  first  obliga- 
tory condition  of  return  lies  in  it,  and  it  is  able  to  prove  through  its  suc- 
cessful accomplishment,  that  such  a  return  is  possible.  What  man  in 
his  "obscure  strivings"  is  capable  of  becoming,  he  perhaps  will  finally 
become  upon  earth  we  do  not  yet  know  it,  because  the  correct  all- 
awakening  education  could  never  yet  reach  him,  or  only  rarely  and  ex- 
ceptionally, and  even  then  imperfectly — an  education  which  no  single 
arrangement  will  ever  be  able  to  vouchsafe,  which  can  be  completely 
successful  only  in  a  highly  cultivated  commonwealth.  Therefore,  it  is 
the  next,  most  urgent  and  most  indispensable  problem  of  this  common- 
wealth, this  state,  to  pledge  every  thing  for  a  thorough  reform  of  the 
educational  system.  The  states  of  the  present  period,  at  least  those  of 
German  lineage,  generally  recognize  this  duty,  but  are  on  the  whole  very 
far  from  applying  the  right  means  for  its  fulfillment.  They  seldom  ad- 
vance beyond  an  experimental,  blind  groping,  whose  unavoidable  results 
are  mistakes,  even  retrogressions,  and  the  spoiling  of  otherwise  healthy 
beginnings.  In  the  foregoing  we  referred  to  examples  of  this  kind,  which 
are  based  upon  a  thorough  misunderstanding  of  the  real  needs  and 
the  appropriate  means. 

VII.    THE  EDUCATION  OF  CHILDHOOD  ACCORDING  TO  FKoBEL. 

In  the  foregoing,  the  highest  criterion  was  found  by  which  to  judge, 
not  only  of  the  value  of  education,  but  also  of  the  only  correct  educa- 
tional method.  According  to  these  premises,  we  can  scarcely  be  accused 
of  over-valuation,  if  we  find  in  Frobers  theory,  the  only  correct  starting 
point  for  the  national  education  of  the  present  time.  Not  however, 
the  peculiarity  of  the  propositions  and  arrangements  on  which  FrObel 
first  stamped  his  principle,  but  his  principle  in  itself,  has  that  value  for 
us ;  for  it  possesses  a  fruitfulness  and  power  of  development,  which  might 
be  made  effectual  in  directions  as  yet  untried.  We  shall  show  still 
more  definitely  what  we  mean  to  say  by  this. 

First,  we  must  recognize  FrObel  as  that  educator  of  the  newer  time, 
who  has  succeeded,  with  full  consciousness  and  clearness  as  to  the  conse- 
quences contained  therein,  in  paving  the  way  for  a  system  of  education 
which  completely  corresponds  to  the  maturer  insight  of  modern  psy- 
chology, indeed  alone  forms  its  pedagogical  supplement.  As  we  have 
also  proved — no  matter  if  this  is  every  where  effectively  recognized,  or  not 
— that  the  real  and  eternal,  fundamental  truth  of  Christianity  lies  in 
that  higher,  merely  humane  recognition  of  the  being  of  man  ;  so  this 
educational  theory  then,  is  the  only  one  which  corresponds  to  the  true 
spirit  of  Christianity,  and  consequently  will  be  equal,  wholly  and  com- 
pletely, to  the  jleraands  of  the  Christian  era  of  the  future,  even  though 
this  future  may  not  yet  be  fully  understood,  in  that  spirit,  either  by 
the  educators  or  by  our  present  civil  rulers. 

FrObel's  essential  and  exclusive  service  is  in  having  perceived  more 


328  TIIE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

deeply  the  nature  and  needs  of  the  child,  on  its  first  plane  of  life,  than 
any  one  before  him,  and  in  having  found  the  means  to  meet  these  needs. 

The  means  which  he  devised,  are  manifold  and  ingenious ;  but  they  are 
not  artificial;  they  are  drawn  out  of  the  child's  own  nature.  They  can 
all  be  reduced  to  the  highest  law  of  all  education.  FrObel  called  it  "the 
law  of  the  mediation  of  opposites,"  thus  recalling  too  generally  and  too 
strongly,  the  formulas  of  the  then  ruling  philosophy.  Perhaps  it  would 
more  clearly  designate  FrGbel's  achievements  to  call  it  the  law  of  the 
continuous,  even  development  of  the  child's  consciousness  out  of  its  own 
activities.  Madame  Marenholtz,  who  has  a  deep  understanding  of  FrO- 
bel's,  idea  concentrates  this  thought  very  happily  in  the  three  phrases, 
"  freedom  of  development,  labor  of  development,  and  connection  of  de- 
velopment." 

Accordingly,  FrObel  demands  that  bodily  and  spiritual  development 
shall  be  united  from  the  first,  and  that  this  development  shall  begin 
with  the  beginning  of  childhood.  He  thus  continues  and  completes  what 
Jean  Paul  in  his  Levana  began  by  single  hints.  He  has  thus  founded  an 
educational  system  for  the  infant  and  supplied  a  deficiency  which  Pesta- 
lozzi  left  untouched.  The  entire  nature  of  the  child  upon  this  plane, 
consists  in  being  the  appropriating  eye.  Hence  he  must  receive  the  first, 
simplest,  sensations  as  powerfully  and  as  completely  as  possible,  and 
never  in  a  confusing  mass.  He  must  be  early  accustomed  to  a  certain 
.order  and  consistency,  that  he  may  dimly  feel  that  he  is  subject  to  a 
higher,  beneficent  power.  In  this  way  the  germ  of  the  desire  of  ruling, 
the  principle  of  "selfishness,"  which  exists  in  every  child,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  its  helplessness,  will  be  led  from  the  start  in  the  light  direc- 
tion and  grow  into  a  habit  of  subordination  and  grateful  obedience. 
ult  is  highly  important  for  the  present  and  future  life  of  the  human  be- 
ing, that  it  should  imbibe  upon  this  plane,  nothing  sickly,  low,  coarse, 
nothing  doubtful  or  bad.  Therefore,  the  glance,  the  expression  of  the 
persons  surrounding  it,  should  be  pure,  and  calculated  to  awaken  and 
cherish  confidence;  all  surroundings  of  air,  light,  space,  should  be  pure." 

The  first  feeling  in  common  which  unites  the  child  with  its  mother 
and  brothers  and  sisters,  is  the  earliest  germ  of  genuine  religion.  Dimly 
anticipating,  the  child  gains  thus,  and  also  through  the  habit  of  whole- 
some obedience,  the  feeling  of  being  supported  by  an  all-embracing,  sav- 
ing, beneficent  power;  and  thus  the  healthy  germ  is  planted  in  his  mind, 
which  will  bring  him  nearer  and  in  the  only  right  manner,  to  the  idea  of 
God.  If  father  and  mother  wish  to  furnish  their  children  with  this  nev- 
er-wavering, never-vanishing  hold,  as  the  highest  dowry  for  life,  then  pa- 
rents and  children  must  always  appear  united,  if  they  feel  and  recognize 
themselves  in  union  with  their  God  and  Father,  whether  in  their  silent 
chamber,  or  under  the  blue  heavens.  No  one  need  say  that  the  children 
do  not  understand  it;  they  understand  it,  not  in  the  definition,  but  in 
their  interior  being.  The  religiousness,  (sincere  union  with  God),  in  all 
circumstances  and  situations  of  life,  which  does  not  grow  up  with  the 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  329 

human  being  from  childhood,  •will  later,  seldom  rise  to  a  full,  strong  vital 
force ;  as  also,  a  germinated  and  cherished  religious  sentiment  will  win 
the  victory  against  all  the  storms  and  dangers  of  life." 

These  are  FrObel's  'essential  educational  principles  for  the  first  epoch  of 
the  child's  life,  but  in  regard  to  which,  it  must  be  mentioned  that  he  has 
unavoidably  presupposed  much  which  belongs  first  to  the  following  stage 
of  consciousness.  This  is  also  true  of  what  he  says  about  the  earliest 
cultivation  of  the  religious  feeling.  We  admit  however,  indeed  we  repeat 
emphatically,  that  he  has  in  general,  designated  the  only  correct  starting 
point  for  the  development  of  the  child's  religious  consciousness.  It 
would  be  well  to  consider  the  reform  of  the  religious  instruction  from 
this  point  also. 

If  it  is  considered  necessary  to  hang  balls  in  the  cradle  for  the  earliest 
cultivation  of  the  child's  intuitive  capacities,  that  it  may  gradually  be  im- 
pressed by  the  most  perfect  geometrical  figure,  the  sphere;  further,  if 
these  balls,  of  the  box  with  six  balls,  according  to  the  "first  play-gift," 
are  to  show  alternately  the  three  primitive,  and  the  three  mixed  colors, 
arranged  in  prismatic  order,  and  to  teach  him,  as  is  hoped,  "the  dis- 
crimination of  colors,  and  the  law  of  opposites,  when  between  two  prim- 
itive colors  the  mediation  is  placed;"  these,  like  many  other  things  which 
a  playful  system  has  further  devised,  are  things  of  disputable  value, 
whose  application  must  be  treated  as  an  open  question.  Opponents,  as 
well  as  disciples  must  be  careful  not  to  seek  in  such  things  the  real  spirit 
of  the  method,  and  the  typical  sign  in  which  its  being  is  clearest  and 
most  evident.  It  is  high  time  in  our  judgment  we  went  beyond  this. 

Fortunately,  we  do  not  stand  alone  in  our  view  of  the  subject.  One 
of  the  most  judicious  advocates  of  FrObel's  theory,  Bertha  von  Maren- 
holtz-Biilow,  whom  we  can  designate  as  the  best  living  representative  of 
his  educational  work,  insists  in  her  lectures  and  writings,  that  we  must 
grasp  the  fundamental  thought  of  his  method,  selecting  freely  out  of 
what  he  has  proposed  for  the  execution  of  the  details.  This  excellent 
lady,  filled  with  the  noblest  enthusiasm  for  the  cause,  has  to  wage  a  double 
battle :  First,  with  the  prejudices  which  rise  up  from  without  against  the 
principle,  and  Second,  with  the  members  of  her  own  party,  who  make  the 
broad  spinning  out  of  details  their  chief  object,  and  thus  react  upon  the 
spirit  of  the  method,  paralyzing  it,  and  causing  it  to  be  misunderstood. 
With  reference  to  this  point,  she  expresses  herself  thus;  "Frubel's  mind 
selected  and  arranged  the  matter,  the  forms,  colors,  and  tones,  in  the  ele- 
mentary simplicity  in  which  they  can  penetrate  the  child's  soul,  without 
disturbing  the  stillness  of  its  budding  life,  without  awakening  it  violently 
or  artificially  out  of  its  slumber,  and  without  stifling  the  glimmering 
spiritual  spark  in  the  ashes  of  materialism.  He  found  the  rule  under 
whose  guidance  the  motherly  instinct  can  proceed  safely  and  freely,  in 
order  to  find  the  right." 

With  the  appearance  of  language,  the  nursling  period  ceases  and  that 
of  childhood  begins.  This  is  the  child's  essential  playtime ;  and  here  we 


330 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


meet  one  of  Frobel's  happiest  and  peculiar  inventions.  He  has  organiz- 
ed play  and  developed  it  to  a  complete  system  of  practice  of  the  child's 
power  and  self-activity ;  every  where  making  use  of  the  impulses  and 
instincts  of  the  child,  and  what  is  not  less  significant  and  worthy  of  re- 
commendation, keeping  the  child  as  much  as  possible  in  intercourse  with 
visible  nature,  and  teaching  it  to  observe  nature's  regular  transactions. 

Hence  Frobel  says  correctly,  in  this  sense;  uPlay  is  the  purest  intel- 
lectual production  of  the  human  being,  in  this  stage  and  also  the 
model  and  copy  of  the  entire  human  life,  of  the  inner,  secret,  natural  life 
of  man.  It  gives  birth  therefore,  to  peace,  freedom,  satisfaction  and 
quiet  peace  with  the  world,  inwardly  and  outwardly,  the  sources  of 
all  good  repose  in  the  child,  and  proceed  out  of  him.  A  child  who  plays 
capably,  with  quiet  self-activit}r,  and  perseveringly  until  overcome  by 
physical  weariness,'  will  become  (if  later  education  does  not  destroy  tho 
foundation  thus  laid),  a  capable  quietly  persevering  man  who  self-sacri- 
ficingly  promotes  his  own  and  others'  good.  The  plays  of  this  age  are 
the  heart-leaves  of  the  whole  future  life,  for  the  whole  man  is  visible  in 
them,  in  his  finest  capacities,  in  his  innermost  being."  We  think  this  is 
excellently  said ;  in  the  instinct  for  a  certain  kind  of  play  and  sphere  of 
play,  the  child's  inherent  capacities  and  intellectual  tendcnc}r,  upon  the 
correct  knowledge  of  which  the  succeeding  education  lias  to  build,  be- 
tray themselves  earliest,  most  involuntarily  and  therefore,  most  reliably. 

We  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  go  into  the  details  of  this  system  of 
plays.  In  this  field,  Frobel  has  elaborated  vvith  skillful  and  exhaustive 
perseverance,  all  forms  of  play,  "in  order  not  to  disregard  any  part  of  the 
child's  capacity  and  need  of  cultivation.  That  the  symbolical-didactic 
meaning  of  these  plays  may  not  be  overlooked,  he  has  furnished  each 
with  a  commentary  of  short  verses  accompanied  by  a  song. 

He  must  have  intended  to  work  more  upon  the  parents  and  educators 
with  this  didactic  accompaniment,  than  upon  the  children.  For  we 
think  he  mistakes  entirely  the  nature  of  the  child,  when  he  declares  it 
capable,  while  playing,  or  through  the  play,  of  becoming  conscious,  even 
with  only  half  a  reflection,  of  its  particular  design  or  its  higher  signifi- 
cance. It  is  absorbed,  as  it  should  be,  in  the  interest  of  the  pure  activ- 
ity of  play ;  therefore,  only  those  kinds  of  play  can  be  recommended 
which  develop  without  any  secondary  meaning  or  reflection,  the  physical 
or  intellectual  capacity,  as  the  "play  of  motion,"  little  gymnastic  exer- 
cises, "the  building  plays,"  "the  braiding  plays"  that  practice  them  in 
forming  and  inventing,  and  the  highly  important  and  emphatically  to  be 
recommended  "garden  plays,"  in  which  the  children  are  led  to  cultivate 
the  beds  of  their  common  garden,  one  of  which  each  child  should  own 
and  care  for.  Flowers,  fruits  and  vegetables  are  raised  here,  and  these 
serve,  by  watching  and  examining,  to  make  the  still  course  of  nature's 
laws  clear  to  the  child's  apprehension  in  actual  results,  "if  he  can  not  go 
out  into  the  fields  or  woods,  in  order  to  watch  nature  there  in  her  work- 
shop, to  learn  to  sing  from  the  birds  and  to  observe  the  insects." 

"  The  child  should  grow  up  under  the  influences  of  nature.     There  it 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  33} 

should  gradually  learn  that  laws  underlie  all  organic  formation  ;  should, 
through  the  loving  care  of  animals  and  plants,  prepare  itself  for  the  lov- 
ing care  of  human  beings,  should,  in  imitating  the  works,  find  and  love 
the  great  Master  as  the  Creator  of  nature,  and  its  own  Creator,  should 
breathe  in  the  peace  which  rules  in  nature  and  in  the  occupations  with 
it,  before  the  noise  of  the  world  and  sin  enter  its  breast." 

These  are  indeed,  eternally  true  principles  of  education  and  capable 
of  endless  application  ;  the  Kindergarten  has  only  to  strive  more  and 
more  after  their  realization,  to  be  certain  of  its  blessing.  But  it  must 
avoid  what  is  superfluous  and  small,  or  where  this  has  already  crept  in, 
throw  it  overboard  as  injurious  ballast,  so  as  not  to  compromise  and  in- 
jure the  idea.  And  if  FrObel's  example  should  only  prevent  the  crowd- 
ing of  the  children  into  small,  close  city  buildings,  and  send  the  infant 
and  other  schools  out  into  gardens,  or  garden  surroundings,  he  would 
have  accomplished  a  very  important  work.  Also  the  crowding  together 
of  children  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  evils,  because  it  prevents  all 
pedagogical  individualization  and  paralyzes  educational  activity.  Frobel 
wished  to  limit  the  number  of  children  in  one  Kindergarten,  to  thirty 
or  forty,  so  that  one  teacher  could  completely  oversee  and  lead  them. 
All  these  evils  and  hindrances  to  success  can  only  very  gradually  be  re- 
moved. But  it  is  our  next  duty  to  pave  the  way  for  their  introduction 
and  diffusion  by  a  growing  understanding  of  the  subject. 

These  important  aims  and  their  consequent,  but  slowly  spreading  re- 
sults, however,  can  for  this  very  reason,  no  longer  be  left  to  the  single  or 
temporary  activity  of  benevolent,  private  persons  and  private  societies. 
A  durable,  all-embracing  systematically-progressive  organization  should 
be  secured  to  them,  and  this  can  be  accomplished  only  by  the  state  and 
the  communities.  But  FrObel's  educational  precepts  must  henceforth 
become  the  altogether  controlling  principles  of  state  pedagogism  ;  and  the 
Kindergartens  in  which  a  part  of  these  ideas  has  been  carried  out,  must, 
as  we  shall  also  demand  for  the  Krippen  (creches),  be  introduced  into 
the  system  of  the  educational  institutions  of  the  state  and  the  commune. 

The  suitable  point  of  connection  already  exists.  The  need  of  so  called 
4  child-saving  institutions'  for  children  from  three  to  six  years  of  age,  is 
universally  acknowledged,  and  in  the  richer  communities  of  our  cities 
and  villages  is  supplied  as  fur  as  the  means  allow.  To  raise  these  '  sav- 
ing institutions  '  already  existing,  or  yet  to  be  erected,  to  those  higher 
organized  u  play-schools,"  should  be  the  next  step,  and  is  not  too  difficult, 
if  we  can  find  suitable  teachers. 

This  however,  calls  for  the  solution  of  another  question  of  our  time, 
which  also  belongs  to  the  most  urgent ;  to  open  new  spheres  of  calling 
and  branches  of  labor  for  the  female  sex.  We  will  speak  again  of  this 
part  of  the  pedagogical  question. 

The  fear,  that  all  these  reforms  will  heap  financial  sacrifices  upon 
the  state  and  community,  which,  with  the  present  taxes,  are  scarcely 
able  to  secure  a  scanty  income,  to  the  already  existing  teachers — this 
continually  repeated  consideration  must  not  be  a  reason  for  detracting 


332  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

from  the  well  founded  right  of  such  demands.  It  is,  on  the  contrary, 
one  reason  more  why  this  many  sided  provisional  condition  in  which  we 
live,  in  civil  intercourse  and  in  social  arrangements,  can  have  no  dura- 
tion, and  should  be  shortened  by  all  lawful  means.  It  would  be  extreme- 
ly inconsistent  to  wish  to  postpone  the  necessary  reforms  to  a  better  fu- 
ture, with  the  oft  repeated  excuse  that  they  are  impossible  or  even  pre- 
sumptive, or  revolutionary.  What  is  proved  to  be  necessary  is  never 
revolutionary,  but  rather  truly  conservative.  And  that  can  not  be  pro- 
nounced impossible,  whose  first  preparatory  grades  already  exist,  nnd 
are  easily  recognizable.  Nothing  more  is  necessary,  than  a  correct  be- 
ginning and  persevering  progress  upon  the  chosen  road.  It  is  variously 
shown,  also  by  this  opportunity,  that  the  only  right  commencement  for 
the  improvement  of  the  people's  condition,  is  in  educational  reform. 

VIII.    THE    KRIPPEN-DAY   NURSERIES. 

Frubel  left  a  gap  in  the  starting  point  of  his  educational  theory,  which 
the  present  trial  has  fortunately  filled.  And  the  means  is  planned  so  en- 
tirely in  his  spirit,  that  it  can  be  consistently  inserted  into  the  system  of 
educational  institutions  projected  by  him. 

The  earliest  period  of  childhood,  as  its  own  nature  and  general  custom 
require,  should  be  passed  in  the  family  circle.  Here,  the  mother  is  every 
thing  at  once ;  she  nurses  it,  rears  it  and  waits  on  it,  and  what  is  most  im- 
portant for  the  child  and  what  repays  her  best,  she  cherishes  the  soul  of 
her  child.  But  how  few  among  the  mothers  of  the  working  classes  in 
the  country  and  in  cities,  are  in  a  position  to  fulfill  this  vocation  even 
approximately !  And  those  who  could  do  it  (outwardly),  do  it  only  im- 
perfectly,  either  diverted  by  other  cares  or  interests,  or  they  lack  the  in- 
tellectual ability,  whilst  a  mass  of  ineradicable  prejudices  and  false  hab- 
its rule  them,  and  thus  often  make  a  very  doubtful  nurse  out  of  a  moth- 
er whose  duty  it  is  to  bestow  the  best  care  upon  her  children.  Hence  a 
normal  school  for  mothers,  which  is  not  theoretical  but  practical,  which 
shall  teach  by  example,  is  an  important,  almost  indispensable  element  in 
the  system  of  popular  education. 

Accordingly,  here,  as  in  the  higher  grades  of  instruction  and  educa- 
tion, the  universal  family,  the  community,  should  furnish  the  assisting 
supplement,  by  erecting  an  asylum  in  which  mothers  can  leave  their 
nurslings  under  a  conscientious,  rational  oversight,  without  however 
withdrawing  their  care  from  them  entirely,  or  becoming  in  the  least  alien- 
ated from  them.  For  it  should  be  the  rule,  that  children  should  be  re- 
ceived only  through  the  daytime,  and  taken  home  again  by  their  mothers 
in  the  evening.  The  double  significance  of  this  arrangement  is  not  to 
be  mistaken ;  the  tenderest  age  of  the  child  is  cared  for  sufficiently  with- 
out loosening  the  family  ties,  and  the  mothers  witness  a  model  of  ra- 
tional childish  training,  whose  value  is  established  by  experience.  They 
learn,  and  are  themselves  indirectly  educated  by  it. 

This  aim,  the  public  protecting  institutions  for  children,  called  "  Krip- 
pen"  (creches),  in  memory  of  Christ's  manger  and  the  latest  creation  pf 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  333 

pedagogical  benevolence  seek  to  fill.  In  their  limited  peculiarity,  they 
received  their  perfection  first  in  Paris,  while  we  must  mention,  that  pro- 
tecting institutions  for  children,  from  their  third  year,  were  introduced 
into  Germany  and  in  England,  much  earlier.  It  was  the  humane  Prin- 
cess Pauline  of  Lippe  Detmold,  who  erected  the  first  children's  protect- 
ing institution  which  soon  spread  over  all  Germany,  and  latterly,  was 
particularly  fostered  by  the  "inner  mission."  In  England,  it  was  the 
great  socialist  Robert  Owen,  who  incited  by  a  plain  man  of  his  village, 
J.  Buchanan,  first  founded  a  children's  protecting  institution  and  school. 
The  example  worked  more  slowly  there  than  in  Germany,  because  its 
first  appearance  seemed  united  with  ideas  of  socialism,  whose  impracti- 
cability could  not  be  ignored.  The  clergy,  particularly,  opposed  obsti- 
nately and  effectually  all  these  efforts.  So  it  happened,  if  we  -are  not 
mistaken,  that  this  important  member  of  a  sj-stem  of  popular  education, 
has  not  been  energetically  developed,  that  it  is  still  left  sporadically  and 
accidentally  to  the  care  of  benevolent  individuals  and  associations. 

In  France,  in  Paris,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  the  system  of  pro- 
tecting institutions  for  children,  has  been  completed  and  perfected,  by 
this  important,  even  indispensable  member.  Marbeau,  member  of  a 
committee  for  children's  protecting  institutions  in  Paris,  first  grasped  the 
idea  of  such  an  institute,  in  order  to  displace  by  it,  the  institutions  for 
nurslings,  which,  as  the  enterprises  of  piivate  speculation,  beyond  the 
reach  of  public  control,  operated  injuriously,  rather  than  usefully.  He 
proposed  to  remove  these  evils  by  forming  public  societies ;  his  plan  was 
supported,  and  thus  under  the  protection  of  the  Duchess  Hclene  of  Or- 
leans, the  first  "Krippe"  was  erected  in  Paris,  14th  November,  1844. 
From  Paris,  this  institution  spread  over  France,  Belgium  (where  in  Brus- 
sels a  model  Krippe  exists),  Germany  (Vienna,  Dresden,  Munich,  Stutt- 
gart since  1868),  England  (London,  Manchester),  etc.  A  model  Krippe 
in  the  exhibition  at  Paris,  1867,  excited  the  attention  of  thousands  of  vis- 
itors, and  was  the  cause,  as  our  informant  says,  of  banishing  many  false 
judgments  and  many  an  apparently  well  founded  doubt. 

The  arrangement  of  the  Krippe  is  essentially  the  following.  Every 
week-day,  the  mother  brings  her  child  to  the  institution  in  the  early 
morning  hours  and  goes  after  it  again  in  the  evening.  She  either  pays 
nothing  for  it,  or  a  small  contribution — in  Paris  from  six  to  twelve  sous, 
in  London  three  pence,  in  Vienna,  three  kreuzers  per  day;  the  child  is 
taken  care  of,  fed,  bathed,  busied  with  the  first  classified  attempts  at 
play  (preparations  for  the  "  Kindergarten  ")  and  generally  dressed.  Every 
institution  is  under  the  constant  care  of  a  regular  physician,  and  the 
further  control  of  a  voluntary  committee  of  ladies.  On  Sundays  and 
holidays,  the  institutions  are  closed,  because  there  is  no  urgent  need  of 
them,  and  also,  so  as  not  to  wean  the  children  from  family  life. 

The  results  which,  according  to  the  report  of  the  committee,  through 
Mons.  de  Malarce,  the  Krippen  show  as  the  fruit  of  their  long  existence, 
are  favorably  portrayed  and  seem  very  credible ;  for  they  correspond  to 
what  was  expected  of  them.  Weakly,  neglected,  sickly  children  have 


334  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

recovered  rapidly ;  also  their  morals  were  thoroughly  improved.  Irrita- 
bility, self-will,  restlessness,  which  had  made  them  burdensome  to  their 
parents,  particularly  to  the  father,  disappeared  gradually,  under  uniform, 
quiet,  patient  treatment.  They  grew  daily  better  behaved,  and  thus  dear- 
er to  their  parents;  an  important  promoter  of  family  discomfort  thus 
disappeared  forever,  and  the  parents,  particularly  the  mothers,  received 
the  wholesome  instruction  how  children  should  be  trained,  how  human 
beings  should  in  general  be  treated,  in  order  to  work  favorably  upon 
them.  My  informant  comprises  all  in  this;  "that  the  "  Krippe  "  is  not 
only  to  be  considered  as  the  asylum  of  unprotected  children,  but,  if  it  is 
carried  out  in  the  right  spirit,  and  under  conscientious  superintendence, 
it  can  attain  the  next  and  just  as  important  double  aim  ;  to  become  the 
earliest  school  of  cultivation  for  children  (ecolc  du  premier  age),  and  a 
normal  school  for  parents,  especially  for  mothers  (ccole  normale  des 
meres),  in  which  they  can  learn  how  to  treat  their  children  physically 
and  morally."  For  all  these  reasons,  he  demands  their  general  introduc- 
tion into  the  systems  of  public  institutions  for  popular  education. 

With  this,  he  touches  a  subject  which  deserves  the  most  urgent  con- 
sideration ;  for  just  this  is  the  junction,  where  all  the  most  important 
interests  of  the  family  and  state  unite.  It  is  a  wide-spread  complaint, 
that  the  mortality  of  children  in  the  first  period  of  their  lives,  is  fright- 
fully great.  It  is  well  known  that  its  cause  is  to  be  sought  in  the  mis- 
taken care,  or  entire  want  of  care  of  them,  often  the  result  of  unsettled 
family  life ;  and  thus  the  cause  of  the  mortality  of  children,  is  closely 
connected  with  the  uncultivated  condition  of  our  people. 

Here,  at  the  origin  of  the  evil,  the  first  lever  of  remedy  must  be  ap- 
plied. This  is  also  the  first,  most  practicable-  and  most  direct  means. 
The  social  question  of  the  present  can  not  be  solved,  before  the  pedagog- 
ical problem  of  the  care  of  unprotected  childhood  is  solved.  The  social 
problem  is  ramified,  highly  complicated,  and  scarcely  to  be  grasped  in  its 
whole  extent.  It  is  divided  into  a  series  of  the  most  difficult  propositions 
•of  a  political,  financial,  ethical  and  pedagogical  nature,  and  no  civil  wis- 
dom has  yet  shown  itself  equal  to  the  task.  Its  solutions  perhaps,  be- 
long to  a  distant  future.  It  is  different  with  this  important,  partial  prop- 
osition. The  energetic  introduction  of  "  Krippen,"  of  protecting  insti- 
tutions for  early  childhood  in  general,  is  nob-dcptndent  upon  preparatory 
intermediate  grades.  It  can  immediately  follow,  when  it  has  become,  as 
it  deserves,  the  object  of  the  general  public  care.  By  the  obligations,  un- 
der which  the  state  and  the  community  are,  for  the  fostering  of  youthful 
culture,  and  by  the  increasing  greatness  of  the  evils  which  are  to  be  com- 
bated, it  can  be  demanded  henceforth,  from  state  and  community,  that 
every  where,  where  regulated  instruction  exists,  protecting  institutions  for 
earliest  childhood  shall  be  added.  The  rnonied  sacrifice,  necessary  for 
it,  can  not  be  considered,  for  it  would  be  barbarous  and  shameless,  for 
parents  to  wish  to  escape  this  duty.  The  opposition  of  irrationality  or 
habit,  wherever  it  appears,  must  be  broken  down ;  this  belongs  to  the  in- 
disputable "guardian"  duties  of  the  state. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  33^ 

The  judicious  proposals  of  the  medical  authorities  whom  we  have  men- 
tioned above,  show  us  how  every  thing  is  already  prepared  for  the  reali- 
zation of  this  highly  important  aim,  how  the  means  need  only  to  be  or- 
ganized, in  order  to  make  with  them  an  effectual  beginning.  In  regard 
to  this,  I  quote  the  the  following :  — 

"  The  pastor,  as  the  shepherd  of  his  parish,  whose  physical  and  spirit- 
ual weal  are  dear  to  him,  will  find  this  subject  worthy  of  his  attention, 
and  ecclesiastical  and  also  municipal  authorities  will  realize  how  close- 
ly the  same  is  connected  with  the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  the 
community.^  There  are  two  classes  of  vocations,  pre-eminently  in  whose 
power  it  lies,  to  work  beneficently,  or  to  breed  mischief;  the  surgeons 
who  are  nearest  the  people,  and  their  first  advisers  in  matters  of  health, 
and  the  rnid  wives  who,  beside  their  care  of  the  new-born  babe,  wield  and 
are  called  upon  to  wield  a  great  influence  upon  its  later  nurture.  Both 
should  well  preserve  the  good  which  they  have  learned  in  their  schools, 
realize  it  for  the  general  good,  and  not  sink  back  into  the  prejudices  of 
the  people,  or,  in  order  to  please  them  and  win  their  favor,  support 
them  in  error.  Both  these  classes  should  also  closely  observe  the  limits 
where  their  authority  and  capacities  stop,  in  order  not  to  do  injury  by 
encroaching  upon  the  medicinal  province  tying  beyond  their  vocation. 

"  A  broad  field  is  here  opened  for  individuals  and  societies,  in  the  sense 
of  humanity  and  good  works.  So  much  is  said  about  the  care  for  the 
physical  and  moral  well  being  of  the  working  people;  prizes  have  been 
bestowed  for  it  in  the  Paris  exhibition.  In  addition  to  other  things  may 
the  new  born  children  of  the  workmen  be  cared  for,  and  the  example  of 
a  factory  owner  in  Alsace  be  imitated,  who  allowed  his  working  women, 
six  weeks  after  the  birth,  to  cherish  and  nurse  their  children  and  also  la- 
ter, allowed  them  at  certain  times  of  the  day,  to  nurse  them  without  les- 
sening their  wages.  In  England,  ladies'  societies  exist,  which  make  it 
their  business  to  spread  by  word  and  deed  ideas  of  a  reasonable  nurture 
of  the  infants  within  their  circle.  Where  only  two  or  three  in  one  place 
unite  and  take  hold  rightly  of  the  matter,  there,  their  labor  will  be  salu- 
tary. An  object  of  particular  attention  should  be  the  illegitimate  chil- 
dren who  are  put  out  to  board,  and  whose  lot  is  the  worst,  and  whose 
mortality  is  the  greatest.  Further,  the  Krippen, -as  benevolent  institu- 
tions belong  here,  in  practical,  simple  and  inexpensive  abodes,  for  the 
protection  and  nurture  of  infants,  through  the  day,  while  their  parents 
are  absent  from  home  at  work." 

It  is  clear,  that  in  all  these  cases  the  support  of  mothers,  particularly, 
and  of  the  female  sex  generally,  must  be  relied  upon.  But  we  must 
not  stop  half  way,  leaving  it  to  ladies,  unorganized  and  unprepared  (be- 
cause unacquainted  with  the  true  nature  of  their  duties,)  of  the  higher 
"  cultivated  ranks,"  to  form  a  committee  which  alternately,  or  occasion- 
ally shall  oversee  the  nurture  of  the  children,  which,  in  the  main,  is  trust- 
ed to  inferior  salaried  persons.  With  this,  one  seldom  rises  above  a  very 
injurious  dilettanteism  which  allows  room  for  secondary  interests  and 
thoughts,  and  the  deep  earnestness  of  the  work  is  mistaken,  the  contin- 


336  TIIE  PROBLEM  OF  POPULAR  EDUCATION. 

uous  conscientiousness  of  its  execution  neglected.  We  find  it  only  suf- 
ficient for  the  importance  of  the  subject,  that  women,  deeply  moved  by 
the  holiness  of  their  vocation,  should  consecrate  themselves  to  it,  \vith 
undivided  interest,  and  that  they  should  have  passed  through  a  prepara- 
tory school  for  it. 

The  point  of  connection  for  all  this  already  exists, — the  "inner  mis- 
sion" has  made  the  nurture  of  children  one  of  its  works.  But  it  has 
been  done  only  singly,  and  more  as  an  experiment,  than  as  a  perfectly  or- 
ganized execution,  also  with  almost  invisible  operations,  in  view  of  the 
immense  greatness  of  the  need.  The  state,  the  community  have  not 
met  it  halfway,  have  not  yet  supported  and  enlarged  the  single  attempts; 
much  less,  received  the  whole  institution  into  the  organization  of  popular 
education  whose  starting  point  and  foundation  it  must  become. 

The  time  has  now  arrived  for  these  demands.  The  work  is  great,  but 
possible ;  for  in  small  wa}*s  it  is  already  performed,  and  the  preliminary 
conditions  of  a  greater  execution  lie  every  where  ready.  The  zeal  and 
devotion  of  private  individuals  is  insufficient ;  they  must  join  larger  socie- 
ties, or  call  them  forth.  But  above  all,  the  state  is  called  upon,  because 
it  alone  holds  all  the  threads  in  its  hands,  and  controls  all  the  factors 
whose  united  operations  arc  necessary ;  viz.,  the  pedagogical  and  the 
medical  powers  of  the  land,  and  chiefly,  the  influence  of  the  state  upon 
the  communities.  And  as  the  necessary  means,  so  at  least,  the  German 
Chambers  have  never  refused  to  allow  the  state  the  sum  necessary  for 
purposes  of  popular  education  ;  they  have  often  granted  even  more  than 
was  wished  or  asked  for.  Where  is  there  a  more  evident  obligation  for 
the  state,  a  more  urgent  need  for  the  people  and  the  community,  than  to 
provide  for  the, protection  and  first  education  of  childhood,  every  where, 
where  the  care  of  the  family  is  insufficient. 

A  law  for  the  introduction  of  Krippcn  and  Kindergartens  in  every  com- 
munity of  the  land,  would  surely  meet  with  objection  in  no  German 
Chambers,  from  no  political  party  ;  for  this  is  no  party  affair,  but  the 
people's  affair,  in  the  noblest  and  most  peculiar  sense. 

In  conclusion,  we  will  mention  another  aspect  of  the  subject  which 
must  be  considered  here.  It  has  often  been  felt  and  also  publicly  ex- 
pressed, that  woman's  social  position  must  be  different  in  the  future, 
more  independent  for  herself,  more  important  for  the  community.  Hence, 
new  vocations  have  been  sought  after,  so  as  to  provide  the  unmarried 
and  the  needy  with  a  secure  and  respectable  position  in  life.  Inappro- 
priate palliatives  have  been  proposed,  to  place  girls  in  railroad  and  tele- 
graph offices,  or  to  employ  them  in  subordinate  services  in  the  law  de- 
partment. It  is  not  disputed,  that  they  are  capable  for  these  positions; 
just  as  little  also,  should  this  appropriate  occupation  be  grudged. 


INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATIONAL  CONGRESS 

AT  BRUSSELS  IN  AUGUST,  1880. 


THE  BELGIAN  EDUCATIONAL  LEAGUE,  a  national  association  of  the 
progressive  teachers  and  school  men  of  Belgium,  which  has  held  monthly 
meetings  for  papers  and  discussion  on  the  organization,  administration, 
instruction,  and  discipline  of  schools  of  every  grade,  public,  private,  and 
ecclesiastical,  in  Belgium,  has  made  arrangements  to  hold  a  General 
Assembly  of  Teachers  and  Educators  in  Brussels,  from  August  22d  to  the 
29th  inclusive — under  the  honorary  presidency  of  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction. 

The  Executive  Committee,  appointed  by  the  League,  is  composed  of 
men  of  eminent  practical  ability,  of  which  H.  Augustus  Couvreur  i? 
President,  and  M.  Charles  Buls,  Secretary-General. 

The  original  call,  issued  more  than  a  year  ago,  was  signed  by  many 
prominent  educators  from  all  the  states  of  Europe,  and  the  recent  Circular 
of  the  General  Committee  bears  the  names  of  some  three  hundred  individ- 
uals connected  with  the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction,  the  universities, 
the  normal  schools,  and  other  institutions  and  the  Public  Press  in  their 
several  countries. 

The  programme  of  proceedings  issued  by  the  General  Committee  con- 
tains over  ninety  subjects,  on  which  special  papers  or  discussions  are 
invited,  and  in  the  main  provided  for.  These  subjects  are  assigned  to  six 
sections,  viz. :  (1)  Primary  Instruction,  including  Creches',  Kindergarten, 
infant  schools,  etc. ;  (2)  Secondary  Instruction;  (3)  Superior  Instruction;  (4) 
Special  Schools,  professional,  technical,  agricultural,  commercial,  nor- 
mal ;  (5)  Adult  Education ;  (6)  School  Hygiene.  Each  section  has  a  secre- 
tary, and  will  hold  sectional  meetings,  and  certain  topics  belonging  to 
each  section  will  be  presented  in  written  papers,  and  for  discussion  in  the 
general  meeting  of  the  whole  congress. 

The  congress  is  composed  of  regular  and  associate  members.  All  may 
take  part  in  the  deliberations  who  register  their  names,  thereby  agreeing 
to  the  general  regulations.  Regular  members  will  pay  a  fee  of  twenty 
francs,  and  will  be  entitled  to  a  copy  of  the  printed  transactions,  and  to 
three  ladies'  tickets  to  the  meetings  of  the  congress.  Certificated  male 
and  female  teachers,  and  professors  of  secondary  schools  may  become 
regular  members  by  paying  a  fee  of  ten  francs. 

Educational  Societies  and  corporations  can  send  delegates. 

Speakers  and  contributors  of  papers  can  use  any  language  they  prefer— 
and  if  not  in  French,  the  substance  of  the  speeches  and  papers  will  be 
translated  by  officers  of  the  congress. 

For  circular  giving  the  topics  to  be  discussed  and  other  information, 
address  Commissioner  John  Eaton,  Bureau  of  Education,  Department  of 
the  Interior,  Washington,  who  will  forward  any  correspondence  of  those 
who  wish  to  become  members  for  the  purpose  of  attendance,  or  to  receive 
the  reports.  HENRY  BARNARD, 

22  Member  of  General  Cortiimttee. 


333  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Proceedirigs.* 

The  delegates,  and  their  associates  from  different  countries,  repre- 
senting every  class  and  grade  of  instruction  from  the  Kindergarten 
to  the  University  met  in  the  Hall  of  the  Athenee  Royal,  the  great 
Secondary  School  of  Brussels,  on  the  morning  of  August  22,  1880, 
and  were  welcomed  by  the  president  of  the  General  Committee,  and 
the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  "  to  the  open  deliberations  of  a 
Congress  called  to  advance  the  intellectual,  material,  and  moral 
progress  of  mankind." 

Volume  of  Preliminary  Reports. 

Each  member  was  presented  with  a  royal  octavo  volume  of  962 
pages  entitled  Rapports  Preliminaires,mn.<le  up  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee out  of  the  Reports  which  had  been  forwarded  to  the  Corres- 
ponding Secretary,  in  response  to  assignments  made  by  them  six 
months  in  advance,  of  topics  representing  the  principal  phases  of  the 
educational  problems  of  the  present  time,  and  which  could  or  might 
be  presented  for  written  or  oral  discussion  in  the  several  sections  to 
which  the  different  subjects  were  distributed.  It  is  a  volume  of  great 
permanent  value  to  all  educators,  and  if  it  were  the  only  result  of  the 
Congress,  would  justify  the  originators  in  calling  such  a  Congress 
together.  The  volume  or  volumes  of  the  regular  proceedings  of  the 
Sectional  and  General  Meetings  of  the  Congress  have  not  yet  come 

to  hand. 

Section  1. — Primary  Education. 

The  Section  devoted  to  Primary  Education  was  organized  in  two 
Divisions,  A.  and  B.  In  Division  A.  the  Educational  System  of 
Froebel  was  largely  considered,  its  originality  and  value  universally 
admitted,  and  the  position  taken  that  every  elementary  teacher  should 
give  evidence  of  having  mastered  its  principles  and  methods.  The 
necessity  of  a  Transition  Class  between  the  Kindergarten  and  the 
Primary  School  was  shown,  as  well  as  some  modifications  in  the 
classes  and  instruction  of  the  latter,  by  which  the  intuitional  teaching 
of  the  former,  and  individual  development  began  under  Froebel's 
system  could  be  continued  through  the  entire  course. 

Of  the  Rapports  Preliminaries  in  the  Section  of  Primary  Instruc- 
tion devoted  to  the  Froebel  System  and  the  Kindergarten  we  shall 
publish  those  by  Jules  Guilliaume,  Brussels;  M.  Fischer,  President 
of  the  Vienna  Froebel  Society ;  M.  Sluys,  Director  of  Model  School 
of  the  Belgium  League ;  Madame  de  Portugall,  Instructress  of  Infant 
School  in  Canton,  Geneva,  and  Miss  Caroline  Progler,  Directress  of 
the  Special  Course  for  Kindergartners  in  Geneva. 

*  See  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  xxxi ;  p.  1-8. 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 

BY   A.    S.    FISCHER. 
President  of  the  Kindergarten  Society  at  Vienna, 


QUESTIONS    PROPOUNDED    FOR    THE    BRUSSELS    CONGRESS. 
Has  the  Frobel  system  given  any  ground  for  well-founded  criticisms  ? 
Is  there  need  of  a  special  normal  training  for  Kindnergartners  ? 
Is  it  proper  to  apply  the  principles  of  FrObel  in  primary  instruction,  and  by  what 
means  can  this  be  done? 

Xo  system  of  education  has  had  as  many  partisans  and  adversaries 
as  that  of  Frobel.  If  this  fact  does  not  furnish  the  best  demonstration 
of  the  practical  importance  and  extraordinary  scope  of  this  system, 
still  it  deserves  a  thorough  examination  on  account  of  the  bitter  and 
constantly  repeated  attacks  in  the  hope  of  overthrowing  it,  and  of  the 
courageous  and  persevering  efforts  of  its  partisans  to  confirm  and 
secure  it.  The  bases  of  this  work  are  already  indicated  in  the  question 
mentioned  above  ;  we  shall  find  them  in  the  fact  that  Frb'bePs  system 
needs  ulterior  developments,  but  also  that  it  is  in  the  highest  degree 
susceptible  of  them. 

Whoever  has  taken  the  trouble  to  learn  the  principles  of  Frobel  in 
his  works,  and  to  penetrate  into  the  spirit  of  his  system,  must  have 
found  that  we  are  obliged  to  recognize  in  this  pedagogue  the  true 
psychology  of  the  life  of  childhood.  Long  before  his  clay,  the  impor- 
tance and  necessity  of  an  educating  influence  in  the  first  period  of  life 
had  been  felt,  but  no  one  had  discovered  the  means  of  conducting  and 
hastening  the  development  of  the  mind  and  body  in  the  earliest  years. 
Comenius  and  Pestalozzi  had  preferred  to  pursue  the  development  of 
the  first  ideas  by  the  education  of  the  senses,  which  was  to  precede  all 
instruction,  properly  so  called.  We  know  very  well  all  that  Pestalozzi 
did  to  reform  teaching  in  general,  by  the  recognition  of  intuition  as 
the  absolute  foundation  of  every  notion.  As  the  "  Book  for  Mothers  " 
points  out,  he  wished  to  exercise  the  child  from  its  tenderest  years  in 
attentively  examining,  in  distinguishing  what  is  only  accidental  from 
what  is  the  very  nature  of  the  object ;  he  wished,  by  determined 
psychological  exercises  to  fashion  the  intuition  by  the  art  of  examining. 
Yet  as  man  cannot  be  considered  merely  as  a  being  seeking  to  know, 
but  also  as  a  being  of  sensibility  ;  since  we  cannot  consider  him  com- 
plete except  with  the  two  faculties,  we  must  also  take  into  account  his 
need  of  activity  as  soon  as  he  enters  into  relation  with  his  fellow  mor- 
tals. Pestalozzi  considered  knowing  without  aptitude  as  the  most 
fearful  gift  which  a  malevolent  genius  could  bestow  upon  man.  But 
in  spite  of  all  his  investigations  he  did  not  find  the  simplest  means  by 
whose  assistance  art  can  educate  the  child  from  the  cradle  up  to  the 
sixth  year.  It  is  consequently  no  small  merit  in  Frobel  to  have  recog- 

339 


340  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 

nized  better  and  more  profoundly  than  all  his  predecessors  the  nature 
and  wants  of  the  child,  and  to  have  found  at  the  same  time  the  means 
of  satisfying  these  wants.  If,  in  spite  of  the  diversity  of  the  plays 
and  occupations  imagined  by  Frb'bel,  in  spite  of  the  ingenious  mode  of 
their  arrangement  for  the  kindergartens,  in  which  they  have  been  ex- 
clusively used  until  now,  the  latter  are  still  struggling  to  make  known 
their  utility  j  the  reason  of  this  is  to  be  found  less  in  the  system  of 
Frobel  than  in  the  broad  development  of  his  fundamental  ideas,  in  the 
mixture  of  what  is  chimerical  and  merely  accessory  with  the  important 
and  truly  valuable  things,  and  finally  in  the  practical  application  of 
his  ideas  by  his  successors. 

CRITICISM    ON   FROEBEL    SYSTEM    CONSIDERED. 

In  the  first  place  Frobel  is  indefinite ;  on  one  side  philosophic  reflec- 
tions serve  as  a  basis  for  the  application  of  a  simple  game,  that  of  ball, 
with  which  children  have  been  amused  from  time  immemorial  without 
racking  their  brains  about  it ;  on  another  side  they  are  lost  in  puerilities, 
oddities  and  absurdities.  These  external  appearances  have  obscured 
his  magnificent  pedagogical  principles,  and  have  prevented  many  people 
from  seeking  their  more  profound  and  diversified  uses,  and  giving 
them  the  desired  scope.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  plays  on 
which  Frobel  discants  in  a  striking  manner,  although  with  emphasis  in 
certain  passages  in  his  works.  lie  seeks  and  finds  in  every  play  of 
the  child  unity  and  correlations  and  influence  upon  its  future  years. 
But  the  child  imitates  in  his  way  what  he  sees  adults  do,  and  does  not 
wish,  as  Frobel  thinks,  to  have  a  presentiment  of  his  future  years  in 
his  plays.  He  lives  in  the  present  and  the  present  furnishes  the 
aliment  necessary  to  his  need  of  imitation  and  representation.  To 
give  an  aim  or  a  more  profound  meaning  to  the  play  is,  to  injure  its 
direct  and  immediate  utility  and  thereby  to  annihilate  all  the  child's 
pleasure.  When  in  the  movement  plays  we  direct  the  child's  attention 
to  what  he  is  doing;  if  we  lead  him  to  reflect  upon  the  happiness  and 
innocence  of  childhood  ;  if  we  force  him  to  sing  the  beauties  of  nature, 
the  peace  and  concord  that  reign  in  the  village,  the  play  loses  all  its 
savor,  all  the  seasoning  which  give  it  a  charm  in  his  eyes. 

A  second  defect  consists  in  the  form  of  Frobel's  poems.  Certainly 
he  is  fully  in  the  right  in  considering  poetry  an  essential  means  in  the 
education  of  the  child,  and  in  wishing  to  utilize  it  as  such.  Is  not 
childhood  itself  the  age  of  poetry  ?  And  cannot  every  mother,  every 
educator  convince  himself  of  the  salutary  effect  of  appropriate  poetry 
upon  the  child  ?  But  let  it  all  be  poetry  and  not  insipid  prose,  however 
moral.  How  many  rhymed  platitudes,  void  of  meaning,  we  find  in  the 
"  Mother  Songs  ?  "  When  the  defenders  of  the  cause  justly  think  that 
Frobel  in  this  part  of  his  poetry  only  wished  to  show  mothers  in  what 
way  they  were  to  exercise  the  minds  and  limbs  of  their  little  darlings, 
but  did  not  intend  to  constrain  them  as  to  the  form,  and  that  he  never 
offered  himself  as  a  model,  we  can  but  ask  them  why  they  have  pre- 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.  311 

served  this  form  which  they  deem  insuitable,  thus  injuring  the  reputa- 
tion of  their  master  without  use  to  the  cause  itself?  Is  it  not  nonsense 
and  want  of  reflection  to  put  into  the  mouths  of  older  children  the 
songs  Frobel  composed  for  the  mothers  so  that  they  might  sing  to  their 
infants?  When  for  instance  the  baby  of  the  kindergarten  sings 
"Does  my  child  know  how  to  turn  his  little  hand?"  It  is  the  same 
with  the  ball  plays.  In  the  "  100  ball  songs,"  most  of  the  songs  are 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  child,  and  are  to  be  counted  among  the  most 
injurious  ones  because  they  accustom  the  children  too  easily  to  what  is 
ordinary  and  destroy  the  joy  that  belongs  to  the  true  plays.  If  the 
mother,  however,  can  use  any  of  these  common-place  things,  with  her 
infant,  when  every  sound  from  her  mouth,  every  intonation  of  her 
voice  has  a  fixed  meaning,  when  each  one  of  her  words  awakens  the 
child's  life,  it  appears  unnatural  to  let  these  rhymed  allegories  and 
personifications  be  sung  in  the  kindergartens.  Where  could  we  see  the 
demonstration  of  a  natural  development  when  the  impressions  that  the 
form  and  color  of  the  ball  make  upon  the  child  are  sung  in  the  follow- 
ing manner  :  "  Let  me  see  it  on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  let  me  turn 
it  this  way  and  that,  it  still  looks  like  a  round  ball  on  every  side  ?  " 

Or  thus :  "  My  dress  is  blue  like  the  sky,  mine  is  green  like  the 
meadows  in  spring,"  etc.  And  yet  these  phrases  are  pointed  out  as 
coming  from  the  personal  observation  and  experience  of  the  child. 
The  ball  may  and  ought  to  preserve  its  rights  in  the  kindergartens  as 
at  home  and  in  the  streets;  but  let  the  children  play  ball  as  they  have 
been  accustomed  to  do  in  the  company  of  their  little  comrades,  and  let 
them  practice  the  exercises  which  their  strength  permits  and  not  con- 
strain them  by  systematic  motions. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  other  gifts  of  Frobel.  Is  it  natural  to  initiate 
the  child  at  two  years  of  age  into  the  notions  of  time  and  space,  as  for 
example,  when  the  mother  sings:  "The  ball  occupies  its t place,  so 
where  it  is  the  cube  cannot  be?"  Or  this  sentence :  "  He  who  desires 
much  very  easily  loses  what  little  belongs  to  him." 

We  acknowledge  in  general  that  songs  are  an  important  means  in 
education,  especially  for  the  heart,  we  only  speak  here  of  their  abuse. 

In  the  first  place,  singing  is  a  magnificent  means  of  teaching  children 
speech.  In  singing  they  are  constrained  to  articulate  the  words ;  sing- 
ing therefore  is  an  excellent  way  in  which  to  correct  many  a  defect 
which  children  show  on  their  entrance  into  the  kindergarten  in  relation 
to  language  and  the  volubility  of  speech.  So  singing  facilitates  the 
execution  of  different  plays  (plays  of  the  ring  and  marching),  in 
which  it  is  important  for  those  who  are  playing  to  observe  an  equal 
movement  regulated  by  the  exactitude  of  the  measure.  But  we  must 
not  abuse  this  gift  of  the  Creator.  Frobel  does  this  when  he  wishes 
every  play  and  every  occupation  to  be  accompanied  by  songs.  There 
is  a  little  song  for  every  ball  play ;  they  sing  when  building,  when 
arranging  the  little  sticks,  before,  during  and  after  their  work. 


342  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROECEI/S  SYSTEM. 

Is  there  any  need  of  proof  that  this  unnatural  method  is  injurious 
to  the  development  of  the  child  in  more  than  one  point  of  view?  "VVe 
know  that  in  the  best  kindergartens  every  thing  is  not  accompanied 
by  singing,  but  in  the  different  collections  of  songs  published  by  the 
partisans  of  kindergartens,  \ve  find  little  unformed  and  insignificant 
songs  and  we  have  a  right  to  suppose  that  they  are  put  there  for  some 
other  reason  than  the  literary  interest  they  may  inspire.  Then  let  us 
remove  these  purely  didactic  songs  which  are  unsuitable  for  children, 
and  replace  them  by  true  children's  songs  set  to  national  music. 

The  occupations,  partly  imagined,  partly  found  by  Frb'bel  in  the 
world  of  childhood,  but  which  he  brought  together  with  the  aim  of 
making  them  serve  for  a  systematic  development  of  all  the  powers,  ex- 
ercise the  internal  and  external  senses  of  the  child  (sight,  hearing, 
touch,  the  senses  of  form,  color,  size  and  number),  in  order  to  hasten 
the  exact  perception  of  objects,  their  signs  and  their  properties,  and  to 
put  children  in  a  condition  to  translate  immediately  all  these  apprecia- 
tions by  external  representation  and  thus  to  strengthen  their  observing 
faculties.  But  here,  Frobel  has  not  known  how  to  keep  a  certain 
moderation.  He  wishes  to  neglect  no  side  susceptible  of  perfectibility 
in  the  child,  but  he  uses  many  things  that  are  too  fatiguing  for  children 
of  such  tender  age,  too  much  above  their  reach,  and  uses  precious  time 
in  these  mistaken  ways.  He  thus  misses  the  aim  of  education.  There 
is  one  very  important  point  of  view,  too  little  seen  heretofore,  which 
the  following  considerations  will  touch  upon. 

Each  occupation  must  answer  to  the  individual  degree  of  develop- 
ment of  the  intellectual  and  physical  strength  of  the  child,  and  we 
must  carefully  set  aside  all  those  whose  execution  requires  a  greater 
skill  or  the  use  of  implements  with  which  the  child  might  hurt  him- 
self ;  we  must  observe  the  characteristics  of  each  mode  of  representa- 
tion, for  without  severely  setting  the  limits  of  each  of  these  modes,  the 
sense  of  form  would  not  be  assisted,  but  falsified.  In  the  discussion 
of  the  occupations  we  must  then  keep  rigorously  to  the  limits  indicated 
by  the  intelligence  of  the  child.  Let  the  free  activity  of  the  child 
have  full  scope ;  every  occupation  we  offer  him  is  as  welcome  to  him  as 
the  assistance  kindly  offered  him ;  but  after  every  demonstration  let 
him  have  the  opportunity  to  try  his  own  experiment;  that  will  ensure 
the  best  success,  as  every  thing  does  which  is  acquired  by  one's  self. 
Finally,  as  the  kindergarten  is  not  exclusively  to  serve  the  children  of 
well-to-do  families,  as  it  is  to  be  made  an  institution  for  the  education 
of  the  children  of  the  people,  it  must  take  into  view  the  practical  value 
and  utility  of  an  occupation  for  future  use. 

According  to  these  principles,  the  following  occupations  are  to  be 
used  in  the  kindergartens  :  building  ;  making  forms  with  little  planes 
and  sticks;  the  use  of  rings,  small  shells  and  stones;  folding  and 
weaving  of  paper  ;  braiding,  embroidering,  drawing,  modeling.  In  all 
these  occupations  certain  limits  are  to  be  observed  in  regard  to  the 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.  313 

separate  exercises.  Every  exercise  that  consists  in  tying  knots  or  prick- 
ing is  to  be  rejected  entirely ;  paper-cutting  and  pea-work  should  be 
reserved  for  the  oldest  pupils  just  before  they  leave  the  kindergarten 
for  the  school. 

Building  gives  the  child  a  free  career  for  his  activity,  which  inquires 
and  fashions  at  the  same  time.  The  first  two  building  boxes  are  suf- 
ficient for  this,  the  box  containing  eight  equal  cubes,  and  the  one  con- 
taining eight*  equal  bricks.  For  older  children  may  be  added  a  few 
round  or  quadrangular  columns,  a  few  arches  and  forms  for  roofs 
necessary  for  the  representation  of  buildings,  bridges  and  porticoes. 
We  have  special  regard  for  the  architectural  forms ;  we  prefer  them 
to  the  constructions  sometimes  made  in  representation  of  such  ob- 
jects as  bottles,  kegs,  etc.,  whose  forms  contrast  too  much  with  the 
angular  projections  of  the  materials,  thus  sinning  in  favor  of  the 
lively  fancy  of  the  child  who  finds  the  most  distant  analogies  between 
objects ;  but  it  is  something  else  to  permit  the  activity  of  the  child  in 
free  invention,  and  intentionally  to  falsify  his  judgment.* 

The  conversations  upon  the  forms  of  construction  should  be  limited  to 
what  is  immediately  before  the  operator.  Every  useless  fact  should  be 
avoided  as  well  as  the  songs  that  accompany  every  form,  and  the 
mathematical  considerations  for  which  the  children  are  not  yet  ripe. 
The  building  exercises  may  be  used  throughout  the  whole  course  of  the 
kindergarten  instruction,  if  due  regard  is  had  to  the  degree  of  intelli- 
gence in  the  children. 

The  laying  of  planes  will  well  exercise  the  senses  of  form  and  color. 
The  little  planes  should  be  painted  for  this  end,  and  each  form  (quad- 
rilaterals and  different  kinds  of  triangles)  should  have  two  colors.  In 
laying  the  geometric  forms,  as  well  as  the  artistic  ones,  care  should  be 
had  to  arrange  the  colors  in  a  truly  aesthetic  manner,  so  that  each  color 
should  be  opposite  its  complimentary  one.  This  occupation  should  be 
given  to  children  already  somewhat  developed,  those  for  instance  who 
are  five  years  old,  to  whom  can  be  left  the  individual  invention  of  the 
forms. 

The  laying  of  little  sticks,  preferably  the  square  sticks,  is  particularly 
adapted  to  develop  the  sense  of  form  and  the  faculty  of  representation. 
As  these  little  sticks  represent  only  the  outlines  of  forms,  their  use 


*Mr.  Fischer  does  not  justify  himself  for  this  departure  from  Frobel's  series  of 
forms.  Why  not  use  the  fifth  and  sixth  gifts  in  building,  which  furnish  roofs  and 
columns  sufficient  for  all  purposes,  while  the  things  he  interpolates  cannot  be  coor- 
dinated with  the  rest  of  Frobel's  building  material,  all  which  has  its  relations  to 
forms  used  in  other  occupations  ?  Why  destroy  the  wonderful  unity  of  design  which 
is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  Frobel's  materials  ?  Mr.  Fischer  goes  a  little  too  far  in 
the  direction  of  others  who  have  endeavored  to  improve  upon  Frobel  in  this  country, 
to  suit  genuine  Frobelians,  while  in  his  previous  modifications  he  has  not  lost  the 
spirit  of  the  great  master,  but  only  vindicated  Frobel's  own  broadness  of  view,  for 
Frobel  wished  every  teacher  to  use  his  judgment  in  the  distribution  and  assignment 
of  the  material.— 2V. 


344  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 

is  an  excellent  preparation  for  drawing.  It  is  well  to  have  these 
little  sticks  of  different  colors.  By  their  aid  the  children  can  also  get 
a  clear  idea  of  numbers.  It  is  also  one  of  the  favorite  occupations  of 
the  youngest  children.  Hitherto  the  most  absurd  forms  have  been  at- 
tempted with  these  little  sticks,  such  as  flower-pots,  carrots,  ponds  for 
fishes,  carriages,  etc.  The  little  stiff  stick  is  absolutely  out  of  place  in 
the  representation  of  all  curvilinear  outlines,  even  when  cracked,  which 
does  not  destroy  its  rigidity.  The  imagination  of  forms  Should  not  be 
falsified  in  such  a  way.  The  contours  so  made  are  unnatural.  A  child 
naturally  taught,  whose  judgment  has  not  been  falsified  by  any  con- 
straint, would  sooner  take  up  some  clay  in  order  to  represent  a  flower- 
pot or  a  turnip.  The  representation  of  letters  and  figures  with  these 
little  sticks  also  is  an  injury  to  the  aesthetic  sense,  and  anticipates  in 
an  inexcusable  manner  what  belongs  to  the  school.  It  is  like  "  Lina's  " 
learning  to  read  and  write  when  six  years  old  with  little  sticks,  in- 
stead of  sitting  before  the  reading  tablet  with  a  pencil  in  her  hand. 

We  must  avoid  also  going  too  far  in  counting.  It  is  enough  for  the 
children  in  a  kindergarten  to  know  how  to  count  as  far  as  ten  or  twelve  ; 
let  them  go  so  far,  as  the  clock  strikes  twelve  times,  and  let  them  know 
the  elementary  combinations  of  the  numbers,  as  2  +  2  etc.  Geometri- 
cal notions  should  be  developed  only  to  a  very  moderate  degree.* 

The  laying  of  circles  and  semi-circles  only  allows  the  formation  of 
aesthetic  forms,  which  always  contribute  to  the  development  of  the 
aesthetic  sense ;  some  common  forms  can  also  be  represented  by  the 
combination  of  rings  and  little  sticks.  To  trace  contours  by  the  assist- 
ance of  fragments  (fractions)  of  circles  is  a  very  good  manual  exercise, 
but  not  before  the  children  have  reached  the  age  of  5  years.  The  pre- 
liminary exercises  with  1  to  3  fragments  are  too  tedious  for  little  chil- 
dren ;  a  definite  form  can  only  be  formed  with  4  fragments. 

With  little  stones  and  shells,  which  children  can  collect  themselves  in 
abundance,  many  simple  and  graceful  forms  can  be  made.  This  occu- 
pation deserves  more  attention  than  it  has  hitherto  received. 

Folding,  which  necessitates  a  certain  skill  in  the  fingers,  and  great 
accuracy  in  laying  the  papers  exactly,  had  better  be  put  off  till  the  age 
of  5  years.  For  a  long  time  this  exercise  should  be  confined  to  the 
reproduction  of  known  forms,  like  letter  envelopes,  fish,  salt  cellars  ; 
the  representation  of  more  complicated  forms  should  be  very  gradually 
attempted  and  also  a  few  artistic  and  geometric  forms. 

Weaving  and  embroidering  are  well  known  and  favorite  occupations  in 


*For  the  earliest  development  of  geometrical  notions,  nothing  is  better  than  to  draw 
a  circle  upon  the  blackboard,  and  by  degrees  divide  it,  first  by  a  diameter  into  semi- 
circles, another  time  make  another  diameter  perpendicular  to  the  first  one,  thus  show- 
ing the  four  right  angles,  and  subsequently  show  acute  angles  of  various  sizes,  and 
lastly  an  obtuse  angle.  Such  a  circle  standing  permanently  on  the  corner  of  the  black- 
board will  frequently  be  found  useful  in  a  kindergarten  for  reference  about 
angles.—  Tr. 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.  345 

kindergartens.  In  these  works  the  cultivation  of  the  aesthetic  sense 
should  never  be  lost  sight  of ;  it  has  hitherto  been  too  much  disregarded. 
It  is  falsified  by  combinations  of  incongruous  colors  and  by  tasteless 
forms,  such  as  that  of  the  harlequin,  for  instance.*  Here  we  take  occa- 
sion to  repeat  that  in  the  choice  of  occupations,  along  with  the  value  of 
the  culture,  we  must  never  lose  sight  of  the  use  which  the  child 
can  make  of  them  in  the  future. 

We  are  entirely  in  accord  with  these  who  object  to  choosing  the  occu- 
pations of  the  kindergarten  solely  in  reference  to  their  future  economi- 
cal value,  but  the  weaving  of  straw  as  well  as  of  paper  has  an 
educational  as  well  as  pecuniary  value,  and  may  be  introduced  into  the 
people's  kindergartens. 

Frb'bel  himself  described  the  merits  of  drawing  for  the  kindergarten 
in  the  following  words  :  "  Drawing  is  one  of  the  most  important  means 
of  development  for  early  childhood,  because  by  the  aid  of  drawing  the 
simplest  materials  and  the  smallest  effort  of  physical  strength  are  suffi- 
cient to  enable  one  to  recognize  quickly  and  easily  what  a  child  is  capa- 
ple  of  doing  by  himself."  True  and  exact  as  is  this  thought,  wisely 
considered  as  Frobel's  guide  to  drawing  is,  the  reproach  which  we 
have  uttered  before,  condemns  its  indefinite  extension.  Frobel,  in 
imitation  of  Pestalozzi,  introduces  the  canvas  for  drawing ;  first  upon 
a  squared  slate,  later  ugon  a  paper  canvas,  the  child  learning  to  trace 
straight  lines  from  one  square  (or  other  given  unit)  up  to  five  in  length  ; 
these  lines  are  at  first  vertical,  then  horizontal,  and  afterwards  oblique. 
They  are  studied  in  all  combinations,  in  angles,  in  combined  angles, 
and  in  closed  figures.  That  is  certainly  a  long  and  tedious  way  to  reach 
an  end  that  can  be  reached  in  a  shorter  and  more  interesting  way  by 
drawing  forms  of  common  use  ;  then  artistic  forms,  as  soon  as  the  chil- 
dren have  acquired  some  skill  in  drawing  straight  lines,  f 

We  might  also  make  some  important  objections,  some  hygienic 
remarks  against  the  use  of  slates  in  the  first  drawing  exercises  ;  but  for 
largely  attended  and  feebly  endowed  kindergartens,  these  objections 
will  have  to  yield  for  a  long  time  to  economical  considerations. 

The  modeling  work  (towards  the  end  of  the  5th  year)  will  only  be 
upon  the  ball. and  objects  derived  from  it  with  slight  modifications,  such 
as  the  cherry,  the  apple,  the  nut,  etc.  Later  the  cylinder  and  its  appli- 
cations, the  flour-bag,  sausages,  carrots,  etc ;  it  is  only  toward  the  end  of 
the  attendance  at  the  kindergarten  that  they  should  attempt  tools  or 
images  of  organic  objects. 

The  pap  fir  cutting  and  pea-work  we  have  already  spoken  of  as  occu- 
pations which  can  only  be  given  to  the  older  pupils,  because  in  the 
paper-cutting  a  good  deal  of  judgment  is  required  in  the  use  of  the 
scissors,  and  the  pea-work  demands  an  already  patiently  acquired  skill, 


*Let  children  be  saved  as  long  as  possible  from  contemplating  grotesque  forms  or 
caricatures. — Tr. 
fMiss  Moore's  modification  of  Frobel's  drawing  school  may  be  referred  to  here. —  Tr. 


316  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OJ'  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 

which  can  only  be  met  with  in  children  of  quite  advanced  physical  and 
moral  development.  But  even  for  such  pupils,  Fiobel's  paper-cutting 
must  be  given  up.  We  can  only  begin  by  cutting  forms  that  have 
been  drawn  beforehand.  In  the  pea-work  we  must  limit  ourselves  in 
the  kindergarten  to  certain  common  forms,  and  to  the  cube  and  its 
simplest  applications. 

Although  it  is  not  our  intention  to  describe  everything  in  the  kinder- 
garten and  its  incontestable  means  of  development,  we  will  discuss  two 
things ;  the  observation  of  nature  and  the  cultivation  of  speech. 

In  order  to  observe  nature,  Frobel  puts  the  child  into  the  garden  of 
the  establishment.  There  the  child  not  only  receives  an  impression  of 
the  beauty  and  sublimity  of  nature  which  leads  him  to  the  idea  of  God 
the  Creator,  but  he  also  strengthens  himself  in  the  exercise  of  duty  by 
an  attentive  examination  of  plants  and  animals. 

The  value  Fiobel  attaches  to  the  spoken  or  chanted  word  is  the 
theme  of  innumerable  passages  in  his  works.  He  says  of  story  telling : 
"  To  tell  a  story  is  to  the  mind  of  the  child  like  a  strengthening  bath  ; 
it  is  an  exercise  for  the  soul  and  for  the  judgment,  a  school  of  trial 
and  examination  for  the  appreciation  of  self  and  of  personal  feeling." 
Frobel  .looks  upon  the  story  especially  as  a  means  of  culture  for  the 
intellect  and  the  character.  The  culture  of  thought  and  speech  is  at- 
tached to  all  the  plays  and  occupations.  If  we  cannot  approve  of  the 
instruction  specially  called  intuitive  in  the  kindergarten,  we  do  not  con- 
sider superfluous  the  conversations  upon  real  subjects,  whether  models 
or  images,  in  the  interest  of  material  and  aesthetic  education. 

If,  for  example,  real  objects  or  models  of  them  are  best  for  giving 
an  exact  idea  of  things,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  representation  of 
these  objects  by  pictures  has  no  educational  value.  We  cannot  always 
see  things  near  enough,  we  cannot  always  be  present  at  the  scenes  we 
wish  to  represent,  and  among  these  last,  historical  scenes  or  the  situa- 
tions drawn  from  a  story  are  particularly  invisible.  From  this  it  may 
easily  be  seen  what  should  be,  according  to  our  ideas,  the  images  repre- 
sented in  the  kindergartens  ;  scenes  from  story  or  history,  pictures  of 
natural  history  or  of  human  activity.  Upon  one  and  the  same  picture 
should  be  found  only  subjects  of  the  same  kind,  or  scenes  which  are 
intimately  related.  Consequently  everything  should  be  avoided  of  a 
foreign  or  distant  kind,  and  especially  everything  that  requires  a 
degree  of  imagination  and  experience  such  as  children  cannot  have 
acquired.  Baby  stories,  little  tales  and  poems  are  particularly  suitable 
to  develop  character,  speech  and  the  religious  sense. 

From  all  that  has  been  said,  it  results  that  kindergartens  must  not 
be  looked  upon  as  schools,  but  as  a  preparation  for  schools.  Every 
school  study,  every  work  which  bears  any  resemblance  to  a  trade,  every- 
thing which  might  injure  the  normal  development  of  mind  and  body, 
must  be  excluded.  Everything  is  to  be  based  upon  the  intellectual  and 
physical  education  without  the  child  being  made  to  feel  any  constraint, 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.  347 

\vithout  his  aspirations  being  checked  by  the  order  that  neverthe- 
less is  necessary ;  he  is  to  be  led  gradually  into  the  habit  of  serious 
work,  into  perseverance  with  all  work  that  has  been  begun,  and  into  a 
taste  for  useful  occupations.  For  this,  the  instructor  must  know  accu- 
rately how  to  manage  all  the  material  and  be  able  to  prepare  the  chil- 
dren for  school.  We  must  listen,  we  ought  to  listen  attentively  to  the 
contradictory  opinions  of  teachers  ;  while  some  think  the  pupils  from 
the  kindergartens  too  light  and  frivolous  and  dissipated  in  mind,  others 
complain  because  the  kindergartens  infringe  too  much  upon  the 
domain  of  the  school,  and  thus  are  robbed  of  their  peculiar  charm. 
These  claims  are  founded  and  these  complaints  justified  only  where  the 
children  have  the  misfortune  of  passing  the  age  which  precedes  the 
school  period  under  the  direction  of  persons  who  have  not  understood 
their  mission,  or  were  insufficiently  prepared  for  it. 

II.   SHOULD  KINDERGARTNERS  HAVE  A  NORMAL  TRAINING? 

This  leads  us  to  treat  of  the  second  question  ;  have  the  teachers  of 
kindergartens  any  need  of  a  special  normal  training  ?  and  to  this  we 
reply  without  hesitation  in  the  affirmative.  If  kindergartens  are  ex- 
pected to  supply  the  place  of  the  paternal  home,  or  to  complement  its 
work  when  the  numberless  hardships  of  life,  or  the  want  in  the  mother 
of  an  intelligent  understanding  of  her  holy  mission,  or  of  the  knowl- 
edge and  means  necessary  for  its  performance  make  the  home  worth- 
less to  the  child,  so  much  the  more  is  it  necessary  that  those  who 
take  the  mother's  place  should  not  also  be  lacking  in  this  intelligent 
understanding.  The  deepest  feeling  can  never  completely  supply  the 
want  of  intelligence,  but  in  many  cases  the  mother,  full  of  true  mater- 
nal love,  will  by  instinct  treat  her  children  judiciously.  But  let  us 
beware  of  tlfinking  that  feminine  sensibility  or  tact  alone  can  be  suffi- 
cient for  this  task,  any  more  than  a  certain  practically  acquired  dexter- 
ity for  bringing  up  and  suitably  occupying  a  large  flock  of  strange 
children.  If  it  is  now  undoubted  that  in  the  career  of  instruction 
especially,  a  special  education  besides  natural  gifts,  is  necessary,  these 
conditions  exist  in  an  equal  degree  for  the  instructress  of  a  kinder- 
garten, as  well  as  for  one  who  has  to  do  with  older  children.  Our  ideas 
upon  the  formation  of  teachers  for  the  kindergartens  are  chiefly  the 
same  as  those  which  have  served  as  a  basis  for  the  creation  of  the 
normal  institutions  in  Austria.  Our  government  should  be  credited 
with  the  great  merit  of  having  regulated  by  law  the  foundation  of 
institutions  for  the  education  of  the  children  who  have  not  yet  reached 
the  school  age,  and  also  the  formation  of  those  who  will  be  called  upon 
to  labor  in  such  institutions. 

As  natural  gifts,  we  require  of  every  kindergarten  teacher  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  life  of  childhood,  and  a  consistent  character  which 
shall  combine  a  certain  seriousness,  patience  and  amiability.  Conse- 
quently, care  must  be  taken  not  to  receive  very  young  girls  who  have 


348  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 

hardly  reached  adult  age  and  yet  require  oversight  themselves,  or  per- 
sons already  aged  and  soured  by  sad  experiences.  It  is  impossible  to 
fix  an  age  for  the  candidates  for  normal  training  ;  but  the  regulation 
of  the  Austrian  minister  of  public  instruction  requires  that  they  shall 
have  reached  the  age  of  seventeen  years. 

They  must  also  have  an  agreeable  exterior, 'irreproachable  morals, 
a  musical  ear  and  correct  voice,  the  same  conditions  as  are  required  for 
admission  into  other  normal  schools.  In  a  normal  course  in  Frobel's 
method,  the  qualities  specially  necessary  to  work  successfully  in  a 
kindergarten  are  a  clear  understanding  of  the  nature  of  childhood, 
knowledge  demanded  for  that  end  and  skill  and  trustworthiness  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  duties  of  an  instructress.  The  branches  of 
teaching  in  the  normal  course  in  Austria  are  :  1,  the  pedagogy  and 
theory  of  the  kindergarten  ;  2,  the  exercises  practiced  in  those  estab- 
lishments ;  3,  instruction  in  the  mother  tongue  and  notions  about 
common  things  ;  4,  drawing  with  a  free  hand ;  5,  the  work  of  forms  ; 
6,  singing  ;  7,  gymnastics. 

This  plan,  drawn  up  by  ministerial  regulation,  forms  only  one  year 
of  study  and  leaves  much  to  be  desired.  We  will  make  our  observa- 
tions upon  it  based  upon  experience. 

The  education  of  kiudergartners  is  triple;  pedagogic,  scientific  and 
musical. 

The  pedagogic  education  must  be  both  theoretic  and  practical. 

The  first  embraces  the  principal  precepts  of  general  pedagogy,  based 
upon  anthropologic  (physiologic  and  psychologic)  principles,  and  special 
ideas  besides  of  the  theory  of  kindergartens.  If  we  wish  the  kinder- 
gartner  to  pursue  the  physical  and  moral  development  of  her  pupils 
with  a  clear  consciousness  of  what  she  is  doing,  she  must  learn  the 
laws  of  that  development,  not  in  a  scientific  form,  but  in  a  popular 
form.  Moreover,  it  is  desirable  that  she  should  know  the  history  of 
pedagogy  from  Comenius  to  the  present  epoch.  She  should  know  that 
Frobel's  system  has  proceeded  out  of  the  earlier  pedagogic  systems, 
and  how  it  has  so  proceeded  ;  that  its  creation  was  only  possible  by  the 
successive  efforts  of  such  men  as  Comenius,  Rousseau,  Basedow,  Pesta- 
lozzi  and  Fichte.  She  will  then  be  enabled  to  seize  clearly  the  princi- 
ples of  Frobel,  to  understand  the  numerous  adversaries  the  system 
has  raised  up,  and  in  what  the  progress  realized  by  those  pedagogues 
consists. 

It  is  Hardly  necessary  to  add  that  together  with  the  knowledge  of 
Frobel's  method,  she  must  also  acquire  great  practical  skill  to  be  a  good 
kindergartner.  As  the  plays  and  occupations  of  the  method  rest  very 
much  upon  mathematics,  it  is  hidispensable  that  a  kindergartner 
should  become  acquainted  with  the  elements  of  geometry.  By  assidu- 
ous and  well  chosen  reading,  and  by  numerous  exercises  in  the  art  of 
expressing  her  thoughts  viva  voce  or  in  writing,  the  kindergartner 
should  acquire  a  skill  in  the  use  of  her  mother  tongue,  which  will  make 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROE  BEL'S  SYSTEM.  349 

her  capable  of  developing  and  forming  the  faculty  of  speaking  to  her 
little  pupils  by  means  of  conversation  and  story-telling. 

She  should  also  have  some  notion  of  the  natural  sciences,  particu- 
larly of  natural  history.  The  exact  understanding  of  Frdbel's  princi- 
ples, which  recognized  the  laws  of  the  individual  and  those  of  nature 
as  identical,  is  impossible  without  the  knowledge  of  these  latter  laws. 

An  acquaintance  with  the  principal  animals  and  the  most  useful  in- 
digenous plants  would  furnish  the  kindergartner  with  materials  for 
conversations  on  subjects  and  pictures  of  natural  history. 

Without  this  knowledge  she  can  never  venture  to  give  such  lessons 
without  preparation.  How  many  times,  without  this  knowledge,  she 
may  find  herself  unable  to  name  an  insect,  a  plant,  a  mineral,  found 
by  one  or  the  other  of  her  pupils,  during  their  stay  in  the  garden,  or 
in  a  walk  in  the  country  !  The  study  of  the  natural  sciences  will 
elevate  her  general  education,  and  in  every  situation  of  life  be  the 
source  of  pure  and  noble  joys. 

A  kindergartner  must  not  neglect  her  musical  education,  at  least  to 
a  certain  degree.  It  is  not  enough  that  she  has  studied  the  melodies 
adapted  to  the  movement  plays,  and  that  she  knows  how  to  sing  them 
perfectly.  She  should  be  able  to  read  an  easy  song  at  sight,  with  con- 
fidence and  sure  intonation.  If  she  knows  how  to  play  a  little  upon 
the  piano  or  violin  the  study  of  the  kindergarten  songs  will  be  much 
facilitated.  She  will  also  gain  in  reputation  and  be  able  to  ameliorate 
her  position  pecuniarily.  . 

The  teaching  of  drawing  in  the  normal  course  for  kindergartners 
should  not  be  limited  to  drawing  in  the  net,  but  as  the  Austrian  plan 
of  study  requires,  it  should  comprise  the  free-hand  drawing  of  figures, 
and  an  understanding  of  the  wants  of  kindergartens  in  this  respect. 

In  gymnastics  it  is  of  special  importance  that  the  future  kindergart- 
ner should  learn  to  direct  the  movement  plays  with  precision  and  to 
watch  the  carriage  of  her  pupils  when  they  sit  down,  rise  up,  or  walk, 
in  order  tliat  she  may  avoid  everything  that  might  be  injurious  to  their 
growth  or  the  normal  development  of  their  limbs. 

If  we  consider  that  besides  this  theoretic  education  which  represents 
the  minimum  of  what  may  be  required  of  a  good  kindergartner,  one 
recommends  a  certain  practical  skill  as  soon  as  she  takes  up  her  em- 
ployment, a  skill  which  she  can  acquire  only  in  the  normal  course,  the 
necessity  will  be  clearly  seen  of  extending  the  duration  of  her  normal 
studies  to  two  years. 

KINDERGARTNERS  SHOULD  PREPARE  FOR  SCHOOL. 

As  one  of  the  principal  parts  of  the  task  of  the  kindergartens,  we 
have  indicated  that  which  consists  in  the  preparation  of  the  children 
for  the  school. 

But  if  we  wish  that  the  efforts  made  in  the  kindergarten  shall  bear 
their  full  fruit,  and  that  the  end  proposed  shall  be  fully  attained,  the 
kindergarten  must  be  included  as  an  organic  member  of  the  education 


330  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 

and  instruction  protected  by  the  government,  and  it  must  be  put  in 
relation  with  the  primary  schools  in  which  its  action  will  be  continued. 

This  demand  is  not  new  ;  it  is  based  especially  upon  the  fact  that  the 
teaching  in  many  cases  would  acquire  a  more  intuitive  form  by  means 
of  the  activity  of  the  kindergartens,  and  that  this  activity  would 
receive  a  new  impulse  by  the  adoption  of  the  work  of  forms. 

It  is  extraordinary  that  the  recognition  of  this  fact  has  not  pene- 
trated everywhere ;  that  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  ever  since  Comenius, 
all  the  educationists  of  any  note,  particularly  the  pietists  and  philan- 
thropists, Pestalozzi  and  Fichte,  find  in  practical  work 'an  important 
means  of  education,  even  in  our  times  many  voices  among  the  instruct- 
ors and  the  partisans  of  Frobel's  method,  have  been  raised  against 
the  introduction  of  works  of  form  in  the  school.  Many  pedagogues 
who  had  come  forward  as  defenders  of  Frobel's  method  wished  to 
trace  a  line  of  separation  between  the  kindergartens  and  the  school, 
and  have  thought  it  their  duty  to  protect  against  the  continuation 
of  the  work  of  the  kindergarten  in  the  primary  school.  ~\Ye  should 
be  carried  too  far  if  we  should  enumerate  all  the  advantages  which 
would  result  in  a  very  short  time  both  for  the  primary  school  and 
the  kindergarten  if  they  could  be  put  into  complete  relation  with 
each  other.  We  will  only  say,  in  a  few  words,  that  the  development 
of  the  faculty  of  representation,  the  supreme  end  of  the  kindergarten,  is 
only  a  mode  of  application  and  can  be  only  that ;  that  notwithstanding 
this,  the  applications  acquired  lose  their  effect  only  too  soon,  and  even 
lose  all  traces  in  the  actual  state  of  the  relation  between  the  two  estab- 
lishments ;  that  the  modern  school  will  never  completely  fulfill  its  task 
as  long  as  it  will  persevere  in  its  traditional  point  of  view,  which  is  to 
impart  empty  knowledge  and  to  fill  the  heads  of  the  pupils  with  a  fixed 
quantity  of  notions  which  the  school  alone  can  not  make  really  valuable. 

The  new  pedagogy  demands  the  harmonious  development  of  the 
forces  of  man.  There  can  be  no  question  that  if  we  furnish  the  true  ali- 
ment indispensable  to  this  necessity  of  creating  and  forming  which 
shows  itself  in  every  healthy  child,  the  occupations  of  Frobel  are  the 
true  means  of  attaining  this  end,  even  in  schools;  as  we  have  already 
said,  they  can  only  be  begun  in  the  kindergarten,  but  they  will  find 
their  continuation  in  the  school. 

We  will  instance  in  the  first  place  the  laying  of  Hie  liitle  slick*.  This 
exercise  can  serve  in  the  school  as  auxiliary  in  the  teaching  of  draw- 
ing, in  the  study  of  geometrical  forms  and  in  calculation.  While  in 
the  elementary  class  of  the  primary  school  the  child  represents  the  out- 
line of  things  by  the  help  of  the  little  sticks,  he  very  quickly  n^ikes  use 
of  the  opportunity  to  fix  the  representation  by  drawing,  and  soon  suc- 
ceeds in  it  after  the  drawing  exercises  in  the  net,  which  he  has  exe- 
cuted in  the  kindergarten  ;  for  the  position  of  the  little  sticks  as  a 
material  line  facilitates  his  perception  of  form.  By  different  and 
often  repeated  representations,  we  may  also  in  the  simplest  manner  in- 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.  331 

culcate  upon  the  child  the  notion  of  vertical,  horizontal,  of  the  angle, 
the  quadrilateral,  the  triangle,  etc.  In  short,  the  little  sticks  which 
have  served  in  the  kindergarten  for  the  intuition  of  numbers,  can  serve 
isi  the  lower  class  of  the  primary  school  as  the  most  instructive  count- 
ing implements,  because  the  pupil  has  them  in  his  hands. 

Folding  can  be  conveniently  used  as  an  auxiliary  means  of  teach- 
ing mathematics.  If  we  look  for  a  moment  at  the  simple  folding  leaf, 
it  shows  us  immediately  lines,  angles,  figures  of  all  kinds,  on  which 
depend  the  intuitions  of  form  and  size,  from  which  we  can  show, 
according  to  the  intelligence  and  degree  of  development  of  the  child, 
the  most  simple  geometric  laws.  The  frequent  folding  of  the  primitive 
form  of  the  paper  and  the  continual  repetitions  of  the  proportion*, 
prepare  the  children  for  the  higher  steps  of  geometric  and  mathe- 
matical demonstration,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  rules  and  laws  will 
present  nothing  strange  and  difficult  to  their  apprehension.  The  fold^ 
ing  rightly  used  serves  as  an  auxiliary  to  the  teaching  of  drawing. 

The  paper-cutting,  combined  with  pasting,  may  be  divided  into  geo- 
metric cuttings,  and  the  cutting  of  various  forms.  This  last  is  sub- 
divided into  special  cuttings  from  given  outlines,  free  cutting  without 
preliminary  drawing,  and  fancy  cutting,  that  is,  cutting  from  the 
child's  own  fancy,  unaided.  The  cutting  of  forms  is  not  only  a  good 
preparation  for  drawing  for  children  from  seven  to  eight  years  of  age ; 
it  has  another  real  value,  for  if  at  that  age  drawing  cannot  be  carried 
so  far  as  to  the  representation  of  animals,  this  specialty  becomes  im- 
portant and  even  necessary  in  cutting.  While  cutting  the  forms  of 
plants  and  animals,  flowers  and  leaves,  these  are  strongly  impressed 
upon  the  memory  of  the  children. 

Geometric  cutting  is  easily  distinguished  from  the  cutting  of  draw- 
ings by  the  difference  of  character.  This  character  no  longer  gives 
outlines  of  objects,  but  interrupted  surfaces  in  which  the  parts  of  the 
figures  are  to  have  an  exact  relation  to  each  other  and  to  the  whole.  It 
follows  that  the  understanding  of  geometric  forms  immediately  awakens 
the  sense  of  harmony  and  symmetry.  The  cut  forms  are  then  to  be 
pasted  upon  the  colored  paper,  regard  being  had  to  the  exact  adaptation 
of  colors.  In  this  manner  our  children  will  form  groups  of  forms  which 
will  still  give  them  pleasure  when  along  time  after  they  attend  school. 

Embroidering,  which  in  the  kindergarten  is  an  occupation  for  both  boys 
and  girls  will  continue  to  be  such  only  for  girls  in  the  school  for 
whom  alone  it  can  have  any  practical  application ;  in  this  sense  it  con- 
stitutes, in  the  exact  perception  of  colors  and  their  shades,  an  exercise 
of  taste  for  the  ornamentation  of  divers  articles  made  by  women. 

Embroidering  has  this  advantage  over  cutting,  that  it.  occupies  itself 
not  only  with  mere  outlines  but  with  the  great  lines  that  represent  ob- 
jects. The  principal  features  which  designate  the  parts  and  members 
of  the  organized  forms,  are  more  vigorously  salient  than  in  the  drawing, 
because  they  appear  one  after  the  other  and  thus  claim  special  atten- 
tion, and  also  because  they  are  detached  in  relief,  and  thus  are  clearer, 


352  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 

The  combination  of  title  sticks  by  peas,  little  bits  of  cork  or  little  balls  of 
clay  or  ivax  can  be  made  as  interesting  as  instructive  in  the  school. 
With  these  materials,  the  children  reproduce  mathematical  forms  and 
the  forms  of  crystallization  which  by  their  transparency  are  under- 
stood more  clearly  than  in  any  other  representation.  Here  the  differ- 
ent axes  of  the  mathematical  solids  allow  themselves  to  be  clearly  saen, 
while  in  any  other  way  they  are  invisible.  The  mathematical  solids 
may  be  used  as  patterns  for  drawing  and  for  modeling  in  clay.  Besides 
this,  many  common  forms,  like  houses,  churches,  etc.,  sometimes  in 
connection  with  folding,  sometimes  with  cuttings  in  imitation  of 
household  utensils,  or  garden  tools,  constitute  a  very  advantageous 
preliminary  exercise  for  the  acquisition  of  skill  and  technical  dexterity. 

The  clay  modeling  may  be  considered  a  preparatory  study  for  the 
plastic  arts,  and  offers  the  opportunity  to  bring  out  in  all  its  juvenile 
brilliancy  that  sense  of  form  which  lias  already  been  cultivated  in  differ- 
ent ways  in  the  kindergarten.  Most  people  occupy  themselves  with 
the  effects  which  may  result  from  the  transposition  of  forms.  For  all 
these  an  early  education  of  the  taste  cannot  but  be  advantageous. 
Certainly  by  so  instructive  an  occupation,  the  natural  disposition  of 
some  future  artist  may  be  increased  to  a  shining  light,  for  it  is  espe- 
cially by  the  free  reproduction  of  isolated  forms  that  we  can  judge 
whether  the  child  possesses  any  such  native  tendency.  The  represen- 
tative domain  of  modeling  is  a  very  extensive  one  ;  nature,  art,  indus- 
try, the  family,  everything  furnishes  subjects  for  modeling  in  clay, 
which  may  also  be  perfectly  utilized  for  the  reproduction  of  mathemati- 
cal forms.  Box  making  is  particularly  useful  in  reference  to  these 
last  solids.  In  the  beginning,  the  materials  .consist  only  of  card-board 
which  is  easily  cut  and  managed,  and  which  changes  by  degrees  with 
the  help  of  a  very  liquid  paste.  The  art  may  be  begun  by  making 
little  boxes  for  seeds,  etc.  Later,  larger  boxes  may  be  made  for 
keeping  caterpillars  or  for  the  preservation  of  their  cocoons  ;  then  may 
follow  portfolios  for  collecting  and  preserving  plants.  All  these  should 
be  covered  with  colored  paper,  or  narrow  bands  of  different  colored 
papers  should  be  pasted  on  the  edges. 

As  a  consequence  of  all  that  has  been  touched  upon  here,  upon  the 
principle  of  concentration,  all  the  works  that  have  been  designated  as 
suitable  for  the  primary  school  must  be  put  into  relation  with  the  other 
branches  of  instruction  and  be  introduced  as  auxiliary  to  these.  In 
ihis  way  that  objection  will  fall  to  the  ground  which  is  so  often  re- 
peated, namely,  that  the  modern  school  embraces  too  many  topics  for 
it  to  be  possible  to  add  any  new  branches,  for  the  instruction  properly 
so  called,  gains  in  intuition  and  practical  value  what  it  may  lose  in  time 
by  the  introduction  of  these  new  branches. 

[Mr.  Fischer  closes  with  the  remark,  that  the  occupations  proposed 
for  the  school  do  not  necessitate  special  place  and  tools,  and  are  adapted 
to  girls  as  well  as  boys.  He  also  attaches  great  value  to  school-gardens.] 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION 

OF    FRO'BEL'S    SYSTEM. 

BY  M.  JULES  GUILLIAUME. 


QUESTIONS   BEFORE   INTERNATIONAL   CONGRESS.* 

What  are  the  developments  and  adaptations  of  which  Frobel's  system  is  sus- 
ceptible ? 

Is  it  suitable  to  apply  Frobel's  principles  to  Primary  School  Teaching,  and  by  what 
means  can  it  be  done  ? 

The  questions  thus  formulated  by  the  International  Congress  of 
Education  are  of  the  highest  importance.  It  cannot  be  concealed  that 
there  is  not  only  disparity,  but  antagonism,  between  the  kindergarten 
and  the  school :  in  the  one  we  see  regulated  liberty  ;  the  teacher  meets 
the  curiosity  of  the  child,  provokes  its  questions,  urges  it  to  incessant 
activity  and  motion,  and  play:  in  the  other,  constraint  dominates; 
silence  and  perfect  quiet  are  the  rule ;  the  child  has  not  the  right  to 
make  itself  heard;  the  monotony  of  interminable  lessons  is  scarcely 
allowed  to  be  broken  by  even  automatic  exercises  (rise,  sit  down,  clap 
your  hands,  etc.).  The  result  is  that  the  wide-awake,  curious  pupils, 
— the  best  pupils  who  are  from  the  kindergartens, — are  homeless  in  the 
school  where  they  with  difficulty  escape  the  detentions,  double  tasks  and 
other  punishments  calculated  to  make  them  feel  that  work  is  a  punish- 
ment imposed  upon  men  since  the  remotest  antiquity ;  the  obtuse  and 
sleepy  scholars,  on  the  contrary,  who  need  to  be  excited  by  stimulants, 
are  generally  considered  the  good  pupils,  made  examples  for  their  wis- 
dom and  docility,  and  crowned  with  green  laurels  to  the  sound  of  trom- 
bones. In  all  the  countries  where  Frobel's  method  has  been  planted, 
the  children  who  have  been  subject  to  it  are  marked  as  the  most  intel- 
ligent, but  at  the  same  time  the  most  refractory  to  the  discipline  of  the 
school.  The  antagonism  duly  verified,  it  remains  to  examine  how  far 
it  is  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  to  investigate  whether  Frobel's  • 
method,  which  is  still  a  blind  alley,  can  become  a  path  of  communica- 
tion to  conduct  the  child  to  its  destination.  First  we  must  take  account 
of  the  thought  of  its  inventor  and  inquire  if  he  did  not  perceive  that 
there  was  a  solution  of  continuity  between  his  creation  and  that  of  his 
forerunners,  and  if  he  has  not  done  something  to  effect  a  transition 
between  the  two  stages  of  elementary  instruction. 

I.     THE   IDEA    OF    THE    KINDERGARTEN   UNIVERSAL. 

The  name  of  Frobel  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  organization 
of  kindergartens.  The  education  of  early  childhood  is,  in  general 
opinion,  the  special,  unique  and  exclusive  work  of  Frobel.  the  mark  of 
his  individuality.  Until  his  time  it  had  been  thought  that  this  stage 

*  Congr^s  International  del'  Enseignement,  Bruxelles,  1880,  Rapports  Preliminaires, 
xlvi+304+  98+94+112+112+216=982.  Translated  by  Mrs.  Horace  Mann. 

23  353 


351  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION. 

of  education  belonged  to  the  mother  who  did  the  best  she  could,  or  to 
the  nurses  who  had  learned  by  milking  cows  how  to  educate  children  ! 
Frobel,  starting  from  the  principle  recognized  by  other  pedagogues, 
who  came  before  him,  that  the  education  of  man  begins  at  the  moment 
of  his  birth,  had  the  original  idea  of  subjecting  him  to  a  rational 
method,  instead  of  abandoning  him  to  chance.  But  after  the  seventh 
year  he  occupies  himself  no  longer  with  the  child  ;  he  delivers  him 
bound  hand  and  foot  to  the  school,  leaving  to  the  latter  the  care  of  re- 
placing the  maternal  milk  by  a  more  substantial  nourishment.  Such 
is  nearly  the  idea  of  those  people  who  take  the  kindergartens  for 
nursery  schools  where  children  are  instructed  by  mere  play. 
Frobel's  Education  of  ]\lan. 

Is  it  necessary  to  say  that  nothing  is  more  false  than  this  conception  ? 
Before  he  became  the  creator  of  kindergartens,  Frobel  was  and  always 
remained  the  author  of  the  Education  of  Man,  his  Didactica  Ma  gnu, 
unfortunately  unfinished,  which  embraced,  like  those  of  Comenius  and 
J.  J.  ivousseau,  the  whole  period  of  the  growth  and  development  of 
the  human  being,  from  his  cradle  till  after  he  leaves  the  university. 
The  first  volume,  the  only  one  published,  leads  him  till  beyond  the  first 
childhood.  Far  from  admitting  that  there  are  gaps  between  the  periods 
designated  by  the  names  of  nursling  and  child,  boy  or  girl,  young  man 
or  girl,  man  and  woman,  old  man  and  matron,  Frobel  proclaims  on 
every  page  the  necessity  of  the  unification  of  education  in  order  to 
arrive  at  the  unification  of  life:  "All  the  operations  of  the  mind," 
he  says  in  the  beginning,  "having  for  their  condition  as  phenomena  in 
the  end,  a  chronological  series,  a  consecutiveness,  a  succession,  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  and  inevitable  that  if  man  has  neglected,  at  any 
epoch,  however  near  or  distant,  to  produce  his  strength,  to  raise  it  to 
the  condition  of  work,  or  at  least  to  display  it  in  view  of  a  work  or  an 
action,  he  will  one  day  be  sensible  of  some  imperfection  growing  out  of 
this  neglect ;  he  will  not  be  what  he  might  have  been  if  he  had  faith- 
fully wrought  out|his  vocation  by  utilizing  his  forces." 

The  mother-idea  of  the  book  is  the  organization  of  a  vast  scheme  of 
education  in  which  all  sorts  of  knowledge,  instead  of  being  scattered 
and  parceled  out,  are  presented  to  the  child  serially  and  co-ordinated, 
then  brought  back  to  a  higher  principle,  unity.  Long  before  Frobel, 
his  precursor  Comenius  had  already  traced  out  the  plan  of  an  institu- 
tion in  which  each  stage  of  instruction  should  form  a  whole  which 
should  be  reproduced  in  each  of  the  following  stages;  he  directly 
offered  to  the  pupils  an  encyclopedia  of  what  they  had  to  learn,  which 
was  to  be  developed  more  and  more  :  "  Let  all  knowledge,"  he  said, 
"be  given  first  in  a  broad  and  coarse  sketch,  without  isolating  the  dif- 
ferent parts.  Every  language,  every  art  is  to  be  taught  first  from  its 
own  most  simple  rudiments,  then  more  completely  by  rules  and  exam- 
ples, and  at  last  systematically  with  the  addition  of  anomalies,  etc." 

Frobel  proceeds  equally  by  way  of  stratification.     As  he  never  ceases 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION.  355 

to  repeat,  his  principles  as  well  as  his  educational  processes  apply 
not  only  to  the  kindergartens  but  to  every  subsequent  stage  of  the 
instruction  ;  not  only  to  youth,  but  to  manhood;  and  it  is  with  reason 
that  one  of  his  disciples*  required  as  a  primary  and  essential  condition 
of  the  playthings  of  the  child,  that  they  should  be  and  should  remain 
in  their  detail  and  in  their  totality,  his  elements  of  education  in  all 
the  stages  of  his  development,  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  pupil  should 
constantly  discover  new  properties  in  them,  according  to  his  age  and 
his  faculties. 

If  this  is  true,  if  the  materials  of  the  kindergarten  are  sufficient  for 
the  school  also,  the  questions  in  the  programme  of  the  Congress  are 
very  nearly  answered ;  for  it  is  no  longer  the  question  to  seek,  by 
means  of  mutual  concessions,  compromises  and  half-measures,  for  the 
means  of. reconciling  two  contrary  things;  and,  in  fact,  it  would  be 
of  no  use  to  say,  for  example,  that  the  school  will  tolerate  a  part  of  the 
liberty, which  reigns  in  the  kindergarten,  if  we  did  not  point  out  at  the 
same  time  how  that  could  be  put  in  practice  without  order  having  to 
suffer  for  it ;  nor  to  take  the  love  of  work  as  the  sole  motive  power 
without  also  having  the  means  of  making  the  work  interesting.  It  is 
clear  that  the  adaptation  of  Frbbel's  principles  cannot  be  made  except 
with  the  views  and  means  which  he  has  himself  indicated.  From  the 
moment  that  he  is  no  longer  looked  upon  merely  as  the  founder  of  kin- 
dergartens, but  as  the  creator  of  a  system  of  education  of  all  degrees, 
the  question  is  only  to  assure  one's  self  that  the  expedients  proposed 
by  him  are  as  suitable  for  the  school  as  for  the  kindergarten ;  every- 
thing is  reduced  consequently  to  a  simple  verification  based  upon  an 
exact  acquaintance  with  his  plays  and  occupations. 

In  the  Education  of  Man,  Frobel,  although  still  glued  to  the  formulas 
of  Pestalozzi,  gives  us  the  general  plan  of  his  own  conception ;  after- 
ward, and  to  the  very  end  of  his  life,  it  is  to  the  Education  of  Man 
that  he  refers,  "  although,"  lie  says,  "  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  and 
more  that  it  has  been  written  and  published,  it  has  been  rounded  out 
and  simplified  in  different  ways  in  its  methodology."  It  is  at  this 
fountain  that  we  must  seek  for  his  own  exposition  of  the  generation  of 
forms  of  which  the  different  plays  of  the  kindergarten  are  only  the 
applications. 

II.      DEVELOPMENT    OF    FORCE   IN    NATURE. 

•  Force  appears  to  be  the  first  principle  of  all  things,  and  of  every 
manifestation  in  nature ;  it  is  force  which  effects  the  separation  of 
objects  and  thus  produces  their  individuality. 

Every  individuality,  all  diversity  claims,  besides  force,  a  second 
necessary  condition  of  form,  which  is  substance. 

Matter  and  force  constitute  an  undivided  unity;  one  does  not  exist 
without  the  other;  properly  speaking,  one  cannot  be  conceived  without 
the  other. 


*A.  Kohler,.  Kindergarten  und  Elementar-Klasse,  1861,  no.  4. 


356  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION. 

The  principle  of  the  transformation  of  matter,  even  in  its  least  par- 
ticles, is  the  originally  spherical  effort  of  imminent  force,  which  tends 
to  radiate  spontaneously  and  equally  from  all  parts.  When  force  de- 
velops itself  freely  in  all  directions,  the  material  manifestation  in  space, 
which  is  the  result,  is  the  sphere.  It  is  thus  that  the  spherical  form  is 
the  first  and  the  last  form  of  nature,  that  of  the  cell,  and  that  of  the 
great  celestial  bodies,  that  of  water  and  of  all  liquids,  that  of  air  and 
of  all  gaseous  forms.  It  appears  as  the  prototype,  the  unity  of  all 
physical  forms,  diverse  and  irreconcilable  as  they  may  seem.  It  con- 
tains them  all,  under  the  relation  of  their  essence,  of  their  conditions 
and  of  their  law.  No  point,  no  line,  no  surface  predominates  in  it, 
and  yet  it  contains  all  the  points,  lines  and  surfaces  of  other  bodies. 

The  action  of  force  in  different  directions,  and  the  relations  of  these 
directions  to  each  other,  have  for  their  immediate  and  necessary  conse- 
quence, the  heterogeneous  and  the  symmetrical  division  of  matter  ;  it  is 
for  each  particular  case  the  essential  principle  of  every  definite  form 
and  figure. 

Force,  starting  from  a  center,  and  diverging  in  straight  lines,  acts 
necessarily  in  two  opposite  directions  in  the  same  line.  The  prepon- 
derance of  three  double  directions,  which  cross  at  right  angles  and 
remain  in  perfect  equilibrium,  gives  birth  to  the  cube,  each  of  whose 
eight  angles  shows  the  equivalence  and  rectangular  direction  of  three 
double  directions  which  meet  in  the  interior,  while  the  twelve  edges 
(3  times  4)  indicate  four  times  each  of  the  same  directions,  whose  six 
faces  present  the  six  extremities  at  their  center. 

In  this,  the  most  elementary  form  of  crystallization,  the  unity  of  the 
sphere  is  replaced  by  isolated  surfaces,  definite  points  or  angles,  distinct 
lines  or  edges.  The  points,  in  their  turn,  seek  to  develop  into  lines 
and  surfaces,  the  lines  again  seek  to  condense  themselves  into  points, 
or  to  extend  themselves  into  surfaces,  the  surfaces  to  transform  them- 
selves into  lines  *dnd  points  ;  the  three  double  preponderating  directions 
already  imagined  in  the  midst  of  the  six  cubic  faces  endeavor  to  mani- 
fest themselves  externally  by  producing  themselves  as  edges.  The 
result  is  a  solid,  the  regular  octohedron,  which  counts  as  many  surfaces 
as  the  cube  has  angles,  as  many  angles  as  the  cube  has  sides,  and  the 
same  number  of  edges  as  the  cube",  but  in  intermediate  directions. 

Each  of  the  three  double  fundamental  directions  of  force  produces 
itself  in  the  cube  by  three  couples  of  sides  or  faces  ;  in  the  octohedron* 
by  three  couples  of  angles  or  points.  There  must  necessarily  exist  a 
solid  in  which  the  same  directions  will  be  represented  externally  by 
three  couples  of  edges  or  lines  ;  the  regular  tetrahedron  presents  us, 
indeed,  in  its  edges,  the  six  extremities  of  its  three  double  directions. 

The  spherical  action  of  force  manifests  itself  thus  in  three  bodies 
terminated  by  straight  lines  and  plane  surfaces  : 

The  cube,  whose  three  couples  of  faces  f  represent  the  three  coup- 

The  octohedron,  whose  three  couples  of  angles  J  les   of    equivalent    and 
The  tetrahedron,  whose  three  couples  of  edges  [  fundamental  directions. 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION.         357 

Iii  each  of  these  three  bodies,  the  axis  coincides  with  one  of  the 
three  principal  directions  and  is  confounded  with  it.  The  cube  rests 
in  a  stable  manner  on  one  of  its  faces;  the  octohedron  is  supported 
upon  a  summit,  the  tetrahedron  upon  an  edge,  and  thereby  the  two 
last  mentioned  bodies  tend  to  fall  upon  one  of  their  sides.  Their  equi- 
librium upon  a  larger  base  brings  about  a  displacem'ent  of  the  axis, 
which  then  no  longer  coincides  with  one  of  the  three  principal  direc- 
tions, but  cuts  them  all  three  at  equal  angles.  In  this  new  position  the 
elements  grouped  before  by  twos  or  by  fours,  appear  to  be  grouped 
three  to  three,  (3  and  3  sides,  3  and  3  edges,  3  and  3  summits).  The 
six  faces  of  the  cube  no  longer  are  seen  as  squares,  but  as  lozenges. 
The  principal  form  of  this  system  is  the  rhombohedron,  whose  deriva- 
tives, in  their  turn,  constitute  several  definite  series  determined  by  a 
principal  form  intimately  allied  to  the  primitive  form. 

The  two  systems  represented  by  the  cube  and  the  rhombohedron 
offer  differences  of  length  between  the  three  fundamental  directions ; 
or  rather  the  direction  which  coincides  with  the  axis  is  alone  greater 
or  smaller  than  the  two  others,  or  the  principal  directions  are  all  three 
unequal  among  themselves.  Such  is  the  origin  of  the  six  crystalline 
types  generally  admitted  by  mineralogists. 

All  these  form?,  of  which  the  sphere  is  the  creative  unity,  present 
this  peculiarity,  that  their  members  are  multiples  of  two  or  multiples 
of  three,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  numbers  five  and  seven,  that  is  to 
say,  of  combinations  of  the  numbers  two  or  four  with  the  number 
three,  and  the  forms  which  result  from  them,  which  are  only  produced 
in  the  condition  of  disordered  or  accidental  forms. 

It  is  otherwise  in  the  organic  world,  in  which  the  spherical  form  be- 
comes predominant ;  life  there  is  subordinated  to  matter  (vegetables), 
or  matter  is  subordinated  to  vital  activity  (animals).  Vegetables  still 
obey  the  numerical  relations  of  solids;  plants  are  for  the  most  part  in 
limbs  of  2  and  2,  or  3  and  3 ;  where  the  number  5  appears,  it  is  in 
consequence  either  of  a  separation,  a  division  of  the  fundamental 
directions  of  the  parts  limbed  by  4  or  by  2  X  2  (24-2+1,),  or  by  a 
contraction  of  the  fundamental  directions  in  the  plants  limbed  by  3 
and  3. 

The  number  5,  the  combination  of  the  numbers  2  and  3,  characterizes 
the  force  which  has  risen  to  life  and  movement ;  it  is  the  essential 
attribute  of  the  hand,  the  principal  limb  of  man,  his  principal  instru- 
ment in  the  employment  of  his  creative  faculties. 

This  legality  of  nature,  this  manifestation  of  unity  in  diversity, 
Frobel  considers  not  only  to  be  found  in  forms,  he  discovers  it  in 
sounds,  in  colors,  in  language,  as  well  as  in  forces  and  substances. 

It  is  upon  this  vast  synthesis  that  he  builds  his  whole  system  of  edu- 
cation, and  he  demands  that  the  child  shall  be  accustomed  early  to 
contemplate  nature  as  a  whole,  developing  of  itself  in  each  point ; 
for  without  the  intuition  and  cognizance  of  unity  in  the  action  of 


358         FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION. 

nature  and  of  the  diversity  which  is  derived  from  it,  there  exists  no 
true  science. 

III.   DEVELOPMENT  OF  FOKCE  DEMONSTRATED. 

The  gifts  of  Frobel  to  the  child  are  nothing  but  the  working  out  of 
his  theory.  After  having  presented  him  with  the  ball  in  his  first  gift, 
as  the  primitive  form  from  whence  issue  all  the  others,  he  offers  him 
the  cube  in  the  second  gift,  the  primitive  form  of ,  crystal  line  action  ; 
the  two  contrasts  are  connected  by  the  cylinder,  which  participates  of 
both.* 

Just  as  the  swelling  of  the  soap-bubble,  and  the  fall  of  a  stone  in  the 
water,  furnish  the  child  with  a  clear  intuition  of  the  production  of  the 
sphere  and  the  circle  by  the  symmetrical  radiation  of  force,  so  the 
perforation  of  the  cube  and  the  introduction  of  a  little  rod  through 
two  opposite  surfaces,  edges  and  summits,  show  him  from  the  first  the 
displacement  of  the  axes  and  their  change  of  direction.  Another  phe- 
nomenon not  less  important,  presents  itself,  when  the  cube,  resting  by 
turns  upon  one  face,  one  edge,  or  one  angle,  is  suspended  to  a  double 
cord  or  a  thread  one  of  whose  extremities  passes  through  one  of  the  eye- 
lets, and  whose  two  halves  are  thus  twisted  together  ;  the  whirling  of 
the  cube  in  a  different  direction  from  the  twisting  impresses  the  child 
with  a  rotary  motion,  which  is  made  more  and  more  rapid  by  pulling 
the  two  ends  of  the  cord  so  as  to  remove  them  from  each  other  ;  in  con- 
sequence of  the  persistence  of  the  impression  upon  the  retina  the  edges 
are  thus  softened  and  effaced,  the  angles  become  pointless  and  rounded. 


*It  is  not  without  importance  for  the  history  of  the  development  of  Frobel's  ideas 
to  remark  that  originally  the  second  gift  comprised  only  the  ball  and  the  cube.  The 
first  exposition  which  Frobel  made  of  it  in  the  Sonntagsblatt  of  1838,  Nos.  8 — 12, 
makes  no  mention  of  the  cylinder  as  an  intermediate  form.  Does  this  mean,  as  his 
biographer  Hanschinann  supposes,  that  the  fundamental  law  of  the  connection  of 
contrasts,  upon  which  Frobel  established  his  whole  system  of  education,  is  not  found 
formally  expressed  in  any  of  his  writings  antecedent  to  the  year  1840?  This  is  far 
from  the  fact;  from  1826  we  see  it  perfectly  formulated  in  the  Education  of  Man  in 
these  terms  :  "It  is  well  to  call  the  attention  of  the  pupils  immediately  to  one  great 
law,  which  dominates  in  nature  and  thought,  namely  :  that  between  two  things  or 
two  ideas  relatively  different  there  always  exists  a  third  which  unites  the  two  others 
in  itself,  and  is  found  between  them  with  a  certain  equilibrium."  And  in  his  first 
description  of  the  second  gift,  in  1838,  Frobel  already  gives  himself  to  the  search  for 
an  intermediary  between  the  ball  and  the  cube;  he  thinks  he  discovers  it  in  a  ball 
somewhat  elastic,  which  can  affect  the  form  of  the  cube  and  be  easily  restored  to  the 
form  of  the  ball. 

Later,  in  his  "  Complete  Exposition  of  the  Material  of  Occupation  in  the  Kinder- 
garten," Frobel  does  not  keep  to  a  single  intermediary  between  the  ball  and  the 
cube;  he  introduces  a  second,  the  cone.  "As  the  cylinder,"  he  says,  "  excludes  the 
intuition  of  corners  and  the  fixed  rotation  upon  one  point,  it  calls  for  and  commands 
in  its  turn,  a  body  intermediary  between  the  three  others,  that  is  to  say,  uniting  the 
properties  of  the  three;  corners  (points),  edges  (lines),  sides  (surfaces),  plane  as  well 
as  curved;  it  is  the  revolving  cone."  In  this  new  conception,  the  second  gift  then 
comprised,  beside  the  cube,  the  three  round  bodies,  technically  speaking.  The  cone 
is,  indeed,  the  intermediary  between  the  sphere  and  the  cube  for  the  series  of  pyra- 
mids, as  the  cylinder  with  the  two  parallel  faces  is  the  intermediary  for  the  series  of 
prisms. 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION.  359 

The  child  discovers  the  relation  that  exists  between  the  prism  and  the 
cylinder,  the  pyramid  and  the  cone,  or  in  a  more  general  manner,  be- 
tween the  many-sided  and  the  round  bodies. 

Fio'bel  justly  considers  it  very  essential  thus  to  give  the  child,  from 
its  earliest  age,  a  norm  to  which  he  can  attach  the  other  objects  which 
circumstances  will  present  to  him  in  too  great  a  quantity  to  be  all 
studied  and  analyzed  in  detail.  When  in  the  midst  of  typical  and 
fundamental  intuitions  or  representations,  he  has  understood  the  ball 
and  the  cube,  he  possesses  a  scale  for  the  appreciation  of  all  other 
bodies,  and  what  is  infinitely  more  precious  in  view  of  his  education, 
he  discovers  ho\v  diversity,  plurality  and  totality  result  from  unity, 
and  how,  after  having  issued  from  it,  they  return  to  it  and  reduce 
themselves  to  it.  The  symbolism  of  Frobel,  the  most  fruitful  of  his 
innovations  in  the  theoretical  domain  of  pedagogy,  has  especially  for  its 
object  to  teach  the  child  early  to  consider  a  single  thing  under  a  great 
many  points  of  view,  several  things  under  a  single  relation,  and  to  dis- 
cover what  there  is  common  in  different  individuals,  to  discern  what  is 
essential  from  what  is  accidental,  what  is  permanent  from  what  is 
variable. 

"  When  the  child,"  says  Frobel,  "  considers  these  three  bodies  under 
their  different  aspects,  what  have  you  shown  him  and  taught  him?  The 
intermediary  cylinder  furnishes  us  the  answer  : 

"  What  is  round  would  unite  with  what  is  straight,  what  is  straight 
with  what  is  round ;  from  this  reciprocal  effort  proceeds  the  union  of  the 
ball  and  the  cube,  the  cylinder. 

"  Thus  :  the  points  seek  to  become  lines  and  surfaces,  the  surfaces 
to  become  lines  and  points  ;  in  short,  each  endeavors  to  form  and  pro- 
duce all  the  rest,  everything  which  is  another. 

"From  the  law,  apparently  external,  of  contrasts  and  their  intermedi- 
ary, we  in  this  way  see  result  the  internally  organic  and  living  law  of 
transformation,  of  development." 

The  second  gift  thus  constituted,  forms  the  pivot  of  t]ie  materials  of 
occupation  proposed  by  Frobel ;  the  other  gifts  and  plays  are  only  deriv- 
atives of  this  gift  with  the  parallel  translation  of  bodies  into  surfaces, 
lines  and  points,  by  the  aid  of  tablets,  folding,  box-making  and  cut- 
ting,— weaving,  little  sticks,  rings,  thread,  laths,  interlacing,  drawing, 
— pricking,  etc. 

The  following  gifts  present  us,  indeed,  with  simple  divisions  of  primi- 
tive bodies  ;  Frobel  indicates  them  in  the  following  manner  : 

f  in  dice  or  cubes,  3d,  5th,  7th  gifts,* 
DmS10"S  °£  tlie  Cube'       1  into  bricks,  4th,  6th,  8th  gifts* 

*The  7th  gift  is  derived  necessarily  fr©m  the  5th ;  the  cube  appears  in  that  to  be 
divided  three  times  each  way,  either  in  4  times  4  times  4  or  64  dice,  some  of  which  are 
divided  into  equal  parts  with  slanting  surfaces  >£,  K,  ¥,  1-6,  whose  arrangement  in 
relation  to  a  common  center  permits  the  representation  of  the  principal  regular 
polyhedrons,  the  octohedron  and  the  dodecahedron,  as  contained  in  the  interior  of  the 
cube  and  developing  themselves  from  that.  This  game  is  very  important  as  showing 


360 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION. 


Divisions  of  the  cylinder, 


Divisions  of  the  cone, 


r  1.  Parallel  to  the  periphery  (or  curved  sur- 
face) either  in  half  balls  or  in  balls  one 
inside  the  other; 

^  2.  Parallel  to  a  great  circle,  that  is  in  zones  ; 
Divisions  of  the  sphere,         ,    „„ 

3.  Through  three  great  circles  cutting  at 

right  angles,  or  in  eight  equal  spherical 
I          triangles. 

1.  Parallel  to  the  cylindrical  surface,  con- 

sequently into   cylinders  of   different 
sizes ; 

2.  Parallel  to  the  base  of  the  cylinder,  or 

into  equal  zones  ; 

3.  Through  the  two  planes,  cutting  at  right 

angles ; 

4.  Into  circles  or  rings  of  No.  1. 

1.  Parallel  to  the  curved  surface ;  (or  small 

cones)  ; 

2.  Parallel  to  the  base,  in  zones  ; 

3.  Through  the  two   planes  which  cut  at 

right  angles  in  the  axis  ; 
_  4.  Into  conic  sections. 
The  child  thus  learns  the  a  b  c  of  things,  which  Pestalozzi  was  seek- 
ing all  his  life,  and  which  it  was  reserved  for  Frobel  to  discover.  He 
traces  the  march  of  nature ;  the  divisions  of  the  cube  initiate  him  into 
the  forms  of  the  mineral  kingdom  ;  those  of  round  bodies  introduce  him 
fully  into  the  vegetable  world.  The  concentric  divisions  of  the  cylinder 
give  him  a  presentiment  and  glimpse  of  the  law  which  presides  over  the 
growth  of  the  tree  as  plainly  as  the  divisions  of  the  cube  enabled  him 
to  discover  the  different  systems  of  crystals ;  from  the  pith  to  the 
epidermis  the  force  develops,  following  the  direction  of  the  axes  ;  every 
year  adds  a  new  zone  more  or  less  thick ;  the  roots  radiate  as  they 
plunge  into  the  earth,  the  trunk  radiates  as  it  rises  toward  the  sky,  the 
branches  ramify  in  their  turn.  Everywhere  the  same  spherical  action 
of  force  shows  itself. 

IV.      PRESENT   PRACTICE    DOES    NOT    REALIZE    THE    THEORY. 

The  practice  of  the  kindergartens  is  still  far  from  realizing  the  con- 
ception of  Frobel ;  in  general  it  has  kept  to  the  first  six  gifts  and  their 
dependencies.  The  round  bodies  of  which  glimpses  are  attained  by  the 
rotation  of  the  cube  attached  to  a  double  cord,  and  in  a  still  more 
marked  manner  by  the  aspect  of  the  cylinder  in  the  condition  of  an 
independent  body,  are  immediately  abandoned ;  they  a-r§  no  longer  met 
in  the  building  plays  which  are  limited  to  some  of  the  divisions 

how  the  external  form  of  these  bodies  is  determined  by  their  center.  "  By  the  side 
of  the  7th  gift  is  presented  the  8th,  Avhich  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  7th  that  the 
6th  does  to  the  5th,  and  that  the  4th  does  to  the  3d."  (Frobel,  Complete  Exposition  of 
the  material  of  occupation  in  the  kindergarten,) 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION.          361 

and  sub-divisions  of  the  cube  at  rest  (3d,  4th,  5th  and  Gth  gifts).  All 
these  divisions  affect  the  prismatic  form  to  the  exclusion  of  the  pyra- 
midal series,  explicitly  pointed  out  by  Frobel  in  his  description  of  the 
7th  gift,  and  probably  comprised  in  his  thought  for  the  constitution  of 
the  8th  gift.  The  only  elements  which  result  are  prisms  whose  surfaces 
offer  us  only  the  square,  the  rectangular  parallelogram,  and  the  isosceles 
right  angled  triangle.  But  when  we  pass  from  the  bodies  to  the  sur- 
faces represented  by  the  tablets,  the  material  of  the  plays  in  use  presents 
us,  besides,  with  the  equilateral  triangle,  which  is  evidently  one  of  the 
faces  of  the  octohedrori  constructed  by  means  of  the  7th  gift,  and  the 
scalene  triangle  which  has  its  origin  in  the  diagonal  division  of  the 
brick  of  the  4th  gift,  a  new  element  which  Frobel,  according  to  all  ap- 
pearances, introduced  into  the  Sth  gift. 

As  to  the  forms  terminated  by  curved  lines,  they  exist  in  a  permanent 
manner  neither  in  bodies  nor  in  surfaces.  They  only  appear  in  the 
play  of  the  rings  published  by  Madame  Fiobelas  a  complement  to  the 
little  sticks,  in  Frobel's  school  of  drawing,  arid  in  the  cutting.  It  is  nec- 
essary then  to  go  as  far  as  the  line  to  meet  with  forms  which,  in  Frobel's 
idea,  were  to  exist  equally  as  bodies  and  consequently  as  surfaces. 

The  elimination  of  a  whole  series  of  bodies  and  the  intrusion  of 
surfaces  which  are  attached  to  no  solid,  are  not  simple  questions  of 
more  or  less ;  they  are  actually  breaches  into  the  system  imagined  by 
Frobel.  The  occupations  of  the  kindergarten  form  in  their  totality 
and  in  their  details,  a  chain  which  starts  from  the  sphere  and  returns 
to  it  by  three  different  routes  ;  the  hexahedron  passing  through  the  sur- 
faces, the  octohedron  passing  through  the  angles,  and  the  rhombo- 
dodecahedron  passing  through  the  edges.  Suppress  one  or  the  other  of 
these  bodies,  and  the  child  no  longer  comprehends  the  origin  of  the 
cube,  its  relations  with  the  ball,  or  the  relations  of  the  different  solids  to 
each  other.  Suppress  the  intermediary  forms,  (the  cubo-octohedric 
and  the  cubo-dodecahedric)  he  no  longer  seizes  the  relations  between  the 
cube  and  its  derivatives.  It  is  then  an  important  matter  to  fill  up  all 
the  gaps  which  still  exist  in  practice.  The  creation  of  the  polyhedrons 
whose  principal  axes  are  rectangular  and  equal,  their  opaque  representa- 
tion, by  means  of  clay  or  other  ductile  substances,  and  their  transpar- 
ent representation  by  means  of  the  little  sticks  connected  by  peas,  and 
comparison  of  each  of  them  with  the  cubes  and  the  other  bodies  termi- 
nate the  exercises  of  the  first  stage.  The  child  has  seen  diversity  pro- 
ceed out  of  unity,  the  invisible  from  the  visible,  the  exterior  from  the 
interior  ;  he  knows  that  the  same  form  may  exist  under  different  vol- 
umes, the  same  dimension  may  be  invested  with  different  aspects  ;  the 
laws  of  size  and  form  (mathematics)  have  been  revealed  to  him  by  the 
doing,  by  simple  transformations,  without  any  other  reflexion,  without 
the  least  word  of  explanation.  He  then  may  leave  the  kindergarten  ; 
he  is  on  the  threshold  of  the  intermediate  school. 

What  edifice  is  to  rise  upon  these  foundations  ?    Have  we  here,  have 


362  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION. 

we  at  least,  as  for  the  kindergarten,  a  plan  traced  by  a  master  hand? 
or  as  we  often  hear  it  said,  has  Frobel  left  only  vague  indications  upon 
what  is  now  called  primary  instruction,  and  what  should  more  exactly 
be  called  the  second  stage  of  instruction  ?  * 

The  Education  oj  Man  has  already  answered  this  question.  Frobel 
in  his  pressing  haste,  set  himself  particularly  to  dig  the  foundation  for 
his -work.  But  it  is  easy  to  demonstrate  that  in  order  to  erect  it  at 
least  up  to  the  first  stage,  he  bequeathed  to  us  not  only  the  plan,  but 
most  of  the  materials. 

v.    FROBEL'S  LAST  THOUGHT. 

Besides  the  Education  of  Man,  we  possess  in  effect  the  last  will  and 
testament  of  Frobel,  the  letter  which  he  wrote  a  month  before  his 
death  to  one  of  his  pupils,  Emma  Bothmann.  One  might  say  that  at 
the  moment  of  setting  out  for  that  assembly  at  Gotha  where  his 
method  was  to  be  consecrated  by  the  acclamations  of  the  German  in- 
structors, the  "juvenile  old  man"  had  a  presentiment  of  his  near  end 
and  wished  to  leave  to  the  world  his  last  wishes  and  instructions.  He 
had  organized  the  kindergartens  and  could  now  say,  Exigi  monwnentum. 
The  question  now  was  to  solder  it  to  the  school  proper,  "  the  full 
school."  That  is  what  is  perfectly  done  in  that  letter,  dated  from 
Marienthal,  May  25,  1852.  Frobel  traces  in  that  very  exactly  the  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  first  two  stages  of  instruction  :  "  In  the 
kindergarten,  the  question  is  only  of  intuition,  of  conception,  of  doing, 
of  the  exact  designation  of  a  small  number  of  objects  by  the  appropri- 
ate word,  but  not  yet  by  recognition  and  cognizance  so  to  speak,  de- 
tached from  the  object.  The  object  and  the  cognizance,  the  intuition 
and  the  word  are  still  under  many  relations,  an  intimate  unity  like 
that  of  soul  and  body  in  man.  This  stage  of  education  is,  then,  to  be 
limited  in  a  very  rigorous  manner,  by  the  kindergartners.  It  entirely 
excludes  pure  abstract  cognizance,  independent  thought,  which  it  is  to 
be  the  object  of  the  intermediate  school  to  prepare  for." 

There  is  nothing  arbitrary  in  this  recommendation  and  programme. 
Nor  do  they  result  from  a  preconceived  system,  but  on  the  contrary 
from  a  very  exact  and  attentive  observation  of  child-nature,  and  the 
physiological  laws  of  the  development  of  the  human  being.  It  is  be- 
tween the  sixth  and  seventh  year  that  the  preponderance  of  the  brain 
over  the  spinal  marrow  is  established  for  good  ;  before  that  time  the 
cerebral  mass  is  not  only  smaller  but  softer  and  less  deeply  furrowed 
in  its  convolutions.  It  is  generally  towards  the  end  of  the  seventh 
year  that  the  child  begins  to  analyze  and  to  elaborate  the  impressions 
he  has  received  before,  and  which  hitherto  he  had  confined  himself  to 


The  division  established  by  Frobel  was: 

1.  Kindergarten. 

2.  Intermediate  class  or  school. 

3.  School  of  instruction  and  reasoning. 

4.  School  of  vocation  and  life  ;  professional  school. 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION.          363 

accumulating  ;  his  superficial  questions  take  a  more  reflective  character ; 
he  now  manifests  his  inclination  for  more  serious  occupations,  and  his 
desire  to  learn,  to  acquire  information,  except  indeed  when  a  premature 
constraint  has  extinguished  and  stifled  in  him  all  curiosity  ;  for  nature 
avenges  herself  at  emy  age  for  the  violence  that  is  done  to  her.  The 
beginning  of  the  eighth  year,  the  critical  epoch  of  the  second  dentition, 
marks,  among  well  constituted  children,  the  aptitude  to  receive  instruc- 
tion, properly  so  called,  in  as  definite  a  manner  as  the  swelling  of  the 
breast  and  other  symptoms  announce  later  the  approach  of  puberty. 
There  is  a  solstitial  point  of  physical  and  intellectual  development  that 
ought  to  be  taken  into  consideration  for  fixing  the  school  age,  although 
in  reality  there  no  more  exists  an  age  for  school  than  a  stature  for 
school ;  the  moment  of  the  passage  from  the  kindergarten  into  the 
intermediate  class  or  into  the  lower  section  of  the  primary  school 
depends  upon  the  preparation  which  each  child  has  received,  just  as 
the  change  from  one  class  to  another  in  the  school  is  regulated  neither 
by  the  age  nor  the  stature  of  the  pupils,  but  by  their  degree  of  maturity. 

Difference  between  Kindergarten  and  School. 

.Frobel  thus  characterizes  the  difference  between  the  two  stages  of 
elementary  teaching  :  "  In  the  kindergarten  the  essential  thing  is  the 
child,  his  nature,  his  growth,  his  development,  his  education.  In  the 
school  it  is  the  opposite ;  the  essential  thing  is  the  object,  its  nature, 
the  knowledge,  intuition  and  understanding  of  its  properties  and  its 
relations,  its  designation,  etc. ;  the  education  that  results  from  it  is  the 
accessory,  the  accidental ;  the  principal  thing  is  the  comprehension  of 
the  object  by  the  thought,  the  internal  representation,  the  stripping 
off  of  the  body,  the  abstraction.  The  intermediate  school  thus  forms 
the  transition  between  the  real,  sensuous  intuition  and  the  abstract 
conception.  "  The  key  of  the  arch  of  the  occupations  of  the  kinder- 
garten is  the  transformation  of  material,  and  therefore  the  cognizance 
of  the  relations  between  the  different  solid  (crystalline)  forms,  their 
derivation  and  the  connection  of  each  of  them  with  the  initial  unity. 
The  kindergarten  occupies  itself  but  little  with  drawing,  because  the 
fingers  are  still  too  weak  ;  the  place  of  it  is  supplied  on  one  side  by  the 
little  sticks,  arid  on  the  other  by  that  favorite  occupation  of  little 
children,  which  consists  in  making  "  rounds  "  upon  the  slate,  and  which 
may  be  perfected  to  the  execution  of  simple  leaves  and  flowers.  Add 
to  that  the  introduction  into  life,  at  first  by  the  movement  plays,  and 
then  by  the  cultivation  of  little  garden  beds,  and  you  will  have  the  kin- 
dergarten in  all  its  extent.  "  You  see,"  he  adds,  "  upon  what  basis  and 
with  what  amount  of  living  germs  the  child  passes  from  the  kinder- 
garten into  the  intermediate  school.  The  preparatory  direction  fails 
him  at  no  point ;  the  impulse  has  been  given  for  all  ulterior  progress. 
All  that  asks  only  to  be  developed  from  the  unconscious  to  the  conscious, 
and  it  is  the  task  of  the  preparatory  school  of  which  th%  kindergarten 
is  the  first  stage. 


361  FUETIIEIl  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION. 

'•What  path  does  the  intermediate  school  follow?  It  attaches  itself 
very  intimately  to  the  acts,  to  the  phenomena  and  to  the  intuitions  of 
the  kindergarten  ;  but  it  gives  to  the  observation  of  each  individual  a 
general  significance,  an  intellectual  character,  and  a  form  of  thought ; 
for  example  :  '  This  way,  that  way,  goes  my  bail ;  up,  'down,  forward, 
back  (intuition  of  the  kindergarten).  I  can  imagine  everywhere  in 
space,  three  lines,  three  directions,  which  cut  each  other  at  right  angles, 
in  a  point  (conception  of  the  intermediate  school).  A  whole  has  two 
halves  ;  two  halves  make  a  whole  (intuition  of  the  kindergarten).  I 
can  divide  a  whole  into  two  equal  parts  and  join  these  two  halves  to 
make  the  whole  again  (intellectual  and  general  conception  of  the  inter- 
mediate school).' " 

Then  again,  the  child  playing  with  the  parallel  tablets  in  the  5th 
gift  has  had  more  than  one  opportunity  to  convince  himself  that  if  he 
places  them  in  a  square  against  each  of  the  equal  sides  of  the  isosceles 
triangle,  he  uses  as  many  tablets  as  he  would  need  to  make  a  square 
upon  the  third  side.  He  has  repeated  the  same  experiment  with  the 
rectangular  scalene  triangles  ;  the  school  will  only  have  to  resume  these 
impressions  and  to  generalize  them  in  order  to  deduce  the  theorem  of 
Pythagoras. 

Exercises  in  Language. 

The  designation  of  the  object  by  the  word  and  by  the  sign,  and 
notably  writing,  with  reading  for  a  corollary,  belong  evidently  to  the 
same  phase  of  the  child's  development.*  In  the  Education  of  Man 
already  Frobel  assigned  to  the  exercises  of  language  the  study  of  the 
word  itself,  entirely  separated  from  the  object  it  expresses,  and  treated 
sp'-ecli  as  a  substance.  He  indicated  by  that  the  path  to  follow  in 
instruction,  and  traced  the  outlines  of  his  subsequent  pamphlet : 
"  How  Lina  learns  to  write  and  read,"  that  is  to  say,  the  decomposition 
of  words  into  syllables,  the  dismemberment  of  the  syllables  and  the 
analysis  of  the  parts  that  compose  them  (vowels  and  consonants),  and 
in  the  last  place  their  graphic  representation  by  the  means  of  conven- 

*lii  his  monograph  :  "  How  Lina  learns  to  write  and  read  "  (and  not  to  read  and 
write),  Frobel  fixes  in  a  precise  manner  tho  age  which  is  suited  to  learning  to  read  ; 
he  puts  this  occupation  in  the  last  year  of  the  kindergarten.  He  supposes  that  Lina 
has  attained  the  age  of  six  years,  and  that  having  observed  the  joy  of  her  father  at 
receiving  a  letter,  and  his  eagerness  to  answer  it,  she  has  conceived  the  most  intense 
desire  to  learn  to  write.  But  it  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  the  little  girl  had  been 
educated  without  suspecting  it,  in  a  perfectly  normal  manner,  or  as  Frobel  expresses 
himself  in  an  all-s'uled  unify  of  life :  before  thinking  of  writing  a  letter  she  had 
learned  to  execute  a  multitude  of  things  with  the  most  simple  playthings,  to  build 
beautifully  with  the  cube  and  its  derivatives  ;  to  make  pretty  designs  with  tablets  of 
different  forms  and  colors  ;  as  well  as  with  the  little  sticks,  etc.  Lina  then  was  a 
precocious  child,  and  the  age  at  which  she  begins  to  instruct  herself  cannot  be  taken 
for  a  rule,  when  the  question  is  of  children  who  have  passed  months  in  knitting  a 
garter  very  badly,  and  years  in  making  a  stocking  which  a  machine  does  infinitely 
better  in  a  few  minutes.  Such  children  become  adults  without  going  out  of  leading 
strings.  Frobel  attributes,  in  a  great  part,  the  imperfection  of  our  schools  and  our 
teaching  to  our  instructing  our  children  without  their  feeling  the  want  of  it,  and 
even  after  having  extinguished  that  want  in  them. 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION.  365 

tional  signs.  "  When  the  scholar  shall  be  familiarized  with  the  visible 
manifestation  of  every  understood  word,  enunciated  or  simply  formu- 
lated in  the  thought,  we  will  seek  a  great  choice  of  expressions  which 
she  will  write,  or  indeed,  if  she  desires  it,  she  will  be  allowed  to  write 
words  or  little  phrases  herself.  The  correction  is  m^ade  by  the  pupil 
under  the  direction  of  the  instructor.  This  method  of  teaching 
naturally  leads  to  the  knowledge  of  orthography,  which  is  confounded 
with  that  of  writing;  she  thus  spares  the  pupil  that  dry  study,  so  long 
and  difficult  when  it  is  presented  to  her  in  an  isolated  form.  She 
already  knows  how  to  read,  according  to  the  first  notion  which  is 
attached  to  that  word,  and  while  formerly  she  only  spelled  with  great 
effort  at  the  end  of  a  year  of  study,  she  now  learns  to  read  without 
fatigue  or  trouble,  after  only  a  few  days'  application." 

Number. 

The  process  used  for  the  word  applies  equally  to  number ;  for  the 
method  is  a  key  which  opens  all  doors ;  number  is  treated  according  to 
its  constituent  elements,  decomposed  and  recomposed,  analyzed  into  its 
parts  (equal — unequal,  binary  series  and  ternary  series),  and  finally 
represented  by  the  figure,  distinct  from  the  number  itself.  Here  again 
the  child  arrives  without  difficulty  at  numeration  and  ciphering. 

The  tracing  of  the  signs  representative  of  speech  and  number  has  for 
its  first  condition  the  study  of  drawing ;  by  means  of  the  stereotyped 
netted  paper,  the  child  is  enabled  to  reproduce  all  the  forms  he  has  had 
a  glimpse  of  before,  by  reducing  them  to  combinations  of  lines  the 
length  of  from  1  to  5  squares  of  the  net.  The  instruction  does  not  go 
beyond  that  for  the  moment,  because  all  the  subsequent  varieties  of 
number  are  already  given  or  at  least  indicated  by  the  number  5.* 

Form  and  Dimension. 

For  want  of  time  and  space,  Frobel  limits  himself  to  sending  his 
pupil  to  the  Education  of  Man  for  what  touches  upon  language  and 
number;  and  for  what  regards  form  and  dimension,  to  the. exposition 
and  lithographs  of  the  5th  gift  and  to  the  forms  of  knowledge  made 
with  different  triangles,  "  which  are  with  the  works  in  wood  the  most 
important  means  of  connection  and  transition  between  the  kindergar- 
ten and  the  school,  while  passing  through  the  intermediate  class."  He 
advises  him  to  develop  what  the  kindergarten  has  given  him,  to  set  out 

*The  impossibility  of  finding  the  exact  relation  of  the  diagonal  to  the  side  of  the 
square  led  Frobel  to  adopt  for  the  practice  of  drawing  a  sort  of  compromise,  analo- 
gous to  that  which  the  musicians  use,  in  order,  by  a  toleration  of  the  ear,  to  put  their 
gamut  in  unison  with  that  of  the  physicists;  the  side  of  the  square  being  5,  he  takes  the 
very  approximative  ratio  7  as  the  length  of  the  diagonal.  By  this  process,  as  simple  as 
it  is  ingenious,  the  child,  after  having  drawn  the  square  and  the  isosceles  right  angled 
triangle,  which  serve  as  types  to  the  binary  series  of  the  5th  gift,  translates  them 
without  the  assistance  of  the  compass,  into  circles  and  semi-circles.  As  soon  as  this 
expedient  has  become  familiar,  he  feels  no  difficulty  in  constructing  the  hexagon  and 
the  equilateral  triangle,  principles  of  the  ternary  series  of  the  6th  gift,  any  more 
than  he  does  the  ellipse,  a  curvilinear  translation  of  the  right  angled  parallelogram, 
which  belong  to  the  same  series. 


366  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION. 

from  the  cube  to  decompose  it  into  its  isolated  parts  by  rising  to  gen- 
eral intuitions  and  to  descend  thus  from  the  cube  to  the  square  tablets 
and  the  surfaces,  from  the  edges  to  the  lines  and  the  little  sticks.  "  You 
may,"  he  said,  "  pursue  the  study  of  numbers,  setting  out  from  the 
knowledge  of  isolated  numbers  and  their  differences,  up  to  the  teach- 
ing of  relations  and  proportions,  from  the  stage  of  intuition  up  to  that 
of  intellectual  conception."  The  same  material  is  thus  taken  up  again 
as  a  sub- work  and  treated  in  a  different  point  of  view.* 
Material  for  the  Intermediate  Class. 

Frobel,  however,  does  not  restrict  his  materials  to  the  gifts  for  the 
earliest  childhood ;  he  reserves  for  the  second  period  of  childhood  a 
whole  collection  of  new  playthings  contained  in  a  box  with  14  solids 
which  he  sent  to  his  pupil  as  the  support  of  his  exposition.  The 
object  of  this  collection  is  to  give  the  child  the  intuition  of  the  deriv- 
atives of  the  cube  with  their  intermediate  forms,  an  intuition  which 
the  school  in  its  turn  will  still  later  fathom  and  generalize.  It  plays 
the  same  part,  in  the  intermediate  class,  as  the  second  gift  does  in  the 
kindergarten.  It  is  also  very  closely  allied  to  the  kindergarten.  The 
ball,  the  cylinder  and  the  cube  under  its  double  aspect  (first  as  a  pure, 
mathematical  cube,  then  as  a  cube  perforated,  and  adapted,  therefore, 
to  different  transformations),  iorm  the  first  four  of  fourteen  solids 
which  are  arranged  in  two  parallel  series;  one  comprises  the  forms 
which  go  from  the  cube  to  the  ball,  the  other  those  between  the  ball 
and  the  cube;  two  lateral  compartments  contain  the  complementary 
parts  that  serve  to  reconstruct  the  cube-type  ;  they  may  be  used  for 
new  combinations,  and  thus  furnish  material  for  an  infinity  of  plays; 
Frobel  himself  points  out  as  an  excellent  recreation  the  recognition  of 
the  different  bodies  by  touch,  with  the  eyes  closed. 

To  these  four  bodies  of:  the  kindergarten,  succeed  first  the  octohe- 
dron,  the  rhombododecahedron  and  the  tetrahedron,  with  their  intermedi- 
ates, then  the  prisms  and  oblique  pyramids.  "  These  fourteen  solids," 
says  Frobel*  in  closing  his  letter,  "  introduce  you  into  the  whole  kingdom 
and  domain  of  nature  and  bodies  in  their  three  principal  series  of  de- 
velopment, according  to  the  modifications  suffered  by  the  surfaces, 
edges  or  angles.  The  formation  of  the  bodies  here  closes ;  but  the 
development  is  pursued  by  means  of  the  forms  of  plants  and  animal?, 
as  well  as  by  the  forms  of  thought." 

The  determination  of  the  solids  by  the  direction,  number,  size, 
union  or  separation  of  surfaces,  edges  and  angles,  is  a  constant  provoca- 
tive to  the  abstract  and  comparative  study  of  all  the  relations  of  exten- 
sion, and  consequently  an  initiation  into  the  knowledge  of  space,  form, 
number  and  dimension. 

The  intermediate  class  thus  prepares  for  the  study  of  crystallography 
and  its  laws,  in  the  same  way  that  the  kindergarten  gave  the  intuition 

*The  geometrical  paper-folding  of  Koliler  offers  one  of  the  happiest  appropriations 
of  the  exercises  of  the  kindergarten  to  the  school. 


FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION.          367 

of  bodies.     The  school  will  have  but  one  step  to  take  to  teach  its  pupils 
that  salt  crystallizes  into  cubes,  alum  into  octahedrons,  etc.,  in  order  to 
lead  them  to  mineralogy  on  one  side,  and  to  chemistry  on  the  other. 
Observations  of  Nature  in  Excursions. 

The  intuition  and  conception  of  form,  dimension  and  number  lead 
anew  to  the  intuition,  the  conception  and  the  knowledge  of  the  exter- 
nal world.  Here,  again,  Frb'bel  refers  to  the  Education  of  Man,  in 
which  he  recommended  to  the  school-masters  to  take  their  pupils  at 
least  once  a  week  into  the  country,  u  not  like  a  flock  of  sheep  nor  a 
company  of  soldiers,  but  as  children  with  their  father,  younger  brothers 
with  the  elder,  making  them  observe  what  nature  offers  them  at  every 
season.  Do  not  let  the  village  teacher  say  in  reply  to  this  :  '  my  pupils 
are  in  the  country  all  day ;  they  run  about  all  the  time  in  the  open  air.' 
They  run  about  in  the  open  air,  it  is  true,  but  they  do  not  live  in  the 
country  ;  they  do  not  live  in  nature  and  with  it.  They  are  like  the 
inhabitants  of  a  beautiful  situation,  where  they  were  born  and  have 
grown  up,  but  who  have  no  suspicion  of  its  beauty."  Frobel  meets 
another  objection.  ''Father,  instructor,  educator,"  he  says,  "do  not 
say  'I,  myself,  know  nothing  of  that;'  the  question  here,  is  not  to 
communicate  acquired  knowledge,  but  to  arouse  new  knowledge.  You 
will  make  observations,  and  you  will  provoke  your  pupils  and  yourself 
to  the  consciousness  of  what  you  shall  have  observed.  To  know  the 
energetic  legality  of  nature  and  its  unity,  there  is  no  need  of  conven- 
tional denominations  of  objects  of  nature  or  of  their  properties,  but 
only  a  pure  conception  and  definite  designation  of  those  objects,  ac- 
cording to  their  essence  and  the  essence  of  language.  The  knowledge 
of  the  name  already  given  to  the  object  and  in  general  use,  is  of  very  little 
importance  ;  nothing  is  essential  but  the  clear  intuition  and  designation 
of  the  properties  not  only  in  particular  but  in  general.  Give  the  object 
of  nature  its  common  local  name,  or  if  you  absolutely  know  no  name  for 
it,  give  it  the  one  suggested  at  the  moment,  or  what  is  infinitely  better, 
make  use  of  some  substitute  or  circumlocution  until  you  discover,  no 
matter  where,  the  name  generally  adopted,  and  thus  put  your  knowl- 
edge in  harmony  with  the  general  knowledge. 

"This  is  why,  when  you  lead  your  pupils  into  the  country,  you 
should  not  say  :  '  I  have  no  knowledge  of  the  objects  of  nature,  I  do 
not  know  their  names.'  Should  you  have  only  the  most  elementary 
instruction,  the  faithful  observation  of  nature  will  bring  you  infinitely 
more  elevating  and  profound  knowledge,  external  or  internal,  more  living 
knowledge  of  individuality  and -diversity,  than  the  ordinary  books  you 
would  be  able  to  acquire  and  to  comprehend  will  teach  you.  Besides, 
this  supposed  superior  knowledge  commonly  rests  upon  remarks  which 
the  simplest  man  is  able  to  make,  often  upon  phenomena  which  the 
simplest  man,  with  little  or  no  expense,  sees  better  than  the  most  costly 
experiments  will  show  him,  provided  he  always  takes  his  eyes  with 
him  to  see  with." 


368  FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATION. 

Frobel  attaches  the  natural  sciences  to  this  contemplation  of  the  exter- 
nal world  in  a  circumference  more  and  more  extended,  and  particularly 
as  a  germ  and  point  of  departure,  the  science  of  botany.  With  botany 
is  connected,  in  an  entirely  organic  and  living  way,  the  knowledge  of 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  "for  certain  plants  are  companions  of  the 
water,  and  grow  on  the  border  of  the  stream  or  river ;  others  prefer 
the  carpet  of  the  meadows  and  valleys,  or  the  fresh  and  balmy  air  of 
mountains ;  others  still  were  brought  from  distant  countries.  There- 
fore plants  are  excellent  guides  for  the  study  of  geography.  Also  bot- 
any always  seconds  the  education  of  the  sense  of  color  and  form,  by 
the  reproduction  of  leaves  and  flowers  in  drawing  or  painting." 

Such  are  the  suggestions  left  by  Frobel,  in  view  of  establishing  a 
bond  between  the  two  degrees  of  primary  instruction,  between  the 
concrete  and  the  abstract.  They  are  amply  sufficient  if  not  to  the 
elaboration  of  the  complete  programme  of  the  school  proper,  at  least 
for  the  immediate  organization  of  the  intermediate  class  or  the  lower 
section  of  the  primary  school.  By  carrying  back  to  unity  the  intui- 
tions and  knowledge  which  have  come  to  the  child  by  fragments ;  by 
restoring  the  principle  of  action  that  animated  antiquity,  so  as  to  com- 
bine knowing  and  doing  in  their  industry,  Frobel  gave  a  real  basis  to 
education.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  still  exists  in  the  realization 
of  his  gigantic  work  more  than  one  gap  and  more  than  one  want  of 
equilibrium.  But  he  has  traced  out  the  plan,  surveyed  the  ground,  and 
collected  the  materials  ;  it  fe  for  the  men  of  initiative  and  of  good  will 
to  do  the  rest. 


THE 


NEW  ENGLAND  PRIMER, 


€< 


Saying  the  Catechism." 


PRIMER 


IMPROVED 

>For  the  more  eafy  attaining  the  true< 
reading  of  English. 

TO      WHICH       18      ADDED 

r  _  ^ 

>The  AiTembly  of  Divines,  and> 
Mr.  COTTON'S  Calechifm. 

BOSTON: 

^Printed  by  EDWARD  DRAPER,  a^ 
his    Printing-Office,   in   Newbury- 
Street,  and  Sold  byJoHNBovLi 
;n  Marlborough-  Street.          1777. 
>^. 


NEW  ENGLAND  PRIMER— SHORTER  CATECHISM.  371 

SAYING  THE  CATECHISM  * 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  very  small  book,  which  perhaps  some  of  you,  in 
all  your  researches  through  the  large  libraries  in  this  country  and  in 
Europe,  have  never  discovered.  I  know  not  who  compiled  it,  but  it  has 
done  more  to  form  t?ie  New  England  character  than  any  book  except  the 
Bible.  Allow  me,  then,  to  introduce  you  to  the  "  NEW  ENGLAND 
PRIMER."  Here  we  have,  among  many  other  things,  this  important 

information: 

44  In  Adam's  fall 
We  sinned  all." 

"The  cat  doth  play, 
And  after  slay." 

"  The  dog  doth  bite 
The  thief  at  night;" 

and  so  on.  Here  is  also  a  picture  of  John  Rogers,  burning  at  the  stake 
in  Smithfield,  in  1554,  and  "  his  wife  and  nine  small  children,  and  one  at 
the  breast,"  looking  on.  Does  that  mean  that  he  had  nine  children  or  ten? 
I  have  stumbled,  then,  upon  two  unsettled  historical  questions:  one  is, 
Wh'i  compiled  the  New  England  Primer?  and  the  other  is,  How  many  chil- 
dren did  John  Rogers  hare?  We  are  in  the  habit  of  settling  such  ques- 
tions here,  but  we  have  not  time  to  settle  these  now. 

The  "Primer"  which  was  used  in  Westhampton  was  a  square  book. 
It  was  not  in  this  oblong,  modern  form.  This  book,  therefore,  does  not 
look  to  me  quite  orthodox  outside;  but  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  orthodox 
•itmde,  for  it  contains  the  Catechism.  The  Catechism,  as  we  studied  and 
recited  it,  was  divided  into  three  parts.  The  first  part  comprehended  all 
between,  "What  is  the  chief  end  of  man?"  and  "  the  First  Command- 
ment." The  second  embraced  all  the  "  Commandments,"  together  with 
"  What  is  required?  "  and  "  What  is  forbidden?  "  in  them  all,  and  "  The 
reasons  annexed  for  observing  them."  The  third  included  all  from  the 
question,  "Is  any  man  able  perfectly  to  keep  the  commandments  of 
God?  "  to  the  end.  The  Catechism  was  required,  by  the  public  sentiment 
of  the  town,  to  be  perfectly  committed  to  memory,  and  recited  in  the 
meeting-house  by  all  the  children  and  youth  between  the  ages  of  eight  and 
fifteen.  These  public  recitations  were  held  on  three  different  Sabbaths  in 
the  summer  of  every  year,  with  perhaps  a  fortnight  intervening  between 
each  of  them,  to  allow  sufficient  time  for  the  children  to  commit  to  mem- 
ory the  division  assigned. 

When  the  time  arrived  for  commencing  the  exercise,  the  excitement 
was  tremendous.  As  the  great  battle  of  Trafalgar  was  about  to  begin 
between  the  immense  armadas  of  England  and  France,  Lord  Nelson  dis- 
played at  the  masthead  of  his  flagship,  "The  Victory,"  the  exciting 
proclamation,  streaming  in  the  wind,  "  ENGLAND  EXPECTS  EVERY  MAN 
TO  DO  nis  DUTY  !  "  That  proclamation  woke  all  the  national  enthusiasm 
of  his  officers  and  men,  and  strung  every  nerve  for  the  awful  conflict. 
Scarcely  less  imperative  and  exciting  was  the  annual  announcement  by 

*  From  an  Address  before  the  New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society,  on  the  town 
of  Westhampton,  Dec.  4,  1878.  By  Dorus  Clarke,  D.  D. 


372  SAYING  THE  CATECHISM- I>R.  CLARKE, 

Father  Hale:  "  SabbatJi  after  next,  the  first  division  of  the  Catechism  will  be 
recited  here."     It  sent  a  thrill  through  the  town. 

There  was  "no  discharge  in  that  war."  Public  sentiment  demanded 
the  most  implicit  obedience  by  all  concerned.  The  old  Primers  were 
looked  up,  new  ones  bought,  and  the  parents  set  their  children  to  the 
work  at  once  and  in  earnest.  Every  question  and  every  answer  must  be 
most  thoroughly  committed  to  memory,  'verbatim  et  literatim  et  punctuatim. 
The  time  for  recitation  was  at  the  close  of  the  afternoon  service.  All  the 
children  in  the  town,  dressed  in  their  "  Sabba-day  clothes."  were  arranged 
shoulder  to  shoulder, — the  boys  on  the  one  side  and  the  girls  on  the  other 
of  the  broad  aisle,  beginning  at  the  "deacon's  seat"  beneath  the  pulpit, 
and  extending  down  that  aisle,  and  round  through  the  side  aisles-  as  far  as 
was  necessary.  The  parents— "  children  of  a  larger  growth  " — crowded 
the  pews  and  galleries,  tremblingly  anxious  that  their  little  ones  might 
acquit  themselves  well.  Many  a  mother  bent  over  that  scene  with  solemn 
interest,  handkerchief  in  hand,  the  tears  of  joy  ready  to  fall  if  their  chil- 
dren should  succeed,  and  tears  of  sorrow  if  they  should  happen  to  fail. 
It  was  a  spectacle  worthy  of  a  painter. 

Father  Hale,  standing  in  the  pulpit,  put  out  the  questions  to  the  chil- 
dren in  order;  and  each  one,  when  the  question  came  to  him,  was  expected 
to  wheel  out  of  the  line,  a  la  militaire,  into  the  broad  aisle,  and  face  the 
minister,  and  make  his  very  best  obeisance,  and  answer  the  question  put 
to  him  without  the  slightest  mistake.  To  be  told,  that  is,  to  be  prompted 
or  corrected  by  the  minister,  was  not  a  thing  to  be  permitted  by  any  child 
who  expected  thereafter  to  have  any  reputation  in  that  town  for  good 
scholarship.  In  this  manner  the  three  divisions  of  the  Catechism  were 
successively  recited,  while  many  were  the  "knees  which  smote  one 
against  another;"  and  many  are  the  persons  who  recollect,  and  will  long 
recollect,  the  palpitating  heart,  the  tremulous  voice,  the  quivering  frame, 
with  which  for  several  years  they  went  through  that  terrible  ordeal.  But, 
if  the  nervous  effects  of  that  exercise  were  appalling,  the  moral  influence 
was  most  salutary;  and  I  desire,  in  this  presence,  to  acknowledge  my  deep 
obligations  to  my  parents,  who  long  since,  as  I  trust,  "passed  into  the 
skies,"  for  their  fidelity  in  requiring  me,  much  against  my  will,  to  com- 
mit to  memory  the  Assembly's  Catechism,  and  to  ' '  say  "  it  six  or  seven 
years  in  succession  in  the  old  meeting-house  in  Westhainpton,  amid  trem- 
blings and  agitations  I  can  never  cease  to  remember. 

But  this  was  not  all.  The  Catechism  formed  a  part  of  the  curriculum 
of  all  the  common  schools  in  that  town  for  half  a  century,  and  was  as 
thoroughly  taught  and  as  regularly  recited  there  as  Webster's  Spelling 
book  or  Murray's  English  Grammar.  It  was  as  truly  a  classic  as  any 
other  book.  It  was  taught  everywhere,— in  the  family,  in  the  school,  and 
in  the  church, — indeed,  it  was  the  principal  intellectual  and  religious  pah 
ulum  of  the  people.  We  had  it  for  breakfast,  and  we  had  it  for  dinner, 
and  we  had  it  for  supper.  The  entire  town  was  saturated  with  its  doc 
trines,  and  it  is  almost  as  much  so  at  the  present  day.  The  people  could 
not,  of  course,  descend  into  the  profound  depths  of  the  metaphysics  of 
theology,  but  they  thoroughly  understood  the  system  which  was  held  by 
the  fathers  in  New  England.  They  were  not  indeed  prepared  to 

"Reason  high 

of  Providence,  foreknowledge,  will,  and  fate, 
Fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute  ;  " 


SAYING  TOE  (JATECHISM-DR    CLARKE.  373 

but  they  so  clearly  apprehended  what  they  believed  to  be  the  truths  of  the 
Bible, 

"  That  to  the  height  of  this  great  argument 

They  could  assert  Eternal  Providence, 

And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 

The  practice  of  instructing  the  children  thoroughly  in  the  Catechism, 
was  very  general  throughout  New  England  for  a  century  and  a  half  after 
the  arrival  of  "The  Mayflower."  Judge  Sewall,  in  the  first  volume  of 
his  "Diary,"  just  published  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
speaks  of  a  certain  Sabbath,  which,  in  the  Old  South  Church  in  this  city, 
was  called  "TJie  Catechising  Day ,"  and  of  his  wearing  a  new  article  of  cloth- 
ing in  honor  of  that  specially  important  custom.  But  I  believe  that  that 
excellent  practice  was  nowhere  so  thoroughly  carried  out  as  it  was  in 
Western  Massachusetts.  That  was  largely  owing  to  the  transcendent 
influence  of  Jonathan  Edwards, — clarum  et  vencrabile  nomen, — who  was 
looked  up  to  by  the  ministers  in  Boston  and  Scotland  as  the  oracle  in  all 
metaphysical  and  theological  matters.  His  influence  in  Northampton  and 
Stockbridge,  and  in  the  regions  round  about,  is  visible  to-day  in  the  pecu- 
liar moral  and  religious  gram  of  the  people.* 

This,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  was  the  way  tlie  New  England  character  was 
formed.  Professor  James  Russell  Lowell,  in  "  The  Biglow  Papers,"  has 
given  us  a  very  seasonable  caution  in  relation  to  this  matter.  lie  says, 
with  only  a  slight  alteration,  if  his  serio-comic  style  and  orthography  be 
admissible, 

"Young  folks  are  smart,  but  all  ain't  good  thet's  new; 
I  guefs  the  gran'thers  they  knowed  sunthin1,  tu. 
They  toiled  an*  prayed,  built  sure  in  the  beginnin', 
An"1  never  let  us  tech  the  underpinnW ." 

General  Result. 

The  general  result  was,  and  still  is,  that  sobriety,  large  intelligence, 
sound  morality,  and  unfeigned  piety  exist  there  to  a  wider  extent  than  in 
any  other  community  of  equal  size  within  the  limits  of  my  acquaintance. 
Revivals  of  religion  have  been  of  great  frequency,  purity,  and  power; 
and  to-day  more  than  one-third  of  the  population,  all  told,  are  members  of 
that  Congregational  church.  Nine-tenths  of  the  inhabitants  are  regular 
attendants  on  public  worship.  Thirty-eight  of  the  young  men  have  grad- 
uated from  college,  have  entered  the  learned  professions,  and  especially 
the  Christian  ministry,  and  several  of  them  have  risen  to  positions  of  the 
highest  usefulness  and  honor.  These,  I  believe,  are  much  larger  per 
centages  of  educated  men,  of  Christian  men,  of  useful  men,  than  can  be 
found  in  any  other  town  in  this  or  any  other  commonwealth. 

I  have  resided  in  that  town  sixteen  years,  in  Williamstown  four  years, 
in  Andover  three  years,  in  Blandford  twelve  years,  in  Springfield  six 
years,  and  in  Boston  and  its  vicinity  thirty-seven  years,  and  have 
therefore  had  some  opportunities  to  form  an  intelligent  judgment 
of  the  relative  condition,  moral  and  religious,  of  different  parts  of  this 


*For  the  other  side  of  Jonathan  Edwards'  theology  and  influence,  see  article  in  Inter 
national  Review  for  July  1880,  by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 


374  SAYING  THE  CATECHISM-DR.  CLARKE. 

Commonwealth;  and  I  say  it  "  without  fear  or  favor,  or  hope  of  reward;" 
I  say  it  with  no  invidious  spirit  whatever;  I  say  it  simply  because  historic 
verity  peremptorily  requires  that  it  should  be  said, — that  I  have  nowhere 
found,  in  these  communities  generally,  such  profound  reference  for  the 
name  of  JEHOVAH,  the  Infinite  and  Personal  GOD;  such  unquestioning 
faith  in  the  divine  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures;  such  devout  and  con- 
scientious observance  of  the  Sabbath:  such  habitual  practice  of  family 
prayers;  such  respect  for  an  oath  in  a  court  of  justice;  such  anxiety  for 
revivals  of  religion;  such  serious  determination  to  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven;  and  such  deep  conviction  that  it  never  can  be  reached, 
except  by  repentance  for  sin,  and  faith  in  a  crucified  Redeemer,  as  I  have 
seen  in  that  town. 

The  cause  of  this  superior  Christian  tone  of  society,  so  far  as  I  am  able 
to  trace  effects  back  to  their  causes,— can  be  found,  not  in  the  local  posi- 
tion of  that  town,  not  in  its  scenery,  not  in  its  peculiarly  favorable  situa- 
tion for  the  prosecution  of  any  of  the  arts  of  life,  not  in  the  wealth  cre- 
ated by  great  manufacturing  industries,  for  all  the  manufactories  of  which 
it  can  boast,  I  believe,  are  a  gristmill  and  a  sawmill;  but  that  cause  is  its 
more  thorough  indoctrination,  from  its  settlement  down  to  the  present 
day,  in  the  great  truths  of  the  Bible,  creating  public  sentiment,  permeat- 
ing domestic  life,  giving  vigor  to  conscience,  converting  men  to  Christ, 
and  impregnating  society,  through  all  its  ramifications,  with  a  profounder 
sense  of  moral  obligation.  During  my  boyhood  and  youth,  I  never  knew 
my  father's  house  locked  by  any  mechanical  contrivance  by  day  or  night; 
but  it  was  locked  with  a  lock  of  very  peculiar  construction  and  strength. 
The  Bible  and  the  Catechism  were  the  "combination  lock"  which  thor- 
oughly protected  every  man's  house. 

Educational  Results. 

The  educational  results  of  that  method  of  learning  and  "  Saying  the 
Catechism  "  were  also  of  the  greatest  importance.  Committing  so  thor- 
oughly to  memory  such  a  long  series  of  questions  and  answers,  and  doing 
it  for  so  many  years,  could  not  fail  to  exert  a  most  marked  influence  upon 
the  intellectual  powrers.  It  has  long  been  a  question  among  educators 
how  much  the  memory  should  be  taxed.  Some  hold  that  it  cannot  be 
overloaded;  and  others  say  that  to  charge  it  highly  weakens  its  ability,  and 
injures  mental  discipline.  What  is  the  memory?  It  is  the  power  of 
storing  up  for  future  use  the  knowledge  we  have  already  acquired,  and  of 
recalling  it  at  pleasure.  Direct  efforts  to  do  this  are  doubtless  unwise; 
but  it  can  be  sufficiently  done  in  the  ordinary  processes  of  education  with- 
out direct  effort.  To  form  a  good  memory,  an  idea  must  be  deeply 
impressed  upon  the  mind,  and  sometimes  it  must  be  repeated  again  and 
again  to  make  a  deep  impression.  That  remarkable  practice  of  commit- 
ting to  memory  the  catechism,  through  so  many  years  and  with  such 
punctilious  accuracy,  met  precisely  these  requirements,  and  was  observed 
to  be  a  most  important  factor  in  the  education  of  the  people. 

Archbishop  Whateley  says  that "  the  knowledge  of  man's  ignorance  is  the 
much  neglected  friend  of  human  knowledge."  But  that  practice  of 
"  Saying  the  Catechism  "  made  the  children  of  Westhampton  pay  special 


SAYING  THE  CATECHISM— DR   CLARKE.  £75 

attention  to  that  "friend  of  human  knowledge," — "the  knowledge  of 
man's  ignorance."  If  any  thing  can  teach  us  our  "  ignorance,"  it  is  a 
"  knowledge"  of  the  great  truths  taught  in  the  Catechism.  Those  truths 
have  depths  which  the  longest  finite  line  can  never  sound,  and  heights  to 
which  the  boldest  angelic  wing  can  never  soar.  They  teach  us,  too,  that, 
though  men  may  be  highly  intelligent  on  other  subjects,  they  may  be 
profoundly  unacquainted  with  their  relations  to  their  Creator,  Redeemer, 
and  Judge. 

And,  besides,  the  sharp  definitions  in  the  Catechism  had  the  same  edu- 
cating effect.  A  good  definition  is  said  to  be  more  than  half  the  argu- 
ment. Daniel  Webster  had  the  remarkable  faculty  of  stating  his  case  so 
clearly  to  the  court,  the  jury,  and  the  senate,  that  the  statement  virtually 
argued  the  case.  It  is  very  much  so  with  the  definitions  of  the  Cate- 
chism. The  statement  is  the  argument.  For  instance,  take  the  fol- 
lowing: 

"What  is  the  chief  end  of  man?  Man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God, 
and  to  enjoy  Him  forever."  This  definition  is  so  obviously  accurate, 
and  is  so  thoroughly  corroborated  by  all  our  moral  instincts,  that  it  has 
been  the  inspiration  of  many  a  noble  life. 

"  What  is  God?  God  is  a  spirit,  infinite,  eternal,  and  unchangeable  in 
His  being,  wisdom,  power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness,  and  truth."  Can 
any  thing  be  more  comprehensive  and  exact? 

"What  is  sin?  Sin  is  any  want  of  conformity  unto,  or  transgression 
of,  the  law  of  God."  Here  we  have  both  the  negative  and  positive  sides 
of  sin, — the  not  doing,  and  the  doing.  There  is  nothing  deficient,  and 
nothing  redundant.  The  definition  covers  the  whole  ground,  and  no 
more. 

"What  are  the  decrees  of  God?  The  decrees  of  God  are  His  eternal 
purpose,  according  to  the  counsel  of  His  own  will,  whereby,  for  His  glory, 
He  hath  fore-ordained  whatsoever  comes  to  pass."  Against  this  rock  of 
truth  the  waves  of  criticism  have  dashed  for  more  than  two  centuries, 
and  have  made  no  impression. 

"Did  all  mankind  fall  in  Adam's  first  transgression?  The  covenant 
being  made  with  Adam,  not  only  for  himself,  but  for  his  posterity,  all 
mankind,  descending  from  him  by  ordinary  generation,  sinned  in  him, 
and  fell  with  him  in  his  first  transgression."  That  the  fall  of  Adam 
somehow  or  other  affects  "his  posterity,"  all  history  affirms;  the  modus 
is  infiuitesimally  unimportant,  but  the  representative  or  corporate  theory 
of  the  Catechism  has  been,  historically,  more  generally  accepted  than  any 
other. 

The  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines  were  men  of  great  intelligence, 
breadth  of  mind,  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures;  and 
their  definitions  are  wonderful  specimens  of  clear  and  exact  thought, — as 
nearly  mathematical  as  the  case  would  admit.  And  then,  too,  such 
was  their  high  sense  of  responsibility,  that  they  took  ample  time 
to  complete  their  work  with  the  most  scrupulous  care.  In  the  for- 
mation of  their  Confession  of  Faith,  and  the  Larger  and  Shorter 
Catechisms,  they  sat  more  than  five  years,  and  held  one  thousand 
one  hundred  and  sixty-three  sessions.  They  considered,  reconsid- 


376  SAYING  THE  CATECHISM— DR.  CLARKE. 

cred,  and  considered  over  and  over  again  every  point,  so  as  to  repro- 
duce the  very  mind  and  will  of  the  Great  Iiispirer  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  make  their  work  echo  what  they  believed  to  be  the  real  meaning  of 
that  Book.  Now,  such  thorough  drilling  in  the  Catechism,  in  its  clear 
definitions  and  exact  statements, — in  the  family,  in  the  school,  in  the 
church, — could  not  but  exert  a  most  potent  influence  upon  the  suscepti- 
ble minds  of  the  children  and  youth.  It  strengthened  their  memories;  it 
enlarged  their  views;  it  gave  power  to  conscience;  it  awakened  deep  solic- 
itude about  the  Eternal  Future;  it  formed  the  habit  of  clear  thought,  of 
close  reasoning,  and  of  logical  deduction ;  and  if  I  may  be  forgiven  the 
egotism  of  referring  for  a  moment  to  my  own  experience,  by  way  of 
illustration,  I  would  say,  that  I  have  been  through  the  process  of  calcu- 
lating eclipses  of  the  sun  which  required  the  most  sustained  attention  for 
several  days  in  succession;  I  have  followed  Butler  in  his  profound  discus- 
sions in  "The  Analogy;"  and  Leibnitz  in  his  herculean  effort  to  wrestle 
in  his  "Theodica3a,"  with  the  tremendous  problem  of  moral  evil,  and 
sought  to  settle  that  vexed  question,  yes,  that  vexatimma  quastio  of  theo- 
logians, How  could  a  Holy  God  permit  sin  to  enter  the  universe? — but  I  have 
never  discovered  that  all  these  calculations  and  discussions  exerted  a 
better  influence  upon  my  own  mind,  than  my  early  familiarity  with  the 
Assembly's  Shorter  Catechism.  That  is  nearly  as  much  a  treatise  on  logic 
as  it  is  on  theology ;  and  it  is  a  very  martinet  in  mental  discipline. 

Results  upon  tlw  World  drawn  from  tlie  Experience  of  Westliampton. 

But  what  have  been  the  results  of  this  system  of  thorough  religious 
training  upon  the  world,  through  the  influence  of  the  children  of  West- 
liampton?  "  Conduct,"  says  Matthew  Arnold,  "is  at  least  three-quarters 
of  human  life."  What,  then,  lias  been  the  "conduct"  of  the  children  of 
Westhampton?  Let  history  answer;  and  I  wish  to  hold  your  minds  to  a 
true  historical  perspective. 

As  already  stated,  thirty-eight  of  her  young  men  have  obtained  a  liberal 
education,  and  several  others  have  gone  into  professional  life,  and  into 
other  useful  vocations,  without  the  benefit  of  a  collegiate  course  of  study. 
But  let  me  be  more  specific.  Twenty  three  of  these  young  men  have 
become  clergymen.  One  of  them  has  been  pastor  of  an  important  church 
in  this  city,  and  President  of  the  Andover  Theological  Seminary.  Others 
have  been  settled  in  churches  of  other  cities  and  towns  in  this  Common- 
wealth; and  others  still,  in  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  California.  One  has  lived  eighteen 
years  in  the  kraals  of  Southern  Africa,  teaching  the  benighted  Hottentots 
the  way  to  heaven;  and  another,  for  twenty-eight  years  has  performed 
missionary  labor  in  Western  Asia,  through  the  exactions  of  the  Turkish 
Government  and  the  horrors  of  the  recent  war  with  Russia.  One  of  them 
devised  the  famous  "pledge"  which  is  working  out  the  temperance 
reformation ;  and  published  a  volume  of  statistics,  collected  from  experi- 
ence in  Europe  and  America,  showing  that  men,  in  the  long  run,  can  per- 
form more  labor  and  contribute  more  to  the  material  prosperity  of  the 
country,  by  resting  one  day  in  seven  and  keeping  the  Sabb;ith  holy,  than 
by  laboring  continuously  seven  days  in  the  week.  Two  farmers  in  West- 


SAYING  THE  CATECHISM-DR.  CLARKE.  377 

hampton  had  two  sons  each  who  went  to  college,  graduated  with  honor, 
became  clergymen,  and  rose  to  such  eminence  that  the  colleges  made  them 
all  Doctors  of  Divinity, — whether  that  title  be  worth  little  or  much. 

Take  next  the  legal  profession.  Westhampton  has  raised  but  few  law- 
yers. When  Peter  the  Great  was  in  London,  he  saw  the  Lords  with  their 
bag  wigs  coming  out  of  Westminster  Hall;  and  he  asked,  "Who  are 
those  fellows  yonder?  '•  He  was  told  that  they  were  lawyers.  "  What!  " 
he  exclaimed, — "lawyers,  lawyers;  what  do  they  want  so  many  lawyers 
here  for?  There  are  only  two  of  them  in  Russia,  and  those  I  intend  to 
hang  as  soon  as  I  get  home. "  I  do  not  know  that  Westhampton  people 
ever  hung  a  lawyer,  but  I  know  that  they  have  starved  them  all  out  of 
that  town.  Though  Westhampton  has  only  about  as  much  use  for  law- 
yers as  Russia  had  in  the  days  of  that  autocrat, — who  was  himself  the 
maker,  the  expounder,  and  the  executor  of  all  the  laws, — she  has  sent 
two  to  this  city  who  have  risen  to  distinction,  and  a  few  others  to  Ohio 
and  other  parts  of  the  country;  and  the  mantles  of  Coke  and  Webster 
set  gracefully  on  her  sons. 

Take  the  medical  profession.  Westhampton  has  sent  one  physician  to 
Boston,  and  one  of  the  most  eminent  this  city  ever  had;  another,  of  equal 
eminence,  to  the  city  of  Cambridge;  another,  to  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  who 
became  so  distinguished  that  he  was  made  the  President  of  the  Rhode 
Island  Medical  society;  and  another  still  to  Cincinnati,  O.,  who  is  in  a 
most  successful  practice. 

Take,  now,  a  few  cases  outside  of  the  learned  professions.  In  the  dark 
days  of  1776,  that  town  was  a  wilderness;  but,  at  the  call  of  patriotism, 
one  of  her  sous  left  his  young  wife  and  infant  child  in  a  small  house  he 
had  built  in  the  woods,  to  struggle  along  as  best  they  might,  and  hastened 
to  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga  to  defend  his  imperilled  country,  lost  his 
health,  and  yet  did  much  to  effect  the  surrender  of  Burgoync  at  Saratoga. 
In  the  war  of  1812,  another  came  here,  as  a  member  of  a  company  of 
militia,  to  defend  Boston  against  an  expected  attack  by  the  British.  When 
the  civil  war  broke  out  in  the  spring  of  1861,  several  of  the  young  men,  at 
the  call  of  the  government,  left  their  ploughs  in  the  furrows,  joined  the 
army  and  aspired  to  the  very  van  of  the  conflict  with  the  hosts  of  rebellion ; 
and  those  who  were  not  killed  or  wounded  in  battle,  stood  manfully  by 
their  colors  till  the  surrender  of  Lee  at  Appomattox. 

Again:  several  of  them,  by  their  editorial  labors,  have  molded  the 
religious  and  the  political  opinions  of  the  times,  and  the  multitude  did 
not  know  where  the  influence  came  from  which  molded  them.  One  of 
them  founded  "The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,"  and  conducted  it  several 
years  .with  distinguished  ability.  The  same  gentleman,  by  his  skill  as  an 
engineer,  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  effect  the  construction  of  the 
Boston  and  Worcester  Railroad,  and  was  the  first  President  of  that  impor- 
tant corporation.  It  was  principally,  too,  through  his  agency  that  the' 
Cochituate  water — that  great  public  necessity  and  luxury — was  brought 
into  this  city.  Another  has  been  a  member  of  the  Common  Council,  and 
another  a  member  of  the  School  Committee  of  Boston.  Another  wrote 
'•Margaret,"  and  other  wTorks  of  fiction,  of  great  popularity.  Another 
has  written  several  volumes  upon  denominational  and  theological  science, 


SAYING  THE  CATECHISM -DR.  CLARKE. 

which  have  commanded  the  attention  of  some  of  the  best  thinkers  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Another  accumulated  materials  for  a  history 
of  several  towns  in  Hampshire  County,  and  the  MSS.  he  left  behind  him 
ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  this  Society.  I  see  before  me  a  Westhampton 
boy — whose  head,  by  the  way,  is  very  white  for  a  boy — who  was  for 
many  years  a  collector  of  the  revenues  of  the  United  States  in  this  city; 
and  an  honest  publican  he  was,  for  none  of  the  revenues  "stuck  to  his  fin- 
gers." That  gentleman  has  also  been  quite  largely  connected  with  the 
civil  and  eleemosynary  concerns  of  Boston.  And  I  observe  here  another 
Westhampton  boy, — whose  head  is  equally  venerable,— an  eminent  mem- 
ber of  the  Boston  bar,  and,  besides,  he  holds  an  important  relation  to  the 
Boston  and  Maine  Railroad.  I  also  see  a  Westhampton  girl,  only  eighty 
one  years  of  age, — the  youngest  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Enoch  Hale.  That 
lady  and  myself  were  classmates  in  the  center  school  in  that  town,  and 
we  had  many  a  friendly  contest  to  see  which  would  be  at  "the  head." 
Being  the  minister's  daughter,  she  was,  of  course,  thought  to  be  a  little  bet- 
ter than  anybody  else,  and  a  better  scholar  than  anybody  else;  and  if  any 
boys  or  girls  intended  to  beat  her  in  reading  or  spelling,  or  in  any  other 
exercise,  they  would  be  obliged  to  "get  up  early  in  the  morning."  I  am 
profoundly  thankful  that  the  good  Providence  of  God  has  spared  her  use- 
ful life  so  long,  and  has  permitted  her  to  come  from  her  residence  in  the 
Hotel  Berkeley,  and  honor  us  by  her  presence  here  to-day.  One  of  the 
sons  of  Westhampton  is  now  the  Treasurer  of  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  the  city  of  New  York,  has  the  management  of  the  large 
endowments  of  that  Institution,  resides  in  a  splendid  mansion  on  the 
heights  of  Sing  Sing,  which  overlook  the  beautiful  scenery  of  the  Hud- 
son River;  and  I  will  guarantee  that  he  will  never  be  sent  to  the  State 
Prison  at  Sing  Sing  as  a  defaulter.  Another  has  done  business  in  Ohio, 
at  the  rate  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  the  orders  of  her 
merchants  have  been  sought  for  in  London.  Many  of  her  sons  and 
daughters  have  gone  East,  West,  North,  and  South,  as  school-teachers. 
One  of  them  penetrated  into  the  wilds  of  Ohio,— her  last  day's  journey  of 
forty  miles  was  performed  on  horseback,  though  she  was  quite  unused  to 
that  mode  of  traveling,— established  a  school  under  almost  every  possible 
discouragement,  which,  nevertheless,  she  taught  several  years  with  much 
success;  married  a  lawyer,  who  afterwards  became  a  member  of  Con- 
gress; and  with  his  aid  collected  the  means  to  build  two  churches, — one 
of  wood,  which  was  soon  outgrown,  and  another  of  brick,  which  was  an 
ornament  of  the  place.  At  her  solicitation,  her  friends  in  Massachusetts 
gave  her  a  bell  for  the  church;  and  finally  she  died,  and  was  followed  to 
her  tomb  by  a  weeping  village  she  had  done  so  much  to  bless.  I  have 
sat  in  her  seat  in  the  church  which  she  labored  so  indefatigably  to  erect, 
and  where  she  ripened  for  heaven.  And,  last  and  least,  one  of  the 
sons  of  Westhampton  has  within  fifteen  years  done  something  for  this 
Society  as  its  Historiographer,  by  writing  and  reading  here  one  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  Memoirs  of  its  departed  members. 

NOTE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 

Of  this  Book,  so  highly  prized  hy  Dr  Clarke,  and  so  vividly  remembered  by  thousands 
of  graduates  of  the  District  School  of  New  England,  we  print  a  fresh  edition  from  the 
identical  plates  used  by  Ira  Webster  in  his  reprint  of  the  Edition  of  1777.  H.  B. 


THE 

NEW-ENGLAND 

PRIMER 


IMPROVED 

>For  the  more  eafy  attaining  the  true< 
reading  of  Englifh. 

TO      WHICH       13      ADDED 

>The  Affembly  of  Divines,  arid> 
Mr.  COTTON'S  Catechifm. 

BOSTON: 

^Printed  byEDWARDDRAPER,<tf< 
his  Printing-Office,  in  Newbury-i 
Street,  and  Sold  byJoHNBovi 
;n  Marlborough-  Street.  1777. 


THE   NEW   ENGLAND   PRIMER.— 1777. 


The  earliest  information  the  publisher  is  yet  able  to 
obtain  of  the  origin  of  tiie  New  England  Primer,  is 
contained  in  an  ADVERTISEMENT,  found  in  the  extract 
below,  copied  from  an  Almanac  now  in  the  Massachu 
setts  Historical  Society's  Library,  in  Boston. 

IRA  WEBSTER. 

Boston,  August  9th,  1844. 

•MJV 

ALMANA  CK 

Containing  an  Account  of  the  Ccdeftial  Kfotioru, 

Afpecls,  &c.  For  the  year  of  the  Chriftian 

Empire,  1691. 


By  Henry  Newman,  Philomath. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 

A  Society  of  ladies  was  formed  in  Boston,  in  the  time  of  Mr 
Whitefield,  for  improvement  in  personal  piety,  and  to  pray  for 
the  extension  of  the  Redeemer's  Kingdom.  The  Society  met 
weekly  for  prayei,  "reading  some  sound  and  serious  book," 
tinging,  and  other  exercises  adapted  to  "spiritual  edificntion." 
"  We  also  agree,"  say  they,  "  once  a  quarter,  to  spend  the  day 
in  prayer  and  other  duties  of  religion,  our  special  errand  at  the 
throne  of  grace  to  ask  for  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
on  us,  our  families,  and  the  world  of  mankind."  "  Once  a  quar- 
ter, the  exercises  shall  be  so  shortened,  as  to  have  room  to  ask 
ourselves  the  Assembly's  Shorter  Catechism,  that  so  we  may 
keep  in  our  minds  that  excellent  form  of  sound  words."  This 
edition  of  the  New  .England  Primer,  is  a  reprint  und  fitc-simile 
of  one  of  those  owned  and  used  by  that  Society. 

A  community  of  Boston  ladies  of  "  the  olden  time,"  enroll- 
ing the  bright  names  and  embodying  the  choice  influences  of  the 
mothers  of  this  Israel — the  Masons  and  the  Waterses  of  hal- 
lowed memory — assembled  quarterly  to  refresh  their  minds 
from  this  Primer.  The  fact  needs  no  comment.* 

N.  B.  This  statement  is  from  a  lady  who  was  a  member  of 
the  above  Society,  and  from  the  documents  of  the  Society  in 
tor  possession. 


Printed   by   R.  Pierce  for   Benjamin  Harris   at 
the  London  Coffee- Houfe  in  Boston,  1691. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 

There  is  now  in  the  Preff,  and  will  fuddenly  be  ex- 
tant, a  Secoi.d  IiaprefTion  of  the  New  England  Primer 
enlarged,  to  which  is  added,  more  Directions  for  Spell- 
ing ;  the  Prayer  of  K.  Edward  the  6th,  and  Verfes  made 
by  Mr.  Rogers  the  Martyr,  left  as  a  Legacy  to  his  Chil- 
dren. 

Sold  by  Benjamin  Harris,  at  the  London  Cofte-Houst 
in  Bofton." 


CERTIFICATES. 

At  the  request  of  ths  publisher,  the  following1  certificate  ha* 
been  furnished  by  a  gentleman  who  has  given  much  attention 
to  the  subject  of  early  School  Books  and  Catechisms  in  thii 
country. 

"The  edition  of  the  New  England  Primer,  published  in  1843  by  Mr.  Ir» 
Webster,  of  Hartford,  is  a  correct  reprint  of  the  oldest  copy  of  that  re- 
markable work,  of  which  1  have  any  knowledge  ;  perhaps  the  oldest  copy 
now  extant.  All  other  reprints  which  I  have  seen,  have  been  considerably 
altered— modernized—  from  the  original. 

Cambridge,  Oct.  20,  1849.  GEORGE  LIVERMORE." 

Most  valuable  of  every  thing,  is  the  education  und    princiflti 
from  the  mother's  fcn«."-UpSHUR. 


t  INTRODUCTION 

TO     THE     PRESENT     EDITION. 

THE  pious  Baxter,  who  knew  well  the  greater  part 
of  the  "Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines,  says,  that 
the  Christian  world,  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles, 
never  had  a  Synod  of  more  excellent  divines.  The 
Assembly  was  convened  in  1643,  and  was  composed 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  divines,  or  presbyters, 
thirty  lay  assessors,  and  Jive  commissioners  from 
Scotland.  It  sat  more  \hanjive  years  and  a  half. 

Our  Puritan  Fathers  brought  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism with  them  across  the  ocean,  and  laid  it  on 
the  same  shelf  with  the  family  Bible.  They  taught 
it  diligently  to  their  children,  every  Sabbath.  And 
while  a  few  of  their  descendants,  now  in  the  even~ 
tng  of  life,  remember  every  question  and  answer; 
many,  not  yet  advanced  to  life's  meridian,  can. 
never  forget  when  every  Saturday  forenoon  they 
had  to  take  a  regular  catechising  in  the  common 
school,  commencing  with  the  a,  b,  c,  oaken-bench 
class,  "  What  is  the  chief  end  of  man  V 

If  in  this  Catechism,  the  true  and  fundamental 
doctrines  of  the  Gospel  are  expressed  in  fewer  and 
better  words  and  definitions  than  in  any  other  sum- 
mary, why  ought  we  not  now  to  train  up  a  child  in 
the  way  he  should  go  ?  —  why  not  now  put  him  in 
possession  of  the  richest  treasure  that  ever  human 
wisdom  and  industry  accumulated,  to  draw  from? 


HARTFORD,   CONN. 
PUBLISHED  AND  SOLD  BY  IRA  WEBSTER. 

Price  Four  Dollars  a  Hundred. 
The  same  rate  of  price  for  any  larger  number. 

COPYRIGHT    SECURED. 


184& 


CERTIFICATES. 

Communicated  by  Rev.  Thomas  Williams  :— 

•The  edition  of  the  New  England  Primer,  which  has  been  published  by 
Olt.  Ira  Webster,  of  Hartford,  in  the  year  1843,  is  the  only  genuine  and 
correct  edition  of  that  valuable  and  wonderful  book  that  has  been  to  be 
obtained  for  many  years.  It  is  probably  more  than  fifty  years  since  there 
has  been  printed  a  complete  and  correct  edition  of  the  Primer,  except  the 
or.e  printed  by  Mr.  Webster.  His  edition  is  an  exact  copy  of  the  Primer 
that  was  used  by  families  aiid  schools  in  my  youth,  sixty  years  ago,  and  I 
suppose  it  had  been  used  for  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  before' that  time.  The 
genuine  copy  of  the  Primer,  on  account  of  its'antiquity,  and  its  extensive 
usefulness  in  former  years,  has  now  become  an  object  of  interesting  and 
beneficial  curiosity.  THOMAS  WILLIAM'S." 

Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  June  23,  A.D.  1844. 

We,  the  subscribers,  concur  in  the  preceding  statements 

THOMAS  ROBBINS, 
JOEL  HA  WES, 

Hartford,  Oct,  30,  184»  T.  H.  G A  LL  A  LI  DET, 

Bangor.  ENOCH  PONU, 

HEMAN  HUMPHREY. 

•*  Mr.  Ira  Webster  has  published  a  correct  reprint  of  the  oldest  copy  of 
the  New  England  Primer,  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge.  We 
thank  Mr.  Webster  for  this  reprint  and  fac-sirnile  of  that  remarkable  book; 
and  commend  it  most  heartily  to  our  readers  and  friends."— New  Orleans 
Presbyterian,  Jan.  1850. 

« The  New  England  Primer:  IRA  WBBSTBR,  Hartfard.-This  M  an 
exact  reprint  from  one  of  the  earliest  copies  of  this  priceless  little  compen- 
dium, which,  for  three  quarters  of  a  century,  has  been  to  almost  every  man 
born  in  New  Eng-laml  ihe  first  book  in  religion,  and  to  thousands  has  stooj 
in  the  same  office  in  literature.  We  are  glad,  in  a  new  edition,  still  to  be- 
bold  the  old  face."— A«e  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  Sept.  9/A,  1850. 

From  Rev.  Dr.  Pond,  Bangor,  Me.  :— 

MI  need  not  say  that  I  admire  the  Assembly's  Catechism.  1  learned  it 
when  a  child,  and  can  repeat  it,  verbatim,  to  ttiis  day.  I  have  taught  it  to 
my  family  every  Sabbath,  ever  since  I  had  a  family.  Perhaps  to  no  other 
Uninspired  work,  unless  it  be  Watts'  Psalms  and  Hymns,  is  the  Church, 
using  the  English  language,  so  much  indebted,  as  to  the  Assembly's  Cat* 
-Ki—  ENOCH  POND." 


The  publisher  of  thi*  edition,  from  one  of  1777,  (wishing  to 
obtain  information  of  still  older  copies,)  would  say  that  he  has 
la  his  possession  three  Primers;  two  printed  in  Boston,  1770, 
1777,  and  one  in  Providence,  1775,  all  thi  same,  after  the  title 


ENGLAND    FK1MEK.— 1777. 


881 


The  Honorable  JOHN  HANCOCK,  Efq; 
Pr  efident  of  the  American  CONGRESS. 


A.  Divine  Song  of  Praifc  to  G  0  D ,  for  a  Child, 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  WATTS. 

JTWOW  glorious  is  our  heavenly  Kingt 
-*  •*-    Who  reigns  above  the  Sky  ! 
How  j hall  a  Child  prefume  to  Jlng 
His  dreadful  Majefly  ! 

Hoiv  great  his  Power  is  none  can  tell, 
Nor  think  how  large  his  Grace  : 

Nor  men  below,  nor  Saints  that  dwell 
On  high  before  his  Face. 

Nor  Angels  that  fi  and  round  the  Lord, 

Canfearch  his  fecret  will : 
But  they  perform' his  heav'nly  Wordt 

Andjing  his  Praifes  ftill. 

Then  let  me  join  this  holy  Tram^ 
And  myfirft  Off 'rings  bring ; 

The  eternal  GOt)  will  not  difdain 
To  hear  an  Infant  fmg. 

My  Heart  refolves,  my  Tongue  obeys. 

And  Angels  fh all  rejoice, 
To  hear  their  mighty  Maker's  Praife, 

Sound  from  a  feeble  Voice. 


THE 

NEW-ENGLAND 

PRIMER* 

IMPROVED 

the  more  eafy  attaining  the  tr 
reading  of  Englilh. 

TO      WHICH      IS      ADDED 


The  AfTembly  of  Divines,  and 

Mr.  COTTON'S  Catechifm. 

_^_^^^___^____^____^_____________  * 

BOSTON: 

< 

Printed  by  EDWARD  DRAPER,^, 
his  Printing-Office,  in  Newbury-* 
Street,  and  Sold  by  J  o  H  N  B  o  Y  L  E< 
in  Marlborough- Street.  1777. 


The  young  INFANT'S  or  CHILD'S  morn- 
ing  Prayer.     From  Dr.  WATTS. 

ALMIGHTY  God  the  Maker  of  ever) 
^^  Thing  in  Heaven  and  Earth;  the  Dark- 
nefs  goes  away,  and  the  Day  lisht  comes  at  thy 
Command.  Fhou  ari  good  and  doejl  good  con- 
tinually. 

I  thank  thee  that  thou  haft  taken  fuch  Care  of 
me  this  Night,  and  that  I  am  alioe  and  well  tnia 
Morning. 

Save  me.,  O  God,  from  Evil,  all  thif  Day  long, 
and  let  me  love  and  ferve  thee  forever,  for  the 
S*ke  ofJefus  C/injlthy  Son.  AMEN. 

The    INFANT'S  or    young    CHILD'S 
Evening  Prayer.     From  Dr.  WATTS. 

OLGRD  GoJuho  knovcejiall  Things,  thou 
fee' i  me  by  Night  as  well  as  by  Day. 
J  pray  iheefor  ChrifPs  Sake,  forgive  me  what- 
Joever  /  have  done  amifs  this  Day,  and  keep  me 
ail  this  Night,  while  I  am  ajlecp. 

I  tlcftre  to  lie  down  under  thy  Care,  and 
to  alnde,  forever  under  thy  BleJJing,  for  thou 
art  a  God  of  all  Power  and  everlajling  Merc*. 
AMEN. 


THE    NEW    ENGLAND    PR  MER— 1777. 


^^^^O^^W^W^^WWW^                      Eafy  Syllables.  &c. 

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f  g  h 

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a  e  i  o  u 

Confonants. 

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ka 
la 

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fi 

li 

ko 
lo 

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lu 

Sb  c  d  f  g  h  j  k 

1  m  n  p  q 

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fstvw 

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ma 

ma 

mi             mo 

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SR 

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no 

11  U 

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^(                   /faftc*  Letters.                   ^ 

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^              Italick  Double    Letters.              ^u 

Age 

Words  of  one  Syllable. 
all                  ape                 are 

]^fffiffiftffijkfiffffiji.p% 

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Cat 

beef 
cake 

beft 
crown 

bold 
ci:j> 

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dead 

dry 

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Great  Letter*. 

Words  of 

one  Syllable 

Eat 

ear 

Ccrcrs 

eye8 

A 

BCDEFGHIJ 
P  Q  K  S  T  U  W 

K  L  M 
XYZ. 

NO 

Face 
Gaie 
Hand 
Ice 

feet 
good 
hat 
ink 

fifh 
grafs 
head 
ifle 

foul 
great 
heart 
jobb 

Kick 

kind 

kneel 

know 

A* 

eb 

ib 

ob 

ub 

Lamb 

lame 

land 

lon<r 

ac 

ec 

ic 

oc 

uc 

Made 

mole 

moon 

mouth 

ad 

ed 

id 

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ud 

Name 

night 

noife 

noon 

»f 

ef 

if 

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once 

one. 

ounce 

au 

eg 

ig 

°g 

ug 

Pain 

pair 

pence 

pound 

dJ 

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queen 

quick 

quilt 

ak 

ek 

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ok 

ttk 

Rain 

raife 

rofe 

run 

al 

el 

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ol 

ul 

Saint 

fage 

fait 

faid 

am 

em 

im 

ora 

urn 

Take 

talk 

time 

throat 

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Vain 

vice 

vile 

view 

ap 
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er 

IP 
ir 

op 
or 

up 
ur 

Way 

wait 
Words  of 

wafte             would 
two  Syllables. 

«i 

es 

ii 

OS 

us 

Ab-fent 

ab-hor 

a-pron 

au-thor 

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et 

it 

ot 

ut 

Ba-bel 

be-came 

be-guile 

bold-ly 

%, 

ev 

iv 

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uv 

Ca-pon 

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con-ftant 

cub-hoard 

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ex 

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Dai-ly 

de-pend 

di-vers 

du-ty 

ti 

ez 

VI 

Of. 

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Ea-gle 

ea-ger 

en-close 

e-ven 

Fa-ther 

fa-mous 

fe-male 

fu-ture 

Eafy 

Ga-ther 

gar-den 

gra-vy 

glo-ry 

THE    NEW   ENGLAND    PRIMER.— 1777. 


383 


Words  of  two  Syllables. 


Hei-nous 

hate-ful 

hu-mane 

bus-band 

In-fant 

in-deed 

in-cence 

i-fland 

Ja-cob 

jeal-oas 

juf-tice 

ju-lep 

La-bour 

la-den 

la-dy 

la-zy 

Ma-ny 

ma-ry 

mo-live 

mu-fick 

Words  of  three  Syllables. 
A-bu-fing         a-mend-ing          ar-gu-ment 


Bar-ba-rous     be-ne-fit 
Cal-cu-late      can-dle-stick 
Dam-ni-fy       dif  fi-cult 
En.-ger-ly        em-ploy-ing 
Fa-cul-ty         fa-mi-ly 
Gar-de-ner      glo-ri-ous 
Hap-pi-ness    har-mo-ny 

Words  of  four  Sy 

A-bi-li-ty           ac-cnm-pa-ny 
Be-ne-fi-ted      be-a-ti-tude 
Ca-la~mi-ty       ca-pa-ci-ty 
De-li-ca-cy       di-li-gent-ly 
E-dy-fy-ing      e-ver-la(t-ing 
Fe-bru-a-ry      fi-de-li-ty 
Ge-ne-ral-ly     glo-ri-fy-ing 

be^-gar-ly 
con-foun-ded 
drow-fi-nefs 
evi-dence 
fu-ne-ral 
gra-ti-tude 
ho-li-nefs 

Uables. 

af-fec-li-on 
be-ne-vo-lent 
ce-re-mo-ny 
du-ti-ful-ly 
e-vi-dent-ly 
for-mi-da-bly 
gra-ci-ous-ly 

In  ADAM'S  Fall 
We  finned  all. 


Heaven  to  find, 
The  Bible  Mind. 


Chrift  crucify 'd 
For  Tinners  dy'd. 


1  be  Deluge  drown'd 
The  Earth  around. 


E  L  i  j  A  H  hid 
By  Ravens  fed. 


The  judgment  made 
F  E  L  i  i  afraid. 


Words  of  five  Syllables. 
A-bo-mi-na-ble  ad-mi-ra-ti-on 

Be-ne-dic-ti-on  be-ne-fi-ci-al 

Ce-Ie-bra-tl-on  con-fo-la-ti-on 

De-cla-ra-tUon  de-di-ca-ti-on 

E-du-ca-ti-on  ex-hor-ta-ti-on 

For-ni-ca-ti-on  fer-men-ta-ti-on 

Ge-ne-ra-ti-on  ge-ne-ro-fi-ty 

Words  of  fix  Syllables. 
A-bo-mi-na-ti-on          Gra-ti-fi-ca-ti-on 
Hu-mi-li-a-ti-on 
I-ma-gi-na-ti-on 
Mor-ti-fi-ca-ti-on 
Pu-ri-fi-ca-ti-on 


Be-ne-fi-ci-al-ly 
Con-ti-nu-a-ti-on 
I)e-ter-ini-na-ti-on 
E-di-fi-ca-ti-on 
Fa-mi -li-a-ri-ty 


Qua-li-fi-ca-ti-on 


A  Le/on  for  Children. 

Pray  to  God.  Call  no  ill  names. 

Love  God.  Ufe  no  ill  words. 

Fear  God.  Tell  no  lies. 

Serve  God.  Hate  Lies. 

Speak  the  Truth. 
Spend  your  Time  well 
Love  your  School. 


Name  in  vain. 
Do  not  Swear. 

Do  not  Steal.  Mind  your  Book. 

Cheat  not  in  your  play.  Strive  to  learn. 
Play  not  with  bad  boy  s.  Be  not  a  Duuce. 


As  runs  the  Glass, 
Our  Lite  doth  pass. 

My  Book  and  Heart 
Must  never  part. 


JOB  feels  the  Pod, 
Ye^bleffes  GOD. 


Proud  Koran's  troop 
Was  fwaMowed  up 

JL*  o  T  Hed  to  Zoar, 
Saw  fiery  Shower 
On  Sodom  pour. 

MOSES  was  he 
Who  IsraePs  Hoa 
Led  thro'  the  Sea. 


884 


THE    NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER.-1777. 


NOAH  did  view 
The  old  world  &  new 

Young  OBADIAS, 
D  A  v  i  D,  J  o  s  i  A  8 
Ail  were  pious. 

PETER  deny'd 
His  Lord  and  cry'd. 

Queen  ESTHER  fnes 
And  faves  the 


Young  piou«  RUTH, 
Left  all  tor  Ti  uth. 


Young  S  A  M  *  L 
The  Lord  did  iear. 


TI/'HO  was  the  firft  man  ? 

*  »      Who  was  the  firft  woman  ? 
Who  was  the  firft  Murderer  ? 
Who  was  the  firft  Martyr  ? 
Who  was  the  firft  Tranllated  ? 
Who  was  the  oldeft  Man 
Who  built  the  Ark? 
W  ho  was  the  Patienteft  Man  ? 
Who  was  the  Meekeft  Man? 
\V  ho  led  Ifrael  into  Canaan  ? 
Who  was  the  ftrongest  Man? 
AV ho  killed  Guliak? 
Who  was  tlie  wifeft  Man  • 
Who  was  in  the  Whale's  Belly? 


Adam. 
Eve 

Cain. 
Abel. 
Enoch. 
Methafelah. 
Npak. 
Job. 
Mofes. 
Jofhua. 
Sampfon. 
David. 
Solomon. 
Jonah. 


Who  faves  loft  Men  ?  Jefuf  Chrift. 

Who  is  Jefus  Chrift  ?  The  Son  of  God. 
Who  was  the  Mother  of  Chrift?  Mary. 
\\T  ho  betrayed  his  M  after  ?  Judas. 

Who  denied  his  Mailer  ?  Peter. 

Who  was  the  firft  Chriftian  Martyr  1  Stephen, 
Who  was  chief  Apoftle  of  the  Gentiles  ?PauL 

The  Infant's  Grace  before  and  after  Meat. 
TL>  LESS  me,  O  Lord,  and  let  my  food 
.1  .9  ftrengther  me  to  Terve  thee,  for  Jesus 
Thrift's  (ike.         AMEN. 

IDefire  to  thank  God  who  gives  me  food 
to  ea»  every  day  of  my  life.    AMEN. 


Young  TIMOTHY 
Learnt  fin  to  fly. 


V  AST  HI  for  Pride, 
Was  fet  alide. 


Whales  in  the  Sea, 
GOD's  Voice  obey. 


X  B  n  x  E  s  did  die, 
And  fo  muft  I. 


While  youth  do  chear 
Death  may  be  near. 

ZAccHEUshe 
Did  climb  the  Tree 
Our  Lord  to  fee. 


AT's  right  and  good  now  fhew  me 
Lord,  a.'id  lead  me  by  thy  grace  and 
word.  Thus  fhall  I  be  a  child  of  God,  and 
love  and  fear  thv  hand  and  rod. 


An  A 1  nli abet  of  Lejfons  for  Youth. 
\     Wife  fon  maketh  a  glad  fpther,  but  a 
•*  *   foolifhfon  istheheavinefsof  his  mother. 
"R  ^tter  is  a  little  with  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 
-*  *  than  great  treasure  &  trouble  therewith. 
Ome  unto  Chrift  all  y  j  that  labor  and  are 
hsavy  laden  and  he  will  give  you  reft. 

DO  not  the  abominable  thing  which  I  hate 
faith  the  Lord. 

j^Xcept  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot 
-•-^  fee  the  kingdom  of  God. 
"t^Oolifhnefs  is  bound  up  in  the  heart  of  a 
•*•     child,  but  the  rod  of  correction  fhall 
drive  it  far  from  him. 

GODLINESS  is  profitable  unto  all  things, 
having  the  promife  of  the  life  that  now 
is,  and  that  which  is  to  come. 


TJTOLINESS  becomes 
•*-••-  for  ever. 

IT  is  good  for  me  to 
GOD. 


G  O  D  '  s  houiV 
draw  near  unto 


THE    NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER.— 1777. 


3*8 


KEEP  thy  heart  with  all  diligence,  for 
out  of  it  are  the  ifiues  of  life. 
LIARS  lhall  have  their  part  in  the  lake 
which  burns  witli  fire  and  brimllone. 
TV'fANY  are  the  afflictions  of  the  right- 
^*-  ous,  but  the  LORD  delivereth  them 
out  of  them  all. 

TVTOW  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the 
-L^  day  of  falvation. 

OUT  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the 
mouth  fpeaketh. 

"O  RAY  to  thy  Father  which  is  in  fecret ; 
-*-  and  thy  Father  which  fees  in  fecret 
(hall  reward  thee  openly. 

aUlT  you  like  men,  be  flrong,  fland  faft 
in  the  faith. 

REMEMBER  thy  Creator  in  the  days 
of  thy  youth. 

SEeftthou  a  man  wife  in  his  own  conceit, 
there  is  more  hope  of  a  fool  than  of  him. 
nnilUST  in  God  at  all  times,  ye  people, 
-*-  pour  out  your  hearts  before  him. 
FT  PON  the  wicked,  God  (hall  rain  an 
^^  horrible  temppft. 

WO  to  the  wicked,  it  fhall  be  ill  with 
him,  for  the   reward   of  his    hands 
(hall  be  given  him. 

E"V~  IIORT  one  another  daily  while  it  is 
-**-  called   to  day,   left   any   of   }ou  be 
hardened  thro'  the  deceitfulnefs  of  fin. 
~%7~OIJNG   men   ye    have    overcome   the 
-•-    wicked  one. 

Eal  hath  confumed  me,  becaufe  thy  ene- 
mies  have  forgotten  the  word  of  God. 

The  LORD'S  Prayer. 
UR  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  hallow- 
ed  be  thy  name.  Thy  kingdom  come. 
Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  And  for- 
give us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 
And  lead  us  not  into  temptation.  But  deli- 
ver us  from  evil.  For  thine  is  the  kingdom, 
the  power  and  the  glory,  forever.  AMEN. 

The    CREED. 

1  BELIEVE  in  God  the  Father  Almighty 
*  M\ker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  in  Jefus 
Chrifl,  his  only  Son  our  Lord,  which  was  con- 
ceived by  the  Holy  Ghoft,  born  of  the  Virgin 
Maryjuffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  cru- 
citied,  dead  and  buried.  He  defcended  into 
hell.  The  third  day  he  arofe  again  from 
the  dead,  and  pfcended  into  heaven,  arid  lit- 
teth  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  the  Father, 


Almighty.  From  thence  he  fhall  come  to 
judge  both  the  quick  and  tho  de^d.  1  be- 
lieve in  the  Holy  Ghort,  the  Holy  Cat.noJic 
Church,  the  communion  of  Saints,  tlh  inr- 
givenefs  of  fins,  the  refurrection  of  the  body, 
and  the  life  everlafting.  AMEN. 


Dr.  WATTS'S  Cradle  Hymn. 
TIT  U  S  H  my  dear,  lie  flill  and   (lumber, 
•*--•-     holy  angels  guard- thy  bed, 
Heavenly  blerlings  without  number, 

gently  falling  on  thy  head. 
Sleep  my  babe,  thy  food  and  raiment 

houfe  and  home  thy  friends  provide, 
All  without  thy  care  or  paymeiu, 

all  thy  wants  are  well  fupply  d. 
How  much  better  thou'rt  atten  led, 

than  the  Son  of  God  could  be, 
When  from  heaven  he  defcended, 

and  became  a  child  like  thee. 
Soft  and  eafy  i?  thy  cradle, 

coarfe  and  hard  thy  Saviour  !ayf 
When  his  birth-place  was  a  liable, 

and  his  foftcft  bed  was  hay. 
Blellcd  Babe  !  wHt  glorious  features, 

fpotlefs  fair,  divinely  bright !  ! 
Muft  he  dwell  with  brutal  creatures, 

how  could  angels  hear  the  fight ! 
Was  there  nothing  but  a  manger, 

curled  finners  could  afford, 
To  receive  the  heavenly  ttranger  ; 

did  they  thus  affront  their  Lord. 
Soft  ray  child  I  did  not  chide  thee, 

tho'  my  fong  may  found  too  hard; 
Tis  thy  mother  fits  belide  thee, 

and  her  arms  fhall  be  thy  guard. 
Yet  to  read  'he  fhameful  ftbry, 

how  the  Jews  abus:d  their  King, 
How  they  ferv'd  tho  Lord  of  glory, 

makes  me  angry  while  1  fing. 
See  the  kinder  fhepherds  round  him, 

telling  wonders  from  the  fky  ; 
There  they  fought  him,  there  they  found  him, 

with  his  Virgin  Mother  by. 
See  the  lovely  Babe  a  drefliiig ; 

lovely  Infant  how  he  smilY. ! 
When  he  wept,  the  Mother's  bleffing 

sooth'd  and  huiTi'd  the  holy  chiid. 
Lo  !  he  flumbers  in  his  manger, 

where  the  horned  oxen  fed  ; 
Peace  my  darling  here's  no  danger, 

here's  no  Ox  a  near  thy  bed. 
Tuas  to  fave  thee,  child  from  dyi.ig 

fave  my  dear  from  burning  flame,        <Z 


THE    NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMES— 1777. 


Bitter  groans  and  endlefs  crying, 

that  ihy  bleft  Redeemer  came. 
May'ft  thou  live  to  know  and  fear  him, 

tiuft  and  love  him  all  thy  days  ! 
Then  go  dwell  for  ever  near  him, 

fee  his  face  and  ling  his  praife. 
I  could  give  thee  thorfand  kifles, 

hoping  what  I  moft  defire  : 
Not  a  mother's  fondeft  wifhes, 

can  to  greater  joys  afpire. 

VERSES  for  Children. 
HP  HOUGH  I  am  young  a  little  one, 
-*     If  I  can  fpeak  and  go  alone, 
Then  I  muft  learn  to  know  the  Lord, 
And  learn  to  read  his  holy  word. 
Tis  time  to  leek  to  God  and  pray 
For  what  I  want  for  every  day: 
I  have  a  precious  foul  to  fave, 
And  I  a  mortal  body  have, 
Tho'  I  am  young  yet  I  may  die, 
And  haften  to  eternity  : 
There  is  a  dreadful  fiery  hell, 
Where  wicked  ones  must  abT  ays  dwell : 
There  is  a  heaven  full  of  joy, 
Where  godly  ones  must  always  ftay : 
To  one  of  thefe  my  foul  must  lly, 
As  in  a  moment  when  1  die  : 


1  muft  obey  them  in  the  Uord. 
Nor  fleal,  nor  lie,  nor  fpend  my  days, 
In  idle  tales  and  foolifh  plays, 
I  muft  obey  my  Lord's  commands. 
Do  fomething  with  my  little  hands : 
Remember  my  creator  now, 
In  youth  while  time  will  it  allow. 
Young  SAMUEL  that  little  child, 
He  ferv'd  the  Lord,  liv'd  undehTd; 
Him  in  his  fervice  God  employ'd, 
While  ELI'S  wicked  children  dy'd : 
When  wicked  children  mocking  laid, 
To  a  good  man,  Go  up  bald  head, 
God  was  difpleas'd  with  them  and  fent 
Two  bears  which  them  in  pieces  rent, 
I  muft  not  like  thefe  children  vile, 
Difpleafe  my  God,  myfelf  defile. 
Like  young  A  B I  J  A  H  ,  I  muft  fee, 
That  good  things  may  be  found  in  me, 
Young  King  J  o  s  i  A  H  ,  that  bleiled  youth, 
He  fought  the  Lord  and  lov'd  the  truth  ; 
He  like  a  King  did  act  his  part, 
And  followed  God  with  all  his  heart. 
The  little  children  they  did  fing, 
Hofannahs  to  their  heavenly  King". 
That  bleifed  child  young  TIMOTHY, 
Did  learn  God's  word  moft  needfully. 


When  God  that  made  me,  cnlls  me  home, 

I  rnuft  not  stay  I  muft  be  gone. 

He  gave  me  life,  and  gives  me  breath, 

And  he  can  fave  my  foul  from  death, 

By  JESUS  CHRIST  my  only  Lord, 

According  to  his  holy  word. 

He  clothes  my  back  and  makes  me  warm : 

He  faves  my  liefh  and  bones  from  harm. 

He  gives  me  bread  and  milk  and  meat 

And  all  I  have  that's  good  to  eat. 

When  I  am  fick,  he  if  he  pleafe, 

Can  make  me  well  and  give  me  eafe : 

He  gives  me  deep  and  quiet  reft, 

Whereby  my  body  is  refrefh'd 

The  Lord  is  good  and  kind  to  me, 

And  very  thankful  I  muft  be  : 

I  muft  obf.y  and  love  and  fear  him, 

By  faith  in  Chrift  I  muft  draw  near  him. 

I  muft  not  fin  as  others  do, 

Left  I  lie  down  in  forrow  too  : 

For  God  is  angry  every  day, 

With  wicked  ones  who  go  altray, 

All  fin ful  words  I  must  reitrain  : 

I  muft  not  take  God's  name  in  vain. 

I  muft  not  work,  I  muft  not.  play, 

Upon  God's  holy  fabbath  day. 

And  if  my  parents  fpcak  the  word. 


It  feem'd  to  be  his  recreation, 
Which  made  him  wife  unto  ialvation  : 
By  faith  in  Chrift  which  he  had  gaiird 
With  prayers  and  tears  that  faith  unfeigit'd 
Thefe  good  examples  were  for  me  ; 
Like  thefe  good  children  I  must  be. 
Give  me  true  faith  in  Chrift  my  Lord, 
Obedience  to  his  holy  word, 
No  word  is  in  the  world  like  thine, 
There's  none  fo  pure,  fweet  and  divine. 
From  thence  let  me  thy  will  behold, 
And  love  thy  word  above  fine  gold. 
Make  my  heart  in  thy  ftatutes  found, 
And  make  my  faith  and  love  abound. 
Lord  circumcife  my  heart  to  love  thee: 
And  nothing  in  this  world  above  thee  : 
Let  me  behold  thy  pleafed  face, 
And  make  my  foul  to  grow  in  grace, 
And  in  the  knowledge  of  my  Lord 
And  Saviour  Chrift,  and  of  his  word. 
Another.     . 

AWAKE,  arife,  behold  thou  haft, 
Thy  Hfe  a  leaf,  thy  breath  a  blail , 
At  night  lay  down  prepared  to  have 
Thy  lleop,  thy  death,  thy  bed,  thy  grave. 
O  R  D  if  thou  lengthen  our,  my  days, 
•*-^  Then  let  my  heart  lo  fixed  he. 


THE    NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER.-1777. 


.    881 


That  I  may  lengthen  out  thy  praise, 
And  never  mm  alicie  from  thee. 

So  in  rny  end  I  fhall  rejoice, 
Jn  thy  falvation  joyful  be  ; 
My  foul  fliall  say  with  loud  glad  voice, 
JEHOVAH  who  is  like  to  thee  '< 

Who  takeR  the  Jambs  into  thy  arms, 
And  gently  leadefi  thofe  with  young, 
Who  faveit  children  from  all  harms, 
Lord,  I  will  praife  ihee  with  my  long. 

And  when  my  days  on  earth  lhall  end, 
And  I  go  hence  and  be  here  no  more, 
Gi/e  me  eternity  to  fpend, 
My  G  O  D  to  praife  forever  more. 

Another. 

Good  children  muft, 

Fear  God  all  day,       Lo\e  Chrift  alway, 
Parents  obey,  In  feeret  pray, 

No  falfe  thing  fay,      Mind  litile  play, 
By  110  fin  ftray,  Make  no  dt  lay, 

In  doing  good. 

Another. 

T  In  the  burying  place  may  foo 
-*-  Graves  fhortei  there  than  I. 
From  death's  arreft  no  age  is  free 

Youug  chil  Ten  too  muQ  die. 
My  God  may  fuch  an  awful  fight, 


L  tie  Sum  of  the  ten  Commandments. 

WITH  all  thy  foul  love  God  above, 
And  as  thyfelf  thy  neighbour  love. 
Advice  to  Youth.     Eccle.   xii. 
IVTOVV  in  the  heat  of  youthful  blood, 
-*-^    Remember  your  Creator  God  ; 
Behold  the  months  come  hafl'ning  on, 
When  you  fhall  fay,  My  joys  are  gone- 

Behold  the  aged  firmer  goes 
Laden    with   guilt  and  heavy  woes, 
Down  to  the  regions  of  the  dead, 
With  endlefs  curfes  on  his  head. 

The  duft  returns  to  duft  again, 
The  foul  in  agonies  of  pain, 
Afcends  to  God  not  there  to  dwell, 
But  hears  her  doom  and  links  to  hell. 
Eternal  King  I  fear  thy  name, 
Teach  me  to  know  how  frail  I  am, 
And  when  my  foul  muft  hence  remove, 
Give  me  a  manfion  in  thy  love. 
Remember  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth. 

CHILDREN  your  great  Creator  fear, 
To  him  your  homage  pay, 
"While  vain  employments  fire  your  blood, 

And  lead  your  thoughts  allray. 
The  due  remembrance  of  his  name 
Your  first  regard  requires  : 


Awakening  be  to  me ! 
Oh '  that  by  early  grace  I  might 
For  death  prepared  be. 
Another. 
7VTO  W  I  lay  me  down  to  take  my  flcep, 

I  pray  ike  Lord  my  foul  to  keep, 
If  Ijliould  die  before  I  wake, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  foul  to  take. 

Another. 

in  the  morning  when  thou  dofl  awake, 
To  God  for  his  grace  thy  petition  make, 
Some  heavenly  petition  ufe  daily  to  fay. 
That  the  God  of  heaven  may  bhfs  thee  alway. 
Duty  to  God  and  our  neighbour. 

LOVE  God  with  all  your  foul  &  ftrength, 
With  all  your  heart  and  mind  ; 
And  love  your  neighbour  as  yourfeif, 

Be  faithful,  jufl  and  kind. 
Deal  with  another  as  you'd  have 

Another  deal  with  you  : 
What  you're  unwilling  to  receive, 
Be  fure  you  never  do. 

Our  Saviour's   Golden  Rule. 

BE  you  to  others  kind  and  true, 
As  you'd  have  others  be  to  you : 
And  neither  do  nor  fay  to  men, 

Whate'er  you  would  not  take  again. 


Till  your  breafl  glows  with  facred  love, 

Indulge  no  meaner  fires. 
Secure  his  favour,  and  be  wife, 

Before  thefe  cheerlefs  days, 
When  age  comes  on,  when  mirth's  no  more 

And  health  and  ftrength  decays. 


Some  proper  Names  of  M  E  N  and  W  o  M  E  N  , 

to  teach  Children  to  fpeil  their  own. 

Men's  Names.        Elias,  Elizur, 

A  Dam,  Abel, 
Abraham, 

Frederick,  Francis, 
Gilbert,  Giles, 

Amos,  Aaron, 

George,  Gamalial, 

Abijcth,  Andrew, 

Gideon,  Gerlhom, 

Alexander,  Anthony, 

Heman,  Henry, 

Bartholomew, 

Hezekiah,  Hugh, 

Benjamin,  Barnabas. 

John,  Jonas,  liaac, 

Banoni,  Barzillai, 

Jacob,  Jared,  Job, 

Caleb,  Cajfar, 

James,  Jonathan, 

Charles,  Christopher, 

Ifrael,  Jofeph, 

Clement,  Cornelius, 

Jeremiah,  Jofhua, 

David,  Daniel, 

Jofiah,  Jedediah, 

Ephraim,  Edward, 

Jabez,  Joel,  Judah, 

Edmund,  Ebenezer, 

Lazarus,  Luke, 

Elijah,  Eliphalet, 

Mathew,  Michael, 

Elifha,  Eleazer, 

Mofes,  Malachi, 

Elihu,  Ezekiel, 

Nathaniel,  Nathan, 

THE    NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER.— 1777. 


Nicholas,  Noadiah, 
Nehemiah.  Noah, 
Obadiah,  Ozias. 
Paul,  Peter,  Philip, 
Phincas,  Peletiah, 
Ralph,  Richard, 
Samuel,  Sampfon, 
Stephen,  Solomon, 
Scih,  Simeon,  Saul, 


Shorn,  Shubal, 
Timothy,  Thomas, 
Til  us,  Theophilus, 
Uriah,  Uzzah, 
Walter,  William, 
Xerxes,  Xenophon, 
Zachariah,  Zebdiel 
Zedekiah,  Zadock, 
Zebulon,  Zebediah, 


Women's  Names. 


Bigail,  Anne, 
Aline,  Anna, 

Bntl  iah.  Bridget, 

Cloe,  Charity, 

Deborah,  Dorothy, 

Dorcas,  Dinah, 

Damans, 

Elizabeth,  Efther, 

Eunice,  Eleanor. 

Frances.  Flora, 

Grace,  Gillet, 

Hannah,  Huldah, 

Hepzibah, 

Henrietta,  Hagar. 

Joanna,  Jane, 

Jamima,  Ifabel, 


Judith,  Jennet, 
Katharine,  Katura, 
Kezia.  Lydia, 
Lucretia,  Lucy, 
Louis,  Lettice, 
Mary,  Margaret, 
Martha,  Me  hi  table, 
Marcy,  Merial, 
Patience.  Phylis, 
Phebe,  Prifcilla, 
Rachel,  Rebecca, 
Ruth,  Rhode,  Rofo, 
S  Sarah,  Sufanna, 
Tabitha,  Tamefin, 
Urfula, 
Zipporah,  Zibiah. 


Some  few  days  before  his  death,  he  wrote  the 
following  Advice  to  his  Children. 

GIVE  ear  my  children  to  my  words 
Whom  God  hath  dearly  bought, 
Lay  up  his  laws  within  your  heart, 

and  print  them  in  your  thoughts. 
I  leave  you  here  a  little  book 

for  you  to  look  upon, 
That  you  may  fee  your  father's  face 

when  he  is  dead  and  gone  : 
Who  for  the  hope  of  heavenly  things 

While  he  did  here  remain, 
Gave  over  all  his  golden  years 

to  prifon  and  to  pain. 
Where  1,  among  my  iron  bands, 

inclofed  in  the  dark, 
Not  many  days  before  my  death, 

1  did  compofe  this  work  : 
And  for  example  to  your  youth, 

lo  whom  I  wilh  all  good, 
I  fend  you  here  God's  perfect  truth, 

and  leal  i    with  my  blood. 
To  you  my  heirs  of  earthly  things: 

which  i  do  leave  behind, 
That  you  may  read  and  underftand 

and  keep  it  in  your  mind. 
That  as  you  have  been  heirs  of  that 


MR.  JoHNRooERS,  minifler  of  the 
gofpel  in  London,  was  the  firit  mar- 
tyr in  Queen  MARY'S  reign,  and  was 
burnt  at  Smithfeld,  February  14, 1554. — His 
wife  with  nine  small  children,  and  one  at 
her  breast  following  him  to  the  ftake  ;  with 
which  foirowful  fight  he  w?_s  not  in  the 
leaft  daunted,  but  with  wonderful  patience 
died  courageoully  for  the  gofpel  of  J  B  s  u  & 

C  HEIST. 


that  once  (hall  wear  away, 
You  alfo  may  poflefs  that  part, 

which  never  fliall  decay. 
Ke*p  always  God  before  your  eyes, 

with  all  your  whole  intent, 
Commit  no  (in  in  any  wife, 

keep  his  commandment. 
Abhor  that  arrant  whore  of  R  o  M  B , 

and  all  her  blafphemies, 
And  drink  not  of  her  curfed  cup, 

obey  not  her  decrees. 
Give  honor  to  your  mother  dear, 

remember  well  her  pain, 
And  recompence  her  in  her  age, 

with  the  like  love  again. 
Be  always  ready  for  her  help, 

and  let  her  not  decay, 
Remember  well  your  father  all, 

who  would  have  been  your  flay 
Give  of  your  portion  to  the  poor, 

as  riches  do  arife, 
And  from  the  needy  naked  foul, 

turn  not  away  your  eyes  : 
For  he  that  doth  not  hear  the  cry 

of  thofe  that  ftand  in  need, 
Shall  cry  himfelf  and  not  be  heard, 

when  he  does  hope  to  fpeed. 


THE    NE\V    ENGLAND    PRIMER  — 1777. 


3S9 


If  GOD  liath  given  you  increafe, 

and  blelied  well  )our  iiore. 
Remember  you  are  put  in  trult, 

and  liiould  relieve  the  poor. 
Beware  of  foul  and  filthy  lull, 

let  fuch  things  have  no  place, 
Keep  clean  your  veffels  in  the  LORD, 

that  he  may  you  embrace. 
Ye  are  the  temples  of  the  LORD, 

for  you  are  dearly  bought, 
And  they  that  do  defile  the  fame, 

(hall  finely  come  to  nought. 
Be  never  proud  by  any  means, 

build  not  your  houfe  too  high, 
But  always  have  before  your  eyos, 

that  you  are  born  to  die. 
Defraud  not  him  thai  hired  is, 

your  labour  to  fultain, 
But  pay  him  flill  without  delay, 

his  wages  for  his  pain. 
And  as  you  would  that  other  men 

againll  you  fhould  proceed,. 
Do  you  the  fame  to  them  again, 

when  they  do  (land  in  need.  , 

Impart  vour  poition  to  the  pnorf 

in  money  and  in  meat 


a.  d  you  enjoy  the  land, 
I  do  befeech  the  living  LOUD, 
'.      to  hold  you  in  his  hand. 
Though  here  my  body  be  adjudg'd 

in  flaming  fire  to  fry, 
My  foul  I  tnift,  will   Itraight  afceud 

to  live  with  GOD  on  high. 
What  though  this  carcufe  (mart  awhile 

what  though  this  life  decay, 
My  foul  1  hope  will  be  with  GOD, 

and  live  with  him  for  aye. 
I  know  I  am  a  fmrier  born, 

from  the  original, 
And  that  I  do  deferve  to  die 

by  my  fore -father's  fall : 
But  by  our  SAVIOUR'S  precious  blood, 

which  on  the  crofs  was  fpilt, 
Who  freely  oflei'd  up  his  life, 

to  fave  our  fouls  from  guilt ; 
I  hope  redemption  I  fhall  have, 

and  all  who  in  him  truft, 
When  I  fhall  fee  him  face  to  face, 

and  live  among  the  jufl. 
Why  then  ihould  I  fear  death's  grrim  look 

fmce  CHRIST  for  me  did  die", 
For  Kiiig  and  C<#/ar,  rich  and  poor, 

the  force  of  death  mult  try 


And  fend  the  feeble  fainting  foul, 

of  that  which  you  do  eat. 
Afk  counfefr  always  of  the  wife, 

give  ear  unto  the  end, 
And  ne'er  refufs  the  fvveet  rebuke 

of  him  that  is  thy  friend. 
Be  always  thankful  to  the  LORD, 

with  prayer  and  with  praife, 
Begging  of  him  to  blefs  your  work, 

and  to  direct  your  ways. 
Seek  fiift,  I  fay,  the  living  GOD, 

and  always  him  adore, 
Arid  then  be  fure  that  he  will  blefs, 

your  bafket  and  your  (lore. 
And  I  befeech  Almighty  GOD, 

repleriifh  you  with  gi'ace, 
That  I  may  meet  you  in  the  heavens, 

and  fee  you  face  to  face. 
And  though  the  fire  my  body  burns, 

contrary  to  my  kind, 
That  I  cannot  enjoy  your  love 

according  to  my  mind  : 
Yet  I  do  hope  that  when  the  heavens 

ihall  variilh  like  a  fcroll, 
I  Ihall  fee  you  in  perfect  lhape, 

in  body  and  in  foul. 
And  that  I  may  enjoy  your  love, 


Wnen  I  arn  chained  to  the  (lake, 

and  fagots  girt  me  round, 
Then  pray  the  LORD  my  foul  in  heaven 

may  be  with  glory  crown'd. 
Come  welcome  death  the  end  of  fears, 

I  am  prepar'd  to  die  : 
Thofe  earthly  flames  will  fend  my  foul 

up  to  the  Lord  on  high. 
Farewell  my  children  to  the  world, 

where  you  mult  yet  remain  ; 
The  LORD  of  holts  be  your  defence, 

'till  we  do  meet  again. 
Farewell  my  true  and  loving  wife, 

my  children  and  my  friends, 
I  hope  in  heaven  to  fee  you  ail, 

when  all  things  have  their  end. 
If  you  go  on  to  ferve  the  LORD, 

as  you  have  now  begun, 
You  (hall  walk  fafcly  all  your  days, 

until  your  life  be  done. 
GOD  grant  you  fo  to  end  your  days, 

as  h"  (hall  think  it  belt," 
That  1  may  meet  you  in  the  heavens, 

where  1  do  hope  to  reft. 

UR  days  begin  with  trouble  here, 
our  life  i^  but  a  Ipau, 


THE   NEW   ENGLAND   PRIMER.— 1777. 


And  cruel  death  is  always  near, 

fo  frail  a  thing  is  man. 
Then  fow  the  feeds  of  grace  whilft  young, 

that  when  thou  com'ft  to  die, 
Thou  may'fl  ling  forth  that  triumph  fong, 

Death  where's  thy  victory. 

Choice  Sentences. 

1.  PRAYING  will  make  us  leave  finning, 
or  finning  will  make  us  leave  praying. 

2.  OUR    weaknefs  and  inabilities  break 
not  the  bond  of  our  duties. 

3.  W  H  A  T  we  are  afraid  to  fpeak  before 
men,  we  Ihould  be  afraid  to  think  before 
OOP. 

Learn  thcfe  four  lines  by  heart. 

HAVE  communion  with  few, 
Be  intimate  with  ONE, 
Deal  juflly  with  all. 
Speak  evil  of  none. 

A  G  U  R  '  s  Prayer. 

1T>  E  M  O  V  E  far  from  me  vanities  and 
•*-*'  lies  ;  give  me  neither  poverty  nor 
riches ;  feed  me  with  food  convenient  for 
me  :  left  I  be  full  and  deny  thee,  and  fay, 
Who  is  the  Lord  ?  Or  left  I  be  poor  and 
fteal  and  take  the  name  of  my  GOD  in  vain. 


A.  There  is  but  ONE  only,  the  living  and 
true  GOD. 

Q.  6.  How  many  persons  are  there  in  the 
God-head  ? 

A.  There  are  three  perfons  in  the  God- 
head, the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghoit,  and  thei'e  three  are  one  GOD,  the 
fame  in  fubftance,  equal  in  power  and  glory. 

Q.  7.    What  are  the  decrees  of  God  ? 

A.  The  decrees  of  God  are  his  eternal 
purpofe,  according  to  the  counfel  ot  his  own 
will,  whereby  for  his  own  glory  he  hath 
fore-ordained  whatlbever  comes  to  pafs. 

Q.  8.    How  doth  God  execute  his  decrees  ? 

A.  God  executeth  his  decrees  in  the 
works  of  creation  arid  providence. 

Q.  9.    What  is  the  work  of  creation  ? 

A.  The  work  of  creation  is  God's  making 
all  things  of  nothing  by  the  word  of  his  pow- 
er, in  the  fpace  of  fix  days, and  all  very  good 

Q.   10.  How  did  God  create  man  ? 

A.  God  created  man  male  <fe  female  after 
his  own  image,  in  knowledge,  righteoufnela 
and  holinefs,  with  dominion  over  the  creatures 

Q.  11.  What  are  God's  works  uf providence? 

A.  God's  works  of  providence  are  his  moft 
holy,wife  and  powerful,prefervirig  &  govern- 


THE 


B3 


CATECHISM, 

Agreed  upon  by  the  Reverend  Afiembly  of 

DIVINES  at  Wejtminfler. 
/-),.  -A     \fy*H  A  T  is  the  chief  end  of  man  ? 

^*  W    W  J          /*        A  1"  1  1      '        /»  1       * 

AnJ.  Mans  chiei    end  is  to 
glorify  God  and  enjoy  him  forever. 

Q.  2,  What  rule  hath  God  given  to  di- 
rect us  how  we  may  glorify  and  enjoy  him  ? 

A.   The  word  of  God  which  is  contained 
in  the  fcriptures  of  the  old  and  new  tefta- 
ment  is  the  only  rule  to  direct  us  how  we 
may  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him. 
Q.3.  What  do  the  fcriptures  principally  teach? 

A.  The  fcriptures  principally  teach  what 
man  is  to  believe  concerning  God,  and  what 
duly  God  requireth  of  man. 

Q.  4.   What  is  God? 

A.  God  is  a  fpirit,  infinite,  eternal,  and 
unchangeable,  in  his  being,  wifdom,  power, 
holinefs,  juflice,  goodnefs  and  truth 

Q.  5.  Are  there  more  Gods  than  one  i 


ing  all  his  creatures  and  all  their  actions. 

Q.  12.  What  J pedal  act  of  providence 
did  God  exercife  towards  man  in  the  ejtate 
wherein  he  was  created  ? 

A.  When  God  had  created  man,  he  en- 
tered into  a  covenant  of  life  with  him  upon 
condition  of  perfect  obedience,  forbidding 
him  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil,  upon  pain  of  death. 

Q.  13.  Did  our  firfl  parents  continue  in 
the  ejlite  wherein  they  were  created  ? 

A.  Our  firft  parents  being  left  to  the  freedom 
>f  their  own  will,  fell  from  the  eltate  wherein 
they  were  created,  by  finning  againft  God. 

Q.   14.    What  is  fin? 

A.  Sin  is  any  want  of  conformity  unto, 
or  tranfgieilion  of  the  law  of  God. 

Q.  15.  What  was  the  fin  whereby  our  fir/) 
parents  fell  from  the  ejtate  wherein  they  were 
created  'f 

A.  The  fin  whereby  our  firft  parents  fell 
from  the  ellate  wherein  they  were  created, 
was  their  eating  the  forbidden  fruit. 

Q.  16,  Did  all  mankind  fall  in  Adam's 
firft  transgrefjlon  ? 

A.  The  covenant  being  made  with  Adam, 
not  only  for  himfelf,  but  for  his  poherity, 


THH    KJEVF    ENGLAND    PRIMER —1777. 


891 


all  mankind  defcendincrfrom  him  by  ordina- 
ry generation,  finned  in  him,  and  fell  whh 
him  in  his  fir  it  traiifgreffion, 

Q.  17.  Into  what  ejiate  did  the  fall  bring 
mankind  ? 

A,  The  fall  brought  mankind  into  an  es- 
tate of  fin  and  mifery. 

Q.  18.  Wherein,  confifis  the  finfulnefs  oj 
that  eftate  wbercinto  man  fell  ? 

A.  The  finfulnefs  of  that  eftate  whereinto 
man  fell,  coniilts  in  the  guilt  of  Adam's  firft 
fin,  the  wantof  original  righteoii8iiefs,&  the 
corruption  of  his  whole  nature, which  is  com- 
monly called  original  fin,  together  with  ail 
actual  tran  fgreffiuns  which  proceed  from  it. 

Q.  19.  What  is  the  nufery  of  that  eftate 
tolicrcinto  man  jtll  ? 

A.  All  mankind  by  the  fall  loft  commu- 
nion with  God,  are  under  his  wrath  &  curie, 
and  fo  made  liable  to  the  miferies  in  this  life, 
to  death  itfelf,  &  to  the  pains  of  hell  forever. 

Q.  20.  Did  God  leave  all  mankind  to  per- 
r,fh  in  the  j  late  of  fin  <i)idmijery  ? 

A.  God  having  out  of  his  mere  good 
pleafure  from  all  eternity  elected  foine  to 
everlaiting  life,  did  enter  into  a  cove- 

nl  «  f  grace,  to  deliver  them  out  of  a  (late 


A.  Chrift  exftcuteth  the  office  of  a  prielt  in 
his  once  offering  up  himfelf  a  facrifice  to  fa- 
tiffy  divine  justice,  and  reconcile  us  to  God, 
and'  in  making  continual  interoeilion  for  us. 

Q.  26.  How  doth  Chnjt  execute  the  office 
of  a  king  ? 

A.  Chrifl  executeth  the  office  of  a  king 
in  fubduing  us  to  himfelf,  in  ruling  and  de- 
fending us,  and  in  retraining  and  conquer- 
ing all  his  and  our  enemies. 
Q27  Wherein  did  Chrijt's  humiliation  conjlft? 

A.  Chrift's  humiliation  conlilted  in  his 
being  born  and  that  in  a  low  condition,  made 
under  the  law,  undergoing  the  miferies  of 
this  life,  the  wrath  of  God,  and  the  curfcd 
death  of  the  crofs,  in  being  buried  and  con- 
tinuing under  the  power  of  death  for  a  time. 

Q.28.  Wherein  confijls  Chrijt's  exaltation? 

A  ChrilVs  exaltation  conliiteth  in  his  ri- 
fmg  again  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day, 
in  afcending  up  into  heaven,  and  lilting  at 
the  right  hand  of  God  the  Father,  and  in 
coming  to  judge  the  world  at  the  last  day. 

Q.  29.  How  are  we  made  partakers  of  the 
redemption  purchased  by  Chrifl  ? 

A.  We  are  made  partakers  of  the  redemp- 
tion purchafed  by  Chrifl  by  the  effectual  ap- 


of  fin  and  mifery,  and  to  bring  them  into  a 
ftale  of  ialvation  by  a  Redeemer. 

Q.  21 .  Who  is  tfte  Redeemer  of  God's  elect? 

A.  The  only  Redeemer  of  God's  elect,  is 
the  Lord  Jefns  ChriH,  who  being  the  eternal 
Son  of  God,  became  man.  and  fo  was,  arid 
continues  to  be  God  and  man,  in  two  dif- 
tinct  natures,  and  one  perfon  forever. 

Q.  22.  How  did  Chnjl  being  the  Son  of 
God  become  man  ? 

A .  Chrift  the  Son  of  God  became  man  by 
taking  to  himfelf  a  true  body  and  a  refona- 
ble  foul,  being  conceived  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghoit,  in  the  womb  of  the  virgin 
Mary,  and  born  of  her,  and  yet  without  fin. 

Q.  23.  What  offices  doth' Chrifl  execute 
as  cur  Redeemer  ? 

A.  Chrift  as  our  Redeemer  executes  the  of- 
fice of  a  prophet,  of  a  prieft,  &  of  a  king,  both 
in  his  eliate  of  humiliation  and  exaltation. 

Q.  24.  How  doth  Chnfi  execute  the  ojp.ce 
of  a  prophet  ? 

A.  Chrill  executeth  the  office  of  a  pro- 
phet in  revealing  to  us  by  his  word  and  fpi- 
rit,  the  will  of  God  for  our  fal\  ation. 

Q.  25.  How  doth  Chrift  execute  the  office 
of  a  priejl  ? 


plication  of  it  to  us  by  his  holy  Spirit. 

Q.  30.  How  doth  the  Spirit  apply  to  us 
the  redemption  purchafed  by  Chrijt  f 

A.  The  Spirit  appiieth  to  us  the  redemp- 
tion purchafed  by  Chrift,  by  working  faith 
in  us,  and  thereby  uniting  us  to  Chrilt  in 
our  effectual  calling. 

Q.  31 .    What  is  effectual  calling  ? 

A.  Effectual  calling  is  the  work  of  God's 
Spirit,  whereby  convincing  us  of  our  fin  and 
nnfery,  enlightening  our  minds  in  the  k new- 
ledge  of  Chrili,  and  renewing  our  wills,  he 
doih  perfuade  and  enable  us  to  embrace  Je- 
fus  Chrifl,  freely  offered  to  us  in  the  gofpel. 

Q.  32.  What  benefits  do  they  that  are  ef- 
fectually called  partake  of  in  this  life  ? 

A.  They  that  are  effectually  called  do  in 
this  life  partake  of  juftification,  adoption, 
and  fanctification,  and  the  feveral  benefits 
which  in  this  life  do  either  accompany  or 
flow  from  them. 

Q.  33.    What  is  juflif  cation  ? 

A.  J unification  is  an  act  of  God's  free 
grace,  wherein  he  pardoneth  all  our  {Ins, 
and  accepteth  us  as  righteous  in  his  fight, 
only  for  the  righteoufnefs  of  Chi iit  imputed 
to  us,  and  r3ceived  by  faith  alone. 


THE   NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER.-1777. 


Q.  34.    What  is  adoption  ? 

A*  Adoption  is  an  act  of  God's  free  grace, 
whereby  we  are  received  into  the  number, 
and  have  a  right  to  all  the  privileges  of  tLe 
ions  of  God. 

Q.  35.    What  is  fanctif  cation  ? 

A.  Sarictification  is  the  work  of  God's 
free  grace,  whereby  we  are  renewed  in  the 
whole  man,  after  the  image  of  God,  and  are 
enabled  more  and  more  to  die  unto  fm,  and 
live  unto  righteoufnefs. 

Q.  36.  What  are  the  benefits  which,  in  tin* 
life  do  accompany  or  flow  from  justification, 
adoption  and  fanctification  ? 

A.  The  benefits  which  in  this  life  do  ac- 
company or  flow  from  j unification,  adoption 
and  fanctification,  are  allurance  of  God's 
iove,  peace  of  confceince,  joy  in  the  holy 
Ghoft,  increase  of  grace,  and  perfeverance 
therein  to  the  end. 

Q.  37.  What  I cne fits  do  believers  receive 
from  Chrift  at  their  death  ? 

A.  The  fouls  of  believers  are  at  their 
death  made  perfect  in  holinefs,  and  do  im- 
mediately pafs  into  glory,  and  their  bodies 
being  (till  united  to  Chrift  do  reft  in  theii 
graves  'till  the  refurrection. 


commandments  ? 

A.  The  preface  to  the  ten  command- 
merits  is  in  thefe  words,  /  am  the  Lord  thy 
God  which  have  brought  thce  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  and  out  of  the  honfe  of  bondage. 

Q.  44.  What  doth  the  preface  to  the  ten 
commandments  teach  us  ? 

A.  The  preface  to  the  ten  commandments 
teacheth  us,  that  becaufe  God  is  the  Lord,  and 
our  God  and  Redeemer,  therefore  we  are 
bound  to  keep  all  his  commandments. 

Q.  45.    Which  is  thejirst  commandment  ? 

A.  The  tirft  commandment  is,  ThouJhMt 
have  no  other  Gods  before  me. 

Q.  46  What  is  required  in  the  firjt  com- 
mandment ? 

A.  The  firft  commandment  requireth  us 
to  know  and  acknowledge  God,  to  be  die 
only  true  God,  and  our  God,  and  to  wor- 
fhip  and  glorify  him  accordingly. 

Q.  47.  What  is  forbidden  in  the  first  corn- 
man  dment  ? 

A.  The  firft  commandment  forbiddeth 
the  denying  or  not  wort  hipping  and  glorify- 
ing the  true  God,  as  God,  and  our  God,  an.l 
the  giving  that  worfhip  and  glory  to  any 
otner  which  is  due  to  him  aloue. 


Q.  38.  What  bencfts  do  believers  receive 
from  Chrift  at  the  resurrection  ? 

A.  At  the  rcfuriec.tion  believers  being 
railed  up  to  glory,  shall  be  openly  acknow- 
ledged and  acquitted  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, and  made  perfectly  bleffed  in  the  full 
enjoyment  of  God  to  all  eternity. 

Q.  39.  What  is  the  duti/  which  God  re- 
•fuires  of  man  ? 

A.  The  duty  which  God  lequires  of  man, 
is  obedience  to  his  revealed  will. 

Q.  40.  What  did  God  at  firft  reveal  tv 
man  for  the  rule  of  his  obedience  ? 

A.  The  rule  which  God  at  firft  revealed  to 
man  for  his  obedience  was  the  moral  la.w. 

Q.  41.  Where  is  the  moral  law  fummarily 
comprehended  ? 

A «  The  moral  law  is  fummarily  compre- 
hended in  the  ten  commandments. 

Q.  42.  What  is  the  fum,  of  the  ten  com- 
mandments ? 

A.  The  fum  of  the  ton  commandments 
is,  to  love  the  Lord  our  God  with  all  our 
heart,  with  all  orr  foul,  with  all  our 
llrength,  and  \vith  all  our  mind,  and  our 
neighcxMT  as  ounelves. 

Q.  43.    What   is  the  preface  to   the  ten 


Q.  48.  What  are  we  efpccially  taught  by 
thefe  words  (before  me)  in  the  firjt,  command- 
ment ? 

A.  Thefe  v/ords  (before  me]  in  the  firft 
commandment,  teach  us,  that  God  who  feeth 
all  things,  take-th  notice  of  and  is  much  dif- 
pleafed  with  the  fm  of  having  any  other  God. 

Q.  49.   Which  is  the  fecond  commandment  ? 

A.  The  fecond  commandment  is,  Thou 
Pialt  not  make  unto  thee  a?<,y  graven  image,  or 
the  likeness  of  any  thing  that  is  in  heaven  a- 
bove,  or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that 
is  in  the  water  under  the  earth  ;  thou  fkalt  not 
bow  down  thyfelf  to  them  nor  serve  them,  for 
I  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,  vifiting 
the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children, 
unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of  them 
that  hate  me  and  jliewing  mercy  unto  t/toufands 
of  them  that  love  me  <J-  keep  my  commandments. 

Q.  50.  What  is  required  in  the  fecond 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  fecond  commandment  requireth 
the  receiving,  obferving,&  keeping  pure  ami 
entire  all  inch  religious  worfhip  and  ordinan- 
ces, as  God  hath  appointed  in  his  word. 

Q.  51.  What  is  forbidden  in  the  fecond 
com/nan J me nt  ? 


THE    NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER.— 1777. 


803 


A.  The  fecoml  commandment  torbiddeth 
the  wori hipping  of  God  by  iiiiiigei  or  any 
other  vvay  not  appointed  in  his  word. 

Q.  52.  What  are  the  rcafons  annexed  to 
the  ftcond  commandment  ? 

A.  The  reafons  annexed  to  the  fecond 
commandment,  are  God's  ibvereignty  over 
us,  his  propriety  in  us,  and  the  zeal  he  hath 
to  his  own  worlhip. 

O.   53.    Which  is  the  third  commandment  ? 

A.  The  third  commandment  is,  Thou 
fkalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God 
in  vain,  for  the  Lord  will  not  hold  him  guilt- 
Ufs,  that  takcth  his  name  in  vain. 

Q.  54.  What  is  required  in  the  third 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  third  commandment  requireth  the 
holy  and  reverent  ufe  of  God's  names,  titles, 
attributes,  ordinances,  word  and  works. 

Q.  55.  What  is  forbidden  in  the  third 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  third  commandment  forhiddeth 
all  profaning  or  abiding  of  any  thing 
whereby  God  maketh  himlelf  known. 

Q.  56.  What  is  the  reafou  annexed  Co  the 
third  commandment  ? 


A.  Frorn  the  beginning  of  the  world,  to 
tfie  refurrection  of  Chrift,  God  appointed 
the  feventh  day  of  the  week  to  be  Jie 
weekly  fabbath,  and  the  firft  day  of  the 
week  ever  lince  to  continue  to  the  end  of 
the  world,  which  is  the  Chriflian  Sabbath. 

Q.  60.  How  in  the  fabbath  to  befdnctifed  ? 

A.  The  fabbath  is  to  be  fanctified  by  an 
holy  refting  all  that  day,  even  from  fuch 
worldly  employments  and  recreations  as  are 
lawful  on  other  days,  and  fpending  the  whole 
time  in  public  and  private  exercifes  of  God's 
worfhip,  except  fo  much  as  is  to  be  taken 
up  in  the  works  of  nwcelllty  and  mercy. 

Q.  6i.  What  is  forbidden  m  the  fourth 
commandment  ? 

A.  Tne  fourth  commandment  forbiddeth, 
the  omiilion  or  carelei's  performance  of  the 
duties  required,  and  the  profaning  the  day  by 
idlenefs,or  doing  that  which  is  in  itfelf  finftu, 
or  by  unnecefi'ary  thoughts,  woids  or  works, 
about  worldly  employments  or  recreations. 

Q.  62.  What  are  the  reafons  annexed  to 
the  fou  rth  corn  mi  w  drum  t  ? 

A.  The  reafons  annexed  to  the  fourth  com- 
mandment, are  God's  allowing  us  lix  days  of 
the  week  for  our  own  employment,  his  chal- 


A.  The  rp,;i.fon  annexed  to  the  third  com- 
mandment is,  That  however  the  breakers  of 
this  commandment  may  elcape  punifhment 
from  men,  yet  the  Lord  our  God  will  not 
fuller  them  to  efcape  his  ri.-jfhteous  jiulgmenV 

Q.  57.  Which  is  the  fourth  commandment  ? 
A.  The  fourth  commandment  is,  Remember 
the  fabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy,  fix  days  Jhalt 
thou  labor  and  do  all  thy  work,  but  the  fe- 
venth day  is  the  fabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God, 
in  it  thou  ptatt  not  do  any  work,  thou  nor  thy 
fon,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man-fcrvant,  ~ior 
thy  -Maid  fervant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  the 
ftranger  that  is  within  thy  gates,  for  in  fix 
days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the 
fea  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  refied  the 
feventh  day,  wherefore  the  Lord  bleffed  the 
fabbath  day  and  hallouied  it. 

Q.  58.  What  is  required  in  the  fourth 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  fourth  commandment  requireth, 
the  keeping  holy  to  God  fuch  fet  times  as 
he  hath  appointed  in  his  word,  exprefHy  one 
whole  day  in  leven  to  be  an  holy  Sabbath 
to  hirnfelf. 

Q.  59.  Which  day  of  the  feven  hath  God 
appointed  to  be  the  weekly  fabbath  ? 


lending  a  special  propriety  in  the  feventh,hia 
own  example, &  his  bidding  the''  fabbath  day. 

Q.  63.  W hich  is  the ffth  commandment? 

A.  The  fifth  commandment  is,  Honor  thy 
fat  her  and  thy  mother,  that  thy  days  maybe  long 
upon  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  Godgircth  ihee. 

Q.  64.  What  is  required  in  the  fifth  com- 
mandment ? 

A.  The  fifth  commandment  requireth  the 
preferring  the  honor,  and  performing  the 
duties  belonging  to  every  one  in  their  feve- 
ra.1  places  and  relations,  as  fuperiars,  infe- 
riors, or  equals. 

Q.  65  What  is  forbidden  in  the  ffth 
commandment  ? 

A.'r\it  fifth  commandment  forbiddeth  the 
neglecting  of,  or  doing  any  thing  against  the 
honour  and  duty  which  belongeth  to  every 
one  in  their  feverai  places  and  relations. 

Q  6fi.  What  is  the  reason  annexed  to  the 
fifth  commandment  ? 

A.  The  reason  annexed  to  the  fifth  com- 
mandment is  a  promife  of  long  life  and  prof- 
perity,  (as  far  as  it  ihall  ferve  for  God's  glo- 
ry and  their  own  good)  to  all  fuch  as  keep 
this  commandment, 

Q.  67.   Which  is  the  fixth  commandment  t 


Kf, 


THE   NEW    ENGLAND    PRIME  R.— 1777. 


A.  The  fixth  commandment  is,  Thou 
(halt  not  kill. 

Q.  68.  What  is  required  in  the  fixth  com- 
mandment  ? 

A.  The  lixth  commandment  requireth  all 
lawful  endeavors  to  preferve  our  own  life, 
and  the  life  of  others. 

Q.  69.  W  hat  is  forbidden  in  the  fixth  com- 
mandment ? 

A.  The  fixth  commandment  forbiddeth 
the  taking  away  of  our  own  life,  or  the  life  of 
our  neighbour  unjuftly,  and  whatsoever  ten- 
deth  thereunto. 

Q.  70.  Which  is  thefeventh  commandment  ? 

A.  The  feventh  commandment  is,  Thou 
(halt  not.  commit  adultery. 

Q.  71.  What  is  required  in  the  feventh 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  feventh  commandment  requireth 
the  prefervation  of  our  own  and  our  neigh- 
bor's chastity,  in  heart,  speech  &  behaviour. 

Q.  72.  What  is  forbidden  in  the  feventh 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  feventh  commandment  forbiddeth 
all  uiichafte  thoughts,  words  and  actions. 

Q.  73.  Which  is  the  eighth  commandment  ? 

A.  The  eighth  commandment  is,   Thou 


A.  The  tenth  commandment  is,  Thoujhalt 
not  covet  thy  neighbour's  houfe,  thou  fhait  not 
covet  thy  neighbour's  wife,  nor  his  man-fer- 
vant,  nor  his  maid-fervanl,  nor  his  ox,  nor  his 
OfSt  ?wr  any  thing  that  is  thy  neighbour's. 

Q.  80.  Wtj.at  is  required  in  the  tenth  com- 
mandment ? 

A.  The  tenth  commandment  requireth 
full  contentment  with  our  own  condition, 
with  a  right  and  charitable  frame  of  Ipirit 
towards  our  neighbour,  and  all  that  is  his. 

Q.  81.  What  ts  forbidden  in  the  tenth 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  tenth  commandment  forbiddeth 
all  difcontentment  with  our  own  eftate,  en- 
vying or  grieving  at  the  good  of  our  neigh- 
bour, and  all  inordinate  motions  and  affec- 
tions to  any  thing  that  is  his. 

Q.  82.  Is  any  man  able  perfectly  to  keep 
the  commandments  of  God  ? 

A.  No  mere  man  fmce  the  fall  is  ablo 
in  this  life  perfectly  to  keep  the  command- 
ments of  God,  but  daily  doth  break  them  in 
thought,  word  and  deed. 

Q.  83.  Are  all  tTanfgreJJlons  cf  the  laic 
equally  heinous  ? 

A.  Some  fins  in  thcmfelvcs,  and  by  rca- 


fltalt  not  fteal 

Q.  74.  What  is  required  in  the  eighth 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  eighth  commandment  requireth 
the  lawful  procuring  &  furthering  the.  wealth 
and  outward  eftate  of  ourfelves  and  others. 

Q.  75.  What  ts  forbidden  in  the  eighth 
commandment ? 

A.  The  eighth  commandment  forbiddeth 
whatfoevei  doth,  or  may  unjuftiy  hinder  our 
own  or  our  neighbour's  wealth  or  outward 
eftate 

Q.   76.    Which  is  the  ninth  commandment? 

A.  Tht  ninth  commandment  is,  Thoufhalt 
not  bear  false  witnefs  againjt  thy  neighbour. 

Q.  77  What  is  required  in  the  ninth  com- 
mandment ? 

A.  The  ninth  commandment  requireth  the 
maintaining  and  promoting  of  truth  between 
man  &  man,  &  of  our  own  &  our  neighbor's 
good  name,  efpocially  in  witnefs  bearing. 

Q.  78.  What  is  forbidden  in  the  ninth 
commandment  ? 

A.  The  ninth  commandment  forbiddeth 
whatfoever  is  prejudicial  to  truth,or  injurious 
to  our  own  or  our  neighbor's  good  name. 

Q.  79.  Which  is  the  tenth  commandment  ? 


fon  of  feveral  aggravations,  are  more  hein- 
ous in  the  fight  of  God  than  others. 

Q.  84.    What  doth  every  fin  deferve  ? 

A.  Every  fin  deferves  God's  wrath  &  curfo 
beth  in  this  life,  and  that  which  is  to  come. 

Q.  85.  What  doth  God  require  of  us  that  we 
may  cf  cape  his  wrath  and  cur Je  due  to  us  for  fin? 

A.  To  efcape  the  wrath  and  curfe  of  God 
due  to  us  for  fin,  God  requireth  of  us  faith  in 
Jefus  Chrifl,repentance  unto  life, with  the  di- 
ligcntufeof  all  outward  means  whereby  Chrift 
communicateth  to  us  the  benefits  of  redemp- 
tion. Q.  86.  What  is  faith  in  Jefus  Chrijt  ? 

A.  Faith  in  Jefus  Chrift  is  a  faving  grace 
whereby  we  receive  &  red  upon  him  alone  for 
falvation  as  he  is  offered  to  us  in  the  gofpei. 

Q.  87.    What  is  repentance  unto  life  ? 

A.  Repentance  unto  life  is  a  faving  grace, 
whereby  a  finner  out  of  the  true  fenfe  of  his 
fin  and  apprehenfion  of  the  mercy  of  God  in 
Chrift,  doth  with  grief  and  hatred  of  his  fin 
turn  from  it  unto  God,  with  full  purpole  of 
and  endeavours  after  new  obedience. 

Q.  88.  What  are  the  outward  and  f/rdi- 
nary  means  whereby  Chrift  communicateth  to 
us  the  benefits  of  redemption  ? 

-A.  The  out  ward  and  ordinary  means  where- 


THE    NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER —1777. 


by  Cliriflcommunicateth  to  us  the  benefits  of 
redemption,  are  his  ordinances,  especially  the 
word,  facraments  and  prayer  ;  all  which  are 
made  effectual  to  the  elect  for  falvation. 

Q.  89.  How  is  the  word  made  effectual  to 
falvation  ? 

A.  The  fpirit  of  God  maketh  the  reading, 
but  efpecially  the  preaching  of  the  word  an 
effectual  means  of  convincing  and  con  verting 
tinners,  and  of  building  them  up  in  holinefs 
and  comfort,  through  faith  unto  falvation. 

Q.  90.  How  is  the  word  to  be  read  and 
heard  that  it  may  become  effectual  to  falvation? 

A.  That  the  word  may  become  effectual 
to  falvation,  we  must  attend  thereunto  with 
diligence,  preparation  and  prayer,  receive  it 
with  faith  arid  love,  lay  it  up  in  our  hearts, 
and  practice  it  in  our  lives. 

Q.  91  How  do  the.  Jacr  amenta,  become  effec- 
tual means  of  falvation  ? 

A.  The  facrameuts  become  effectual  meuna 
of  falvation  not  from  any  virtue  in  them  or 
in  him  that  doth  admimlter  them,  but  only  by 
the  blefling  of  Chrift,  and  the  working  of  the 
Spirit  in  them  that  by  faith  receive  them. 

Q.  92.    Wkattsafacratnttnt? 

A.  A  iacrament  is  an  holy  ordinance  in- 

f'ltuted  by  Chrift,  wherein  by  fenfible  figns, 
C hr ill  &  the  benefits  of  the  new  covenant  are 
reprefented  foaled  and  applied  to  believers. 

Q.  93.  What  are  the  facraments  of  the 
New  Teftament? 

A.  The  facraments  of  the  New  Tefta- 
ment  are  baptifm  and  the  Lord's  f upper. 

Q.  94.    What  is  baptism  ? 
A.  Baptifm  is  a  facrai. i ent  wherein  the  wafh- 
irig  of  water  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and 
of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghoft,  doth  fignify 
and  i'eal  our  ingrafting  into  Chrift  and  par- 
taking of  the   benefits  of  the  covenant  of 
grace,  &  our  engagements  to  be  the  Lord's. 
Q.95.  To  whom  is  baptism  to  be  administered  ? 
A.  Baptifm  is  not  to  be  adminifteied  to  any 
that  are  out  of  the  vifible  church,  till  they 
profefs  their  faith  in  Chrift,  and  obedience 
to  him,  but  the  infants  of  fuch  as  are  mem- 
bers of  the  vifible  church  are  to  be  baptized. 

Q.  96.    What  is  the  Lord' }s J upper  'f 

A.  The  Lord's  fupper  is  a  facrament, 
wherein  by  giving  and  receiving  bread  and 
wine  according  to  Chrift's  appointment,  his 
death  is  f  he  wed  forth,  and  the  worthy  recei- 
ver:' are  not  after  a  corporal  and  carnal  man- 
ner, but  by  faith  made  partakers  of  his  body 


and  blood,  with  all  his  benefits,  to  their  fpi- 
ritual  nourishment  and  growth  in  grace. 

Q.  97.  What  is  required  in  the  worthy  w 
ceiving  the  Lord1  s  fupper  ? 

A.  It  is  required  of  them  that  would  wor- 
thily partake  of  the  Lord's  fupper,  that  they 
examine  themfelves  of  their  knowledge  to 
difcern  the  Lord's  body,  of  their  faith  to  feed 
upon  him,  of  their  repentance,  love  and  new 
obedience,  left  coming  unworthily,  they 
eat  and  drink  judgment  to  thernfelves. 

Q.   98.    What  is  prayer  ? 

A.  Prayer  is  an  offering  up  of  our  defires 
to  God  for  things  agreeable  to  his  will, in  the 
name  of  Chrift,  with  confeffion  of  our  fins, 
&  thankful  acknowledgment  of  his  mercies. 

Q.  99.  What  rule  hath  God  given  for  our 
direction  in  prayer  ? 

A.  The  whole  word  of  God  is  of  ufe  to  di- 
rect us  i  ji  prayer  but  thefpecial  rule  ofdirection 
is  that  form  of  prayer  which  Chrift  taught  his 
difciples  commonly  called,  The  Lords  Prayer. 

Q.  100.  What  doth  the  preface  of  the 
Lord's  prayer  teach  us  ? 

A.  The  preface  of  the  Lord's  prayer  which 
is  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  teaeheth  us, 
to  dra\v  near  to  God  with  all  holy  reverence 

and  confidence,  as  children  to  a  father,  able 
and  ready  to  help  us,  and  that  we  fhould 
pray  with  and  for  others. 
Q.101 .  What  do  weprayforin  the  first  petition  ? 

A.  In  the  firft  petition,  which  is,  Hallowed 
be  thu  name.,  we  pray  that  God  would  enable 
us  and  others  to  glorify  him  in  all  that  where- 
by  he  makes  himfelf  known,  and  that  he 
would  difpofe  all  things  to  his  own  glory. 

Q.  102.  What  do  weprayforin  the  fe- 
cond  petition  ? 

A.  In  the  fecond  petition,  which  is,  Thy 
kingdom  come,  we  pray  that  fatan's  kingdom 
may  be  deftroyed,  the  kingdom  of  grace 
may  be  advanced,  ourf elves  and  others  bro't 
into  it,  and  kept  in  it,  and  that  the  kirn/dom 
of  glory  may  be  haftened. 

Q.  103.  What  do  we  pray  for  in  the  third 
petition  ? 

A.  In  the  third  petition,  which  is,  Thy  will 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven,  we  pray 
that  God  by  his  grace  would  make  us  able 
and  willing  to  know,  obey  and  lubmit  to  his 
will  in  all  things,  as  the  angels  do  in  heaven. 

Q.  1 04 .  What  do  we  pray  for  in  the  fourth 
petition  ? 

A.  In  the  fourth  petition,  which  is,  Give 


896 


TIIE    NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER.— 1777. 


us  this  day  our  daily  bread,  we  pray,  that  of 
God's  free  gift  we  may  receive  a  competent 
portion  of  the  good  things  of  this  life,  an>; 
enjoy  his  blefling  with  them. 

Q,.  105.  What  do  we  pray  for  in  the  fifth 
petition  ? 

A.  In  thefifth  petition,  which  is,  And  for- 
give us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors,  we 
pray  that  God  for  Chrift's  fake,  would  freely 
pardon  all  our  sins,  which  we  are  the  rather 
encouraged  to  afk,  because  by  his  grace  we 
are  enabled  from  the  heart  to  forgive  others. 

Q,.  106.  What  do  we  pray  for  in  the  Jixth 
petition  ? 

A.  In  the  fixth  petition,  which  is,  And 
lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us 
from  evil,  we  pray  that  God  would  either 
keep  us  from  being  tempted  to  fin,  or  fup- 
port  and  deliver  us  when  we  are  tempted. 

Q.  107.  What  doth  the  conclufion  of  the 
Lord's  prayer  teach  us  ? 

A.  The  conclufion  of  the  Lord's  prayer, 
which  is,  for  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the 
'O^wer,  and  the  g far y,  forever,  .A.MEN,teach- 
eth  us,  to  take  our  encouragement  in  prayer 
from  God-  only,  and  in  our  prayers  to  praife 
him,  afcribing  kingdom,  power  and  glory 


Q,.  Are  you  then  born  holy  and  righteous  ? 

A.  No,  my  firft  father  finned  and  I  in  him. 

Q-.  Are  you  then  born  a  fmner  ? 

A.  I  was  conceived  in  fin,  &bornin  iniquity. 

d.    What  is  your  birth  fin  ? 

A.  Adam's  fin  imputed  to  me,  and  a  cor- 
rupt nature  dwelling  in  me. 

Q,.    What  is  your  corrupt  nature  ? 
A.  My  corrupt  nature  is  empty  of  grace,  bent 
unto  fin,  only  unto  fin,  and  that  continually. 

a    What  is  fin? 

A.  Sin  is  a  tranfgreffion  of  the  law. 

Q,.  How  many  commandments  of  the  law 
be  there?  A.  Ten. 

Q,.    What  is  the  first  commandment  ? 
A.  Thou  f  halt  have  no  other  Gods  before  me. 
Gi.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  commandment? 

A.  That  we  fhould  worfhip  the  only  true 
God,  and  no  other  befides  him. 

Q,.    What  is  the  fecond  commandment  ? 

A.  Thou  fhalt  not  make  to  thyfelf  any 
graven  image,  &c. 
Q,.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  commandmen i  ? 

A.  That  we  fhould  worfhip  the  only  true 
God,  with  true  worfhip,  fuch  as  he  hath  or- 
dained, not  fuch  as  man  hath  invented. 

Q*    What  is  the  third  commandment  ? 


to  him,  and  in  teflimony  of  our  defire  and 
aflurance  to  be  heard,  we  fay,  AMEN. 
Blejfed  are  they  that  do  his  commandments 
that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of 
life,  and  may  enter  in  through  the  gates 
into  the  city.     Rev.  xxii.   14. 


SPIRITUAL     M  I  L  K 

FOR 

American  B  A  B  E  S  , 

Drawn  out  of  the  Breafts  of  both  Teftaments 
for  their  Souls  Nourifhment. 

By  JOHN    COTTON. 

Q   TWHAT  hath  God  done  for  you  ? 

A.  God  hath  made  me,  he  keep- 
eth  me,  and  he  can  fave  me. 

a.    What  is  God  ? 

A.  God  is  a  Spirit  of  himfelf  &  for  himfelf. 

d.  How  many  Gods  be  there  ? 

A.  There  is  but  one  God  in  three  Perfons, 
the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghofi 

Q,.  How  did  God  make  you  ? 

A.  In  my  firR  parents  holy  and  righteous. 


A.  Thou  fhalt  not  take  the  name  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  in  vain. 

Q,.  What  is  meant  by  the  name  of  God  ? 

A.  God  himfelf  &  the  good  things  of  God, 
whereby  he  is  known  as  a  man  by  his  name, 
and  his  attributes,  worfhip,  word  and  works. 

Q,.  What  is  it  not  to  take  his  name  in  vain  ? 

A.  To  make  ufe  of  God  &  the  good  things 
of  God  to  his  glory,  and  our  own  good,  not 
vainly,  not  irreverently,  not  unprofitably. 

Q,.   Which  is  the  fourth  commandment  ? 

A.  Remember  that  thou  keep  holy  the 
fubbath  day. 
Q,.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  commandm  ent? 

A.  That  we  fhould  reft  from  labor,  and 
much  more  from  play  on  the  Lord's  day,  that 
we  may  draw  nigh  to  God  in  holy  duties. 

Q,.    What  is  the  fifth  commandment  ? 

A.  Honor  tlry  father  and  thy  mother,  that 
thy  days  may  be  long  in  the  land  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee. 

Q,.  What  are  meant  by  father  and  mother  ? 

A.  All  our  fuperiors  whether  in  family, 
fchool.  church  and  common  wealth. 

Q,.    What  is  the  honor  due  unto  them  ? 

A.  Reverence,  obedience,  and  (when  I 
am  able)  recompence. 


THE   NEW    ENGLAND   PRIMER  — 1777. 


897 


Q.   What  is  the  fixth  commandment? 

A    Thou  fhalt  do  no  murder. 
Q.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  commandment? 

A.  That  we  Ihould  not  fhorten  the  life  or 
health  of  ourfelves  or  others,  but  preferve  both 

Q.    What  is  the  jeventh  commandment  ? 

A.  Thou  ihalt  not  commit  adultery. 

Q.    What  is  the  fin  here  forbidden  ? 

A.  To  defile  omielves  or  others  with  un- 
clean lufts. 

Q.    What  is  the  duty  here  commanded  '! 

A.  Chaltity  to  poflefs  our  veil'els  in  holi- 
nefs  and  honor. 

Q.    What  is  tie  eighth  comtnand?nr.nt  ? 

A.  Thou  fhalt  not  Heal. 

Q.    What  is  thejtealth  here  forbidden  ? 

A.  To  take  away  another  man's  goods 
without  his  leave,  or  to  fpend  our  own  with- 
out benefit  to  ourfelves  or  others. 

Q.    What  is  the  duty  here  commanded.  1 

A.  To  get  our  goods  honeftly,  to  ken 
them  fafely,  and  fpend  them  thriftily. 

Q.    What  is  the  ninth  commandment  ? 

A.  Thou  ihalt  not  bear  falfe  witnefs  a- 
gainft  thy  neighbour. 

Q     What  is  the  fin  h^re  forbidden  f 


A.  The  holy  fcriptures  of  the  prophets 
and  apoftles,  the  old  and  new  tettament.  the 
law  and  gofpel. 

Q,.  How  doth  the  miniftry  of  the  law  bring 
you  toward  Chrijt  ? 

A.  By  bringing  me  to  know  mv  fin,  and 
the  wrath  of  Cod.  again  ft  me  for  it. 

Q,.  What  are  you  hereby  the  nearer  to 
Chrijt? 

A.  So  I  come  to  feel  rny  cur  fed  eftnte 
and  need  of  a  Saviour. 

Q,.  How  doth  the  miniftry  of  the  Gospel 
help  you  in  this  cuifed  ejtate  ? 

A.  By  humbling  me  yet  more,  and  then 
railing  me  out  of  this  eftate. 

Q,.  How  doth  the  mini/ try  of  the  Gofpel 
humble  you  yet  wore? 

A.  By  revealing  the  grace  of  the  Lord 
.Tefus  in  dying  to  lave  finners.  and  yet  con- 
vincing me  of  my  fin  in  not  believing  on 
him.  and  of  my  utter  infufficiency  to  corne 
to  him.  and  fo  I  feel  myself  utterly  loft. 

Q,.  How  dotli  the  minijtry  of  the  gospel  raife 
you  up  out  of  this  lojt  eflate  to  come  to  Chrijt  ? 

A.  By  teaching  me  the  value  and  virtue  of 
the  death  of  Chrift,  and  the  riches  of  his  grace 
to  left  finners  by  revealing  the  promife  of 
grace  to  fuch,  and  by  miniitring  the  Spirit  of 


A.  To  lie  falfely,  to  think  or  fpeak  untru 
\y  of  ourfelves  or  others. 

Q.   What  is  the  duty  here  required  ? 

A.  Truth  and  faithfulnefs. 

Q.    What  is  the  tenth  commandment  1 

A.  Thou  fhalt  not  covet,  &c. 

Q.    What  is  the  coveting  here  forbidden  1 

A.  Luit  after  this  things  of  other   men, 
and  want  of  contentment  with  our  own. 

Q.    Whether  have  you  kept  all  thefe  cwn- 
mandmcjiis  ? 

A.   No,  I  and  all  men  are  finners. 

Q.    \Vhat  are  the  wages  of  Jin  ? 

A .    Death  and  damnation. 

Q.  How  then  look  if  on  to  befaved? 

A.  Only  by  Jtfus  Ch.ift. 

Q.    WhoM.fefus  Chna? 
A. The  eternal  Son  ol  God,  who  for  onr  fakes 
bocame  man,  that  lie  might  redeem  &fave  us. 

Q.  How  doth  ('htijt  ;<:deem  and  fave  us? 

A.  By  his  righteous  life,  and  bitter  death, 
and  glorious  rel'm  reetion  to  life  again. 

Q.  How  do  we  come  to  have  apart  fyfellow- 
fhip  with  Chrifl  in  his  death  6f  refurrectwn? 

A .  By  the  power  of  his  word  and  fpirit, 
which  brings  us  to  him,  and  keeps  us  in  him. 

Q.    \V7iat  is  the 


grace  to  apply  Chrifl,  and  his  promife  of 
grace  unto  rnyfelf,  and  to  keep  me  in  him. 
Q,.  How  doth  the  Spirit  of  grace  apply  Chrifl  $ 
hispromifegraceunto  you  and  keep  you  in  him? 
A.  By  begetting  in  me  faith  to  receive  him, 
prayer  to  call  upon  him.  repentance  to  mourn 
after  him.  and  new  obedience  to  ferve  him. 

a.    What  is  faith? 

A.  Faith  is  the  grace  of  the  Spirit,  where- 
by I  deny  myfelf,  and  believe  on  Chrift  for 
righteoufnefs  and  falvation. 

Q,.    What  is  prayer  ? 

A.  It  is  calling  upon  God  in  the  name 
of  Chrift  by  the  help  of  the  Holy  Ghofl, 
according  to  the  will  of  God. 

Q,.    What  is  repentance  t 

A.  Repentance  is  a  grace  of  the  Spirit, 
whereby  I  loath  my  fins,  and  myfelf  for  them 
and  confefs  them  before  the  Lord,  and  mourn 
after  Chrift  for  the  pardon  of  them,  and  for 
grace  to  ferve  him  in  newnefs  of  life. 
Q,.  What  is  the  newnefs  of  life,  or  new  obedience? 

A.  Newnefs  of  life  is  a  grace  of  the  Spirit, 
whereby  I  forfakemy  former  lust  &  vain  com- 
pany, and  walk  before  the  Lord  in  the  light 
of  his  word,  and  in  the  communion  of  faints. 

Q,.    What  is  the  communion  of  faints  ? 


THE   NEW    ENGLAND    PRIMER.— 1777. 


A.  It  is  the  fettowfhip  of  the  church  in  the 
bU'fiings  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  and  the 
feals  thereof.  Q.  What  is  the  church  ? 

A.  It  is  a  congregation  of  faints  joined 
together  in  the  bond  of  the  covenant,  to  wor- 
fhip  the  Lord,  and  to  edify  one  another  in  all 
his  holy  ordinances. 

Q,  What  is  the  bond  of  the  covenant  by 
which  the  church  is  joined  together  ? 

A.  It  is  the  profeffion  of  that  covenant 
which  God  has  made  with  his  faithful  people, 
to  he  a  God  unto  them,  and  to  their  feed. 

Q.  What  doth  the  Lord  bind  his  people  to 
in  this  covenant  ? 

A.  To  give  up  themfelves  &  their  feed  firft 
lo  the  Lord  to  be  his  people,  &  then  to  the  ei- 
ders &  brethren  of  the  church  to  let  forward 
the  worfhipof  God  &  their  mutual  edification. 

Q.  How  do  they  give  up  themfelves  and  their 
feed  to  the  Lord  ? 

A.  By  receiving  thro'  faith  the  Lord  &  his 
covenant  to  themfelves, &to  their  feed  &  ac- 
cordingly walking  themfelves  &  training  up 
their  children  in  the  ways  of  the  covenant. 
Q.Hou)  do  they  give  up  themfelves  and  then 
feed  to  the  elders  and  brethren  of  the  church  ? 

A.  By  confeffing  of  tlreir  ling,  r»nd  profef- 


dead,  which  was  ffated  vp  *f>  ymi  in  baptism  ? 

A.  When  Chrift  fhall  come  in  his  laft 
judgment,  all  that  are  in  their  graves  fhal] 
rife  again,  both  the  juft  and  unjuft. 

Q.  What  is  the  judgment,  which  is  fealed 
up  to  yu  in  the  Lord's  supper  ? 

A.   At  the  laft  day  we  lhall  all  appear  be- 
fore the  judgment  feat  of  Chriit,  to  g-ive  an 
account  of  our  works,  and  receive  our  re- 
ward according  to  them. 
Q.  What  is  the  reward  that  flail  then  be  given? 

A.  The  righteous  lhall  go  into  life  eter- 
nal, and  the  wicked  fhall  be  caft  into  ever- 
lafriiig  fire  with  the  Devil  and  his  angols. 

^DIALOGUE  between  CHRI ST,  YOUTH, 

and  the  Devil.  YOUTH. 

FTHHofa  days  which  God  to  me  doih  fend 
-*-     In  pleafure  I'm  refolv'd  to  fpend  ; 
Like  as  the  birds  in  th'  lovely  spring, 
Sit  chirping  on  the  bough,  and  ring ; 
Who  ftraining  forth  thofe  warbling  notes, 
Do  make  fweet  mufic  in  their  throats, 
'   •  I  refolve  in  this  my  prime, 
In  fports  and  plays  to  fpend  my  time. 
•Sorrow  and  grief  I'll  put  away, 
Such  things  agree  not  with  my  day: 


fion  of  their  faith,  and  of  their  fuhjection  to 
the  gofpel  of  Chi  ill;  and  fo  they  and  their 
feed  are  received  into  '  ie  fellowfhip  of  the 
church  and  the  feals  thereof. 

Q.  What  are  the  feals  of  the  covenant  now 
in  the  days  of  the  gofpel  ? 

A.  Baptifm  and  the  Lord's  Supper. 

Q.    What  is  d*)ne  for  you  in  baptijm  'i 

A.  In  baptifm  the  waffling  with  water  . 
a  fign  and  feal  of  my  wafhing  in  the  blood 
and  fpirit  of  Chrift,  and  thereby  of  my  in- 
grafting into  Chrift,  of  the  pardon  and  clean- 
ling  ol  my  fins,  of  ray  railing  up  out  of  afflic  • 
tions,  and  alfo  of  my  refurrection  from  tl'.e 
dead  at  the  laft  day. 

Q.  What  is  done  for  you  in  the  Lord'sfupp  2  / 
A.  In  the  Lord's  fupper,the  receiving  of  the 
bread  broken  and  the  wine  poured  out  L  a  (ign 
and  feal  of  my  receiving  the  communion  of 
the  body  of  Chrift  broken  for  me,  and  ol  his 
blood  fhed  for  me,  and  thereby  of  my  growth 
in  Chrift,  and  the  pardon  and  healing  of  my 
fins,  of  the  fellowfhip  of  the  Spirit,  of  my 
ftrengthening  and  quickening  in  grace,  and 
of  my  fitting  together  with  Chrift  on  h's 
thrcne  of  glory  at  the  Jaft  judgment. 

Q.    What  was  the  refui  rection  from  the 


From  clouds  my  morning  fhall  be  free  ; 
And  nought  on  earth  ihall  trouble  me. 
I  will  embrace  each  fweet  delight, 
This  earth  affords  me  day  and  night : 
Though  parents  grieve  and  me  correrit, 
Yet  I  their  counsel  will  reject. 

Devil. 

The  refolution  which  you  take, 
Sweet  youth  it  doth  me  merry  make. 
If  thou  my  counsel  wilt  embrace, 
And  fhun  the  ways  of  truth  arid  grace, 
And  learn  to  lie,  and  curfe  and  swear. 
And  be  as  proud  as  any  are  ; 
And  with  thy  brothers  wilt  fall  out, 
And  fiftsrs  with  vile  language  fiout  j 
Yea,  right  and  fcratch,  and  alfo  bite, 
Then  in  thee  I  will  take  delight. 
If  thou  wilt  but  be  rul'd  by  me, 
.An  artift  thou  fhalt  quickly  be, 
In  all  my  ways  which  lovely  are, 
Ther'e  few  with  thee  who  fhall  compare 
Thy  parents  always  difobey  ; 
Don't  mind  at  all  what  they  do  fay : 
And  alfo  pout  and  fullen  be, 
And  thou  fhalt  be  a  child  for  me. 
When  others  read,  be  thou  at  ploy, 
Think  not  on  God,  don't   sigh  nor  pray 


TTIE    NEW    ENGLAND   PRIMER —1777. 


Nor  be  thou  fuch  a  filly  fool, 
To  mind  thy  book  or  go  to  fchool ; 
But  play  the  truant ;  fear  not  I 
Will  ftraitway  help  you  to  a  lie, 
Which  will  excufe  thee  from  the  fame, 
From  being  whipp'd  and  from  all  blame ; 
Come  bow  to  me,  uphold  my  crown, 
And  I'll  thee  raife  to  high  renown. 

Y  OUTH. 

Thefe  motions  I  will  cleave  unto, 
And  let  all  other  counsels  go ; 
My  heart  againll  my  parents  now, 
Shall  harden'd  be,  and  will  not  bow: 
I  won't  fubmit  at  all  to  them, 
But  all  good  counsels  will  condemn, 
And  what  I  lift  that  do  will  I, 
And  ftubborn  be  continually. 

CHRIST. 

Wilt  thou.  O  youth  make  fuch  a  choir**, 
And  thus  obey  the  devil's  voice  ! 
Curft  finful  ways  wilt  thou  embrace, 
And  hate  the  ways  of  truth  and  grace? 
Wilt  thou  to  me  a  rebel  prove? 
And  from  thy  parents  quite  remove 
Thy  heart  alfo?     Then  fhalt  thou  see, 
What  will  e'er  long  become  of  thee. 
Come,  think  on  God,  who  did  thee  make, 


And  at  his  prefence  dread  and  quake 

Remember  him  now  in  thy  youth, 

And  let  thy  foul  take  hold  of  truth: 

The  Devil  and  his  ways  defy, 

Believe  him  not,  he  doth  but  lie  : 

His  ways  feem  fweet,  but  youth  beware, 

He  for  thy  foul  hath  laid  a  fnarc. 

His  fweet  will  into  bitter  turn, 

If  in  thofe  ways  thou  ftill  wilt  run, 

Ho  will  thee  into  pieces  tear, 

Like  lions  which  moft  hungry  are. 

Grant  me  thy  heart,  thy  folly  Icavo, 

And  from  this  lion  I'll  thee  fave ; 

And  thon  {halt  have  fweet  joy  from  me, 

Which  fhall  laft  to  t-ternity. 

YOUTH. 

My  neart  fhall  cheer  me  in  my  youth, 
I'll  have  my  frolicks  in  good  truth, 
What  e'erfeems  lovely  in  mine  eye, 
Myfelf  I  cannot  it  deny. 
In  my  own  ways  I  ftill  will  walk, 
And  take  delight  among  young  folk, 
Who  fpend  their  days  in  joy  and  mirth, 
Nothing  like  that  I'm  fure  on  earth : 
Thy  ways,  O  Chrift !  are  no:  for  me, 
They  with  my  age  do  not  agree. 
If  I  unto  thy  laws  fhould  cleave, 


No  more  good  days  then  fhould  I  have 

CHRIST. 

Wourft  thou  live  long  and  good  days  fee 
Refrain  from  all  iniquity  : 
True  good  alone  doth  from  me  flow, 
It  can't  be  had  in  things  below. 
Are  not  my  ways,  O  youth  !  for  thee, 
Then  thou  fhalt  never  happy  be  ; 
Nor  ever  fhall  thy  foul  obtain, 
Tiue  good,  whilft  thou  dolt  here  remain 

YOUTH. 

To  thee,  O  Chrift,  I'll  not  adhere, 
What  thou  fpeak'st  of  does  not  appear 
Lovely  to  me  I  cannot  find, 
'Tis  good  to  fet  or  place  my  mind 
On  ways  whence  many  forrows  fpring 
And  to  the  flefli  fuch  crofles  bring, 
Don't  trouble  me,  I  muft  fulfil, 
My  flefhly  mind,  and  have  my  will. 

CHRIST. 

Unto  tliyfelf  then  I'll  thee  leave, 
That  SfUan  may  thee  wholly  have : 
Thy  heart  in  fin  fhall  harden'd  bo, 
And  blinded  in  iniquity. 
And  then  in  wrath  I'll  cut  thee  down. 
Like  af  the  grafs  and  flowers  mown; 
And  to  thy  woe  thou  Qialt  efpy, 

Childhood  and  youth  are  vanity ; 
For  all  fuch  things  I'll  make  thee  Know 
To  judgment  thou  (hall  come  alfo. 
In  hell  at  laft  thy  foul  fhall  burn, 
When  thon  thy  finful  race  haft  run. 
Coniider  this,  think  on  thy  end 
Left  God  do  thee  in  pieces  rend. 

YOUTH. 
Amazed,  Lord !  I  now  begin, 

0  help  me  and  I'll  leave  my  lin: 

1  tremble,  and  do  greatly  fear, 
To  think  upon  what  I  do  hear. 
Lord!  I  religious  now  will  be, 
And  I'll  from  Satan  turn  to  thee. 

D*.vil. 

Nay,  foolifli  youth,  don't  change  thy  mind, 
Unto  fuch  thoughts  be  not  inciin'd. 
Come,  cheer  up  thy  heart,  roufe  up,  be  glad 
There  is  no  hell ;  why  art  thou  fad  ? 
Eat,  drink,  be  merry  with  thy  friend, 
For  when  thou  dieft,  that's  thy  laft  end. 

YOUTH. 

Such  thoughts  as  thefe  I  can't  receive. 
Becaufe  God's  word  I  do  believe  ; 
None  ihall  in  this  deftroy  my  faith, 
Nor  do  1  mind  what  Stitan  faith. 

Devil. 


400 


THE   NEW   ENGLAND   PRIMED.— 1777. 


Although  to  thee  herein  I  yield, 
Yet  e'er  long  I  fhall  win  the  field. 
That  there's  a  heaven  I  can't  deny, 
Yea,  and  a  hell  of  mifery  : 
That  heaven  is  a  lovely  place 
I  can't  deny  ;  'tis  a  clear  cafe ; 
And  eafy  'tis  for  to  come  there. 
Therefore  take  thou  no  further  care, 
All  human  laws  do  thou  obferve. 
And  from  old  cuftoms  never  fwerve; 
Do  not  oppofe  what  great  men  fay, 
An  I  thou  lhalt  never  go  aft  ray. 
Thou  may'ft  be  drunk,  and  fwear  and  curfe. 
And  Tinners  like  thee  ne'er  the  worfe ; 
At  any  time  thou  may'ft  repent ; 
'Twill  ferve  when  all  thy  days  are  fpent. 

CHRIST. 

Take  heed  or  elfe  thou  art  undone ; 
Thefe  thoughts  are  from  the  wicked  One, 
Narrow's  the  way  that  leads  to  life, 
Who  walk  therein  do  meet  with  ftrife. 
Few  fhall  be  faved,  young  man  know, 
Moft  do  unto  deftruction  go. 
If  righteous  ones  fcarce  faved  be, 
What  will  at  laft  become  of  thee ! 
Oh  !  don't  reject  my  precious  call, 
Left  suddenly  in  hell  thou  fall ; 


But  didlt  to  me  turn  a  deaf  ear; 
And  now  in  thy  calamity, 
I  will  not  mind  nor  hear  thy  cry; 
Thy  day  is  paft,  b:  gone  from  me, 
Thou  who  didit  love  iniquity, 
Above  thy  foul  and  Saviour  dear; 
Who  on  the  crofs  great  pains  did  bear, 
My  mercy  thou  didft  much  abufe, 
And  all  good  counfel  didft  refufe, 
Juftice  will  therefore  vengeance  take, 
And  thee  a  fad  example  make. 
Y  OUTH. 

O  fpare  me.  Lord,  forbear  thy  hand. 
Don't  cut  me  off  who  trembling  ftand, 
Begging  for  mercy  at  thy  door, 
0  let  me  have  but  one  year  more. 
CHRIST. 

If  thou  fome  longer  time  fhould  have, 
Thou  wouldft  again  to  folly  cleave: 
Therefore  to  thee  I  will  not  give, 
One  day  on  earth  longer  to  live. 
Death. 

Youth.  I  am  come  to  fetch  thy  breath, 
And  carry  thee  to  th'  fhades  of  death, 
No  pity  on  thee  can  f  fhow, 
Thou  haft  thy  God  offended  fo. 
Thy  foul  and  body  I'll  divide, 


Unlefs  you  foon  converted  be, 
God's  kingdom  thou  fhalt  never  fee. 
YOUTH. 

Lord,  I  am  now  at  a  great  Hand: 
If  I  fhould  yield  to  thy  command, 
My  comrades  will  me  much  deride, 
And  never  more  will  me  abide. 
Moreover,  this  I  alfo  know, 
Thou  can'ft  at  laft  great  rnercy  fhow. 
When  I  am  old,  and  pleafure  gone, 
Then  what  thou  fav'lt  I'll  think  upon. 
CHRIST. 

Nay,  hold  vain  youth,  thy  time  is  fhort, 
I  have  thy  breath.  I'll  end  thy  fport ; 
Thou  fhalt  not  live  till  thou  art  old, 
Since  thou  in  fin  art  grown  fo  bold. 
I  in  thy  youth  grim  death  will  fend, 
And  all  thy  fport s  fhall  have  an  end. 
Y  OUTH. 

I  am  too  young,  alas  to  {He, 
Let  death  fome  old  grey  head  efpy. 
O  fpare  me,  and  I  will  amend, 
And  with  thy  grace  my  foul  befriend, 
3r  elfe  I  am  undone  alas, 
For  I  am  in  a  woful  cafe. 
CHRIST. 

When  I  did  call;  you  would  not  hear, 


Thy  body  in  the  grave  I'll  hide, 
And  thy  "dear  foul  in  hell  muft  lie 
With  Devils  to  eternity. 

The  conclufion. 

Thus  end  the  days  of  woful  youth, 
Who  won't  obey  nor  mind  the  truth  ; 
Nor  hearken  to  what  preachers  fay, 
But  do  their  parents  disobey. 
They  in  their  youth  go  down  to  hell, 
Under  eternal  wrath  to  dwell. 
Many  don't  live  out  half  their  days, 
For  cleaving  unto  fmful  ways. 

The  late  Reverend  and  Venerable  Mr.  N  A  - 
THANIEL  CLAP,  o/"  Newport  on  Rhode 
Island  ;  his  Advice  to  children. 
|^OOD  children  fhould  remember  daily, 
^*  God  their  Creator,  Redeemer,  and 
Sanctifier ;  to  believe  in,  love  and  ferve  him  ; 
their  parents  to  obey  them  in  the  L  o  H  D  ; 
their  bible  and  catechifm  ;  their  baptifm  ; 
the  LORD'S  day;  the  LoRD'sdeath  and  re 
furrection  ;  their  own  death  and  refurrecti- 
on;  and  the  day  of  judgment,  when  all  thai 
are  not  fit  for  heaven  muft  be  fent  to  heii. 
And  they  fhould  pray  to  G  o  D  in  the  name 
of  C  H  R  i  s  T  ,  for  faving  grace. 


THE  PETTY  SCHOOL.1 


BY    CHARLES    HOOLK,    A.    M., 

Muter  of  Grammar  School  at  Rotherham  in  1636,  and  of  a  Private  School  in  London  in  1660 


CHAPTER  I. — How  a  child  may  be  helped  in  the  first  pronunciation  of  his  letters. 

My  aim  being  to  discover  the  old  Art  of  Teaching  School,  and  how  it  may  be 
unproved  in  every  part  suitable  to  the  years  and  capacities  of  such  children  as 
are  now  commonly  taught,  I  shall  first  begin  my  discourse  concerning  a  Petty 
School :  and  here  or  elsewhere  I  shall  not  busy  myself  or  reader  about  what  a 
child  of  an  extraordinary  towardliness,  and  having  a  teacher  at  home,  may  at- 
tain unto,  and  in  how  short  a  space,  but  only  show  how  a  multitude  of  various 
wits  may  be  taught  all  together  with  abundance  of  profit  and  delight  to  every 
one,  which  is  the  proper  and  main  work  of  our  ordinary  schools. 

Whereas,  then,  it  ia  usual  in  cities  and  greater  towns  to  put  children  to  school 
about  four  or  five  years  of  age,  and  in  country  villages,  because  of  further  dis- 
tance, not  till  about  six  or  seven,  I  conceive  the  sooner  a  child  is  put  to  school 
the  better  it  is,  both  to  prevent  ill  habits  which  are  got  by  play  and  idleness, 
and  to  inure  him  betimes  to  affect  learning  and  well  doing.  Not  to  say,  how 
the  great  uncertainty  of  parents'  lives  should  make  them  careful  of  their  chil- 
dren's early  education,  which  is  like  to  be  the  best  part  of  their  patrimony, 
whatever  good  thing  else  they  may  leave  them  in  this  world. 

I  observe  that  betwixt  three  and  four  years  of  age  a  child  hath  great  propen- 
sity to  peep  into  a  book,  and  then  is  the  most  seasonable  time  (if  conveniences 
may  be  had  otherwise)  for  him  to  begin  to  learn ;  and  though  perhaps  then  he 
can  not  speak  so  very  distinctly,  yet  the  often  pronunciation  of  his  letters  will 
he  a  means  to  help  his  speech,  especially  if  one  take  notice  in  what  organ  or  in- 
strument he  is  most  defective,  and  exercise  him  chiefly  in  those  letters  which 
belong  unto  it. 

Now  there  are  five  organs  or  instruments  of  speech,  in  the  right  hitting  of 

"  The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  original  title  page: — 

THE 

PETTY-SCHOOLE. 

SHEWING 

A  way  to  teach  little 
Children  to  read  English  with 
delight  and  profit,  (espe- 
cially) according  to 
the  New  Primar. 

By  C.  H. 

7,OJVDOJV, 

Printed  by  F.  T.  for  Andrew  Crotk 

at  the  Green  Dragon  in 
P  26  Church  Yurd,  1U59 


402  THE  PETTY  SCHOOL. 

which,  as  the  breath  moveth  from  within  through  the  moutL  a  true  pronuncia 
tion  of  every  letter  is  made,  viz.,  the  lips,  the  teeth,  the  tongue,  the  roof  of  the 
mouth,  and  the  throat ;  according  to  which  if  one  rank  the  twenty-four  letters 
of  our  English  alphabet,  he  shall  find  that  A,  E,  I,  0,  U  proceed  by  degrees 
Irom  the  throat,  along  betwixt  the  tongue  and  the  roof  of  the  mouth  to  the  lips 
contracted,  and  that  Y  is  somewhat  like  I,  being  pronounced  with  other  letters  • 
but  if  it  be  named  by  itself,  it  requireth  some  motion  of  the  lips.  B,  F,  M,  P,  "W, 
and  V  consonants  belong  to  the  lips,  C,  S,  X,  Z  to  the  teeth,  D,  L,  N,  T,  R  to 
the  tongue,  B,  H,  K,  Q  to  the  roof  of  the  mouth.  But  the  sweet  and  natural 
pronunciation  of  them  is  gotten  rather  by  imitation  than  precept,  and  therefore 
the  teacher  must  be  careful  to  give  every  letter  its  distinct  and  clear  sound,  that 
the  child  may  get  it  from  his  voice,  and  be  sure  to  make  the  child  open  his 
mouth  well  as  he  uttereth  a  letter,  lest  otherwise  he  drown  or  hinder  the  sound 
of  it.  For  I  have  heard  some  foreigners  to  blame  us  Englishmen  for  neglecting 
this  mean  to  a  plain  and  audible  speaking,  saying,  that  the  cause  why  we  gen- 
erally do  not  speak  so  fully  as  they,  proceeded  from  an  ill  "habit  of  mumbling, 
which  children  got  at  their  first  learning  to  read,  which  it  was  their  care  there- 
fore to  prevent  or  remedy  betimes,  and  so  it  should  be  ours,  seeing  pronuncia- 
tion is  that  that  sets  out  a  man,  and  is  sufficient  of  itself  to  make  one  an  orator. 

II. — How  a  child  may  be  taught  with  delight  to  know  all  his  letters  in  a  very 
little  time. 

The  usual  way  to  begin  with  a  child,  when  he  is  first  brought  to  school,  is  to 
teach  him  to  know  his  letters  in  the  hornbook,  where  he  is  made  to  run  over 
all  the  letters  in  the  alphabet  or  Christ-cross-row,  both  forward  and  backward, 
until  he  can  tell  any  one  of  them  which  is  pointed  at,  and  that  in  the  English 
character. 

This  course  we  see  hath  been  very  effectual  in  a  short  time  with  some  more 
ripe-witted  children ;  but  others  of  a  slower  apprehension  (as  the  most  and  best 
commonly  are)  have  been  thus  learning  a  whole  year  together,  and  though  they 
have  been  much  chid  and  beaten  too  for  want  of  heed,  could  scarce  tell  six  of 
their  letters  at  twelve  months'  end,  who,  if  they  had  been  taught  in  a  way  more 
agreeable  to  their  mean  apprehensions,  (which  might  have  wrought  more  readily 
upon  the  senses,  and  affected  their  minds  with  what  they  did,)  would  doubtless 
have  learned  as  cheerfully  if  not  as  fast  as  the  quickest. 

I  shall  therefore  mention  sundry  ways  that  have  been  taken  to  make  a  child 
know  his  letters  readily,  out  of  which  the  discreet  teacher  may  choose  what  is 
most  likely  to  suit  with  his  learner. 

I  have  known  some  that  (according  to  Mr.  Brinsley's  direction)  have  taught 
little  ones  to  pronounce  all  the  letters,  and  to  spell  pretty  well  before  they  knew 
one  letter  in  a  book ;  and  this  they  did,  by  making  the  child  to  sound  the  five 
vowels,  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  like  so  many  bells  upon  his  finger's  ends,  and  to  say  which 
finger  was  such  or  such  a  vowel,  by  changes ;  then  putting  single  consonant! 
before  the  vowels,  (leaving  the  hardest  of  them  till  the  last,)  and  teaching  him 
how  to  utter  them  both  at  once,  as  va,  ve,  vi,  vo,  vu,  da,  de,  di,  do,  du;  and 
again,  by  putting  the  vowels  before  a  consonant,  to  make  him  say,  as,  es,  is,  o*, 
us,  ad,  ed,  id,  od,  ud.  Thus  they  have  proceeded  from  syllables  of  two  or  three, 
or  more  letters,  till  a  child  hath  been  pretty  nimble  in  the  most.  But  this  ia 
•ather  to  be  done  in  a  private  house  than  a  public  school ;  however  this  man 


THE  PETTY  SCHOOL.  403 

ner  of  exorcise  now  and  then  amongst  little  scholars  will  make  their  lessons 
more  familiar  to  them. 

The  greatest  trouble  at  the  first  entrance  of  children  is  to  teach  them  how  to 
know  their  letters  one  from  another  when  they  see  them  in  the  book  altogether; 
for  the  greatness  of  their  number  and  variety  of  shape  do  puzzle  young  wits  to 
difference  them,  and  the  sense  can  but  be  intent  upon  one  single  object  at  once, 
so  as  to  take  its  impression  and  commit  it  to  the  imagination  and  memory. 
Some  have  therefore  begun  but  with  one  single  letter,  and  after  they  have  showed 
it  to  the  child  in  the  alphabet,  have  made  him  to  find  the  same  any  where  else  in 
the  book  till  he  knew  that  perfectly ;  and  then  they  have  proceeded  to  another 
in  like  manner,  and  so  gone  through  the  rest. 

Some  have  contrived  a  piece  of  ivory  with  twenty-four  flats  or  squares,  in 
every  one  of  which  was  engraven  a  several  letter,  and  by  playing  with  a  child 
in  throwing  this  upon  a  table,  and  showing  him  the  letter  only  which  lay  upper- 
most, have  in  a  few  days  taught  him  the  whole  alphabet. 

Some  have  got  twenty-four  pieces  of  ivory  cut  in  the  shape  of  dice,  with  a 
letter  engraven  upon  each  of  them,  and  with  these  they  have  played  at  vacant 
hours  with  a  child  till  he  hath  known  them  all  distinctly.  They  begin  first 
with  one,  then  with  two,  afterwards  with  more  letters  at  once  as  the  child  got 
Knowledge  of  them.  To  teach  him  likewise  to  spell,  they  would  place  conso- 
nants before  or  after  a  vowel,  and  then  join  more  letters  together  so  as  to 
make  a  word,  and  sometimes  divide  it  into  syllables,  to  be  parted  or  put  to- 
gether. Now  this  kind  of  letter  sport  may  be  profitably  permitted  among  be- 
ginners in  a  school,  and  instead  of  ivory,  they  may  have  white  bits  of  board,  or 
small  shreds  of  paper  or  pasteboard,  or  parchment  with  a  letter  written  upon 
each  to  play  withal  amongst  themselves. 

Some  have  made  pictures  in  a  little  book,  or  upon  a  scroll  of  paper  wrapped 
apon  two  sticks  within  a  box  of  isinglass,  and  by  each  picture  have  made  three 
sorts  of  that  letter  with  which  its  name  begiuneth ;  but  those  being  too  many 
at  once  for  a  child  to  take  notice  of,  have  proved  not  so  useful  as  was  intended. 
Some  likewise  have  had  pictures  and  letters  printed  in  this  manner  on  the 
backside  of  a  pack  of  cards  to  entice  children,  that  naturally  love  that  sport,  to 
the  love  of  learning  their  books. 

Some  have  written  a  letter  in  a  great  character  upon  a  card,  or  chalked  it  out 
upon  a  trencher,  and  by  telling  a  child  what  it  was,  and  letting  him  strive  to 
make  the  like,  have  imprinted  it  quickly  in  his  memory,  and  so  the  rest  one 
after  another. 

One  having  a  son  of  two  years  and  a  half  old,  that  could  but  even  go  about 
the  house,  and  utter  some  few  gibberish  words  in  a  broken  manner,  observing 
him  one  day  above  the  rest  to  be  busied  about  shells  and  sticks,  and  such  like 
toys,  which  himself  had  laid  together  in  *  chair,  and  to  miss  any  one  that  was 
taken  from  him  he  saw  not  how,  and  to  seek  for  it  about  the  house,  became 
very  desirous  to  make  experiment  what  that  child  might  presently  attain  to  in 
point  of  learning.  Thereupon  he  devised  a  little  wheel,  with  all  the  capital  Ro- 
man letters  made  upon  a  paper  to  wrap  round  about  it,  and  fitted  it  to  turn  in  a 
little  round  box,  which  had  a  hole  so  made  in  the  side  of  it,  that  only  one  letter 
might  be  seen  to  peep  out  at  once.  This  he  brought  to  the  child,  and  showed 
him  only  the  letter  0,  and  told  him  what  it  was.  The  child  being  overjoyed 
with  his  new  gambol,  catcheth  the  box  out  of  his  father's  hand,  and  runs  witb 


404  THE  PETTY  SCIIOOl* 

it  to  his  playfellow  a  year  younger  than  himself,  and  in  his  broken  language 
tells  him  there  was  "an  0,  an  0."  And  when  the  other  asked  him  where,  he 
said,  "In  a  hole,  in  a  hole,"  and  showed  it  him;  which  the  lesser  child  then 
took  auch  notice  of,  as  to  know  it  again  ever  after  from  all  the  other  letters. 
And  thus  by  playing  with  the  box,  and  inquiring  concerning  any  letter  that 
appeared  strange  to  him  what  it  was,  the  child  learned  all  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet  in  eleven  days,  being  in  this  ABC  character,  and  would  take  pleas- 
ure to  show  them  in  any  book  to  any  of  his  acquaintance  that  came  next.  By 
this  instance  you  may  see  what  a  propensity  there  is  in  nature  betimes  to  learn- 
ing, could  but  the  teachers  apply  themselves  to  their  young  scholars'  tenuity ; 
and  how  by  proceeding  in  a  clear  and  facile  method  that  all  may  apprehend, 
every  one  may  benefit  more  or  less  by  degrees.  According  to  these  contriv- 
ances to  forward  children,  I  have  published  &  New  Primer;  in  the  first  leaf 
whereof  I  have  set  the  Roman  capitals,  (because  that  character  is  now  most  m 
use,  and  those  letters  the  most  easy  to  be  learned,)  and  have  joined  therewith 
the  pictures  or  images  of  some  things  whose  names  begin  with  that  letter,  by 
which  a  child's  memory  may  be  helped  to  remember  how  to  call  his  letters,  as 
A  for  an  ape,  B  for  a  bear,  &c.  This  hieroglyphical  device  doth  so  affect  chil- 
dren, (who  are  generally  forward  to  communicate  what  they  know,)  that  I  have 
observed  them  to  teach  others,  that  could  not  so  readily  learn,  to  know  all  the 
letters  in  a  few  hours'  space,  by  asking  them  what  A  stands  for?  and  so  con- 
cerning other  letters  backward  and  forward,  or  as  they  best  liked. 

Thus  when  a  child  hath  got  the  names  of  his  letters,  and  their  several  shapes 
\7ithal  in  a  playing  manner,  he  may  be  easily  taught  to  distinguish  them  in  tho 
following  leaf,  which  containeth  first  the  greater  and  then  the  small  Roman  char- 
acters, to  be  learned  by  five  at  once  or  more,  as  the  child  is  able  to  remember 
them ;  other  characters  I  would  have  forborne  till  one  be  well  acquainted  with 
these,  because  so  much  variety  at  the  first  doth  but  amaze  young  wits,  and  our 
English  characters  (for  the  most  part)  are  very  obscure,  and  more  hard  to  be 
imprinted  in  the  memory.  And  thus  much  for  learning  to  know  letters ;  we 
shall  next  (and  according  to  order  in  teaching)  proceed  to  an  easy  way  of  dis- 
tinct spelling. 

III. — How  to  teach  a  child  to  spell  distinctly. 

The  common  way  of  teaching  a  child  to  spell  is,  after  he  knows  the  letters  in 
his  alphabet,  to  initiate  him  in  those  few  syllables,  which  consist  of  one  vowel 
before  a  consonant,  as  db,  el,  ib,  o&,  ub,  &c.,  or  of  one  vowel  after  a  consonant, 
as  6a,  be,  bi,  60,  &«,  &c.,  in  the  hornbook,  and  thence  to  proceed  with  him  by 
little  and  little  to  the  bottom  of  the  book,  hearing  him  twice  or  thrice  over  till 
;he  can  say  his  lesson,  and  then  putting  him  to  a  new  one. 

In  which  course  I  have  known  some  more  apt  children  to  have  profited  pretty 
well,  but  scarce  one  often,  when  they  have  gone  through  the  book,  to  be  able 
to  spell  a  word  that  is  not  in  it.  And  some  have  been  certain  years  daily  ex- 
ercised saying  lessons  therein,  who,  after  much  endeavor  spent,  have  been  ac- 
counted mere  blockheads,  and  rejected  altogether  as  incapable  to  learn  any 
thing;  whereas,  some  teachers  that  have  assayed  a  more  familiar  way,  have 
professed  that  they  have  not  met  with  any  such  thing  as  a  dunce  amid  a  great 
multitude  of  little  scholars. 

Indeed,  it  is  Tully's  observation  of  old,  and  Erasmus'  assertion  of  later  years, 


THE  PETTY  SCHOOL.  405 

that  it  is  as  natural  for  a  child  to  learn,  as  it  is  for  a  beast  to  go,  a  bird  to  fly,  or 
a  fish  to  swim,  and  I  verily  believe  it;  for  the  nature  of  man  is  restlessly  de- 
sirous to  know  things,  and  were  discouragements  taken  out  of  the  way,  and 
meet  help  afforded  young  learners,  they  would  doubtless  go  on  with  a  great 
deal  more  cheerfulness,  and  make  more  proficiency  at  their  books  than  usually 
they  do.  And  could  the  master  have  the  discretion  to  make  their  lessons  fa- 
miliar to  them,  children  would  as  much  delight  in  being  busied  about  them,  aa 
in  any  other  sport,  if  too  long  continuance  at  them  might  not  make  them  tedious. 

Amongst  those  that  have  gone  a  readier  way  to  reading,  I  shall  only  mention 
Mr.  Roe  and  Mr.  Robinson,  the  latter  of  whom  I  have  known  to  have  taught 
little  children  not  much  above  four  years  old  to  read  distinctly  in  the  Bible,  in 
six  weeks'  time  or  under ;  their  books  are  to  be  had  in  print,  but  every  one 
hath  not  the  art  to  use  them.  And  Mr.  Coote's  English  Schoolmaster  seema 
rather  to  be  fitted  for  one  that  is  a  master  indeed  than  for  a  scholar. 

Besides  the  way  then  which  is  usual,  ;ffcu  may  (if  you  think  good)  make  use 
of  that  which  I  have  set  down  in  the  New  Primer  to  help  little  ones  to  spell 
readily,  and  it  is  this: 

1.  Let  a  child  be  well  acquainted  with  Lis  vowels,  and  made  to  pronounce 
them  fully  by  themselves,  because  they  are  able  to  make  a  perfect  sound  alone. 

2.  Teach  him  to  give  the  true  value  or  force  of  the  consonants,  and  to  take 
notice  how  imperfectly  they  sound,  except  a  vowel  be  joined  with  them.     Both 
these  are  set  apart  by  themselves. 

3.  Proceed  to  syllables  made  of  one  consonant  set  before  a  vowel,  (section  5,) 
and  let  him  join  the  true  force  of  the  consonant  with  the  perfect  sound  of  the 
vowel,  as  to  say  ba,  be,  bi,  bo,  bu,  &c.    Yet  it  were  good  to  leave  co,  ce,  a, 
co,  CM,  and  ga,  ge,  gi,  go,  gu,  to  the  last,  because  the  value  of  the  consonant  in 
the  second  and  third  syllables  doth  differ  from  that  in  the  rest. 

4.  Then  exercise  him  in  syllables  made  of  one  vowel  set  before  one  conso- 
nant, (section  6,)  as  to  say  ab,  eb,  ib,  ob,  ub,  &c.,  till  he  can  spell  any  syllable  of 
two  letters  backward  or  forward,  as  ba,  be,  bi,  bo,  l>u;  ab,  eb,  ibt  ob,  ub;  ba,  ab; 
be,  eb ;  bi,  ib ;  bo,  ob ;  In,  ub ;  and  so  in  all  the  rest,  comparing  one  with  another. 

5.  And  if  to  any  one  of  these  syllables  you  add  a  letter,  and  teach  him  how 
to  join  it  in  sound  with  the  rest,  you  will  make  him  more  ready  in  spelling;  aa 
if  before  ab  you  put  b,  and  teach  him  to  say  bob ;  if  after  ba  you  put  d,  and  let 
him  pronounce  it  bad,  he  will  quickly  be  able  to  join  a  letter  with  any  of  the 
rest,  as  nip,  pin,  but,  tub,  &c. 

To  inure  your  young  scholar  to  any,  even  the  hardest  syllable,  in  an  easy 
way, 

1.  Practice  him  in  the  joining  of  consonants  that  begin  syllables  (section  7) 
BO  that  he  may  give  their  joint  forces  at  once ;  thus 

Having  showed  him  to  sound  bl  or  br  together,  make  him  pronounce  them, 
and  a  vowel  with  them,  bla,  bra,  bk,  Ire,  and  so  in  any  of  the  rest. 

2.  Then  practice  him  likewise  in  consonants  that  end  syllables,  (section  8 ;) 
mako  him  first  to  give  the  force  of  the  joined  consonants,  and  then  to  put  the 
vowels  before  them;  as  ble  with  the  vowels  before  them  sound  abk,  ebk,  idle, 
able,  ubk,  to  all  of  which  you  may  prefix  other  consonants  and  change  them  into 
words  of  one  syllable,  as  fabk,  pebk,  bibk,  noble,  bubbk,  with  a  6  inserted  or  the 
like.    "Where  observe  that  e  in  the  end  of  many  syllables,  being  silent,  doth 
qualify  the  sound  of  the  foregoing  vowel,  so  as  to  make  words  different  from 


40g  THE  PETTY  SCHOOL. 

those  that  have  not  e ;  as  you  may  see  made  differeth  quite  from  mad, 
bet,  pipe  from  pip,  sope  from  sop,  and  cube  from  cub.  Whereby  I  think  them 
in  an  error  that  leave  out  e  in  the  end  of  words,  and  them  that  in  pronouncing 
it  make  two  syllables  of  one,  in  stable,  bible,  people,  &c.,  which  judicious  Mr 
Mulcaster  will  not  allow. 

In  this  exercise  of  spelling  you  may  do  well  sometimes  to  make  all  the  young 
oeginners  stand  together,  and  pose  them  one  by  one  in  all  sorts  of  syllables,  til] 
they  be  perfect  in  any ;  and  to  make  them  delight  therein, 

1.  Let  them  spell  many  syllables  together  which  differ  only  in  one  letter,  as 
and,  band,  hand,  land,  sand. 

2.  Teach  them  to  frame  any  word  of  one  syllable,  by  joining  any  of  the  con- 
sonants which  go  before  vowels,  with  those  that  are  used  to  follow  vowels,  and 
putting  in  vowels  betwixt  them,  as  black,  block;  clack,  clock. 

And  this  they  may  do  afterward  amongst  themselves,  having  several  loose 
letters  made  and  given  them  to  compose  or  divide  in  a  sporting  manner,  which 
I  may  rightly  term  the  letter  sport. 

When  a  child  has  become  expert  in  joining  consonants  with  the  vowels,  then 
take  him  to  the  diphthongs,  (section  9r)  and  there 

1.  Teach  him  the  natural  force  of  a  diphthong,  (which  consists  of  two  vowela 
joined  together,)  and  make  him  sound  it  distinctly  by  itself,  as  ai,  ei,  &c. 

2.  Let  him  see  how  it  is  joined  with  other  letters,  and  learn  to  give  its  pro- 
nunciation with  them,  minding  him  how  the  same  diphthong  differs  from  itself 
sometimes  in  its  sound,  and  which  of  the  two  vowels  in  it  hath  the  greatest 
power  in  pronunciation,  as  in  people,  e  seemeth  to  drown  the  0. 

And  besides  those  words  in  the  book,  you  may  add  others  of  your  own,  till 
by  many  examples  the  child  doth  well  apprehend  your  meaning,  so  that  he  can 
boldly  adventure  to  imitate  you,  and  practice  himseK 

Thus  after  a  child  is  thoroughly  exercised  in  the  true  sounding  of  the  vowela 
and  consonants  together,  let  him  proceed  to  the  spelling  of  words,  first  of  one 
syllable,  (section  10,)  then  of  two,  (section  .11,)  then  of  three,  (section  12,)  then 
of  four,  (section  13.)  in  all  of  which  let  him  be  taught  how  to  utter  every  sylla- 
ble by  itself  truly  and  fully,  and  be  sure  to  speak  out  the  last.  But  in  words 
of  more  syllables,  let  him  learn  and  part  them  according  to  these  profitable 
rules : 

1.  An  English  syllable  may  sometimes  consist  of  eight  letters,  but  never  of 
more,  as  strength. 

2.  In  words  that  have  many  syllables,  the  consonant  between  two  vowela 
belongeth  to  the  latter  of  them,  as  hu-mi-li-tie. 

3.  Consonants  which  are  joined  in  the  beginning  of  words  are  not  to  be 
parted  in  the  middle  of  them,  as  my-ste-ry. 

4.  Consonants  which  are  not  joined  in  the  beginning  of  words  are  to  be  parted 
in  the  middle  of  them,  as  for-get-ful-ness. 

5.  If  a  consonant  be  doubled  in  the  middle  of  a  word,  the  first  belongs  to  the 
foregoing  syllable,  and  the  latter  to  the  following,  as  pos-ses-si-on. 

6.  In  compound  words,  every  part  which  belongeth  to  the  single  words  must 
be  aet  by  itself,  as  in-a-bi-li-ty. 

And  these  rules  have  I  here  set  down  to  inform  the  less  skillful  teacher  how 
he  is  to  guide  his  learner,  than  to  puzzle  a  child  about  them,  who  is  not  yet  <»n 
well  able  to  comprehend  them. 


THE  PETTY  SCHOOL.  407 

I  have  also  divided  those  words  in  the  book,  to  let  children  see  how  they 
ought  to  divide  other  polysyllable  words,  in  which  they  must  always  be  very 
careful  (as  I  said)  to  sound  out  the  last  syllable  very  fully. 

To  enable  a  child  the  better  to  pronounce  any  word  he  meets  withal  in  read- 
ing, I  have  set  down  some,  more  hard  for  pronunciation,  (section  14,)  in  often 
reading  over  which  he  may  be  exercised  to  help  his  utterance ;  and  the  master 
may  add  more  at  his  own  discretion,  till  he  see  that  his  willing  scholar  doth  not 
stick  in  spelling  any,  be  it  never  so  hard. 

And  that  the  child  may  not  be  amused  with  any  thing  in  his  book  when  he 
cometh  to  read,  I  would  have  him  made  acquainted  with  the  pauses,  (section 
15,)  with  the  figures,  (section  16,)  numeral  letters,  (section  17,)  quotations  (sec- 
tion 18)  and  abbreviations,  (section  19,)  which  being  but  a  work  of  a  few  hours' 
space,  may  easily  be  performed  after  he  can  readily  spell,  which  when  he  can 
do,  he  may  profitably  be  put  to  reading,  but  not  before;  for  I  observed  it  a 
great  defect  in  some  of  Mr.  Robinson's  scholars,  (whose  way  was  to  teach  to 
read  presently  without  any  spelling  at  all,)  that  when  they  were  at  a  loss  about 
a  word,  they  made  an  imperfect  confused  sound  in  giving  the  force  of  the  con- 
sonants, which  if  they  once  missed,  they  knew  not  which  way  to  help  them- 
selves to  find  what  the  word  was;  whereas,  if  after  a  child  know  his  letters,  he 
be  taught  to  gather  them  into  just  syllables,  and  by  the  joining  of  syllables  to- 
gether to  frame  a  word,  (which  as  it  is  the  most  ancient,  so  certainly  it  is  the 
most  natural  meihod  of  teaching,)  he  will  soon  be  able,  if  he  stick  at  any  word 
in  reading,  by  the  naming  of  its  letters  and  pronouncing  of  its  syllables,  to  say 
what  it  is,  and  then  he  may  boldly  venture  to  read  without  spelling  at  all, 
touching  the  gaining  of  a  habit  whereof  I  shall  proceed  to  say  somewhat  in  the 
next  chapter. 

IV. — How  a  child  may  be  taught  to  read  any  English  book  perfectly. 

The  ordinary  way  to  teach  children  to  read  is,  after  they  have  got  some 
knowledge  of  their  letters,  and  a  smattering  of  some  syllables  and  words  in  thd 
hornbook,  to  turn  them  into  the  A  B  C  or  Primer,  and  therein  to  make  them 
name  the  letters  and  spell  the  words,  till  by  often  use  they  can  pronounce  (at 
least)  the  shortest  words  at  the  first  sight. 

This  method  takes  with  those  of  prompter  wits;  but  many  of  more  slow  ca- 
pacities, not  finding  any  thing  to  affect  and  so  make  them  heed  what  they 
learn,  go  on  remissly  from  lesson  to  lesson,  and  are  not  much  more  able  to  read 
when  they  have  ended  their  book  than  when  they  begun  it.  Besides,  the 
ABC  being  now  (I  may  say)  generally  thrown  aside,  and  the  ordinary  Primer 
not  printed,  and  the  very  fundamentals  of  Christian  religion  (which  were  wont 
to  be  contained  in  those  books,  and  were  commonly  taught  children  at  home  by 
heart  before  they  went  to  school)  with  sundry  people  (almost  in  all  places) 
slighted,  the  matter  which  is  taught  in  most  books  now  in  use  is  not  so  familiar 
to  them,  and  therefore  not  so  easy  for  children  to  learn. 

But  to  hold  still  to  the  sure  foundation,  I  have  caused  the  Lord's  Prayer,  (sec- 
tion 20,)  the  Creed,  (section  21,)  and  the  Ten  Commandments  (section  23)  to  be 
printed  in  the  Roman  character,  that  a  child  having  learned  already  to  know 
his  letters  and  how  to  spell,  may  also  be  initiated  to  read  by  them,  which  he 
will  do  the  more  cheerfully  if  h«  be  «l«n  inntnvtpd  at  home  to  sa^  them  b* 


408  THE  PETTY  SCHOOL. 

As  he  reads  these,  I  would  have  a  child  name  what  words  ne  can  at  first 
sight,  and  what  he  can  not,  to  spell  them,  and  to  take  notice  what  pauses  and 
numbers  are  in  his  lesson,  and  to  go  over  them  often,  till  he  can  tell  any  tittle 
in  them,  either  in  or  without  the  book. 

When  he  is  thus  well  entered  in  the  Roman  character,  I  wo  aid  have  him 
made  acquainted  with  the  rest  of  the  characters  now  in  use,  (section  23,)  which 
will  be  easily  done  by  comparing  one  with  another,  and  reading  over  those  sen- 
tences, psalms,  thanksgivings,  and  prayers  (which  are  printed  in  greater  and 
less  characters  of  sundry  sorts)  till  he  have  them  pretty  well  by  heart. 

Thus  having  all  things  which  concern  reading  English  made  familiar  to  him, 
ne  may  attain  to  a  perfect  habit  of  it,  1,  by  reading  The  Single  Psalter;  2.  The 
Psalms  in  Meter;  3.  The  School  of  Good  Manners,  or  such  other  like  easy  books 
which  may  both  profit  and  delight  him.  All  of  which  I  would  wish  he  may  read 
over  at  least  thrice,  to  make  the  matter  as  well  as  the  words  leave  an  impres- 
sion upon  his  mind.  If  any  where  he  stick  at  any  word  (as  seeming  too  hard) 
let  him  mark  it  with  a  pin,  or  the  dint  of  his  nail,  and  by  looking  upon  it  again 
he  will  remember  it. 

When  he  can  read  any  whit  readily,  let  him  begin  the  Bible  and  read  over 
the  book  of  Genesis  (and  other  remarkable  histories  in  other  places  of  Scripture 
which  are  most  likely  to  delight  him)  by  a  chapter  at  a  time ;  but  acquaint  him 
a  little  with  the  matter  beforehand,  for  that  will  entice  him  to  read  it,  and  make 
him  more  observant  of  what  he  reads.  After  he  hath  read,  ask  him  such  gen- 
eral questions  out  of  the  story  as  are  most  easy  for  him  to  answer,  and  he  will 
the  better  remember  it.  I  have  known  some,  that  by  hiring  a  child  to  read  two 
or  three  chapters  a  day,  and  to  get  so  many  verses  of  it  by  heart,  have  made 
them  admirable  proficients,  and  that  betimes,  in  the  Scriptures,  which  was  Tim- 
othy's excellency  and  his  grandmother's  great  commendation.  Let  him  now 
take  liberty  to  exercise  himself  in  any  English  book  (so  the  matter  of  it  be  but 
honest)  till  he  can  perfectly  read  in  any  place  of  a  book  that  is  offered  him ;  and 
when  he  can  do  this,  I  adjudge  him  fit  to  enter  into  a  grammar  school  but  not 
before. 

For  thus  learning  to  read  English  perfectly,  I  allow  two  or  three  years'  time, 
so  that  at  seven  or  eight  years  of  age  a  child  may  begin  Latin. 

V. —  Wherein  children,  for  whom  the  Latin  tongue  is  thought  to  be  unnecessary, 
are  to  le  employed  after  they  can  read  English  well. 

It  is  a  fond  conceit  of  many  that  have  either  not  attained,  or  by  their  own 
negligence  have  utterly  lost  the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue,  to  think  it  altogether 
unnecessary  for  such  children  to  learn  it  as  are  intended  for  trades,  or  to  be 
kept  as  drudges  at  home,  or  employed  about  husbandry.  For  first,  there  are 
few  children  but  (in  their  playing  years,  and  before  they  can  be  capable  of  any 
serious  employment  in  the  meanest  calling  that  is)  may  bo  BO  far  grounded  in 
the  Latin  as  to  find  that  little  smattering  they  have  of  it  to  be  of  singular  use  to 
them,  both  for  the  understanding  of  the  English  authors  (which  abound  now-a- 
days  with  borrowed  words)  and  the  holding  of  discourse  with  a  sort  of  men 
that  delight  to  flaunt  it  in  Latin. 

Secondly,  Besides  I  have  heard  it  spoken  to  the  great  commendation  of  some 
countries  where  care  is  had  for  the  well  education  of  children,  that  every  peas 
ant  (almost)  is  able  to  discourse  with  a  stranger  in  the  Latin  tongue ;  and  whj 


THE  PETTY  SCHOOL  409 

may  not  we  here  in  England  obtain  the  like  praise  if  we  did  bnt,  as  they,  con- 
tinue our  children  at  the  Latin  school  till  they  be  well  acquainted  with  that 
language,  and  thereby  better  fitted  for  any  calling. 

Thirdly,  And  I  am  sorry  to  add,  that  the  non-improvement  of  children  a 
time  after  they  can  read  English  any  whit  well  throweth  open  a  gap  to  all  loose 
kinds  of  behavior ;  for  being  then  (as  it  is  too  commonly  to  be  seen,  especially 
with  the  poorer  sort)  taken  from  the  school,  and  permitted  to  run  wild,  up  and 
down,  without  any  control,  they  adventure  to  commit  all  manner  of  lewdness, 
and  so  become  a  shame  and  dishonor  to  their  friends  and  country. 

If  these  or  the  like  reasons  therefore  might  prevail  to  persuade  them  that 
have  a  prejudice  against  Latin,  I  would  advise  that  all  children  might  be  put  to 
the  grammar  school  so  soon  as  they  can  read  English  well,  and  suffered  to  con- 
tinue at  it  till  some  honest  calling  invite  them  thence ;  but  if  not,  I  would  wish 
them  rather  to  forbear  it  than  to  become  there  a  hindrance  to  others,  whose 
work  it  is  to  learn  that  profitable  language.  And  that  they  may  not  squandev 
away  their  time  in  idleness,  it  were  good  if  they  were  put  to  a  writing-school 
where  they  might  be,  first,  helped  to  keep  their  English  by  reading  a  chapter 
(at  least)  once  a  day;  and  second,  taught  to  write  a  fair  hand;  and  thirdly, 
afterward  exercised  in  arithmetic  and  such  preparative  arts  as  may  make  them 
completely  fit  to  undergo  any  ordinary  calling.  And  being  thus  trained  up  in  a 
way  of  discipline,  they  will  afterward  prove  more  easily  pliable  to  their  master's 
commands. 

Now,  forasmuch  as  few  grammar  schools  of  note  will  admit  children  into  them 
till  they  have  learned  their  Accidents,  the  teaching  of  that  book  also  becometh 
for  the  most  part  a  work  for  a  Petty  School,  where  many  that  undertake  to 
teach  it,  being  altogether  ignorant  of  the  Latin  tongue,  do  sorrily  perform  that 
task,  and  spend  a  great  deal  of  time  about  it  to  little  or  no  purpose.  I  would 
have  that  book  therefore  by  such  let  alone  and  left  to  the  grammar  school  as 
most  fitting  to  be  taught  there  only,  because  it  is  intended  as  an  introduction  of 
grammar  to  guide  children  in  a  way  of  reading,  writing,  and  speaking  Latin, 
and  the  teachers  of  the  grammar  art  are  most  deeply  concerned  to  make  use  of 
it  for  that  end.  And  instead  of  the  Accidents,  which  they  do  neither  understand 
nor  profit  by,  they  may  be  benefited  in  reading  orthodoxal  catechisms  and  other 
books  that  may  instruct  them  in  the  duties  of  a  Christian,  such  as  The  Practice 
of  Piety.  The  Practice  of  Quietness,  T/ie  Whole  Duty  of  Man ;  and  afterward  in 
other  delightful  books,  of  English  history,  as  The  History  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  or 
poetry,  as  Herbert's  Poems,  Quarts  Embkms;  and  by  this  means  they  will  gain 
such  a  habit  and  delight  in  reading  as  to  make  it  their  chief  recreation  when 
liberty  is  afforded  them.  And  their  acquaintance  with  good  books  will  (by 
God's  blessing)  be  a  means  so  to  sweeten  their  (otherwise  sour)  natures,  that 
they  may  live  comfortably  towards  themselves,  and  amiably  converse  with  other 
persons. 

Yet  if  the  teacher  of  a  Petty  School  have  a  pretty  good  understanding  of  the 
Latin  tongue,  he  may  the  better  adventure  to  teach  the  Accidents,  and  proceed 
In  doing  so  with  far  more  ease  and  profit  to  himself  and  learner,  if  he  observe  a 
sure  method  of  grounding  his  children  in  the  rudiments  of  grammar,  and  pre- 
paring them  to  speak  and  write  familiar  Latin,  which  I  shall  hereafter  discover, 
having  first  set  down  somewhat  how  to  remedy  that  defect  in  reading  English 
with  which  the  grammar  schools  are  very  much  troubled,  especially  where  there 
is  not  a  good  Petty  School  to  discharge  that  work  aforehand.  An4  before  I 


410  THE  PETTY  SCHOOL. 

proceed  further,  I  will  express  my  mind  in  the  .jext  two  chapters  touching  ths 
erecting  of  a  Petty  School,  una  how  it  may  probably  flourish  by  good  order  and 
discipline. 

VI. —  Of  the  founding  of  a  Petty  School. 

The  Petty  School  is  the  place  where,  indeed,  the  first  principles  of  all  religion 
and  learning  ought  to  be  taught,  and  therefore  rather  deserveth  that  more  en- 
couragement should  be  given  to  the  teachers  of  it  than  that  it  should  be  left  as 
a  work  for  poor  women,  or  others  whose  necessities  compel  them  to  undertake 
it  as  a  mere  shelter  from  beggary. 

Out  of  this  consideration  it  is  (perhaps)  that  some  nobler  spirits,  whom  God 
hath  enriched  with  an  overplus  of  outward  means,  have,  in  some  places  where- 
unto  they  have  been  by  birth  (or  otherwise)  related,  erected  Petty  School-houses, 
and  endowed  them  with  yearly  salaries ;  but  those  are  so  inconsiderate  toward 
the  maintenance  of  a  master  and  his  family,  or  so  overcloyed  with  a  number  of 
free  scholars  to  be  taught  for  nothing,  that  few  men  of  good  parts  will  deign  to 
accept  of  them,  or  continue  at  them  for  any  while,  and  for  this  cause  I  have 
observed  such  weak  foundations  fall  to  nothing. 

Yet  if  any  one  be  desirous  to  contribute  toward  such  an  eminent  work  of 
charity  my  advice  is,  that  he  erect  a  school  and  dwelling-house  together,  about 
the  middle  of  a  market  town,  or  some  populous  country  village,  and  accommo- 
date it  with  a  safe  yard  adjoining  to  it,  if  not  with  an  orchard  or  garden,  and 
that  he  endow  it  with  a  salary  of  (at  least)  twenty  pounds  per  annum,  in  con- 
sideration whereof  all  such  poor  boys  as  can  conveniently  frequent  it  may  be 
taught  gratis,  but  the  more  able  sort  of  neighbors  may  pay  for  their  children's 
teaching  as  if  the  school  was  not  free,  for  they  will  find  it  no  small  advantage  to 
have  such  a  school  amongst  them. 

Such  a  yearly  stipend  and  convenient  dwelling,  with  a  liberty  to  take  young 
children  to  board,  and  to  make  what  advantage  he  can  best  by  other  scholars, 
will  invite  a  man  of  good  parts  to  undertake  the  charge,  and  excite  him  to  the 
diligent  and  constant  performance  of  his  duty,  especially  if  he  be  chosen  into 
the  place  by  three  or  four  honest  and  discreet  trustees,  that  may  have  power 
also  to  remove  him  thence,  if  by  his  uncivil  behavior  or  gross  neglect  he  render 
himself  incapable  to  perform  so  necessary  a  service  to  the  church  and  common- 
wealth. 

As  for  the  qualifications  of  one  that  is  to  be  the  teacher  of  a  Petty  School,  I 
would  have  him  to  be  a  person  of  a  pious,  sober,  comely  and  discreet  behavior, 
and  tenderly  affectionate  toward  children,  having  some  knowledge  of  the  Latin 
tongue,  and  ability  to  write  a  fair  hand  and  good  skill  in  arithmetic,  and  then 
let  him  move  within  the  compass  of  his  own  orb  so  as  to  teach  all  his  scholars 
(as  they  become  capable)  to  read  English  very  well,  and  afterward  to  write  and 
cast  accounts.  And  let  him  not  meddle  at  all  with  teaching  the  Accidents,  ex 
cspt  only  to  some  more  pregnant  wits  which  are  intended  to  be  set  forward  to 
learn  Latin,  and  for  such  be  sure  that  he  ground  them  well,  or  else  dismiss 
them,  as  soon  as  they  can  read  distinctly  and  write  legibly,  to  the  grammar 
school 

I  should  here  have  closed  my  discourse,  and  shut  up  this  Petty  School,  were 
it  not  that  I  have  received  a  model  for  the  maintaining  of  students  from  a 
worthy  friend's  hand,  (and  one  that  is  most  zealously  and  charitably  addicted 
to  advance  learning,  and  to  help  it  in  its  ve»y  beginning  to  come  forward  to  iti 


THE  PETTY  SCHOOL.  411 

Rill  rise,)  by  which  I  am  encouraged  to  address  my  ren/air  ing  words  to  the 
godly-minded  trustees  and  subscribers  for  so  good  a  work,  (especially  to  those 
amongst  them  that  know  me  and  my  school  endeavors;)  and  this  I  humbly  re- 
quest of  them,  that  as  they  have  happily  contrived  a  model  for  the  education  of 
students,  and  brought  it  on  a  sudden  to  a  great  degree  of  perfection,  so  they 
should  also  put  to  their  hands  for  the  improvement  of  school  learning,  without 
which  such  choice  abilities  as  they  aim  at  in  order  to  the  ministry  can  not  pos- 
sibly be  obtained.  And  for  the  first  foundation  of  such  a  work,  I  presume  to 
oflfer  my  advice,  that  in  some  convenient  places,  within  and  without  the  city, 
there  may  be  Petty  Schools  erected,  according  to  the  number  of  wards,  unto 
which  certain  poor  children  out  of  every  parish  may  be  sent  and  taught  gratis, 
and  all  others  that  please  to  send  their  children  thither  may  have  them  taught 
at  a  reasonable  rate,  and  be  sure  to  have  them  improvedrto  the  utmost  of  what 
they  are  capable.  And  I  am  the  rather  induced  to  propound  such  a  thing  be- 
cause that  late  eminent,  Dr.  Bathurst,  lately  deceased,  Mr.  Gouge,  and  some 
others  yet  living  did,  out  of  their  own  good  affection  to  learning,  endeavor  at 
their  own  charge  to  promote  the  like. 

VII.—  Of  file  discipline  of  a  Petty  School. 

The  sweet  and  orderly  behavior  of  children  addeth  more  credit  to  a  school 
than  due  and  constant  teaching,  because  this  speaketh  to  every  one  that  the 
child  is  well  taught,  though  (perhaps)  he  learn  but  little,  and  good  manners  in- 
deed are  a  main  part  of  good  education.  I  shall  therefore  take  occasion  to 
speak  somewhat  concerning  the  discipline  of  a  Petty  School,  leaving  the  further 
discourse  of  children's  manners  to  books  that  treat  purposely  of  that  subject,  aa 
Erasmus  de  'mofibus,  Youth's  Behavior,  &c. 

1.  Let  every  scholar  repair  to  school  before  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  in 
in  case  of  weakness  before  nine;    and  let  him  come  fairly  washed,  neatly 
combed,  and  handsomely  clad,  and  by  commending  his  cleanness,  and  snowing 
it  to  his  fellows,  make  him  take  pleasure  betimes  of  himself  to  go  neat  and 
comely  in  his  clothes. 

2.  Let  such  as  come  before  school-time  take  liberty  to  recreate  themselves 
about  the  school,  yet  so  as  not  to  be  suffered  to  do  any  thing  whereby  to  harm 
themselves  or  school-fellows,  or  to  give  offence  or  make  disturbance  with  any 
neighbor. 

3.  "When  school-time  is  called,  let  them  all  go  orderly  to  their  own  places,  and 
here  apply  themselves  diligently  to  their  books  without  noise  or  running  about. 

4.  When  the  master  cometh  into  the  school,  let  them  stand  up  and  make 
obeisance,  (so  likewise  when  any  stranger  cometh  in ;)  and  after  notice  is  taken 
of  those  who  are  absent,  let  one  that  is  most  able  read  a  chapter,  and  the  rest 
attend  and  give  some  little  account  of  what  they  have  heard  read.    Then  let 
him  that  read  say  a  short  prayer  fitted  for  the  school,  and  afterward  let  every 
one  settle  to  his  present  task. 

5.  The  wnole  school  may  not  unfitly  be  divided  into  four  forms,  whereof  the 
first  and  lowest  should  be  of  those  that  learn  to  know  their  letters,  whose  les- 
sons may  be  in  the  Primer ;  the  second,  of  those  that  learn  to  spe3,  whose  les- 
ions may  be  in  the  Singk  Psalter;  the  third,  of  those  that  learn  to  read,  whose 
lessons  may  be  in  the  Bible ;  the  fourth,  of  those  that  are  exercised  in  reading, 
writing,  and  casting  accounts,  whose  lessons  may  be  in  such  profitable  English 
books  as  the  parents  can  best  provide  and  the  master  think  fittost  to  be  taught 


412  THE  PETTY  SCHOOL. 

6.  Let  the  lessons  be  the  same  to  each  boy  in  every  form,  and  lot  the  master 
proportion  them  to  the  meanest  capacities;  thus  those  that  are  ablor  may  profit 
themselves  by  helping  their  weaker  fellows,  and  those  that  are  weaker  be  en- 
couraged to  see  that  they  can  keep  company  with  the  stronger.  And  let  the 
two  highest  in  every  form  give  notice  to  the  master  when  they  come  to  say 
it,  of  those  that  were  most  negligent  in  getting  the  lesson. 

7*.  When  they  come  to  say  it,  let  them  all  stand  orderly  in  one  or  two  rows, 
and  whilst  one  sayeth  his  lesson,  be  sure  that  all  the  rest  look  upon  their  books, 
and  give  liberty  to  him  that  is  next  to  correct  him  that  is  saying  it  if  he  mis- 
take; and  in  case  he  can  say  it  better,  let  him  take  his  place  aud  keep  it  till  the 
same  boy  or  another  win  it  from  him.  The  striving  for  places  (especially) 
amongst  little  ones  will  whet  them  on  to  more  diligence  than  any  encourage- 
ment that  can  be  given  them ;  and  the  master  should  be  very  sparing  to  whip 
any  one  for  his  book  except  he  be  sullenly  negligent,  and  then  also  I  would 
choose  rather  to  shame  him  out  of  his  untowardness  by  commending  some  of 
his  fellows,  and  asking  him  why  he  can  not  do  as  well  as  they,  than  by  falling 
upon  him  with  rating  words  or  injurious  blows.  A  great  care  also  must  be  had 
that  those  children  that  are  slow-witted  and  of  a  tender  spirit  be  not  any  way 
discouraged,  though  they  can  not  make  so  good  a  performance  of  their  task  as 
the  rest  of  their  fellows. 

8.  On  Mondays,  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  they  may  say  two  lessons  in  the 
forenoon  and  two  in  the  afternoon,  and  on  Tuesdays  and  Thursdays  in  the  fore- 
noon they  may  also  say  two  lessons;  but  on  Tuesdays  and  Thursdays  in  the 
afternoon  and  on  Saturday  mornings  I  would  have  the  time  spent  in  examining 
and  directing  them  how  to  spell  and  read  aright,  and  hearing  them  say  the 
graces,  prayers  and  psalms,  and  especially  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  and  the 
Ten  Commandments,  (which  are  for  that  purpose  set  down  in  the  New  Primer) 
very  perfectly  by  heart.    And  those  that  can  say  these  well  may  proceed  to 
get  other  catechisms,  but  be  sure  they  be  such  as  agree  with  the  principles  of 
Christian  religion. 

9.  Their  lessons  being  all  said,  they  should  be  dismissed  about  eleven  o'clock, 
and  then  care  must  be  taken  that  they  every  one  go  orderly  out  of  the  school, 
and  pass  quietly  home  without  any  stay  by  the  way.    And  to  prevent  that  too 
common  clamor  and  crowding  out  of  the  school  door,  let  them  rise  out  of  their 
places  one  by  one  with  their  hat  and  book  in  their  hand,  and  make  their  hon- 
ors to  their  master  as  they  pass  before  his  face,  one  following  another  at  a  dis- 
tance out  of  the  school.    It  were  fittest  and  safest  that  the  least  went  out  tho 
foremost,  that  the  bigger  boys  following  may  give  notice  of  any  misdemeanor 
upon  the  way. 

10.  The  return  to  school  in  the  afternoon  should  be  by  one  o'clock,  and  those 
that  come  before  that  hour  should  be  permitted  to  play  within  the  bounds  till 
the  clock  strike  one,  and  then  let  them  all  take  their  places  in  due  order,  and 
Bay  their  lessons  as  they  did  in  the  forenoon.    After  their  lessons  are  ended,  let 
one  read  a  chapter  and  say  a  prayer,  and  so  let  them  again  go  orderly  and 
quietly  home,  about  five  o'clock  in  the  summer  and  four  in  the  winter  season. 

11.  If  necessity  require  any  one  to  go  out  in  the  school-time,  let  him  not  in- 
terrupt the  master  by  asking  him  for  leave,  but  let  him  leave  his  book  with  the 
next  fellow  above  him  for  fear  he  should  else  spoil  or  lose  it,  and  in  case  he 
tarry  too  long  forth,  let  notice  be  given  to  the  monitor. 

12  Those  children  in  the  upper  form  may  be  monitors,  every  one  a  day  in 


THE  PETTY  SCHOOL. 


413 


nis  turn ;  and  let  them  every  evening,  after  all  the  lessons  are  said,  give  a  bill 
to  the  master  of  their  names  that  are  absent,  and  theirs  that  have  committed 
any  disorder,  and  let  him  be  very  moderate  in  correcting,  and  be  sore  to  make 
a  difference  betwixt  those  faults  that  are  viciously  enormous  and  those  that  are 
but  childish  transgressions.  "Where  admonitions  readily  take  place,  it  is  a  need- 
less trouble  to  use  a  rod,  and  as  for  a  ferule  I  wish  it  were  utterly  banished  out 
of  all  schools. 

If  any  one,  before  I  conclude,  should  ask  me,  how  many  children  I  think  may 
be  well  and  profitably  taught  (according  to  the  method  already  proposed)  in  a 
Petty  School  ?  I  return  him  answer,  that  I  conceive  forty  boys  will  be  enough 
to  thoroughly  employ  one  man  to  hear  every  one  so  often  as  is  required ;  and 
so  many  he  may  hear  and  benefit  himself  without  making  use  of  any  of  hia 
scholars  to  teach  the  rest,  which  however  may  be  permitted  and  is  practiced  in 
some  schools,  yet  it  occasioneth  too  much  noise  and  disorder,  and  is  no  whit  so 
acceptable  to  parents  or  pleasing  to  the  children,  be  the  work  never  so  well 
done.  And  therefore  I  advise,  that  in  a  place  where  a  great  concourse  of  chil- 
dren may  be  had,  there  be  more  masters  than  one  employed  according  to  the 
spaciousness  of  the  room  and  the  number  of  boys  to  be  taught,  so  that  every 
forty  scholars  may  have  one  to  teach  them ;  and  in  case  there  be  boys  enough 
to  be  taught,  I  would  appoint  one  single  master  to  attend  one  single  form,  and 
have  as  many  masters  as  there  are  forms,  and  then  the  work  of  teaching  little 
ones  to  the  height  of  their  best  improvement  may  be  thoroughly  done,  especially 
if  there  were  a  writing-master  employed  at  certain  hours  in  the  school,  and  an 
experienced  teacher  encouraged  as  a  supervisor,  or  inspector,  to  see  that  the 
whole  school  be  well  and  orderly  taught  and  disciplined. 

"What  I  have  here  written  concerning  the  teaching  and  ordering  of  a  Petty 
School  was  in  many  particulars  experienced  by  myself  with  a  few  little  boya 
that  I  taught  amongst  my  grammar  scholars  in  London,  and  I  know  those  of 
eminent  worth  and  great  learning  that,  upon  trial  made  upon  their  own  chil- 
dren at  home  and  others  at  school,  are  ready  to  attest  the  ease  and  benefit  of 
this  method ;  insomuch  as  I  was  resolved  to  have  adjoined  a  Petty  School  to 
my  grammar  school  at  the  Token  House  in  Lothbury,  London,  and  there  to 
have  proceeded  in  this  familiar  and  pleasing  way  of  teaching,  had  I  not  been 
unhandsomely  dealt  with  by  those  whom  it  concerned,  for  their  own  profit's 
sake,  to  have  given  me  less  discouragement.  Nevertheless,  I  think  it  my  duty 
to  promote  learning  what  I  can,  and  to  lay  a  sure  foundation  for  such  a  goodly 
structure  as  learning  is ;  and  though  (perhaps)  I  may  never  be  able  to  effect 
what  I  desire  for  its  advancement,  yet  it  will  be  my  comfort  to  have  imparted 
somewhat  to  others  that  may  help  thereunto.  I  have  here  begun  at  the  very 
groundwork,  intending  (by  God's  blessing)  forthwith  to  publish  The  New  Dis- 
covery of  the  Old  Art  of  Teaching,  which  doth  properly  belong  to  a  grammar 
school. 

In  the  meantime  I  entreat  those  into  whose  hands  this  little  work  may  come 
to  look  upon  it  witn  a  single  eye,  and  whether  they  like  or  dislike  it,  to  think 
that  it  is  not  unnecessary  for  men  of  greatest  parts  to  bestow  a  sheet  or  two  at 
leisure  time  upon  so  mean  a  subject  as  this  seems  to  be.  And  that  God  which 
causeth  immense  ft vers  to  flow  from  small  spring-heads,  vouchsafe  to  bless  these 
weak  beginnings  in  tender  age,  that  good  learning  may  proceed  hence  tc  its 
Rill  perfection  in  riper  years. 


ENGLISH  PEDAGOGY-OLD  AND  NEW. 


EARLY   EXGLISII   SCHOOL   BOOKS. 

The  ancient  Primer  was  something  very  different  from  the  school-books  to 
which  we  ordinarily  give  the  name.  For  in  dames'  schools  of  which  Chaucer 
speaks,  children  were  provided  with  few  literary  luxuries,  and  had  to  learn 
their  letters  oif  a  scrap  of  parchment  nailed  on  a  board,  and  in  most  cases 
covered  with  a  thin,  transparent  sheet  of  horn  to  protect  the  precious  manu- 
uscript.  Hence  the  term  '  hornbook '  applied  to  the  elementary  books  of  chil- 
dren. Prefixed  to  the  alphabet,  of  course,  was  the  Holy  Sign  of  the 
Cross,  and  so  firm  a  hold  does  an  old  custom  get  on  the  popular  mind,  that 
down  to  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  alphabets  continued  to  pre- 
serve their  ancient  heading,  and  derived  from  this  circumstance  their  customary 
appellation  of  '  the  Christcross  row,'  a  term  so  thoroughly  established  as  to 
find  a  place  in  our  dictionaries.  The  Mediaeval  Primer  is,  however,  best  de- 
scribed in  the  language  of  the  fourteenth  century  itself.  The  following  lan- 
guage occurs  in  the  introduction  to  a  MS.  poem  of  300  lines,  still  preserved 
in  the  British  Museum,  each  portion  of  which  begins  with  a  separate  letter. 

In  place  ns  men  may  se 

When  a  childe  to  schole  shal  sette  be 

A  Bok  is  hym  ybrought, 

Nnylyd  on  a  bord  of  tre, 

That  men  cal  an  A,  B,  C, 

Wrought  is  on  the  bok  without. 

V  parartys  grete  and  stoute, 

Royal  in  rose  red. 

That  is  set,  withouten  doute, 

In  token  of  Christes  ded. 

Red  lettar  in  parchymyn, 

Makyth  a  childe  good  and  fyn 

Letters  to  loke  and  see, 

By  this  bok  men  may  devyne, 

That  Christe's  body  was  full  of  pyne, 

That  dyed  on  wod  tree. 

After  the  difficulties  of  the  primer  had  been  overcome,  a  great  deal  of  ele- 
mentary knowledge  was  taught  to  the  children,  as  in  Saxon  times,  through  the 
vehicle  of  verse.  For  instance,  we  find  a  versified  geography,  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  of  which  the  two  following  verses  may  serve  as  a  specimen, 
though  the  second  is  not  very  creditable  to  our  mediasval  geographers: 

This  world  is  delyd  (divided),  al  on  thre, 
Asia,  Affrike,  and  Eu-ro-pe. 
Wol  ye  now  here  of  A-si-e, 
How  inony  lenders  ther  inne  be? 

The  lond  of  Macedonie, 
Egypte  the  lesse  and  Ethiope, 
Syria,  and  the  land  of  Judia, 
These  ben  all  in  Jlaia. 

The  following  grammar  rules  belong  to  the  fifteenth  century : — 

Mi  lefe  chyld,  I  kownsel  the 
To  form  thi  vi  tens,  thou  avise  the, 
And  have  mind  of  thi  clensoune 
Both  of  noune  and  pronoun, 

And  ilk  case  in  plurele 

How  thou  sal  end,  avise  the  well; 

And  the  participvls  forget  thou  not, 

And  the  comparison  be  in  thi  thought, 

The  ablative  cnse  be  in  thi  minde,  ^ 

That  he  be  saved  in  hys  kind,  &c. 

There  is  something  in  the  last  fragment  very  suggestive  of  the  rod.  "What 
would  have  been  the  fate  of  the  unlucky  grammarian,  if  in  spite  of  this  solemn 


ENGLISH  PEDAGOGY— OLD  AND  NEW. 

counsel,  he  had  failed  to  have  the  ablative  case  in  his  mind,  we  dare  not  con- 
jecture. Our  forefathers  had  strict  views  on  the  subject  of  sparing  the  rod, 
and  spoiling  the  child.  Thus  one  old  writer  observes  of  children  in  general  • 

To  thir  pleyntes  mnk  no  grete  credence, 
A  rodd  reformeth  thir  insolence; 
In  thir  corage  no  anger  doth  abyde, 
Who  spareth  the  rodd  all  virtue  sette  asyde 

Yet  the  strictness  was  mingled,  as  of  old,  with  paternal  tenderness,  and 
children  appeared  to  have  treated  their  masters  with  a  singular  mixture  of  fa- 
miliarity and  reverence.  And  it  is  pleasant  to  find  among  the  same  collection 
of  school  fragments,  a  little  distitch  which  speaks  of  peace-making : 

Wrath  of  children  son  be  over  gon, 
With  an  apple  parties  be  made  at  one. 

There  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  schoolboys  of  the  fourteenth  century 
were  much  what  they  are  in  the  nineteenth,  and  fully  possessed  of  that  love  of 
robbing  orchards,  which  seems  peculiar  to  the  race. 

In  the  'Pathway  to  Knowledge,'  printed  in  London  in  1596,  occur  the  fol- 
lowing verses,  composed  by  W.  P.,  the  translator  from  the  Dutch  of '  the  order 
of  keeping  a  Merchant's  booke,  after  the  Italian  manner  of  debtor  and  creditor:' 

Thirty  days  hath  September,  A  prill,  June  and  November, 
Febuarie  eight  and  twentie  alone,  all  the  rest  thirtie  and  one. 

Looke  how  many  pence  ench  day  thou  shalt  gaine, 
Just  so  many  pounds,  halfe  pounds  and  groates: 
With  as  many  pence  in  a  yen  re  certaine, 
Thou  gettest  and  takest,  as  each  wise  man  notes. 

Looke  how  mnny  farthings  in  a  week  doe  amount. 
In  the  yeare  like  shillings,  and  pence  thou  shalt  count. 

Mr.  Davies,  in  his  key  to  "Button's  Course  quotes  the  following  from  a  manu- 
script of  the  date  of  1570  : 

Multiplication  is  mie  vexation, 

And  Division  is  quite  as  bad, 

The  Golden  Rule  is  mie  stumbling  stule, 

And  Practice  drives  me  mad. 

In  1600,  Thomas  Hylles  published  'The  Arte  of  Vulgar  Arithmeticke,  both 
in  integrals  and  fractions,'  to  which  is  added  Musa  Mercatorum,  which  gives  the 
following  rule  for  '  the  partition  of  a  shilling  into  its  aliquot  parts.' 

A  farthing  first  findes  fortie  eight 

An  halfepeny  hopes  for  twentie  foure 

Three  farthings  seekes  out  ]6streight 

A  peny  puls  a  dozen  lower. 

Dicke  "dandiprnrt  drewe  8  out  deade 

Twopence  took  6  and  went  his  way 

Tom  trip  and  goe  with  4  is  fled 

But  goodman  grote  on  3  doth  stay 

A  testerne  only  2  doth  take 

Moe  parts  a  shilling  can  not  make. 

Nicholas  Hunt,  in  'The  Hand- Maid  to  Arithmetick  Refined,'  printed  in  1633, 
gives  the  rule  of  proof  by  nines  as  follows: 

Adde  thou  upright,  reserving  every  tenne, 
And  write  the  dighits  doweall  with  thy  pen, 

The  proofs  (for  truth  I  say), 

Is  to  cast  nine  away. 
For  the  particular  summes  and  severall 
Reject  the  nines;  likewise  from  the  totall 
When  figures  like  in  both  chance  to  reran ine 
Subtract  the  lesser  from  the  great,  nothing  the  rest, 
Or  ten  to  borrow,  you  are  ever  prest. 
To  pay  what  borrowed  was  thinke  it  no  paine, 
But  honesty  redounding  to  your  gaine. 


THE  HORNBOOK. 


Cotgrave  has,  "  La  Croix  de  par  Dieu,  the  Christ's-crosse-rowe,  or  horne-lookc, 
wherein  a  child  learnes  it;"  and  Florio,  ed.  1611,  p.  93,  "Centuruok*,  a  childes 
horae-booke  hanging  at  his  girdle." 


HORNBOOK   OF  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 

In  the  collection  of  Sir  Thomas  Phillipps,  at  Middlehill,  are  two  genuine 
Hornbooks  of  the  reigns  of  Charles  I.  and  II.  Locke,  in  his  "  Thoughts  on 
Education,"  speaks  of  the  "  ordinary  road  of  the  Hornbook  and  Primer,"  and 
directs  that  "the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  and  the  Ten  Commandments  he 
should  learn  by  heart,  not  by  reading  them  himself  in  his  Primer,  but  by  some- 
body's repeating  them  before  he  can  read." 

Shenstone,  who  was  taught  to  read  at  a  dame-school,  near  Halesowen,  in 
Shropshire,  hi  his  delightfully  quaint  poem  of  the  Schoolmistress,  commemorating 
his  venerable  preceptress,  thus  records  the  use  of  the  Hornbook: — 

"  Lo ;  now  with  state  she  utters  her  command ; 
Eftsoons  the  urchins  to  their  tasks  repair ; 
Their  books  of  stature  small  they  take  in  hand, 
Which  with  pellucid  horn  secured  are 
To  save  from  finger  wet  the  letters  fair." 


OBJECT  TEACHING -PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS. 

[From  the  German  of  F.  Busse,  Principal  of  the  Girls'  High  School  of  Berlin.*] 


1.  — AIMS  AND  PRINCIPLES. 

PEDAGOGICAL  authorities  have  the  most  diverse  views  upon  object- 
teaching,  both  in  regard  to  its  position  and  value  in  general,  and  to  its 
principal  and  subsidiary  objects  in  particular.  The  reason  of  this  is,  that 
no  other  discipline  embraces  the  individuality  of  the  child  on  its  physical 
and  spiritual  sides  to  such  a  degree  as  this  does.  We  speak  of  exercise 
in  observation,  object-teaching,  practice  in  thinking,  or  practice  in  under- 
standing, practice  in  speaking  or  in  language,  just  according  as  we  are 
thinking  more  especially  of  the  sense-organs  and  observation,  the  ability 
to  think,  the  speaking  a  language.  From  the  standpoint  of  an  enlightened 
science  of  teaching,  the  averaging  of  these  various  views,  and  the  uniting 
of  these  aims,  is  a  necessity. 

Since  object-teaching  is  the  earliest  teaching,  and  that  which  begins 
before  the  child  is  old  enough  to  go  to  school  (Pestalozzi,  Froebel), 
since  it  takes  hold  of  the  child  in  the  full,  undifferentiated  unity  of  his 
powers,  it  is  of  importance  to  presuppose  that  the  child  has  an  inborn 
individuality.  That  clumsy  view  which  considers  that  what  we  call  indi- 
viduality does  not  arise  until  it  is  produced  by  the  influence  of  time  and 
place,  persons  and  circumstances,  and,  most  of  all,  by  education  and 
instruction,  —  that  view,  I  repeat,  prevails  amongst  those  who  strive  to 
dispiritualize  nature  everywhere,  and  especially  human  nature,  and  is 
unworthy  of  an  enlightened  science  of  teaching.  Just  as  little  as  instruc- 
tion can  form  its  empirical  conditions  —  that  is,  mental  capacity  and  organs 
of  speech  —  in  the  child,  but,  instead  of  that,  presupposes  them,  just  so 
little  can  it  dispense  with  the  logical  conditions ;  namely,  the  /,  endowed 
with  powers  of  observation,  discernment,  feeling,  and  willing,  —  what 
Genesis  calls  "  the  living  soul,"  what  Solomon  calls  "  the  breath  of  the 
divine  power." 

No  investigator  has  yet  succeeded  in  drawing  the  wonderful  boundary- 
line  between  the  spiritual  and  the  physical  in  human  nature  ;  but  if  we  are 
trying  to  establish  the  meaning  of  the  important  idea,  "  intuition,"  we  must 
keep  the  physical  and  spiritual  sides  of  our  being  apart. 

Man,  as  a  sensibly  spiritual  being,  has,  first  of  all,  a  receptivity  for 
impressions  of  that  which  is  about  him  and  goes  on  before  him.  This 
receptivity  is  called  sense.  The  activities,  capacities,  and  powers  of  the 
soul  which  come  first  into  consideration  are,  therefore,  of  a  purely  receptive 
kind.  It  is  the  decidedly  preponderant  activity  of  sense.  While  the  im- 
pressions of  the  exterior  world  are  in  the  act  of  being  appropriated  by  the 
soul,  the  first  soul-formations,  the  sensations  and  perceptions,  arise. 

*  From  Diesterweg's  Wegweisser,  edition  of  1873. 

27  417 


418  OBJECT   TEACHING.    BUSSE. 

These  are  all  matters  of  experience.  We  need  only  call  to  mind  the 
popular  expression,  "  The  stupid  quarter  of  a  year,"  which  ends  with  the 
child's  first  smile,  that  beam  of  consciousness  which  is  greeted  with  infinite 
joy.  The  child  has  at  this  period  the  ordinary  vicissitudes  and  excite- 
ments of  its  nervous  life  in  pleasure  and  pain,  as  well  as  the  wonderful 
modifications  of  them  in  its  sense-organs.  It  hears  a  fondling  voice,  looks 
into  a  faithful  eye,  tastes  the  sweet  milk,  feels  the  mother's  breast,  the 
gentle  lifting  and  carrying  of  the  arms,  and  the  swinging  motion  of  the 
cradle.  These  are  the  sense-impressions,  or  sensations,  which  flow  towards 
him  daily  during  the  short  moments  of  wakefulness. 

With  admirable  wisdom,  nature  has  so  regulated  the  organism  of  the 
child  that  it  passes  these  first  days  and  weeks  in  the  arms  of  sleep ;  for 
could  it  immediately,  like  the  young  lambkin  or  colt,  use  its  limbs,  such  an 
immeasurable,  incomprehensible  world  of  impressions  would  stream  in 
upon  its  inner  being,  that  self-consciousness,  unable  to  master  them,  would 
be  forever  overcome  and  unable  to  develop  itself.  Do  not  we  teachers 
have  the  corresponding  experience  daily  in  the  dissipated  and  distracted 
youth  of  our  great  cities  ?  Do  we  not  have  it  hourly  when,  in  the  presen- 
tation of  a  new  subject,  we  give  too  much  at  once,  and  overstep  the  limits 
which  lie  in  the  power  of  self-consciousness  ? 

But  the  child  has  not  merely  sense-impressions  or  sensations,  which  bear 
the  token  of  individuality ;  it  has  also  sense-intuitions,  that  is,  a  multi- 
plicity of  sensations  which  are  united  together  into  a  unit  by  the  syn- 
thesis of  the  interior  sense,  (named  by  Kant  "  the  table  of  the  inner  sense," 
of  which  the  five  senses  are  only  radiations.) 

The  beast  also  shares  in  both  the  sense-impressions  and  the  sense-intui- 
tions, and  indeed,  as  we  must  confess,  possesses  these  to  a  higher  degree 
than  does  man,  since  it  belongs  entirely  to  the  world  of  sense,  and  is 
endowed  with  sharper  organs  of  sense,  so  that  it  may  exist  in  that  world. 

When,  for  instance,  the  ape  is  busy  with  an  apple,  he  has,  in  the  first 
place,  the  sense-impression  of  sight,  by  means  of  his  eye ;  in  the  second 
place,  that  of  feeling  in  his  hand ;  in  the  third  place,  the  impression  of 
smell,  if  he  holds  it  to  his  nose ;  in  the  fourth  place,  that  of  taste  upon  his 
tongue ;  and,  finally,  also  that  of  hearing,  if  the  fruit  falls  to  the  ground,  or 
seeds  rattle.  But  these  five  different  impressions  do  not  remain  in  him  as 
one  multitude,  but  are  united  upon  the  table  of  his  inner  sense  without  his 
participation,  and  yet  with  infallible  certainty,  so  that  he  has  the  unity 
comprehended  within  itself  of  the  sense-impression  of  the  apple. 

Let  us  look  at  the  horse.  He  hears  the  crack  and  swing  of  the  whip ; 
he  has  often  enough  felt  the  smarting  impressions  of  it,  and  sees  it  imme- 
diately when  the  coachman  has  the  instrument  in  his  hand ;  but  these  three 
sense-impressions  remain  in  him,  not  as  any  thing  isolated,  but  blend  into 
the  unity  of  a  sense-intuition. 

The  child  is  similarly  circumstanced  in  relation  to  the  external  world. 
As  soon  as  longer  pauses  of  wakefulness  take  place,  the  eye  follows  the 
movements  of  the  mother,  and  the  impressions  of  her  friendly  face,  of  her 
tender  voice, 'of  the  nourishment  she  gives,  of  the  lifting  and  carrying  and 


OBJECT  TEACHING.    BUSSE.  419 

other  cares  she  bestows  upon  him,  unite  in  a  total  picture,  in  a  unity  of  the 
sense-intuition. 

The  sense-impressions  are  the  first,  the  sense-intuitions  the  second,  and 
the  latter  mark  already  a  step  of  the  greater  powerfulness  of  life  in  gen- 
eral, and  of  the  development  of  sense  in  particular. 

But,  while  the  animal  rises  up  into  the  world  of  sense-impressions  and 
sense-intuitions,  the  power  of  the  inborn  and  now  gently  moving  self- 
consciousness  raises  the  sense-impressions  into  perceptions,  and  thereby 
raises  also  the  sense-intuitions  into  intellectual  intuitions. 

The  perceiving  is  next  becoming  assured  of  something,  and  in  itself  is 
yet  an  undefined,  general  turning  or  application  of  the  subjectivity  to  an 
object,  a  direction  of  the  spirit  to  an  outside  thing,  a  consciousness  of 
parts,  character,  and  differences  now  becoming  clear.  But  if  a  perception 
is  internally  grasped  and  worked  up,  and  the  perception  takes  place  with 
a  more  decided  consciousness,  then  the  occurrence  becomes  a  spiritual 
intuition. 

Intellectual  intuition  (or  intuition  absolutely)  is  each  conscious,  more 
distinct  perception  or  unity  of  several  perceptions,  with  an  internal  summary. 

Intuition  is  quite  a  significant  word.  To  look  (or  to  inspect)  expresses 
subjective  activity,  not  mere  seeing,  as  the  eye  of  the  animal  may  be 
said  to  attach  itself  to  the  external  object  attracting  the  senses,  but  ex- 
presses the  act  of  sounding  it.  Intuition  signifies  such  inspection  as  exalte 
the  object  to  the  contemplator's  real  objectivity. 

An  intuition  presupposes  : 

1.  An  immediately  present  object. 

2.  The  influence  of  the  same  upon  one  or  several  sense-organs. 

3.  A  spiritual  activity,  to  bring  this  influence  to  the  consciousness  ; 
therefore  the  active  directions  of  the  spirit,  and  the  grasping  of  the  same.* 

The  mind  of  the  child  now  incessantly  works  on.  He  obtains  mastery 
more  and  more  swiftly,  and  more  and  more  victoriously  over  the  sense- 
impressions  and  sense-intuitions;  the  wealth  of  perceptions  and  intellectual 
intuitions,  and  his  self-certainty  in  them,  becomes  ever  greater ;  finally,  the 
power  of  intuitive  thinking  becomes  so  great  that  single  intellectual  intui- 
tions become  IDEAS.  It  is  these  which  have  always  left  behind  in  the 
child's  soul  the  deepest  traces,  and  they  become  ideas  as  soon  as  the  mind 
has  power  to  objectivate  them  ;  that  is,  to  dispose  of  them  as  of  things 
owned,  and,  independently  of  the  world  of  sense,  to  be  able  at  will  to  call 
them  forth  out  of  itself,  or  to  thrust  them  back. 

But  here  comes  in  the  need  of  a  sign ;  that  is,  of  a  word,  not  as  if  the 


*  REMARK.  Intuition,  in  the  narrower,  original  sense,  is  a  conscious  impression 
obtained  through  the  sensation  of  8ij,rht.  To  intuit  means,  first  of  all,  only  the  activity 
Of  the  soul  called  forth  by  si^ht.  But  since  the  most  distinct  and  the  most  surely 
defined  impressi  >ns  are  called  forth,  and  all  other  sense-perceptions  are  supported, 
perfected,  and  even  corrected  by  the  si^ht,  the  word  intuition  has,  since  the  time  of 
Kant,  been  extended  to  all  sensuous  perre|>tions.  In  the  wider  sense,  every  impression 
which  is  elevated  by  the  sensibility  (feeling)  is  an  intuition;  what  is  external  thereby 
becomes  internal. 


420  OBJECT   TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

word  called  forth  the  idea,  not  as  if  it  were  the  creator  of  the  idea,  but 
it  serves  as  the  seal  of  the  idea,  as  the  signature  of  a  mental  possession. 

Long  before  the  first  attempts  at  speaking,  a  little  hoard  of  ripening 
ideas  has  been  formed,  and  a  joy,  a  rapture  accompanies  the  first  efforts  to 
speak,  for  the  child  has  need  of  feeling  itself  and  enjoying  itself  in  its  self- 
certainty. 

From  the  idea  fixed  in  the  word,  man  finally  rises  in  maturer  age  to  the 
conception,  but  let  us  add,  only  imperfectly.  Few  men  who  are  accustomed 
to  think,  take  the  trouble  so  to  shape  the  hoard  of  their  ideas  and  unde- 
veloped conceptions  that  they  become  fixed  according  to  their  contents  and 
scope.  The  great  multitude  allow  themselves  to  be  satisfied  with  ideas  and 
conceptions  as  nature  and  life  obtrude  them,  as  it  were,  —  and  let  us  say 
just  in  this  place :  object-teaching  cannot  and  will  not  give  an  understand- 
ing of  the  external  world,  which  will  be  clearly  conformable  to  its  contents. 
Whoever  should  aim  to  sharpen  the  formal  side  of  this  instruction  in  such 
a  way,  would,  in  consideration  of  the  mental  immaturity  of  the  child,  com- 
mit the  severest  mistake,  and  would  give  into  the  hands  of  the  opponents 
of  this  system  the  sharpest  weapons.  Also  exclusively  to  accentuate  the 
material  or  practical  side  of  this  instruction,  the  exercise  of  the  senses  and 
the  enrichment  of  the  intuitions  and  ideas,  would  be  censurable,  since  this 
instruction  is  only  of  value  when  opposites  are  connected.* 

Where  an  extent  of  phenomena  is  given,  an  intent  or  content  must  also 
be  sought.  Where  the  external  world  is  brought  before  the  observation 
(too  often,  alas !  only  by  pictures),  the  way  to  the  understanding  of  it  must 
also  be  opened,  and  the  later  grasping  of  the  conception  in  due  proportion 
to  its  contents  must  be  prepared  for. 

Intuition  without  thinking  would  be  blind,  and  thinking  without  intuition 
would  be  empty,  dead,  word-cram,  trifling. 

Luther,  with  all  the  force  of  his  German  nature,  was  zealous  in  his  oppo- 
sition to  that  dead,  abstract  teaching  and  learning,  and  urged  on  the  in- 
tuitive method. 

"  Now,"  he  said,  "  let  us  look  directly  upon  the  created  things  rather 
than  upon  popedom.  For  we  are  beginning,  thank  God,  to  recognize  his 
glorious  works  and  wonders  in  the  little  flower ;  when  we  think  how  power- 
ful and  beneficent  God  is,  let  us  always  praise  and  prize  and  thank  him  for 
it.  In  his  creatures  we  recognize  how  powerful  is  his  word,  how  prodigious 
it  is."  He  also  drew  attention  to  the  relation  of  the  thing  to  the  word, 
and  considered  the  understanding  of  the  word  only  possible  by  the  under- 
standing of  the  thing. 

"  The  art  of  grammar,"  he  says,  "  points  out  and  teaches  what  the  words 
are  called  and  what  they  mean,  but  we  must  first  understand  and  know 
what  the  thing  or  the  cause  is.  Whoever  wishes  to  learn  and  preach, 
therefore,  must  first  know  both  what  the  thing  is  and  what  it  is  called  be- 
fore he  speaks  of  it  —  recognition  of  two  kinds,  one  of  the  word,  the 
other  of  the  thiner.  Now  to  him  who  has  not  the  knowledge  of  the  thing 
or  action,  the  knowledge  of  the  word  is  no  assistance.  According  to  an 

*  In  other  words,  when  the  organ  of  comparison  is  brought  into  play. 


OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE.  421 

old  proverb,  '  what  one  does  not  understand  and  know  well,  he  cannot 
speak  of  well.' " 

No  creative  transformation  of  the  essence  of  education  could,  however, 
proceed  from  the  school,  which  remained  for  centuries  the  serving-maid — 
less  of  the  Church  than  of  Churchdom.  The  British  giant  Bacon  had  first 
to  give  us  his  Novum  Organum  Scientiarum,  that  fiery  token  of  a  new  time, 
which  had  its  central  point  in  the  natural  sciences,  and  to  bring  on  the  abso- 
lute break  with  the  middle  ages  as  well  as  with  antiquity.  As  Luther  came 
forth  against  a  mass  of  human  traditions  by  which  the  manifestations  of 
God  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  were  disfigured,  so  Bacon  appeared  against  the 
traditions  of  human  institutions  which  darkened  the  manifestations  of  God 
in  creation.  Men  were  from  that  time  forth  no  longer  obliged  to  read  the 
arbitrary  and  fanciful  interpretations  of  both  manifestations,  but  could 
read  the  manifestations  themselves.  He  wished  men  to  demand  the  imme- 
diate contemplation  of  creation. 

"  Hence  let  us  never  turn  the  eyes  of  the  mind,"  he  says,  "  away  from 
the  things  themselves,  but  take  their  images  into  us  just  as  they  are."  He 
saw  how  in  his  time  the  physics  of  Aristotle  were  studied,  but  not  Nature. 
Men  read  in  books  what  the  earth  is,  what  their  authors  related  about 
stones,  plants,  animals,  &c. ;  but  with  their  own  eyes  to  investigate  these 
stones,  plants,  and  animals,  occurred  to  no  one's  mind.  And  thus  men 
were  obliged  to  surrender  at  discretion  to  the  authority  of  those  authors, 
since  they  ne^er  thought  of  making  a  critical  examination  of  "their  descrip- 
tions and  stories  by  their  own  immediate  experiments.  But  such  a  prov- 
ing was  so  much  the  more  necessary  because  these  authors  themselves  had 
their  information  at  third  or  fourth  hand.  It  is  incredible  now  what  a 
mass  of  untruth  and  fable  has  been  heaped  up  everywhere  in  books  of 
natural  history,  what  monsters  their  geology  created,  what  magic  powers 
they  gave  to  stones,  &c.  (See  Rauraer's  Pad.) 

When  Bacon  summoned  the  world  to  turn  their  minds  from  the  past 
and  to  look  with  open  eyes  into  living  nature,  he  not  only  gave  to  the 
experimental  sciences  (including  also  pedagogics)  a  new  impulse  in  general, 
but  he  was  also  the  father  of  realistic  pedagogy.  Ratichius  and  Comenius 
learnt  from  him,  and  the  '  real '  school,  the  industrial  school,  the  polytechnic 
institutions,  down  to  the  object-teaching  of  Father  Pestalozzi,  have  in  him 
their  foundation.  When  Bacon's  pupil,  John  Locke,  set  up  "  the  healthy 
soul  in  the  healthy  body  "  as  the  chief  maxim  in  education,  is  it  not  the 
same  thing  as  when  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel  desired  "  the  harmonious 
development  of  human  nature,"  and  preached  conformity  to  nature  in  edu- 
cation and  instruction  ? 

In  opposition  to  the  empty,  deadening  word-teaching  that  grew  rank  in 
the  schools,  "  the  poisonous  seed  of  scholasticism,"  Ratichius  exclaimed : 

"  Everything  according  to  the  ordering  and  course  of  nature,  for  all  un- 
natural and  arbitrary  violent  teaching  is  injurious  and  weakens  nature.  Let 
us  have  every  thing  without  constraint  and  by  inward  necessity.  First  the 
thing  itself,  then  the  conception  or  meaning  of  the  thing.  No  rule  before 
we  have  the  substance.  Rules  without  substance  lead  the  understanding 
astray.  Every  thing  through  experiment,  minute  investigation. 


422  OBJECT  TEACHING.      BUSSE. 

"  No  authority  is  good  for  anything,  if  there  is  not  reason  and  a  foundation 
for  it.  No  rule  and  no  system  is  to  be  allowed  which  is  not  radically  ex- 
plored anew,  and  really  founded  upon  proof." 

Truly  when  one  hears  such  golden  words,  one  is  tempted  to  ask,  "  Why 
were  those  battles  on  the  field  of  pedagogy  necessary  ?  Why  must  a  Franke, 
a  Rousseau,  a  Basedow,  a  Pestalozzi,  a  Diesterweg,  a  Froebel  come,  if,  as 
Jean  Paul  said  in  his  Levana, '  merely  to  repeat  that  a  hundred  times,  which 
is  a  hundred  times  forgotten '  ?  " 

In  the  path  which  Ratichius  had  trodden,  strode  forward  a  sovereign, 
and  with  all  the  power  and  burning  zeal  of  a  reformer,  Amos  Comenius 
the  author  of  the  first  picture-book  for  children,  the  orbis  pictus,  in  which 
every  thing  that  can  address  the  childish  love  of  objects  and  representa- 
tions of  objects,  whether  in  heaven  or  on  earth,  in  the  human  or  the  animal 
world,  is  illustrated  and  explained  by  description  and  comment 

He  is  to  be  estimated,  starting  from  a  sound,  compendious  observation 
of  human  nature  and  its  relations,  as  well  as  of  pedagogic  problems,  as  the 
spirited  father  of  the  so-called  object-teaching  as  a  special  discipline. 

He  says  :  "  With  real  insight,  not  with  verbal  description,  must  the  in- 
struction begin.  Out  of  such  insight  develops  certain  knowledge.  Not 
the  shadows  of  things,  but  things  themselves,  which  work  upon  the  mind 
and  the  imaginative  powers,  are  to  lie  ever  near  to  the  young.  Place 
every  thing  before  the  mind.  Insight  is  evidence.  Only  where  the  things 
are  actually  absent,  is  one  helped  by  the  pictorial  representation. 

"  Men  must  be  led,  as  far  as  possible,  to  create  their  wisdom,  not  out  of 
books,  but  out  of  the  contemplation  of  heaven  and  earth,  oaks  and  beeches ; 
that  is,  they  must  learn  to  see  and  investigate  the  things  themselves.  Let 
the  objects  of  physical  instruction  be  solid,  real,  useful  things,  which  affect 
the  senses  and  the  powers  of  the  imagination.  That  happens  when  they 
are  brought  near  to  the  senses,  visible  to  the  eyes,  audible  to  the  ears,  fra- 
grant to  the  nose,  agreeable  to  the  taste,  grateful  to  the  touch.  The  begin- 
ning of  knowledge  should  be  from  the  senses.  What  man  has  an  insight 
into  with  his  senses,  impresses  itself  deeply  on  the  memory,  never  to  be 
forgotten. 

"  Man  first  uses  his  senses,  then  his  memory,  next  his  understanding, 
and  lastly  his  judgment.  Let  us  teach  not  merely  to  understand,  but  to 
express  what  is  understood.  Speech  and  the  knowledge  of  things  must 
keep  step.  Teaching  of  things  and  of  speech  must  go  hand  in  hand.  Words 
without  the  knowledge  of  things  are  empty  words." 

This  running  parallel  of  the  simultaneous  learning  of  things  and  words 
was  the  deep  secret  of  the  method  of  Comenius. 

In  the  time  of  Hermann  Franke,  —  who,  as  the  noble  friend  of  man,  the 
father  of  the  poor  and  the  orphan,  the  great  champion  of  the  German  peo- 
ple's-school,  deserves  to  be  called  the  forerunner  of  Pestalozzi,  in  organiz- 
ing talent  so  far  superior  to  him,  —  the  elevation  of  burger  life  had  become 
so  great,  the  relations  of  trade  and  commerce  had  been  so  widened,  and  the 
pedagogics  of  Comenius  had  created  so  much  esteem  and  astonishment  in 
the  realists  (physicists),  that  the  '  Real  '-School  was  able  to  blossom  forth 
upon  the  ground  of  that  truly  practical  piety  which  raised  morality  to  a 


OBJECT  TEACHING.      BUSSE.  425 

principle  of  education.  The  general  law  of  the  method  was  continual  con- 
versation with  the  pupils  ;  catechism  was  the  soul  of  the  instruction.  All 
subjects  which  had  heretofore  heen  taken  for  granted  must  be  looked  into 
and  examined  critically  at  the  moment.  Rare  objects  of  nature  were  col- 
lected in  a  naturalist's  cabinet.  Especially  were  the  children  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  nature  lying  around  them,  with  the  occupations  of  hu 
man  life,  with  the  workshops  of  the  handicrafts. 

When  such  pedagogic  wisdom  as  this  did  not  bear  the  hoped-for  fruits,— 
when  the  schools,  which  had  been  added  to  life,  as  it  were,  by  a  beneficent 
piety,  were  estranged  from  it  again  by  an  ossified  pietism      — the  blame  lay, 
as  always  and  chiefly,  in  the  direction  which  has  hitherto  fettered  the  human 
mind  whenever  it  has  set  form  above  essence. 

But  as  in  the  domain  of  statesmanship,  so  also  in  the  domain  of  pedagogy, 
a  revolution  was  preparing  in  France. 

It  was  Rousseau  who,  in  "  Emil,"  wrote  a  book  for  the  literature  of  thp 
world  which  Gothe  called  "  the  Gospel  of  human  nature." 

Let  us  turn  our  eyes  wholly  away  from  the  external  and  unsuccessful 
experiment,  since  "  Emil "  is  indeed  only  the  form  for  proclaiming  the 
doctrine  of  the  Pedagogy,  the  candlestick  for  these  flames,  the  setting  for 
these  pearls  ;  this  book  was  and  is,  especially  for  France,  as  well  as  for  the 
world-wide  development  of  Pedagogy  generally,  a  fact. 

Only  Pestalozzi  has  with  equally  imposing  power  fought  for  the  means 
of  education  gained  by  listening  to  Nature  itself,  for  the  beginning  of  educa- 
tion at  birth,  for  instruction  gained  by  insight  and  self-activity,  for  self- 
formation  through  experience ;  but  Pestalozzi  stands  higher  than  Rousseau, 
for  as  the  latter  had  not  the  conception  of  the  mother,  so  was  wanting  in 
him  the  paternal  power  of  the  heart,  with  which  he  might,  with  his  "  Emil," 
have  grasped  and  sustained  a  unique  and  fully  authorized  influence  over 
that  great  whole  —  a  nation.  In  the  meantime,  the  flood  of  light  which 
flowed  from  him  over  Pedagogy,  was  so  potent  that  the  power  which  block- 
heads opposed  to  the  illumination  could  only  be  compared  to  the  mist  which 
softens  the  light  of  the  sun. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  spirit,  which  came  to  be  dominant,  the  school 
of  the  philanthropists  was  formed,  which  earnestly  pursued  the  ideas  of 
Rousseau :  "  Everything  through  and  for  the  harmonious  development  of 
man."  The  founder  and  representative  of  this  aim  was  the  energetic  Basedow. 

In  his  elementary  work,  accompanied  with  one  hundred  Chodowieckischer 
copper-plates  (the  forerunner  of  our  picture-plates),  he  gave  out  an  arranged 
plan  of  all  necessary  knowledge  for  the  instruction  of  youth  from  the  begin- 
ning up  to  the  academic  age. 

This  normal  work  was  followed  by  the  "  Philantropin,"  at  Dessau,  as  a  nor- 
mal school.  Distinguished  men,  Campe,  Salzmann,  Rochow,  worked  still 
further  in  the  spirit  of  Basedow.  The  noble  Von  Rochow  wrote :  "  Youth 
is  the  time  to  be  taught.  First  in  school  comes  the  practice  of  the  senses 
and  the  application  of  the  souls  in  attention  or  watchfulness,  particularly 
the  habit  of  sight-seeing  and  hearing ;  then  practice  in  reflection  upon 
every  thing  which  happens,  and  in  comparison  and  discrimination." 

In  the  Basedow-Rochow  period  there  was  a  strong  opposition  to  the  care- 


424  OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

less  old  school- ways.  Instead  of  the  one-sided  training  of  the  memory , 
they  wished  for  an  awakening,  soul-refreshing  instruction  and  development 
of  the  thinking  power  in  the  pupil.  In  order  to  secure  this,  they  proceeded 
to  teach  them  to  think,  to  speak,  to  observe,  to  investigate  ;  they  recog- 
nized that  above  all  things,  correctly  apprehending  senses  were  a  funda- 
mental condition  for  correct  judgment.  Now  they  insisted  upon  further 
material  apparatus  for  culture,  and  upon  a  better  method,  upon  enriching 
the  pupils'  minds  with  material  knowledge  and  multiplied  accomplishments. 

The  King  in  this  kingdom,  the  genius  of  Christian-human  pedagogy 
was  Pestalozzi. 

In  the  midst  of  the  wrecks  of  his  life  he  still  found,  as  a  single  costly  pearl, 
the  motto  of  education  for  all  times  :  The  development  of  human  nature  on 
the  ground  of  nature;  education  of  the  people  on  the  firm  ground  of  the 
people  and  the  people's  needs. 

In  opposition  to  the  petty  and  pernicious  principle  of  utility  he  found  in 
the  eternal  ideal  of  human  life  the  welfare  of  man. 

The  development  of  human  nature  on  the  ground  of  nature  is  the  grand 
thought  to  which  Pestalozzi  sought  to  give  permanence  to  his  method 
( "  Book  for  Mothers  "  ),  which  his  truest  pupil,  Froebel,  sought  in  the  kin- 
dergarten, and  their  followers  in  the  so-called  object-teaching. 

"  When  I  look  back  and  ask  myself,"  says  Pestalozzi,  "  what  I  have 
offered  peculiarly  for  the  cause  of  human  instruction,  I  find  that  I  have 
established  the  highest,  most  advanced  principles  of  instruction  in  the 
recognition  of  intuition  as  the  absolute  foundation  of  all  knowledge ;  and 
setting  aside  all  single  doctrines,  have  endeavored  to  find  the  essence  of 
teaching  itself  and  the  ultimate  form  by  which  the  culture  of  our  race  must 
be  determined  as  by  nature  itself." 

All  the  pedagogues  were  agreed  then,  that  for  the  first  instruction  visible 
material,  lying  within  the  sphere  of  the  child  and  accessible  to  him,  is  to  be 
chosen  for  observation,  expression,  and  information,  together  with  the  first 
practice  in  reading,  writing,  and  counting.  An  object-teaching  conformable 
to  nature,  aiming  to  produce  self-activity  in  the  child,  was  the  word  of  the 
new  pedagogy. 

We  will  now  pass  on  to  the  contemplation  of  the  place,  of  the  aim,  and 
of  the  method  of  object- teaching. 

The  foundation  of  instruction  forever  won  by  Pestalozzi  in  the  principle 
of  intuition,  soon,  made  an  end  to  the  so-called  pure-thinking  exercises 
of  the  Basedow  school,  which,  executed  with  arbitrarily  selected  and  most 
unmeaning  material,  occupied  an  isolated  place  in  the  instruction,  and 
missed  the  living  connection.  It  had  been  seen  that  these  thinking  exer- 
cises, ignoring  the  material  worth  of  knowledge,  led  to  an  empty  formalism  ; 
that  the  one-sided  enlightening  of  the  understanding  must  lead  to  poverty 
of  mind  in  other  fields. 

Now  since  Pestalozzi  had  demanded  for  each  subject  of  instruction  the 
power  of  intuition,  the  plunge  into  the  material,  its  all-sided  consumption 
and  its  organic  relations,  the  isolated  exercises  in  pure  thinking  were  no 
longer  needed,  and  they  were  struck  out  from  the  plan  of  the  lessons,  and 
the  so-called  object-teaching  took  their  place.  Pestalozzi,  in  his  strivings 


OBJECT   TEACHING.     BUSSE.  405 

to  seize  upon  the  truth,  did  homage  to  the  thinking  exercises,  and  once,  it 
is  said,  passed  six  weeks  with  the  children  musing  over  a  hole  in  the  car- 
pet. Later,  as  the  importance  of  nature  as  the  best  teacher  disclosed 
itself  to  him,  he  set  up  (see  <;  The  Mother's  Book  ")  the  human  hody  as,  ac- 
cording to  his  view,  the  nearest  and  ever-present  object-lesson  to  the  child. 

The  body  is  certainly  the  nearest  material  object  to  the  child,  but  it  is 
not  the  nearest  material  for  object-teaching.  Does  not  the  child  direct  his 
eyes  first  to  things  around  him,  to  furniture,  plants,  animals,  &c.,  before  he 
directs  them  to  his  own  person?  to  colors  and  forms  rather  than  to  his 
limbs  and  their  movements  ?  Not  merely  the  object  in  itself,  but  the  appli- 
cation of  it  in  pointing  out  and  naming  the  different  parts  of  the  body,  a 
mere  mass  of  names,  the  situation  of  the  different  parts  and  exclamations 
of  wonder  about  them,  the  connection  and  use  of  the  limbs,  &c.,  is  not 
a  lesson  conformable  to  nature.  If  Pestalozzi's  scholars  repeated  —  the 
mouth  is  under  the  nose,  the  nose  is  over  the  mouth,  and  similar  remarks, 
the  material  gain  for  the  children  must  have  been  like  that  of  the  peasant 
when  he  threshes  empty  straw.  The  mistake  of  that  experiment  time  and 
progress  has  swept  away.  Pestalozzi's  scholars  soon  went  on  in  a  more 
natural  manner,  and  struck  out  the  following  sequence  :  schoolroom,  fam- 
ily, house,  house-floor,  the  sitting-room,  the  kitchen,  the  ground,  the  cellar, 
the  yard,  the  habitation,  the  city,  the  village,  the  garden,  the  field,  the 
meadow,  the  wood,  the  water,  the  atmosphere,  the  sky,  the  season,  the 
year  and  its  festivals,  man,  body  and  soul  —  God. 

Others  endeavored  to  add  essentially  similar  material  in  the  course  of  the 
year.  This  instruction  in  and  from  nature,  which  developed  continually  into 
thoughtful  intuition  and  intuitive  thinking,  and  unfolded  the  power  of 
speech  in  every  aspect,  from  the  simplest  forms  up  to  poetical  ones  and  to 
song,  —  in  short,  which  took  captive  the  whole  child  in  his  intuition,  his 
thinking,  feeling,  and  willing,  and  enticed  him  to  self-activity,  seemed  to 
certain  inspired  pupils  of  Pestalozzi  to  be  materially  and  formally  so  im- 
portant that  they  declared  a  special  place  for  it  in  their  plan  of  instruction 
to  be  quite  insufficient,  and  that  it  was  the  all-important  CENTRE  and  sup- 
port, with  wholesale  condemnation  of  the  material  aim  of  reading  and 
writing  in  the  first  school-year.  With  object-teaching  as  the  common 
foundation,  drawing,  writing,  sounding  the  letters  (lautireri),  reading,  de- 
claiming, singing,  exercises  in  grammar  and  composition,  geometry, 
arithmetic,  domestic  economy,  natural  science  —  up  to  religion,  were  to  be 
developed  in  a  natural  way. 

The  Vogel  Schools  in  Leipzig  have  sought  to  realize  these  high  ideas. 

It  must  indeed  be  confessed  that  these  ideas  can  be  realized  in  the  hands 
of  a  teacher  who  is  furnished  with  rich  pedagogical  experience,  who  has  a 
profound  understanding  of  his  mother-tongue  in  grammatical  and  aesthetic 
relations,  and  who,  above  all  other  things,  has  preserved  his  childlike  dis- 
position. Such  a  teacher  will  succeed  in  reaching  this  summit  of  educa- 
tional art  founded  on  the  great  law  of  human  development  from  unbroken 
unity  up  to  the  unfolding  of  principles  into  their  reunion  in  a  still  higher 
unity  ;  and  he  will,  in  all  probability,  do  more  in  the  two  first  school-years 
to  bring  the  children  farther  on,  to  lay  a  wise  and  correct  foundation  of 


126  OBJECT    TEACHING.    BUSSE. 

culture,  than  if  he  began  according  to  the  old  practice,  with  separate 
branches  of  instruction  from  the  first  hour.  But  whether  it  is  possible  to 
fix  the  central  point  in  a  series  of  normal  words,  which,  planned  on  a  one- 
sided principle,  are  yet  expected  to  serve  the  most  varied  principles,  is 
more  than  questionable. 

One  of  the  most  important  testimonies  to  the  place  and  value  of  object- 
teaching,  is  Grassmann,  who,  in  his  "  Guide  to  Exercises  in  Speaking  and 
Thinking,"  as  the  natural  foundation  for  the  sum-total  of  instruction,  con- 
fesses himself  friendly  to  this  high  culture.  He  says  :  "  The  first  exercises  in 
language  must  be  in  conversations,  which  are  to  make  the  children  acquaint- 
ed with  the  things  of  the  external  world,  their  properties,  their  relations 
and  connections,  and  lead  them  to  receive  this  outward  world  correctly 
into  themselves,  to  portray  it  again,  to  shape  it,  and  to  make  an  inward 
representative  world  of  it  which  will  exactly  correspond  to  the  outer  ;  also 
to  guide  them  to  readiness  in  speech,  especially  upon  the  objects  of  the 
senses."  In  later  times,  Richter  (of  Leipzig)  has  described  this  standpoint 
in  the  most  striking  manner  in  his  prize  treatise  upon  Object-Teaching. 

Testimonies  have  likewise  been  given  to  the  opposite  view.  Based  upon 
the  predominating  formal  aim  of  object-teaching,  together  with  the  sug- 
gestion of  postponing  the  material  aim  of  reading  and  writing,  and  the 
duty  and  right  to  handle  every  subject  and  to  strive  at  every  step  for  the 
whole  in  the  quite  antiquated  maxims  of  the  word  method  and  the  culti- 
vation of  the  memory,  they  have  not  merely  left  out  the  object-teaching  to 
this  extent,  but  have  stricken  it  especially  and  wholly  from  the  programme 
of  lessons,  and  have  tried  to  prepare  the  same  fate  for  it  as  was  decided 
upon  for  the  abstract  exercises  in  thinking. 

For  two  decades  has  resounded  from  that  side  the  saying  :  no  indepen- 
dent object-teaching  but  in  connection  with  the  Reader. 

Reasons : 

a.  The  object  of  observation  (Anschauung)  and  conversation  upon  it  is 
for  the  most  part  too  prosaic  to  the  child's  circle  of  thinking  and  ideas  to 
give  any  exciting  elements  of  knowledge. 

b.  The  artistic  systematic  treatment  of  objects,  and  the  specialties  to  be 
sought  out  in  every  individual  thing,   (size,  parts,  situation,  color,  form, 
use,)  is  a  torment  to  children  and  teachers. 

c.  The  desire  that  children  should  already  speak  upon  whole  proposi- 
tions is  opposed  to  the  way  and  manner  in  which  backward-speaking  chil- 
dren improve  and  enrich  their  speech.     They  need  in  the  beginning  more 
single  words  and  expressions  for  things  and  actions  which  they  perceive, 
rather  than  little  propositions  which  they  may  repeat  like  parrots. 

d.  If  we  wish  to  help  the  thinking  and  speaking  of  the  young,  we  need 
no  special  objects  lying  around ;  but  the  means  of  help  and  culture  lie  in 
instruction,  in  speech  and  reading,  and  in  biblical  history. 

e.  Our  object-teaching  was  only  an  hour  of  gabble,  a  training  without 
any  special  value.     The  judgment  of  another  voice  is:    "If  it  was  meant 
that  the  object-teaching  should  belong  specially  or  strikingly  only  to  the 
earlier  years  of  development,  or  should  serve   only  for   the   elementary 


OBJECT  TEACHING.    BUSSE.  427 

material  of  teaching,  there  lies  at  the  foundation  of  this  conception  a 
false  idea  of  the  nature  of  man,  as  well  as  a  false  idea  of  what 
man  has  to  appropriate  for  the  development  and  nourishment  of  his 
morally  spiritual  nature.  Insight  belongs  to  thinking  as  warmth  belongs 
to  the  sunlight.  Where  it  is  wanting  to  the  thinking,  the  pulse-beat  of 
spiritual  life  is  wanting.  The  method  of  insight  must  show  itself  power- 
fully for  the  development  and  exercise  of  the  mental  activity  during  the 
whole  period  of  teaching.  Object-teaching  is  to  be  brought  into  requisition 
in  every  stage  of  learning." 

Beautiful  and  true  as  these  words  sound,  they  are  yet  one-sided.  Do 
those,  then,  who  wish  to  recommend  independent  object-teaching  mis- 
understand arid  deny  the  necessity  and  worth  of  teaching  by  intuition? 
By  no  means.  Reading,  writing,  counting,  memorizing,  singing,  biblical 
stories,  are  the  departments  of  instruction  of  the  elementary  classes.  It  is 
not  contradictory  to  unite  and  sprinkle  in  exercises  in  thinking,  observing, 
and  speaking,  and  above  all  to  do  this  lovingly  and  with  power.  Yet  how 
is  it  with  the  progressive  ordering  of  this  physical  (realen)  fundamental 
knowledge?  Does  not  our  object-teaching  bring  its  order  with  it  in  the 
most  natural  manner,  while  the  exercises  in  observation  and  in  language, 
in  this  addition  to  the  primer  and  the  reader,  have  a  great  dispersive 
power,  a  want  of  design,  an  instability,  and  dissipating,  of  the  mind  ? 

What  Volter  says  is  scarcely  more  than  an  empty  phrase :  "  What  a 
pupil  already  knows,  what  is  not  new  to  him,  what  he  learns  without  in- 
struction, is  not  the  object  of  his  curiosity,  and  consequently  cannot  be  the 
means  of  awakening  his  mental  power." 

But  the  object-teaching  will  reach  several  ends  at  once :  It  joins  on  its 
material  to  what  is  already  known,  adds  something  new  and  interesting  to 
this  material  for  culture,  so  that  the  mind  is  excited  and  awakened,  called 
into  activity,  and  its  circle  widened.  It  would  be  indeed  a  misconception 
and  a  failure  if  we  should  talk  with  the  little  ones  about  nothing  but  what 
they  already  know  and  have  heard  and  felt.  We  would  have  no  hold  of 
them,  it  would  be  flat  and  uninteresting,  and  would  only  get  them  to  sleep. 
No  one  would  designate  this  as  the  object-teaching  we  so  highly  prize. 

The  famous  Prussian  Regulation  of  October  3d,  1854,  expresses  itself 
plainly  in  regard  to  object-teaching  : 

"  Since  all  the  instruction  is  to  be  based  upon  observation,  and  must  be 
used  as  well  for  thinking  as  for  speaking,  abstract  instruction  in  observation, 
thinking,  and  speaking,  is  not  in  place  in  the  elementary  school  of  a  single 
class." 

Goltzsch,  as  the  one  interpreter  of  the  Regulations,  sees  in  object-instruc- 
tion only  "  empty,  unessential  exercises  in  thinking  and  speaking,  and 
puts  in  its  place  memory-cramming.  The  seizing,  imitating,  and  appro- 
priating of  worthy  and  rich  thoughts  presented  in  fit  material,  in  excellent 
spoken  expression,  with  which  the  child  must  busy  himself  long  and  re- 
peatedly, according  to  the  nature  of  the  thing,  leads  him  yet  unpractised  in 
thinking,  and  especially  the  child  poor  in  words,  farther  on  in  his  thought 
and  speech-forming  than  the  tedious  and  wearisome  exercises  in  his  own 


428  OBJECT    TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

thinking  upon  all  sorts  of  dry  stuff  which  is  adapted  neither  to  work  ex- 
citingly upon  his  thinking  powers  nor  his  feelings." 

The  words  sound  sophistical,  for  they  seem  to  be  directed  against  the 
long  rejected  exercises  in  thinking,  while  they  really  mean  object-teaching. 

The  better  interpreter  of  the  Regulation,  Vormann,  rich  in  experience, 
restores  object-teaching  through  a  back  door,  when  he  says,  "  It  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  (that  is,  under  all  circumstances)  to  have  conversations 
with  children  to  a  certain  extent,  and  of  a  certain  kind,  as  they  usually  can 
neither  speak  coherently  themselves  nor  understand  the  coherent  speech  of 
the  teacher.  This  is  because  they  need  to  be  made  susceptible  of  further 
instruction,  whether  oral  or  from  the  book.  But  these  conversations  must 
not  be  about  abstractions  like  space  and  number  ;  they  must  be  about  real 
objects  in  their  immediate  surroundings." 

"  Some  cultivation  in  thinking  and  speaking  is  one  of  the  first  and  most 
indispensable  requisitions,"  says  Goltzsch,  thus  contradicting  himself,  if  a 
real  instruction  in  reading  is  to  be  possible,  and  if  any  instruction  is  to  an- 
swer its  aim. 

A  methodical  man,  Otto,  of  Miihlhausen,  (Allgem.  Sckulzeitung. 
Juliheft,  1842,)  rather  arrogantly  allows  himself  to  perceive  that,  "  Intelli- 
gent exercises  in  observation  have  been  organized  into  a  certain  teaching  of 
objects,  but  the  practical  part  of  this  is  nothing  else  but  domestic  economy, 
natural  science,  geometry,  counting,  &c.,  in  their  elements.  There  is  no 
reality  in  it  as  a  particular  subject.  Now  follow  the  evidence  that  we  only 
see  and  look  into,  that  which  we  have  known  and  understood,  and  from 
that  is  inferred  the  strange  assertion  that  it  is  not  the  observation,  and 
consequently  not  the  object-teaching,  which  helps  to  correct  representa- 
tions and  conceptions,  but  language,  and  especially  book-language." 

We  will  let  Mr.  Otto  take  the  second  step  before  he  has  taken  the  first, 
and  rather  hold  to  the  sayings  of  Gothe,  the  master  of  language: — 

"  I  think  also  from  out  of  the  truth,  but  from  out  of  the  truth  of  the  five 
senses." 

"  Nature  is  the  only  book  that  offers  great  things  of  intrinsic  worth  on 
all  its  leaves." 

"  I  am  the  deadly  enemy  of  empty  words." 

"  I  must  go  so  far,  that  every  thing  must  be  known  from  observation, 
and  nothing  by  tradition  or  name." 

In  gigantic  proportions  by  the  depth  of  his  grasp  above  the  afore- 
mentioned opponents  of  object-teaching  stands  the  Bavarian  school- 
counsellor,  Riethammer ;  and  we  could  make  no  reply  to  that- witty  censur- 
ing voice,  if  we  did  not  know  that  in  spite  of  all,  that  there  is  an 
object-teaching  which,  imparted  with  vivacity  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  is 
suited  in  full  measure  to  the  nature  of  the  child,  and  to  the  material,  so  far 
as  the  child  has  relation  to  it ;  and  if  we  had  not  a  hundred  times  had  living 
evidence  how  this  instruction  works  when  a  skilful  hand  makes  use  of  it, 
how  the  class  are  all  eye  and  ear,  how  the  children  live  in  it,  and  how 
eagerly  they  look  forward  to  these  hours  as  their  most  delightful  ones. 

On  the  contrary,  it  makes  a  sad  impression  when  this  contemporary  of 
Pestalozzi  confesses  to  the  following  views : 


OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE.  429 

"  The  only  exercises  in  intuition,  which  are  essential  as  an  artistic 
direction  of  the  mind  in  every  kind  of  first  instruction,  are  those  on  objects 
of  the  inner  world,  which  are  not  like  those  of  the  outer  world,  indepen- 
dent of  the  mind  itself,  but  must  first  be  brought  to  view.  These  exercises 
must  begin  early,  before  the  mind  loses  its  pliability  to  them  by  the  pre- 
ponderating influence  of  the  outside  world ;  and  it  is,  therefore,  a  double 
loss  to  fill  up  this  season  of  formation  with  outside  things  which  can  offer 
nothing  to  the  mind  so  long  as  it  is  not  ripe  for  profound  contemplation, 
and  yet,  which  take  up,  unavoidably,  such  a  broad  span  of  our  lives. 

"Exercise  of  observation  of  spiritual  subjects,  as  the  earliest  instruction, 
is  nothing  else  but  the  exercise  of  memory. 

"  For  the  independent  observation  of  intellectual  subjects,  that  is,  for 
intellectual  comprehension  of  the  world  of  ideas,  the  youthful  mind  is  not 
yet  ripe  ;  it  needs  to  be  much  more  exercised  first.  But  this  exercise 
requires  that,  before  all  things  else,  it  shall  learn  to  fix  intellectual  objects, 
and  bring  them  into  view.  For  that,  it  is  necessary  that  they  become 
objective  ;  they  will  become  so  when  stated  in  words,  in  the  expressions  in 
which  they  have  received  form  by  devout  and  spiritual-minded  men.  To 
accept  ideas  in  this  objective  form,  is  called,  bringing  spiritual  subjects  to 
the  intuition  ;  and  in  memorizing  such  expressions,  the  problem  for  the 
beginning  of  instruction  is  consequently  solved." 

It  is  only  astonishing  to  us  that  Riethammer  does  not  propose  for  this 
process  of  objectiving  (of  bringing  spiritual  subjects  to  the  intuition)  the 
language  of  the  republic  of  letters,  Latin,  as  was  the  custom  a  hundred 
years  ago.  A  compromise  is  no  longer  possible  here. 

The  memory-cram  is  to  solve  the  problem  of  a  natural  educational 
instruction.  The  "  word  method  "  is  to  be  mind-forming  ;  mechanism  and 
death  are  to  be  called  life  ! 

Ratichius,  Comenius,  Franke,  Rousseau,  Basedow,  Rochow,  Pestalozzi, 
have  lived  and  striven  in  vain. 

"  Hold  fast  what  thou  hast,  that  no  man  may  take  away  thy  crown,"  says 
Scripture  ;  and  object-teaching  is  such  a  crown. 

But  to  take  the  medium  between  the  extremes  is  our  task. 

"We  cannot  follow  the  idealist  of  object-teaching  so  far  as  to  grant  him, 
at  once,  the  exclusiveness  he  desires  for  this  foundation,  because  the 
pedagogic  endowment,  presupposed  for  its  success,  which  extols  the 
handling  of  the  material  to  the  point  of  art,  is  found  only  in  the  rarest 
cases;  and  also,  because  we  must  take  into  account  the  demands  of  parents 
and  relatives  upon  the  schools.  For,  in  the  very  first  school  year  they 
follow  the  development  of  the  child  with  disproportioned  interest,  and  base 
the  measure  of  their  judgment  upon  his  progress  in  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic.  Still  less  will  we  reject  all  object-teaching,  but  will  demand  for 
the  sake  of  its  personal  aim,  that  it  shall  be  made  the  underpinning,  and 
retaining  the  principle  of  the  intuitive  method  in  all  domains  and  with  all 
kinds  of  material,  and  the  handling  of  all  the  branches  of  instruction,  as  of 
an  organic  whole,  that  it  shall  be  intrusted,  at  least  three  or  four  times  a 
week,  for  two  hours  at  least,  not  to  the  hands  of  the  youngest,  most  inex- 


430  OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

perienced  teacher,  man  or  woman,  but  to  the  most  skilful,  practical,  ana 
experienced. 

In  this  view  of  ours  the  majority  of  the  schools  in  Germany,  at  thin 
period,  agree. 

The  more  the  material  for  the  exercises  in  observation  and  language  in 
the  first  school  years  is  selected  in  reference  to  the  most  childlike  demands, 
and  the  more  adapted  to  their  minds,  the  more  exciting  to  independent 
action  are  the  exercises,  the  more  will  the  child  show  earnestness  in  observ- 
ing, and  the  better  judgment  will  he  form  about  things,  circumstances,  ap- 
pearances; the  more  likely  will  he  be  to  judge  correctly  how  and  what 
they  are  in  themselves,  and  what  connection  they  have  with  life  itself.  The 
endeavor  should  not  be  to  urge  the  children  into  all  kinds  of  physical 
knowledge  in  a  dry  and  meagre  manner,  but  to  enrich  them  with  such 
knowledge  whose  ample  material  for  the  purpose  of  instruction  leads  to 
good  strong  fundamental  principles.  These  should  be  wisely  limited  (the 
introduction  into  all  possible  physical  knowledge  being  kept  in  view),  as  a 
check  upon  vague  and  confused  wandering. 

Instruction  gains  in  contents  and  value  when  it  handles  in  good  order  a 
worthy,  comprehensive,  and  able  material,  and  rises  into  independent  ob- 
ject-teaching in  the  first  school  years. 

Different  Kinds  of  Intuitions  for  Object  Teaching* 

1.  Sensuous  intuitions :  not  given  merely  mediately  through  the  senses, 
but  immediately  ;  outward  objects. 

2.  Mathematical  intuitions  :  representations  of  space,  time,  number,  and 
motion  ;  also  belonging  to  the  outward  world,  not  directly  given  by  the 
senses,  but  mediately. 

3.  Moral  intuitions,  arising  out  of  the  phenomena  of  virtuous  life  in 
man. 

4.  Religious  intuitions,  arising  in  the  nature  of  man,  whose  sentiments 
relate  him  to  God. 

5.  ^Esthetic  intuitions,  from  the  beautiful  and  sublime  phenomena  of 
nature  and  human  life,  (including  artistic  representations.) 

6.  Purely  human  intuitions,  which  relate  to  the  noble,  mutual  relations 
of  man  in  love,  faith,  friendship,  &c. 

7.  Social  intuitions,  which  comprise  the  unifying  of  men  in  the  great 
whole  ;  in  corporations,  in  community  and  state  life.     The  school  cannot 
offer  all  these  subjects  of  intuition  according  to  their  different  natures  and 
their  origin,  for  it  will  not  take  the  place  of  life  ;   it  only  supposes  them, 
connects  itself  with  them,  and  refers  to  them,  but  it  points  them  out  in  all 
their  compass,  occupies  itself  with  them,  and  builds  up  with  them  on  all 
sides  the  foundation  of  intelligence. 

The  sensuous  intuitions  relate  to  the  corporeal  world  and  the  changes  in 
it.  The  pupil  must  see  with  his  own  eyes  as  much  as  possible,  must  hear 

*  We  here  add  a  beautiful  resume  of  the  intuitions  as  they  were  given  by  our  old 
master  Diesterweg  in  answer  to  the  questions :  "  What  intuitions  ?  What  shall  we 
awaken?  Out  of  what  fields,  whence,  shall  they  be  taken?"  "Let  us  look  at  the 
different  kinds,"  he  says;  "  let  us  enumerate  them." 


OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE.  431 

with  his  own  ears,  must  use  all  his  senses,  seek  out  the  sensuous  tokens 
of  things  in  their  phenomena  upon,  under,  and  abovo  the  ground,  in  min- 
erals, plants,  animals,  men  and  their  works,  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  physical 
phenomena,  &c. 

The  mathematical  intuitions  are  developed  out  of  the  sensuous  by  easy 
abstractions  lying  near  at  hand ;  the  representations  of  the  expansion  of 
space  compared  one  with  another ;  the  things  of  time  one  after  another ; 
the  representations  of  number  —  the  how  much;  the  representations  of 
change  in  space,  and  the  progression  of  the  same.  The  simplest  of  these 
representations  are  those  of  space ;  the  rest  become  objects  of  intuition 
by  means  of  these,  by  points,  lines,  and  surfaces;  in  arithmetic,  for  ex- 
ample, points,  lines,  and  their  parts  are  the  material  of  intuitions. 

The  moral  intuitions  come  to  the  pupils  through  their  lives  with  their 
relatives,  or  in  school  through  school-mates  and  teachers.  These  are  natu- 
rally inward  intuitions,  which  are  embodied  in  the  expression  of  the  coun- 
tenance, in  the  eye,  and  in  the  speech.  The  pupil's  personal  experience 
here,  as  everywhere,  is  the  chief  thing.  Happy  the  child  who  is  sur- 
rounded by  thoroughly  moral,  pure  men,  whose  manifestations  lay  in  him 
the  moral  foundation  of  life.  The  moral  facts  of  history  are  pointed  out 
to  him  by  the  teacher  in  a  living  manner,  by  means  of  the  living  word  of 
the  eloquent  lips  and  the  feeling  heart. 

To  religious  intuitions  the  child  comes  through  the  contemplation  of 
nature,  its  phenomena  and  beneficent  workings ;  through  the  piety  of  his 
parents,  the  commands  of  the  father  and  mother  ;  through  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  community  in  the  house  of  worship ;  through  religious  songs 
in  the  school ;  through  religious  instruction  and  confirmation  in  the  school 
and  church ;  through  religious-minded  teachers  and  pastors ;  through 
biblical  stories,  &c. 

^Esthetic  intuitions  are  awakened  by  the  sight  of  beautiful  and  sublime 
objects  of  nature  (stars,  crystals,  sky  and  sea,  rocky  mountains,  landscapes, 
storms,  thunder-showers,  flowers,  trees,  flowing  rivers,  &c.),  and  of  objects 
of  art  (pictures  and  picture  galleries,  statues,  gardens,  products  of  the  poet- 
ical art  and  of  human  speech).  We  can  classify  their  specific  differences, 
calling  them  moral,  aesthetic,  &c.,  but  I  hold  it  better  to  place  them  in  one 
category.  The  strong  moral  law,  equally  binding  upon  all  men,  is  not 
included  in  this  field,  for  its  contents  cannot  be  unconditionally  required. 
That  belongs  to  the/ree  beautifully  human  development  which  is  dependent 
upon  conditions  that  are  not  attainable  by  every  one. 

The  so  -called  purely  human  intuitions  are  furnished  by  the  nobly-formed 
human  lives  of  individual  men,  whose  characters  proceed  from  the  strong- 
est conceptions  of  morality  and  duty,  from  sympathetic  affections,  friend- 
ship, love,  compassion,  and  loving  fellowship,  and  other  shining  phenomena 
of  human  life  as  they  are  met  with  in  the  more  refined  development  and 
culture  of  lofty  and  pure  men.  Happy  is  the  child  who  is  in  their  sphere ! 
If  the  home  has  nothing  to  offer  in  this  respect,  it  is  difficult  to  supply  the 
want.  Let  the  teacher  do  what  is  possible  by  the  hold  he  has  upon  the 
school  and  by  all  his  own  manifestations. 

The  social  intuitions,  that  is,  the  social  circumstances  of  men  in  a  large 


432  OBJECT   TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

sense,  are  determined  for  the  child  by  the  manifestations  of  the  community 
in  the  schools,  in  the  churches,  in  the  assemblies  of  the  people,  in  public 
festivals,  and  especially  by  the  stories  in  which  the  living  insight  of  the 
teacher  into  the  life  of  states,  peoples,  and  warlike  communities  defines  to 
the  scholar  the  best  living  representations  of  great  deeds. 

Our  early  state's  life,  which  was  domestic,  not  public,  was  an  obstacle  to 
the  growth  of  these  intuitions,  so  important  to  development.  How  can 
he  who  has  experienced  nothing,  understand  history  ?  How  can  he  who 
has  not  observed  the  people,  make  a  living  picture  of  its  life  ?  Small  re- 
publics have  a  great  advantage  in  respect  to  the  observation  of  public  life 
and  patriotic  sentiment.  Words,  even  the  most  eloquent,  give  a  very  un- 
satisfactory compensation  for  observation.  The  year  1848  has  in  this  re- 
spect brought  most  important  steps  of  progress. 

Prominent  above  all  other  considerations  is  the  importance  of  the  life, 
the  standpoint,  the  intelligence,  the  character  of  the  teacher,  for  laying  the 
foundation  of  living  observation  in  the  soul,  in  the  mind,  in  the  disposition 
of  the  pupil.  What  the  teacher  does  not  carry  in  his  own  bosom,  he  C'  nnot 
awaken  in  the  bosom  of  another.  It  can  be  compensated  by  nothing  else, 
if  there  is  failure  in  him.  The  teacher  must  himself  have  seen,  observed, 
experienced,  investigated,  lived  and  thought  as  much  as  possible,  and  should 
set  up  a  model  in  moral,  religious,  aesthetic,  and  purely  human  and  social 
respects.  So  much  as  he  is,  so  much  is  his  instruction  worth.  He  is  to  his 
pupils  the  most  instructive,  the  most  appreciable,  the  most  striking  object 
of  observation. 

The  Immediate  Aims  of  Object-teaching. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  object-teaching  in  its  relations  to  teaching 
in  general.  Now  we  must  turn  our  attention  to  its  immediate  aims.  1st. 
Object-teaching  may  be  made  the  special  means  of  training  the  senses. 
Such  teaching  would  consist  of  exercises  in  observation,  in  order  to  develop 
the  latent  strength  of  each  sense,  that  of  the  eye  in  particular.  2d.  The 
chief  aim  of  object-teaching  may  be  to  develop  forms  of  observation  and 
the  laws  of  thought.  These  exercises  we  may  call  exercises  in  thinking. 
3d.  Object-teaching  may  have  for  its  main  purpose  the  development  of  lan- 
guage, and  all  the  lessons  therein  may  be  exercises  in  speaking  and  writing. 
The  proper  thing  to  do  is  to  unite  sense-training,  thinking,  teaching,  and 
language  exercises,  and  work  them  together,  —  the  great  aim  of  object- 
teaching.  The  training  of  the  senses  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all,  and 
must  be  made  the  chief  means  of  all  teaching. 

But  it  must  be  conceded  that  an  intelligent  guidance  to  right  seeing  and 
hearing  is  a  wonderful  help. 

Thousands  have  eyes  and  see  not ;  ears,  and  hear  not.  Thousands  go 
through  a  museum  and  come  out  none  the  wiser.  They  have  in  fact  seen 
nothing,  because  they  have  not  intelligence.  Observation  without  repre 
sentations  and  conceptions  remain  blind.  Real  exercises  in  observation 
without  exercises  in  thinking  are  an  impossibility.  On  the  other  side, 
exercises  in  thinking  must  work  injuriously  rather  than  usefully  if  they 
have  not  found  in  living  observation  a  fountain  of  unconquerable  interest. 


OBJECT   TEACHING.     BUSSE.  433 

And  since  it  is  a  striking  fact  that  no  representation,  no  conception  exists 
without  a  word,  since  we  cannot  think  except  in  language,  thoughtful  ob- 
serving and  observing  thoughtfulness,  in  connection  with  a  continuous 
development  of  the  mother-tongue,  is  the  chief  aim  of  object-teaching.* 

To  this  aim,  as  soon  as  a  child  is  able  to  write  down  a  proposition,  also 
to  confirm  to  some  extent  what  is  expressed,  which  must  be  reached  to- 
ward the  end  of  the  first  school  year,  two  subordinate  aims  are  allied : 

1.  Preliminary  exercises  in  grammar  in  the  systematic  use  of  cases,  of 
prepositions,  and  of  adverbs  of  time  and  place,  but  above  all  of  word-for- 
mations. 

2.  Exercises  in  composition  by  writing  down  little  groups  of  proposi- 
tions connected  according  to  the  sense. 


II.  THE  METHOD. 

The  chief  laws  of  the  method  are  : 

1.  Instruction  by  actual  inspection. 

Life  wakes  up  life.  The  real  object  is  therefore  to  be  shown  before  the 
picture  of  it,  (if  the  secret  of  life  does  not  work  so  attractively  that  thn  in- 
struction becomes  impossible;  but  in  the  cas^  of  living  animals,  a  living 
stork  or  dog  in  the  schoolroom  abolishes  the  possibility  of  instruction,  for 
the  interest  of  the  children  is  so  powerful  in  the  life  itself  that  it  does  not 
objectivate  the  individual  thing,  which  is  thus  forgotten.) 

Amon£  pictures,  the  model  takes  the  precedence  of  the  drawing;  among 
the  drawings,  the  colored  of  the  shaded ;  and  the  shaded  again  are  to  be 
preferred  to  the  linear  drawing. 

Every  object  that  is  spoken  of,  and  au  their  relations  must  stand  out 
clear  and  defined  before  the  outer  sensuous  and  the  inner  mental  observa- 
tion (or  inspection)  of  the  scholar,  and  on  that  account  must  be  advanced 
from  the  real,  sensuous,  to  the  inner  abstract  inspection. 

There  is  nothing  more  aimless  than  object-teaching  without  actual  obser- 
vation (inspection).  The  instruction  can  first  bear  justly  and  correctly  the 
name  of  object-teaching  and  of  the  intuitive  quality,  when  it  is  based 
upon  the  actual  observation  (inspection)  of  things  or  relations.  What 
many  words  and  long  definitions  will  not  effect,  will  be  effected  by  imme- 
diate observation  (or  inspection). 

Object-teaching,  therefore,  needs  the  best  use  and  application  of  the 
material  of  observation.  The  kindergarten  justly  uses  little  staffs,  sticks 
of  various  lengths,  cubes  of  various  kinds  of  wood,  building  boxes.  The 
teachers  of  the  lower  classes  in  the  elementary  schools  do  right  to  show 
various  objects,  models  made  of  wood  or  paper,  plants  in  nature,  or  colored 
pictures  of  animals,  plants,  and  human  productions.  Such  apparatus  for 
observation  works  in  the  most  favorable  manner  upon  the  development  of 
the  children.  In  many  ways  the  principle  was  good  in  the  early  object- 
teaching,  but  the  observation  defective ;  they  took  care  to  impart  knowl- 

*  We  turn  wholly  away  from  the  little  speaking-exercises  whieli  figure  as  a  part  of 
the  first  instructions  in  reading,  and  have  only  the  outward  aim  of  making  clear  and 
distinct,  individual  sounds,  and  cannot  therefore  argue  with  Luben,  that  object-teaching 
and  the  teaching  of  reading  should  form  an  undivided  whole. 

28 


434  OBJECT    TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

edge,,  but  made  too  many  words,  and  neglected  the  apparatus.  Since  all 
recognition  or  understanding  of  things  proceeds  from  observation,  is 
founded  upon  incentives  to  it,  upon  perceptions  and  inspection,  and  in  the 
mental  work  already  proceeds  from  observations  gained,  it  is  above  alj 
things  important  that  clear  and  correct  observation  be  attained  by  means 
of  real  things.  An  object-teaching  without  apparatus  for  observation  is 
like  a  house  without  a  foundation. 

Instruct  by  means  of  observation  while  you  are  aiming  at  the  waking  up 
of  the  inner  sense.  As  soon  as  you  have  attained  a  little  whole,  within  an 
hour,  convince  yourself  of  the  condition  of  the  observation  (or  inspection) 
thus  gained,  before  you  put  away  the  object  or  the  picture  of  it,  in  order  to 
let  the  child  re-produce  what  he  has  gained. 

2.  Go  from  the  easy  to  the  difficult. 

a.  Then,  from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  from  the  near  to  the  distant. 

Go  on  and  add  something  to  the  observations  which  you  know  the  child 
has  made,  and  when  you  have  united  all  these,  widen  the  image  as  fast  as 
the  comprehensive  power  of  the  child  will  allow  you  to  do  so.  It  must  not 
be  a  question  here  of  setting  up  a  special  way  as  a  generally  desirable  one. 
Whether  one  places  the  room  in  the  foreground,  and  passes  out  from  the 
schoolhouse,  in  ever  wider  circles  up  to  the  sky,  with  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars,  or  whether  one  looks  upon  the  year,  with  its  phenomena,  as  the; 
nearest  real  thing,  and  adds  to  the  changes  of  the  seasons  the  material 
which  nature  and  culture  offer,  it  is  all  the  same ;  both  may  be  excellent ; 
everything  depends  upon  the  handling. 

6.  Go  from  the  simple  to  the  complex ;  then  from  single  objects  to  two 
and  several,  that  the  acts  of  comparison  and  discrimination  may  come  into 
play.  Then  let  more  objects  come  into  the  group.  Groups  form  at  last  a 
collected  image. 

Go  also  in  language  from  the  simple  to  the  complex  ;  from  naked  pro- 
position to  the  widened,  connected-compound,  abbreviated  propositions,  &c. 

c.  Go  from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract.  Proceed  from  the  contemplation 
of  the  sensuous  signs,  before  you  draw  upon  the  higher  laws  of  thought. 
Do  not  apply  foundation  and  consequence,  or  even  condition,  if  cause  and 
effect  have  not  previously  been  made  clear. 

Go  first  from  the  real,  then  from  the  possible  and  necessary;  first  the 
individual  thing,  then  the  particular  thing,  then  the  general  thing. 

3.  Give  in  each  hour,  if  possible,  a  little  whole  in  contents  and  form. 
Work  out  every  lesson  in  writing,  for  only  so  can  you  satisfy  this  kind 

of  instruction  in  which  contents  and  form  are  equally  important  and  must 
develop  themselves  symmetrically ;  thus  only  can  you  know  to  be  perfected 
what  you  have  already  given,  what  you  are  now  giving,  and  what  you  wish 
to  give  next;  then  this  instruction,  like  no  other,  will  show  you  its  forma- 
tive reaction.  But  be  cautious  not  to  overstrain  the  child  in  your  strivings 
to  round  off  and  complete  his  power.  Instruct  according  to  the  nature  of 
the  material,  but  instruct  also  according  to  the  nature  of  the  child. 

4.  Use  poetry  in  the  service  of  this  instruction. 

An  infinite  number  of  the  most  beautiful  poems  offer  themselves  as  if 
spontaneously,  as  flowers  of  contemplation.  You  will  in  years  have  the 


OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE.  435 

richest  variety  ;  and  do  not  forget,  when  you  lay  this  instruction  before  your- 
self and  build  it  up  as  a  whole,  that  it  is  poetry  which  seizes  and  ennobles 
the  man  —  the  whole  man. 

5.   Use  conversation. 

As  to  the  outer  form  of  the  method,  no  instruction  offers  so  much  scope 
for  exciting  richly  compensating  conversation  as  this.  Obviously,  as  in 
every  catechism  (Socratic  method),  there  is  given  back,  from  sentence  to 
sentence,  a  clear  group  of  well-arranged  observations,  in  the  most  naturally 
connected  principles  possible.  Thus  the  teacher  has  the  richest  opportunity 
to  introduce  in  a  living  manner,  from-time  to  time,  little  poems  and  stones. 

III.  IMPORTANT  WRITINGS  AND  AIDS  FOR  OBJECT-TEACHING. 

1.  Easy  Directions  for  Intelligent  Instruction  in  the  German  Language, 
including  Speaking,   Drawing,  Reading  and   Writing,  Observation  by 
Inspection  and  Understanding.     By  W.  HARNISCH.     Breslau,   1839. 

This  pamphlet,  which  is  specially  a  guide  to  the  first  instruction  in  lan- 
guage, belongs  here,  because  it  at  the  same  time  contains  exercises  in 
observation  and  speaking.  The  first  section  of  the  second  part  treats  of 
them  :  —  1.  The  beginning  of  this  instruction  ;  2.  To  know  and  to  name 
objects ;  3.  The  counting  of  things ;  4.  The  parts  of  things ;  5.  Color ; 
6.  Form  and  situation ;  7.  Size ;  8.  Sound ;  9.  Feeling,  smell,  and  taste  ; 
10.  Prime  material  of  things,  circumstance,  and  use ;  11.  The  arranging 
and  order  of  things;  12.  Cause  and  effect;  13.  Necessity  and  arbitrari- 
ness, means  and  aims ;  14.  Representation  and  sign ;  15.  Surroundings 
and  relations  ;  16.  Summary  of  the  foregoing  in  one  whole. 

The  author's  view  of  the  value  and  place  of  this  instruction  may  be  seen 
in  the  following  remarks  : 

"  The  exercises  in  observation  contain  not  merely  many  germs,  which 
may  develop  into  godliness  (religion),  but  almost  the  beginnings  of  all 
other  objects  of  instruction  ;  they  form  the  roots  of  instruction.  Think- 
ing especially  cannot  exist  without  them,  and  without  thinking  there  is  no 
instruction  in  language  properly  so  called.  The  exercises  in  observation 
must  there,  as  everywhere,  take  the  precedence  of  exercises  in  thinking 
and  understanding. 

"  Exercises  in  thinking  and  understanding  without  exercises  in  observa- 
tion are  plants  without  roots.  We  see  this  in  common  life.  For  the  more 
man  has  seen  and  experienced,  the  more  all-sided  are  his  thinking-powers ; 
and  all  exercises  in  understanding  which  have  proceeded  only  out  of  the 
forms  of  the  understanding  without  insight  or  reality,  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  by  the  contemptuous  name  of  school-wisdom." 

2.  Guide  to  Exercises  in  Thinking  and  Speaking  as  the  Natural  Founda- 
tion for  General  Instruction;  particularly  for  the  First  Instruction  in 
Language  in  the  Peoples  Schools.     By  F.  H".  G.  GUASSMAN.    With  three 
Copperplates.     Second  edition.     Berlin,  1834  :   by  G.  Reimer. 

This  is  a  desirable  treatise  "upon  the  natural  treatment  of  instruction  in 
language  in  the  people's  schools;  and  upon  its  connection  with  the  other 
subjects  of  instruction  in  these  schools."  VVe  point  out  the  chief  thoughts 
»s  far  as  they  touch  upon  our  subject. 


436  OBJECT    TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

Reading  is  not  to  be  the  first  or  beginning  of  instruction  in  ths  school. 
The  objection  to  this  beginning  is  based  upon  the  aversion  which  children 
have  to  learning  their  letters.  Nature  has  decreed  that  in  the  first  years 
of  life  the  child  shall  receive  and  picture  to  himself  the  outer  sense-world, 
and  that  the  inner  spiritual  life  shall  be  awakened  by  occupation  with  sen- 
suous things,  till  the  time  comes  when  this  inner  spiritual  life  and  impulse 
shall  be  itself  the  object  of  contemplation.  This  development  by  means  of 
the  outward  world  has  not  ended  when  the  child  enters  the  school. 

The  inner  world  of  representation  needs  an  outer  world  in  which  it  may 
embody  itself — language  or  speech.  The  representation  pictures  itself 
outwardly  by  means  of  the  word,  and  thereby  becomes  a  communicable 
representation,  and  this  representation  first  attains  thereby  its  definite, 
perfected  existence.  By  means  of  language,  the  child  arrives  at  the  intel- 
ligent recognition  of  the  objects  around  him  and  of  their  relations  to  each 
other. 

Writing  is  a  picture  of  speech,  and  by  this  (indirectly)  a  picture  of  the 
inner  representative  world  of  man.*  So  as  man  is  to  learn  to  know  the  pro- 
totype earlier  than  the  image,  especially  if  there  does  not  exist  between 
the  two  a  natural  and  necessary,  but  an  arbitrary  connection  (our  letters 
are  to  be  looked  upon  as  signs  arbitrarily  chosen),  the  child  must  first 
learn  to  speak  before  it  learns  to  read.  If  we  connect  this  with  what  has 
gone  before,  it  follows  that : 

The  first  instruction  in  language  must  consist  of  conversations  which 
make  the  children  acquainted  with  the  things  of  the  outward  world,  their 
properties  and  mutual  relations,  and  give  them  the  opportunity  to  learn  to 
speak  of  them  correctly,  intelligently,  and  significantly. 

These  exercises  in  thinking  and  speaking  are  to  be  the  common  trunk 
from  which  all  other  objects  of  instruction  are  to  branch  out  as  twigs.  In 
regard  to  the  material,  it  must  contain  the  elements  of  all  the  single  objects 
of  the  instruction  ;  in  regard  to  form,  it  must  be  so  arranged,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, that  the  children  shall  learn  not  merely  parts  of  speech,  but  all  kinds 
of  words,  and  these  in  their  various  forms,  inflections,  derivations,  and 
combinations,  and  in  an  easy  way.  The  language  itself  must  not  be  an 
object  of  contemplation,  but  a  collection  of  words  must  be  made,  out  of 
which  in  future  the  general  rules  and  laws  of  the  language  can  be  developed. 

In  the  arrangement  of  the  material,  the  progress  must  be  in  regular 
•steps  from  the  nearer  to  the  more  distant ;  from  the  known  to  the  less 
known,  and  from  this  to  the  quite  unknown ;  from  that  which  falls  directly 
upon  the  senses  to  that  which  is  first  found  by  the  help  of  the  accompany- 
ing activity  of  the  understanding. 

If  the  instruction  in  reading  and  writing  goes  side  by  side  with  this  from 
the  first  entrance  of  the  children  into  the  school,  one  hour  a  day,  or  from 
three  to  four  hours  a  week,  should  be  devoted  to  this  object-instruction. 
CONTENTS  :  1.  Names  of  things ;  2.  Whole,  and  parts  of  the  whole ;  3. 
Number  of  things  ;  4.  Place,  position,  attitude  ;  5.  Light,  color ;  6.  Form  ; 
7.  Size;  8.  Direction;  9.  Sound;  10.  Perceptions  by  feeling,  smell,  and 
taste;  11.  Rest  and  motion ;  12.  Connection  of  things ;  13.  Time. 

The  whole  is  brought  out  partly  in  a  catechetical  way.  partly  by  prin- 


OI5.1ECT   TEACHING.      BUSSE.  437 

ciples,  which  are  to  be  discovered  by  the  developing  conversation.  This  is 
a  model  work  and  a  master-work,  —  actual  head-work,  the  most  advanced 
course  of  teaching-exercises  in  observation  and  experience  to  be  found  in 
our  literature  (of  the  present  time).  No  teacher  should  be  without  it. 

But  whether  the  whole  can  be  carried  out  in  the  elementary  school,  as 
the  majority  of  these  schools  now  are,  we  doubt ;  indeed,  our  verdict  is 
against  it.  There  must  be  rarely  favorable  circumstances  secured,  if  a 
teacher,  as  the  Professor  hopes,  shall  be  able  to  carry  the  child  through 
this  course  by  the  end  of  the  ninth  year  of  his  age.  We  must  apply  the 
wise  view  which  the  author  makes  apparent  for  the  carrying  out  of  his 
opinion  upon  instruction  in  language,  and  also  upon  these  exercises  in 
speaking  and  thinking.  He  says  :  "  Many  weighty  and  well-founded  recol- 
lections and  doubts  recur  to  the  mind,  which,  in  view  of  the  reality  of  exist- 
ing relations  of  life,  and  of  prevailing  and  dominant  customs,  opinions,  and 
judgments  of  the  present  generation,  may  easily  be  advanced,  and  are  well 
known  to  every  practical  schoolman.  No  one  can  feel  it  more  keenly  than 
I  do,  or  know  it  better  than  I  do ;  as  it  is  on  account  of  the  well-founded 
existence  of  such  recollections  of  long  standing  that  I  require,  before  the 
introduction  of  this  plan,  the  condition  that  it  shall  be  freed  from  all  the 
limitations  which  arise  out  of  the  present  condition  of  things." 

But  with  full  conviction  we  agree  with  the  following  opinions  : 

"  In  view  of  the  plan  which  we  introduce,  it  is  of  the  highest  importance 
that  we  carry  in  our  souls  an  ideal  of  every  occupation  which  one  has  to 
execute,  of  every  office  which  is  to  be  filled,  how  it  should  be  done,  and 
how  it  would  be  done,  if  every  hindrance  and  disturbance  were  out  of  the 
way,  and  if  every  power  which  is  brought  into  play  worked  as  perfectly  as  it 
can  by  virtue  of  its  nature.  To  let  such  an  ideal  enter  wholly  into  life  as  its 
guide,  rarely  ever  happens,  since  the  reality  of  life  meets  it  at  every  step  and 
on  every  side,  limiting  and  destroying  its  influence  ;  yet  the  strivings  of 
those  who  wish  to  better  things  must  have  their  roots  in  the  ideal,  and 
must  find  in  it  the  goal  of  their  activity.  For  whoever  carries  it  within 
his  breast,  and  seeks  to  approach  it  more  and  more,  as  far  as  circumstances 
and  relations  permit  him  to  do  so,  takes  care  so  to  arrange  and  form  every 
individual  influence  that  it  may  correspond  to  the  image  before  him,  and 
thus  prepare  for  the  future  presentation  of  the  whole,  and  he  seizes  every 
opportunity  to  form  in  others  the  correct  view  of  this  subject.  He  thus 
brings  insight  and  skill  into  all  his  acts,  while  he  who  has  not  such  a  goal 
before  his  eyes  cannot,  with  all  his  best  efforts,  and  the  most  indefatigable 
industry,  demand  the  best  thing  of  himself,  and  often  loses  it." 

This  course  of  instruction  is  to  be  contemplated  as  such  an  ideal  for  the 
elementary  schools  in  general.  Would  that  the  teachers  might  comprehend 
it  in  its  essence,  and  approach  it  in  fact  and  truth !  The  most  earnest  study 
of  this  work  is  just  what  is  needed  for  the  elementary  method. 

But  for  those  teachers  who  are  obliged  to  limit  themselves  to  a  less 
thorough  course  of  thinking  and  speaking  exercises,  we  recommend  the 
following  works  (certainly  with  a  few  exceptions)  of  Fuhr  &  Ortmann.  On 
account  of  the  necessary  attention  to  the  existing  state  of  things  every- 
where, with  rare  exceptions,  we  have  placed  the  aim  and  the  standard  of 


438  OBJECT   TEACHING.      BUSSE. 

these  exercises  lower,  in  order  that  the  attempts  made  to  realize  them  shall 
be  really  successful. 

3.  Instruction  in  the  Little  Children's  School ;  or,   the  Beginning  of  In- 
struction and  Formation  in  the  People's  Schools.     Fourth  improved  edi- 
tion.    Bielefeld,  1845.     Published  by  Belhagen  &  Klasing. 

This  pamphlet  proposes  a  course  of  instruction  :  (1)  which  is  throughout 
practical  and  easily  applied ;  (2)  which  chooses  its  material  out  of  the  imme- 
diate surroundings  of  the  school-children,  and  avoids  all  costly  and  foreign 
apparatus ;  (3)  it  is  worked  out  with  the  utmost  clearness  and  perspicacity, 
so  that  it  will  easily  enable  every  teacher  to  introduce  the  exercises  in  ob- 
servation and  speaking  into  the  school. 

Contents  of  the  First  Section.  Knowledge  of  Objects  in  the  School-Room. 
—  1st  Exercise  :  Naming  and  describing  these  objects.  2d  Ex. :  Compar- 
ison and  discrimination.  3d  Ex. :  Contemplation  of  definite  bodies. 

Second  Section.  First  Elements  of  Natural  History  and  Domestic  Econ- 
omy. —  1st  Ex. :  The  human  body.  2d  Ex. :  The  plants  of  the  home  gar- 
den. 3d  Ex. :  Domestic  animals.  4th  Ex.  :  The  house,  oth  Ex. :  The 
dwelling.  6th  Ex. :  The  elements. 

Third  Section.     Preliminary  Exercise  in  Drawing  and  Writing. 

Fourth  Section.     Instruction  in  Reading. 

Fifth  Section.     Beginning  of  Arithmetic. 

Sixth  Section.     Beginning  of  Instruction  in  Singing. 

Seventh  Section.     Exercises  in  Memory  or  Tunes  for  Head  and  Heart, 

Eighth  Section.  Furthering  Instruction,  and  School  Aims  in  general. 

The  individual  exercises  are  offered  not  in  the  catechetical,  but  in  a  more 
familiar  form;  methodical  remarks,  hints,  and  views  are  given  in  them. 

In  consonance  with  the  above-mentioned  didactic  rules,  the  objects  are 
not  to  be  treated  according  to  the  common  conceptions  of  size,  form,  color, 
number,  &c.,  but  every  subject  according  to  its  own  peculiarities,  or  elemen- 
tarily, or,  as  Herr  Griibe  says,  organically.  (See  Griibe's  Inst.  in  Arith.) 

4.  Methodical  Guide  for  Exercises  in  the  Cultivation  of  Language  in  the 
Lower  Class  of  the  Elementary  School.     By  C.  G.  EHRLICH,  Director  of 
the  Seminary  of  Soest,  in  Nassau.     Second  improved  edition,  1839.     Fr. 
Heischer,  in  Leipzig. 

The  author  shares  with  others  the  view  that  reflection  and  the  art  of 
speaking  must  be  awakened  and  stimulated  specially  in  the  lower  class  of 
the  elementary  school,  since  the  neglect  of  a  deep,  firm  foundation  for  it 
during  the  whole  school  season,  can  never  be  made  good  afterwards ;  but 
he  differs  from  other  writers  and  teachers  upon  the  subject  in  thinking  that 
the  exercises  in  speaking  should  be  exercises  in  the  language  itself.  Authors 
before  mentioned  give  precedence  to  exercises  in  speaking,  observation, 
and  thinking,  and  postpone  those  in  language,  but  employ  the  thinking  and 
speaking  powers  upon  the  materials  of  the  surrounding  world.  Herr 
Ehrlich  also  agrees  in  this  when  he  adds  his  exercises  upon  the  immediate 
experiences  and  observations  of  the  child ;  but  he  takes  into  consideration 
in  this  the  knowledge  of  language,  in  what  way  will  become  clear  when  we 


OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE.  439 

point  out  the  chief  contents  of  his  treatise,  and  sketch  the  characteristic 
signs  of  this  treatment  of  the  material.  The  book  is  divided  into  two 
parts,  the  theoretical  and  practical. 

First  Part.  Aim  and  requisitions  of  the  exercises  in  language  in  th«- 
lovver  class.. 

Second  Part.     Examples : 

(1)  The  elementary  school  is  to  rise  up  from  below. 

(2)  Exercises  in  language  the  special  means. 

(3)  Extent  of  the  same. 

(4)  Comparison  between  the  conversation  of  the  mother  and  the  teacher. 

(5)  Chief  requisites  of  such  exercises :    a,  Course   of  teaching,  and  of 
some  material ;  b,  Preface  to  the  conversation ;  c,  General  choice  of  the 
material ;  d,  Language  of  the  teacher ;  e,  Superintendence  of  the  conversa- 
tion ;  ft  Means  of  exciting  emulation  ;  g,  Outward  arrangements. 

The  knowledge  of  the  forms  of  speech  (in  a  practical  way)  in  which  it  i* 
brought  to  the  consciousness  of  the  children,  leads  the  author  into  the 
consideration  of  the  contents  and  order. 

He  gives  his  view  in  the  following  precepts,  which  are  worth  considering : 

First.  "  If  you  lead  the  child  to  thoughtful  seeing,  you  do  much  more  for 
him  than  if  you  bring  him  forward  in  reading  and  writing.  His  reading 
and  writing  without  thinking  are  worthless.  Men  make  the  least  use  of 
these  arts  "  (is  it  not  so  ?)  "  but  a  really  seeing  eye,  a  really  hearing  ear, 
and  a  thinking  mind,  every  one  needs  every  moment  of  his  life."  (Does  it 
injure  thousands,  nay,  millions  of  men  to  read?)  "  1.  Because  they  do  not 
use  this  art  very  generally  in  life,  or  they  unlearn  it  again  even  when  they 
have  once  learned  it  in  the  regular  way.  2.  Because  the  books  which  are 
put  into  their  hands  contain  much  that  is  useless,  much  that  is  untrue,  dis- 
torted ;  obsolete  views,  superstitious  opinions,  &c.  Hence  there  are  re- 
gions in  Germany  where  learning  to  read  is  of  questionable  advantage  :  for 
it  may  be  used  for  the  planting  and  sustaining  of  superstition  and  similar 
perverseness."  (Why  not  also  for  the  destruction  of  the  same  ;  and  why 
does  Catholicism  strive  against  the  common-school  law?)  "For  it  is  not  by 
reading  that  man  cultivates  himself.  It  depends  upon  what  he  reads, 
and  his  capability  of  reading  with  understanding." 

Second.  "  The  effect  upon  the  cultivation  of  the  mind  of  learning  to  speak 
is  very  clear,  for  the  following  reasons  :  By  knowing  the  names  of  things, 
and  of  their  properties,  the  attention  is  often  for  the  first  time  drawn  to  the 
things  themselves.  In  the  same  manner,  also  by  the  varieties  of  the  names 
to  the  varieties  of  the  things ;  for  instance,  the  different  kinds  of  the  color 
of  green  —  grass-green,  mountain-green,  apple-green,  finch-green,  bottle- 
green,  bronze-green,  sea-green,  £c.  Also,  by  means  of  language  our  atten- 
tion is  drawn  in  early  childhood  from  lower  to  higher  conceptions,  (for 
instance,  '  The  goose  is  a  bird.')  By  naming  these,  we  hold  firmly  in  the 
mind  representations  and  conceptions  of  things,  and  learn  to  think  in  lan- 
guage." 

Second  Part.  This  portion  of  the  book  is  the  most  important,  viz. :  The 
Examples.  (1)  Conversations  with  children  from  six  to  seven  years  of 


440  OBJECT   TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

age  :  two  conversations  with  new-comers ;  the  surroundings  in  the  school- 
room ;  handwork ;  the  kitchen ;  domestic  animals ;  words  of  endearment 
(diminutives)  ;  abstract  conceptions ;  single  verbs. 

(2)  Conversations  with  the  whole  lower  class,  or  with  children  from 
seven  to  ten  years.  Preparation  of  the  teacher  for  exercises  in  speaking. 

These  conversations  are  rich  in  instruction:  1.  Because  they  are  so  com- 
municated, not  as  if  they  were  written  out  before  the  hour,  but  as  if  they 
were  really  held  in  the  school  of  the  seminary  by  the  author.  2.  Because 
they  are  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  model  in  a  wide  sense  of  the  word  (not 
like  the  asses-bridge,  to  be  used  slavishly).  Herr  Ehrlich  is  a  master  in 
conversation  with  children.  Therefore  this  book  is  a  gift  to  be  thankful 
for.  Having  proceeded  from  the  very  soil  of  the  school,  in  the  strongest 
sense  of  the  word,  the  teacher  can  learn  from  it  how  to  make  living  and  in- 
structive conversation  with  children,  since  an  old  master  has  done  it  before 
him.  Remarks  which  join  the  single  examples  unite  the  second  part  of 
the  book  with  the  first,  and  the  results  following  each  talk  given  in  a 
review  show  what  should  be  reached  in  the  single  talks. 

The  author  believes,  as  we  do,  in  the  use  of  signs.  A  wave  of  the  right 
hand  means  that  all  the  scholars  shall  speak;  a  circular  motion  with  the 
left  hand  (a  zero)  a  full  answer.  To  wink  means  repeat  the  whole.  We 
hope  the  reader  will  not  consider  these  as  puerilities. 

We  are  sorry  that  want  of  space  forbids  us  laying  before  the  reader 
one  of  these  instructive  conversations,  with  all  its  outward  and  inward  in- 
trospections ;  but  we  recommend  this  thoroughly  practical  treatise. 

5.  Guide  to  the  Principles  of  Education  and  Instruction.     By  DENZEL. 
Third  Part,  First  Division,  First  Course :  Object-Teaching  for  Children 
from  6  to  8  Years  of  Age.     Stuttgart :  Mezler,  1828.     Third  edition. 

The  distinguishing  or  discriminating  character  of  this  course  consists  in 
the  author's  connecting  the  religious  with  the  material  and  formal  points 
of  view,  that  is,  the  exercises  in  observation  or  introspection  have  the  dis- 
tinct aim  of  undertaking  to  develop  the  religious  consciousness.  The 
author's  caution  and  circumspection  are  well  known. 

6.  SCHLOTTERBECK  :  Tlieoretical  and  Practical  Handbook  for  the  Instruc- 
tion of  the  First  School  Year.     For  Teachers  and  Female  Educators  just 
beginning.     I.  Domestic  Science  in  the  First  School  Year.    2.  First  In- 
struction in   Language,  Reading  and  Writing.      3.  Exercises  for  the 
Cultivation  of  the  Senses.  — Wismar,  Rostock,  and  Ludwigsluft.     Pub- 
lication house  of  the  Hinstorff  bookstore.     1868. 

We  have  here  a  work  of  great  industry,  arising  out  of  a  deep  interest  in 
the  cause.  Just  on  account  of  its  one-sidedness,  it  has  an  effect  upon  the 
present  time.  It  follows  Schlotterbeck  in  recommending  •'  gymnastics  of 
the  senses  "  for  the  people's  school,  and  at  the  end  the  "  introduction  of 
FroebeFs  kindergarten  into  the  elementary  classes."  The  views  taken  from 
Schlotterbeck  are  the  following : 

1.  The  chief  aim  of  object-teaching  is  the  cultivation  of  the  senses  and 
of  formal  nature. 

"  What  object-teaching  has  hitherto  striven  for  is  not  to  be  reached  by 


OBJECT  TEACHING.    BUSSE.  441 

the  means  of  the  exercises  proposed.  It  is  only  exercises  .of  the  senses, 
which  are  designed  to  give  them  a  greater  perfection  for  the  correct  com- 
prehension of  the  outward  world,  and  to  assist  the  mind  of  the  child  in  its 
development  through  its  perceptions. 

"  The  cultivation  of  the  senses  is  to  strengthen  and  support  the  whole 
instruction  by  giving  efficiency  to  the  organs  of  observation,  and  by  the 
reception  of  new  observations  in  the  child's  mind." 

2.  Object-teaching  must  move  in  the  field  of  the  world  of  the  senses, 
and  adjust  it. 

3.  For  this  aim  the  objects  must  be  brought  to  the  children's  view  in  their 
naked  reality,  and  be  treated  objectively  throughout. 

4.  The  representation  of  the  object  observed  must  also  have  its  rights 
It  gives  the  best  proof  of  the  correctness  of  the  comprehension  of  it. 

5.  What  has  been  observed  can  be  represented  by  language. 

6.  What  has  been  observed  can  also  be  represented  in  a  plastic  form. 

7.  By  the  cultivation  of  the  organs  of  the  senses,  and  by  the  plastic  rep- 
resentation of  the  object,  more  is  done  for  widening  the  child's  circle  of 
representation  than  by  the  most  searching  exercises. 

8.  Therefore,  we  desire  to  have  cultivation  of  the  senses  in  the  school, 
and  for  the  elementary  class  in  especial,  first,  a  yearly  course  of  from  four 
to  five  hours  a  week,  which  we  designate  by  the  once  common  name  of  object- 
teaching.     After  that  time  let  it  cease,  not  because  the  cultivation  of  the 
senses  is  then  looked  upon  as  perfected,  but  because  it  can  be  carried  on 
at  home,  and  the  further  instruction  in  the  school  must  undertake  wider 
culture. 

9.  Object-teaching  does  not  exclude  exercises  in  language ;  but  these 
must  not  be  the  chief  aim. 

10.  Object-teaching  need  not  be  looked  upon  as  the  foundation  of  in- 
struction in  physics. 

11.  Religious  knowledge,  so  far  as  it  allows  itself  to  be  mediated  by  ob- 
servation, does  not  belong  to  the  domain  of  object-teaching.     Object-teach- 
ing must  be  allowed  to  take  the  precedence  of  the  religious  element  as 
little  as  of  the  instruction  in  language  or  natural  science.     It  must  move 
according  to  its  nature  on  the  domain  of  the  sense-world,  and  fails  wholly 
in  its  aim  if  the  religious  element  is  not  the  chief  object. 

12.  Object-teaching  must  not  aim  at  clothing  the  material  in  a  poetic 
form.     "  This  would  stand  in  direct  opposition  to  its  aim.     By  object-teach- 
ing the  comprehension  of  the  world  of   sense  is  indirectly  imparted,  the 
correct  relation  between  cause  and  effect,  foundation  and  superstructure, 
life  and  death,  is  established,  therefore  the  objects  must  be  brought  before 
the  child  in  their  naked  reality,  and  be  treated  objectively  by  the  teacher 
throughout.     The  living  sense  of  the  child  will  lay  in  poetry  of  itself,  and 
abundantly  enough  where  the  ripened  understanding  sees  only  dead  and  cold 
material.     Real  poetry  lies  in  nature  itself,  and  is  therefore  given  out  by  it 
at  the  same  time  with  the  objective  comprehension." 

The  course  of  teaching  planned  on  the  above  principles  is  divided  into 
three  sections : 

1.  Cultivation  of  the  eye  by  the  color,  form  and  position,  size  and  dis- 
tance, of  bodies. 


442  OBJECT    TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

2.  Cultivation  of  the  ear  by  exercises  in  time  and  hearing. 

3.  Cultivation  of  feeling  by  direct  exercises  in  the  cultivation  of  the 
senses  of  touch  and  taste  ;  and  by  exercises  for  attaining  a  greater  security 
and  solidity  of  the  body,  namely,  by  strengthening  the  limbs. 

This  treatise  is  in  quite  the  spirit  of  Froehel.  The  author  plans  the 
exercises  which  Froebel  had  chiefly  intended  for  the  kindergarten  for  the 
first  school-year  of  the  elementary  class.  They  are  as  excellent  for  the  kin- 
dergarten, where  they  have  proved  themselves  so  well  adapted  for  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  senses  and  the  development  of  the  mind,  as  they  are  out 
of  place  in  the  school.  Here  the  ground-principle  must  be  firmly  estab- 
lished ;  the  culture  of  the  senses  must  be  aimed  at  with  suitable  material. 
To  aim  at  merely  formal  culture  lies  outside  of  it.  What  cultivation  of  the 
senses  is  to  be  reached  in  the  school  must  come  out  of  the  contemplation  of 
the  objects  of  the  object-teaching,  primarily  out  of  the  contemplation  of  nat- 
ural bodies.  From  them  the  child  learns  their  "  colors,  forms,  and  varie- 
ties," and  every  intelligent  teacher  goes  back  from  this  to  ground  colors  and 
ground  forms.  By  the  ''  quantities  "  the  instruction  in  arithmetic  makes 
known  the  theory  of  forms  and  the  instruction  in  drawing.  For  "  cultiva- 
tion of  the  eye  "  the  instruction  is  given  by  writing,  drawing,  scientific,  geo- 
graphical, and  mathematical  observation ;  for  "  cultivation  of  the  ear,"  in- 
struction in  speaking,  reading,  and  singing  ;  for  "  cultivation  of  the  hand/' 
writing,  drawing,  and  handwork.  Hence  it  happens  that  a  great  part  of 
these  exercises  in  our  full  school  classes  are  not  practicable,  as,  for  exam- 
ple, the  coloring  of  pictures,  the  cutting  of  paper,  the  building  with  cubes, 
the  plaiting  with  strips  of  paper,  the  folding  of  paper,  the  pricking  of  fig- 
ures, the  clay  work,  whittling  of  wood,  the  observation  of  forms  of  things 
at  different  distances  and  in  different  positions,  &c.  It  is  impossible  for  a 
teacher  to  watch  all  these  exercises,  and  prevent  the  dangerous  use  of  col- 
ors, scissors,  knives,  pricking-needles,  &c. 

Besides  this,  the  author  places  little  value  upon  the  spoken  statement,  but 
would  use  the  exercises  in  language  chiefly  for  the  instruction  in  reading. 
But  if  the  object-teaching  is  to  sharpen  the  senses,  and  thereby  excite  the 
attention,  it  must  also  assist  the  development  of  language.  Observation 
enchains  and  quickens  the  thinking  power,  and  brings  the  judgment  to  the 
tongue,  which  fastens  the  same  in  a  word.  When  the  children  have  been 
accustomed  by  the  object-teaching  to  see  sharply  and  precisely  the  things 
brought  to  their  contemplation  and  description,  and,  where  the  opportunity 
offers,  also  to  hear  distinctly  and  feel  strikingly,  the  school  certainly  offers 
all  it  can  to  satisfy  just  claims. 

But  the  author  is  of  the  opinion  that  salvation  lies  only  in  Froebel,  whose 
play-school  must  go  into  the  people's  school.  We  can  look  upon  this  only 
as  a  pedagogic  error.  For  the  gymnastics  of  the  senses,  life  must  do  the 
best,  not  the  school-room  with  its  bare  walls.  Finally,  why  shall  we  not 
use  the  tongue  and  the  nose  as  chemistry  does  ?  At  the  Vienna  Exposition 
we  really  saw  a  whole  series  of  innocent,  variously  smelling,  and  tasting, 
apparatus  for  object-teaching,  designed  for  the  elementary  school. 

We  cannot  recommend  the  work  for  the  object-teaching  we  defend,  how- 
ever dear  it  may  be  to  FroebePs  scholars,  who  will  find  much  in  it  that  is 
stimulating. 


OBJECT  TEACHING.    BUSSE.  443 

7.  Theoretical  and  Practical  Handbook  for  Object-teaching,  with  particu- 
lar reference  to  Elementary  Instruction  in  Physics.     Frederick  Harder 
Altona,  1867.     Four  editions. 

A  book  of  such  significant  compass,  which  has  lived  through  four  edi- 
tions in  twelve  years,  must  have  some  value.  This  value  lies  in  the  correct 
and  practical  observations  from  which  the  author  proceeds,  and  which  he 
develops  into  a  guide  systematically  executed,  as  well  as  rich  and  various 
in  the  material  offered  for  the  instruction. 

He  gives  the  key  to  his  work  in  the  title.  He  is  of  the  opinion  that 
object-teaching,  whose  centre  must  be  sought  in  physics,  is  not  to  be  fin- 
ished in  the  elementary  class,  and  on  that  account  adds :  1.  A  course  which 
shall  give,  after  object-instruction  proper,  a  second  course,  also  designed  for 
the  underpinning,  which  works  out  the  elements  of  physics  with  the  scholars 
who  have  been  mentally  strengthened  by  object-teaching  (in  the  space  of 
another  half-year). 

This  course  of  instruction  is  essentially  the  well-known  one.  The  author 
begins  with  the  first  conversation  of  the  teacher  with  the  fresh  elementary 
scholars,  then  passes  into  the  school  with  its  contents,  speaks  of  the  same 
to  the  whole  and  to  individuals,  introduces  comparisons  of  things  in  the 
school-room,  passes  to  the  people  in  the  school,  then  considers  the  school- 
house  and  teachers'  dwelling-house,  the  occupants  of  the  parental  house,  the 
dwelling-place,  buildings,  squares,  streets,  inhabitants.  The  sections,  which 
make  the  specialty  of  the  work,  treat  very  practically  of  men,  animals,  and 
the  plant  world,  and  contain  a  preparation  of  instruction  in  geography  and 
natural  science.  The  work  recommends  itself  by  specially  rich  and  richly- 
suggestive  material,  arranged  in  suitable  sequence  on  methodical  principles. 
The  author  is  of  the  opinion  that  this  instruction  stands  independently, 
and  is  to  be  stretched  over  the  whole  school  life. 

8.  Principles  and  Course  of  Teaching  for  Instruction  in  Speaking  and 
Reading.    AUGUST  LUBEN,  Germany,  Director  in  Bremen.    Third  im- 
proved edition.     Leipzig,  1868. 

Liiben's  writings  should  be  intelligently  studied  by  every  elementary 
teacher. 

The  practice  of  the  author  to  connect  object-teaching  with  reading  and 
writing  is  well  known.  Eichter  has  energetically  protested  against  this 
union,  and  we  indorse  the  protest,  while  we  think  that  the  exercises  in 
speaking,  known  to  all,  and  which  smooth  the  path  to  the  sounding  of  tho 
letters  (lautiren),  do  not  take  the  place  of  the  object-teaching  proper.  Al- 
though the  author  does  not  consider  merely  the  exercises  in  speaking,  but 
also  those  in  language,  yet  the  object-teaching,  which  has  its  own  aims  and 
course,  is  not  justly  estimated. 

The  aim  of  object-teaching  Liiben  also  discusses  briefly : 

1.  To  practise  the  child  in  correct  seeing  and  contemplation. 

2.  To  enrich  the  powers  of  his  understanding  with  worthy  representations. 

3.  To  cultivate  his  judgment. 

4.  To  increase  his  readiness  in  language. 


444  OBJECT    TEACHING.    BUSSE. 

Many  good  things  are  given  in  the  examples,  and  the  little  treatise, 
which,  on  account  of  its  authorship,  is  an  authority  in  the  domain  of  instruc- 
tion in  the  mother-tongue,  is  worth  reading. 

9.  Object-teaching  in  the  Elementary  Schools.     Represented  according  to 
its  Aims,  its  Place,  and  its  Means.    By  GAEL  RICHTER.   Crowned  prize- 
work.     Leipzig,  1869. 

This  treatise  is  a  rich  accession  to  the  literature  upon  object-teaching. 
In  a  theoretic  point  of  view  it  is  the  best  work  which  exists  upon  that  sub- 
ject. By  the  ideal  which  Richter  would  realize  in  object-teaching,  he  will 
gain  many  opponents  without  injury  to  the  various  opinions  in  practice. 
The  work  should  be  known  to  every  elementary  teacher,  although  it  is  only 
theoretical.  Cultivation  of  the  senses  is  one  chief  thing  with  the  author. 
Schlotterbeck  seems  to  have  excited  him  much.  It  is  now  generally  the 
laudable  endeavor  to  enlarge  the  material  of  observation  for  the  elementary 
classes  as  far  as  it  is  practicable,  although  on  the  other  side  the  limit  can 
easily  be  passed  which  protects  it  from  extravagance. 

The  rich  contents  of  the  book  consist  of  a  guide,  three  sections,  and  a 
review.  The  guide  contains  historical  matter  upon  object-teaching,  concep- 
tion of  essence  of  observation,  relation  of  observation  to  language,  and 
importance  of  observation  to  the  mental  life. 

1.  The  first  section  speaks  of  the  task  of  object-teaching,  and  paragraphs 
have  the  following  titles :  Condition  of  the  Child's  Mind  before  the  School 
Age ;  the  School  and  its  First  Task ;  Cultivation  of  Observation  in  Gen- 
eral;  Scientific  (real)  Culture ;  Cultivation  of  the  Senses;  Cultivation  of 
Language ;  Moral  and  Religious  Culture  ;  Choice  and  Arrangements  of  the 
Objects  for  Object-teaching. 

2.  The  second  section  treats  of  the  place  of  object-teaching,  and  is  di- 
vided into  four  paragraphs :  Rejection  of  Object-teaching ;  Isolated  Place 
of  Object-teaching ;  Connection  of  Object-teaching  with  Reading  and  Writ- 
ing ;  the  Vogel-Method. 

3.  The  third  section  speaks  of  the  means  of  object-teaching,  and  treats 
of  the  position  of  Objects  of  Instruction  in  Nature,  Models  and  Pictures, 
Drawing  and  Measuring. 

This  work  contains  no  finished  programme  of  object-teaching,  but  is  a 
work  upon  that  subject  which  cannot  be  read  without  lively  interest,  and 
which  treats  with  extraordinary  clearness  the  question  of  object- teaching, 
its  place  in  other  courses,  and  the  means  requisite  for  carrying  it  out. 
It  will  be  of  lasting  use,  and  is  urgently  recommended. 

10.  Object-teaching.     Its  History,  its  Place  in  the  Elementary  School,  and 
its  Methodical  Treatment.    By  W.  ARMSTROFF.     Langensalza,  1869. 

This  is  also  a  theoretical  treatise  of  the  same  general  character  with  that 
of  Richter,  but  not  so  exhaustive.  It  recommends  itself  to  the  teacher  by  its 
simplicity  and  clearness.  Object-teaching  is,  with  this  author,  that  instruction 
of  the  elementary  classes  in  which  single  things  are  taken  from  the  nearest  sur- 
roundings of  the  pupils,  observed  by  the  senses,  described,  and  thus  brought 
to  their  comprehension.  It  must  not  be  confounded  with  "  instruction  by 


OBJECT   TEACHING.      BUSSE.  445 

observation."  And  it  must  not  be  considered  identical  with  exercises  irk 
thinking  and  speaking,  with  domestic  economy,  cosmology,  and  useful  com- 
mon knowledge.  All  these  subjects  are  kindred,  but  not  in  congruity. 

In  his  statement  of  the  historical  development  of  this  instruction  upon 
topics,  the  author  goes  back  to  Luther's  and  Melancthon's  efforts,  and  draws 
treasures  from  the  labors  — 

1.  Of  Bacon :  "  Everything  depends  upon  our  never  turning  the  eyes  of 
the  mind  from  things  themselves  and  their  images  just  as  they  are  absorbed 
into  us." 

2.  Of  Comenius :  "  The  first  connection  of  the  thing  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  language." 

3.  Of  the  Philanthropist :  "  The  culture  of  the  understanding  must  pro- 
ceed from  actual  inspection ;  Physics  (Eealien)  must  be  the  chief  objects  of 
fundamental  teaching." 

4.  From  Pestalozzi :  "  Observation  is  the  foundation  of  all  knowledge." 
After  discussing  these  historical  points,  treatises  which  exclusively  pursue 

the  formal  aim  of  development,  for  which  the  material  need  not  be  too  vari- 
ous, he  goes  on  to  the  exercises  in  understanding  and  thinking  of  Zerrener, 
Krause,  Grassman,  and  finishes  with  Graser,  Diesterweg,  Wurst,  Scliolz, 
and  Hariisch,  who  combated  the  connection  between  the  formal  and  scien- 
tific principle. 

The  mission  of  object-teaching  is  fully  shown  by  the  psychological  devel- 
opment. It  is  designed  to  raise  the  observations  and  representations  al- 
ready in  hand  with  the  children  into  clearness,  order,  and  consciousness,  so 
as  to  help  the  pupils  to  a  wealth  of  intuitions  at  the  same  time  that  they 
are  using  their  senses ;  to  excite  their  self-activity,  and  accustom  them  to  a 
habit  of  attention ;  and  out  of  the  intuitions  gained  to  develop  conceptions, 
judgments,  &c.,  and  thereby  to  sharpen  the  understanding,  put  them  in 
possession  of  book  language,  cultivate  their  sensibilities,  and  prepare  them 
for  instruction  in  science  (real).  As  means  of  object-teaching  the  author 
designates,  chiefly,  nature,  man,  God.  He  urges  original,  direct  observa- 
tion, and  only  where  the  means  for  this  are  not  present,  or  in  natura,  does 
he  recommend  pictures. 

The  treatise  answers  the  following  questions  : 

1.  Where  is  the  origin  of  object-teaching  to  be  sought,  and  how  has  it 
developed  itself  in  the  course  of  time  ? 

2.  Wherein  consists  the  problem  of  object-teaching? 

3.  What  place  in  instruction  shall  it  take  ? 

4.  By  what  means  are  the  aims  which  it  pursues  to  be  reached  ? 

While  Richter  makes  object-teaching  the  all-ruling  centre  in  the  pro- 
gramme, Armstroff  confines  himself  to  Liiben's  point  of  view,  with  whom 
object-teaching,  reading,  and  writing,  are  to  be  united  into  one  whole. 
Armstroffs  work  is  worth  reading  next  to  Richter's. 

11.    Theoretico-practical  Guide  to  Object-teaching  for  Elementary  Teachers 
and  Parents.    By  CARL  DAMBECK,  School  Director.    Hamburg,  1869. 

A  parallel  treatise  with  Richter's,  but  very  valuable  practically. 

It  is  divided  into  two  parts,  a  theoretic,  and  a  practical  part.     In  the 


446  OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

theoretic  part  the  author  speaks  of  the  aim,  the  method,  the  teacher,  and 
the  apparatus  for  object-teaching,  which  is  with  him  the  fundamental  and 
preparatory  instruction  for  the  other  branches. 

The  practical  part  treats  of  the  collection,  grouping,  and  distribution  cf  the 
material.  The  author  closes  with  a  sketch  of  a  methodical  course  of  object- 
teaching  for  two  years. 

The  first  course  for  children  from  six  to  eight  years  of  age  groups  the 
material  for  the  four  years  which  are  to  be  used  as  designated. 

The  second  course  arranges  the  material  for  children  between  eight  and 
nine,  according  to  psychological  development  and  the  branches  of  instruc- 
tion ;  it  also  serves  as  preparation  for  instruction  in  language,  for  mathe- 
matics, the  natural  sciences,  geography,  history,  religion,  with  much  refer- 
ence to  the  capability  of  the  children.  It  is  hence  made  a  material  which 
for  the  greater  part  can  be  used  in  the  middle  course. 

In  conclusion,  the  author  enumerates  the  material  of  the  instruction 
which  is  necessary  for  the  success  of  this  department;  namely,  models, 
mathematical  bodies,  a  collection  of  the  most  important  coins,  the  measures 
and  weights  of  the  country,  minerals,  fresh  or- dried  plants,  the  fruits  and 
seeds  of  the  most  important  plants,  animals  either  stuffed  or  preserved  in 
spirits,  products  of  industry,  large  single  pictures,  black  or  colored,  a  col- 
lection of  the  leaves  and  twigs  of  the  most  important  plants.  The  author 
assigns  an  independent  place  for  the  object-teaching,  and  lets  reading  and 
writing  follow  next.  In  his  limitation  of  the  subject  he  agrees  with  Richter 
and  Armstroff;  with  them  he  assigns  the  place  for  it  in  the  two  or  three 
first  school  years. 

We  cannot  deny  that  the  work  has  proceeded  from  a  vital  interest  as  well 
for  the  subject  as  for  childhood,  and  also  shows  long  practice.  It  is  original 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  idea  of  spreading  the  use  of  the  material  over  all 
the  years  given  to  instruction,  and  of  holding  the  child  in  living  connection 
with  nature  all  that  time,  is  not  in  itself  new.  The  little  work  is  cordially 
recommended. 

12.  Object-teaching  for  the  Lower  and  Middle  Classes  of  the  People's 
School.  By  GEORGE  Luz.  Also  Teaching  and  Reading  Material  for  Ob- 
ject-teaching in  the  Lower  and  Middle  Classes.  Wiesensteig,  1871. 

The  first  part  of  the  book  discusses  the  theory  of  object-teaching.  In 
twelve  sections  the  author  treats  the  following  rich  contents  : 

1.  The  origin  of  object-teaching,  and  its  introduction  into  the  people's 
school. 

2.  Object-teaching  as  the  first  and  preparatory  instruction. 

3.  Conception  of  object- teaching. 

4.  Aims  of  object-teaching. 

5.  Forms  of  object-teaching. 

6.  Opponents  of  object-teaching. 

7.  The  working  of  independent  object- teaching. 

8.  The  annexation  of  object-teaching  to  the  reading-book. 

9.  Characteristics  of  different  readers  for  the  middle  class. 
10.   Review  of  the  programme  of  instruction  of  the  author. 


OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE.  447 

11.  Treatment  of  object-teaching. 

12.  Some  examples  of  conversation. 

The  second  part  is  to  be  the  reader  for  the  use  of  pupils. 

The  work  is  by  a  pupil  of  Denzel,  but  is  distinguished  by  its  extraordi- 
nary simplicity  from  the  one  to  be  noticed  next,  by  Wrage.  Not  merely  skill 
in  the  catechetical  treatment  of  material  constitutes  the  good  teacher  (and 
from  pages  82  to  90  we  find  masterly  conversations),  but  also  his  command 
of  the  material.  But  only  he  has  command  over  his  material  who  under- 
stands how  to  select  it  in  reference  to  the  nature  of  childhood ;  and  from 
this  author  we  learn  to  know  his  conceptions  of  a  teacher,  and  a  bettei 
could  not  be  wished  for;  "  the  enemy  of  all  shams,  allflunkery  ;  the  friend 
of  simplicity,  of  sound  discretion  —  in  short,  one  who  really  knows  thr 
nature  of  childhood" 

Of  this  loving  absorption  into  the  nature  of  childhood,  the  material  for 
reading  and  the  inculcation  of  principles  in  the  infant  is  eloquent  testimony. 
It  is  a  preparatory  book  for  the  teacher  in  behalf  of  object-teaching,  and  a 
copious  reader  for  the  lower  classes.  The  problem  of  how  object-teaching 
can  stand  in  the  closest  connection  with  the  reader,  and  yet  be  indepen- 
dently progressive,  is  here  solved  in  the  happiest  manner.  What  the  teacher 
has  hitherto  observed  and  described,  the  children  read  after  him,  and  thus 
reach  two  things :  progress  in  understanding  what  they  read,  reading  ar»<* 
repeating  with  feeling,  and  comprehension  of  what  they  have  heard. 

13.  Object-teaching  in  the  People's  School ;  or,  Observing,  Thinking,  Speak- 
ing, and  Writing,  as  the  Foundation  for  Physical  Studies,  for  Style,  and 
Grammar.  By  J.  H.  FUHR  and  J.  H.  OETMANN.  In  four  double  sheets. 
Four  sheets  of  Object-teaching,  interspersed  with  Sentences,  Fables, 
and  Stories,  in  Prose  and  Poetry,  arranged  according  to  the  Four  Sea- 
sons. Bound  in  with  the  Object-teaching,  four  sheets  of  Exercises,  in  all 
Styles,  for  all  Classes,  after  the  Preparatory  Class  in  Grammar.  Second 
enlarged  and  improved  Edition.  Dillenburg,  1873. 

According  to  this  author,  observation  is  the  element  and  foundation  of 
all  knowledge ;  and  object-teaching,  pursued  according  to  its  aim,  is  the 
only  instruction  that  can  be  materially  and  formally  truly  preparatory  and 
fundamental  for  the  collected  instruction  of  the  people's  schools,  which  can 
rest  only  upon  the  firm  ground  of  observation.  Object-teaching  must  strive 
for  correct  observation  and  attention,  clear  conceptions,  correct  expression 
of  thoughts,  acquisition  of  useful  knowledge  of  practical  things,  and  cul- 
tivation of  feeling.  A  full  supply  of  poetic  material  serves  for  the  latter 
purpose  and  point  of  connection. 

Contents  :  In  twenty  conversations  are,  first,  preparatory  exercises  offered 
to  the  teacher,  which  aim  at  exciting  the  feelings  of  the  child,  so  that  it 
may  be  confiding  and  animated.  Then  the  children  are  led  on  according 
to  the  principle,  from  the  near  to  the  remote,  by  the  following  civcles  of  ob- 
servation :  School,  house  and  yard,  garden,  meadow,  field  and  wood.  In 
order  to  give  the  best  possible  intuitive  foundation  for  physical  science, 
the  animals  in  the  family  and  yard  are  described,  so  that  they  are  under- 
stood to  be  representatives,  or  types  of  the  one,  two  and  four-hoofed 


448  OBJECT  TEACHING.     BUSSE. 

animals,  the  beasts  of  prey,  the  insect-eaters,  the  rodents,  the  fowls,  doves, 
swimming-birds,  swamp-birds,  singing-Mrds,  and  birds  of  prey.  Then 
follows  the  contemplation  of  trees,  shrubs,  and  herbs. 

The  second  part  may  be  regarded  as  a  complete  course  of  natural  his- 
tory, and  used  with  much  benefit. 

The  third  sheet  is  peculiarly  of  Object-teaching.  The  second  part  of 
this  treats  of  the  premonitions  of  Spring  in  the  plant  world.  Walk  in 
the  garden,  and  naming  of  the  things  found  in  it.  Plants ;  growth ;  (as 
specialties,  the  snowdrops,  the  garden  violets,  daisies.)  Then  follows  a 
premonition  of  Spring  in  the  animal  world  (field-larks,  stork,  cuckoo,  the 
white  wagtail).  Then  the  Spring  itself ;  (the  usher  of  Spring  is  the  com- 
mon primrose.)  At  last,  the  fruit-garden  (gooseberries,  currant-bushes, 
cherry-trees,  and  damson-trees).  In  every  lesson,  the  cultivation  of  the 
senses,  of  language,  and  of  feeling  is  aimed  at  By  interspersed  speeches, 
sentences,  riddles,  fables,  tales,  in  prose  and  verse,  the  instruction  con- 
tains the  right  nourishment  for  the  understanding,  the  heart,  and  the  life. 
A  little  volume  is  soon  to  follow  this  part,  which  will  contain  the  rest  of  the 
material,  so  far  as  concerns  the  domain  of  natural  history  and  physics, 
(mineralogy,  domestic  economy,  and  natural  science.)  The  catechetical 
treatment  of  many  of  the  lessons,  lend,  by  their  numerous  suggestions,  a 
peculiar  value  to  the  whole  work.  As  to  the  rest,  the  author  is  of  the 
opinion  that  the  material  offered  in  the  school  should  not  be  used  in  a 
slavish  manner,  as  it  lies  before  the  view.  These  materials  offer  much  for 
the  teacher,  because  they  will  excite  him  to  studies  and  contemplations  in 
Nature  herself. 

Of  the  first  three  parts  of  this  splendid  work,  only  the  two  first  lie 
before  us  upon  object-teaching,  and  the  first  of  the  exercises  in  style ;  a 
definite  judgment  of  it  is,  therefore,  not  yet  possible.  The  splendid  fullness 
of  the  useful  material  surprises  the  reader,  and  he  feels  delighted  with  per- 
ceiving that  he  has  to  do  with  two  teachers,  who  give  nothing  but  what 
they  have  proved  by  long  practice.  Every  lesson  seems  to  be  given  as  if 
the  talk  had  been  held  in  the  class.  The  arrangement  of  the  exercises 
in  style  are  appropriate,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  look  them  over. 

If  we  dared  to  make  one  criticism  (snap  our  fingers  at  the  authors),  it 
would  be  this  :  It  seems  as  if  by  the  parallel  contents  of  the  exercises  in 
observation  and  style,  a  certain  monotony  would  be  unavoidable  in  the 
later  propositions.  The  pupil  will  rarely  go  farther  in  this  field  than  to 
descriptions  and  stories.  Pictures  overtax  his  powers.  The  real  mine 
from  whence  he  will  draw  his  compositions,  outside  of  the  nature  that 
forms  his  surroundings,  is  human  life,  fable,  parable,  proverbs,  universal 
history,  and,  above  all,  literature,  with  its  incomparable  riches.  But  we 
trust  to  the  pedagogic  skill  of  the  authors,  that  they  will  avoid  monotony, 
and  that  they  will  draw  from  their  excellent  material  with  proper  judgment. 

The  whole  work  is  so  important,  by  the  wealth  of  its  contents  and  the 
abundance  of  its  methodical  directions,  that  every  teacher  ought  to  be 
acquainted  with  it.  We  are  still  so  poor  in  proper  apparatus  for  object- 
teaching,  that  we  are  glad  to  mention  a  book  that  has  already  found  a  place 
for  itself  in  the  world's  literature. 


AIDS  IN   OBJECT-TEACHING.  449 

14.  Fifty  Fables  for  Children.  In  Pictures.  By  OTTO  SPEKTER.  Gotha: 
Fr.  Perthes. 

Object  Teaching  and  Instructions  in  Composition,  and  Pictures  as  an 
Aid  to  these.  By  SCHUMACHER,  Seminary  Teacher  at  Briihl,  and  Cup- 
per's Head  Teacher  at  the  Deaf-mute  Institution  at  Briihl.  Third 
unaltered  edition.  Bohn,  1874. 

An  aid  is  here  offered  to  teachers,  which  will  remind  them  in  many  re- 
spects of  what  is  already  known.  The  size  of  the  leaves  corresponds  to 
the  earlier  tablets  of  pictures  by  Wilke ;  some  of  them  have  nearly  the 
same  contents.  But  they  surpass  Wilke's  pictures  in  naturalness  of  repre- 
sentation ;  some  of  them  make  almost  an  artistic  impression.  They  are 
too  small  for  class  instruction,  and  in  this  respect  are  decidedly  inferior  to 
Striibing's  pictures. 

The  above-mentioned  little  treatise  contains  much  that  is  good  upon  the 
treatment  of  picture  tablets ;  it  is  particularly  to  be  observed  that  the 
authors'  aim  continuously  at  the  education  of  the  child,  to  cooperation  in 
the  instruction,  and  to  his  development  in  freedom  and  self-reliance  ;  they 
are  both  enemies  to  all  wooden  examinations  and  catechising.  On  the 
other  side  we  must  be  careful  to  warn  the  teachers  not  to  trust  too  much 
to  their  capability,  of  being  able  to  begin  something  with  the  pictures  by 
a  sudden  leap  in  reference  to  the  material,  without  sufficient  preparation. 
In  the  little  labyrinth  of  these  intuitions,  and  of  the  appropriate  forms  of 
speech,  there  is  no  course  possible  without  a  guiding  thread,  but  only  aim- 
less wandering. 

The  following  hints  cover  the  chief  contents  of  this  treatise : 

1.  The  aim  of  instruction  does  not  require  that  the  pictures  should  be 
handled  as  a  series. 

2.  Every  picture  contains  a  series  of  single  scenes,  which  are  united  again 
in  a  determined  point  of  view  in  another  picture  comprising  the  whole. 
When  a  picture  is  used  for  the  first  time,  let  it  lie  near,  so  that  the  glance 
of  the  child,  without  dwelling  long  upon  the  details,  may  first  sweep  over  the 
whole.     To  this  natural  want  of  the  child  let  the  teacher  attend,  and  turn 
later  to  the  description  of  the  single  groups,  which  are  separated  from  each 
other  in  the  picture. 

3.  To  keep  to  one  picture  until  all  the  groups  have  been  treated,  is 
hardly  necessary  to  be  suggested.     In  general,  it  will  be  well,  when  the 
teacher  has  become  wearied,  to  put  the  object-teaching,  with  reference  to  the 
material,  and  with  intervals  of  other  instruction,  in  the  closest  possible  con- 
nection with  the  daily  life  and  its  occurrences,  with  the  seasons  and  their 
appropriate  phenomena  and  occupations. 

4.  It  is  necessary  that  the  teacher,  before  beginning  upon  his  lesson, 
should  determine    for  himself  what  picture  and  what  group  he  will  use, 
that  he  may  thoroughly  investigate  the  picture  (and  as  far  as  possible  from 
the  children's  standpoint),  and  bring  to  his  own  mind  and  make  clear  to 
his  own  consciousness  the  outer  and  inner  connection  of  the  details  repre- 
sented, what  is  determined  at  the  moment  of  going  on  by  the  picture,  what 
was  probably  the  action  preceding,  and  what  will  follow  it. 

5.  There  will  be  no  objection  to  the  teachers  noticing  his  previous  study 

2,  3 


450  AIDS  IN  OBJECT-TEACHING. 

of  the  picture  in  the  closest  connection  with  their  conception  of  it,  in  con- 
versation with  the  children ;  but  he  must  be  cautious  not  to  make  it  a 
hindrance  to  the  conversation. 

6.  In  the  conversation,  the  teacher  should  at  first  keep  himself  in  the 
background  as  much  as  possible.     He  suggests  the  subject,  sets  the  talk  in 
motion,  and  leaves  it  to  the  children  (  ?)  to  carry  it  on,  guides  their  atten- 
tion to  new  points  of  view,  deepens  or  generalizes  the  comprehension  of 
the  thing.    Errors  of  fact  or  logic  he  corrects  or  leaves  to  their  correction  ; 
errors  of  language  he  must  treat  forbearingly,  and  never  go  so  far  with 
this  as  to  turn  the  children's  attention  from  the  thing  to  the  form. 

7.  With  respect  to  the  development  of  High  German,  it  will  speedily 
make  itself  manifest,  if  the  teacher  unites  the  pupils  of  the  first  and  those 
of  the  second  school  year  in  the  conversations  upon  the  pictures.    For  the 
second  class,  a  useful  lesson  in  writing  might  be  taken  from  it,  after  the 
conclusion  of  the  conversation. 

8.  It  is  to  be  recommended  generally,  that  the  teacher  at  the  close  of 
the  conversation  shall  make  a  repetition  of  what  has  been  said  in  reference 
to  the  things  lying  about,  and  the  little  digressions  that  have  taken  place, 
and  make  it  in  such  a  manner  that  he  now  will  say  more  himself,  while  the 
children  listen  silently,  or  follow,  and  merely  take  part  by  answering  ques- 
tions that  may  arise. 

15.    Instruction  in  Language  in  the  Elementary  School.    A  Guide  for 
Teachers,  by  H.  R.  RUEGG,  Professor  in  University.     Berne,  1872. 

This  work  is  designed  for  a  guide  for  instruction  in  language  in  elemen- 
tary classes.  There  are  the  three  first-school  classes,  according  to  the  plan 
of  the  Berne  schools.  The  author  gives  that  direction  to  object-teaching 
which  makes  its  difficulties  lie  rather  in  the  cultivation  of  the  senses  than 
in  language.  Instruction  in  language  is  not  with  him  dead,  abstract  exer- 
cise in  thinking,  but  the  greatest  possible  and  most  living  conversations 
with  it,  and  practice  in  it.  In  the  lower  class  only  the  intuitive  thinking 
and  thinking  intuition  is  considered,  and  everything  must  be  kept  at  a 
distance  which  would  lead  to  empty  abstractions.  So  the  elementary  teach- 
ing of  language  is  at  the  same  time  instruction  in  things,  and  all  instruc 
tion  in  things  at  that  stage  is  instruction  in  language  also.  There  is  also 
a  stage  of  the  progress  in  which  the  two  are  intimately  connected ;  by 
which  a  root,  as  it  were,  is  formed,  out  of  which  at  a  later  stage,  both 
subjects  of  instruction  grow  as  independent  stems.  This  intimate  connec- 
tion and  interpenetration  of  both  sides  is  Object-teaching. 

The  little  work  contains  the  first  instruction  in  Reading  and  Writing ; 
Object-teaching,  and  Exercises  in  Grammar  ;  everything  in  the  most  inti- 
mate connection  possible,  although  we  could  have  wished  it  different,  per- 
haps, in  the  arrangement  of  the  Grammatical  Exercises.  The  whole  is  an 
ingenious,  wise  work,  and  deserves  a  wide  spread  on  account  of  the  prin- 
ciples brought  into  use  and  applied. 


MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHKADEft. 

The  principles  of  Froebel,  as  understood  and  applied  in  the  Kindergarten 
at  16  Steinmetz  Strasee,  Berlin. 


INTRODUCTION. 

MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER,  whose  personal  relations 
to  Froebel  as  neice  and  pupil,  gave  her  exceptionally  good  opportunities  of 
knowing  his  peculiar  views,  as  expounded  in  the  family,  and  to  young 
candidates  and  mothers  at  Keilhau  and  Dresden,  and  whose  own  experi- 
ence in  Kindergarten  work  has  been  eminently  successful,  has  under  her 
personal  superintendence  an  establishment  in  Berlin,  which  deserves 
special  study.  Of  her  peculiar  fitness  for  the  work,  the  Baroness  Maren- 
holtz  Billow  speaks  as  follows  in  her  "Reminiscences  of  Froebel,"  pub- 
lished in  1874 : 

Of  the  Kindergartners  (Froebel's  early  scholars)  who  participated  in 
the  Teachers'  Meeting  in  the  Hall  of  the  Liebenstein's  Baths,  on  the  27th 
of  September,  1851,  I  was  specially  interested  in  seeing  Henrietta  Brey- 
mann,  one  of  Froebel's  favorite  pupils,  who  at  that  time  had  charge  of  a 
Kindergarten  founded  by  the  Sattler  family  in  Schweinfurth.  I  had 
become  acquainted  with  her  at  the  time  of  my  first  knowledge  of  Froebel, 
and  was  delighted  by  her  amiability,  her  talents,  and  her  zeal  for  the 
cause.  More  and  more  intimate  as  time  went  on,  we  often  worked  together, 
especially  in  Brussels,  where  I  invited  her  during  my  residence  there  to 
undertake  the  instruction  in  Froebel's  method  for  a  six  months'  course, 
arranged  by  the  suggestion  of  a  number  of  teachers,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  take  part  in  a  Kindergarten  instituted  there. 

Fraulein  Breymann  (now  Frau  Schrader  in  Berlin,  wife  of  the  railroad 
director)  is  one  of  those  advocates  of  Froebel's  education  who  hold  fast 
to  the  method,  and  strive  to  overcome  that  which  generally  in  its  practice 
is  merely  mechanical ;  and  to  keep  up  its  true  spirit. 

The  institution  founded  by  her  and  her  sisters  in  Watzum,  near  "Wolfen- 
feuttel,  was  the  first  known  to  me  which  took  up  Froebel's  method  for 
part  of  its  programme,  as  a  necessary  branch  of  instruction  for  general 
female  culture,  and  carried  it  through  successfully.  Frau  Schrader  agreed 
with  me  in  considering  the  training  of  the  female  sex  for  its  educational 
calling  in  Froebel's  method  as  the  first  condition  of  making  it  useful  in 
the  general  reform  of  education.  In  this  sense  she  works  with  her  hus- 
band, who  is  a  true  follower  and  clear-sighted  advocate  of  the  cause,  in 
our  Universal  Educational  Union,  which  is  striving  specially  to  secure  the 
chief  end  of  the  reform  by  the  complete  application  of  the  method.  She 
is  also  one  of  the  decided  opponents  of  the  ever  wider- spreading  super- 
ficiality in  the  cultivation  of  Kindergartners,  which  is  now  thought  to  be 
a  purely  mechanical  calling,  with  the  time  of  learning  the  art  reduced  to 
a  few  months,  while  a  year  is  scarcely  long  enough  for  the  majority  of 
the  somewhat  uncultivated  young  girls  who  study  it. 

With  these  opportunities  of  knowing  her  uncle's  views,  and  of  seeing 
his  own  work  with  children,  mothers,  and  kindergartuers,  tested  also  by 
her  own  successful  experience,  we  naturally  turn  to  the  establishment 
which  she  has  organized  and  conducts  in  Berlin,  for  as  near  an  approach 
to  Froebel's  own  views  and  method,  as  we  can  now  have.  The  interesting 


452         MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER. 

account  given  by  Mrs.  Aldrich  of  her  visit  to  this  establishment,  and  the 
valuable  contribution  made  by  Miss  Lyschinska,  Superintendent  of  Method 
in  Infant  Schools  under  the  School  Board  for  London,  in  her  volume  on 
"the  Educational  Value  and  Chief  Applications  of  the  Kindergarten 
Principle,"  the  outcome  of  the  author's  association  with  Madame  Schrader, 
for  years  as  pupil  and  friend,  induced  us  to  address  a  note  for  further 
information,  to  which  we  received  the  following  reply: 

LETTER  TO  EDITOR   OF  AMERICAN    JOURNAL  OP  EDUCATION. 

DEAR  SIR  : — In  response  to  your  inquiry  I  take  great  pleasure  in  send- 
ing you  a  few  lines  about  our  establishment,  No.  16  Steinmetz  Strasse, 
and  explaining  to  you  the  principles  upon  which  I  have  founded  and  now 
direct  it.  This  is  no  easy  task.  First  of  all,  my  health  is  not  strong;  then, 
I  am  so  much  taken  up  by  practical  life  that  it  is  but  seldom  I  can  find  the 
time  and  quiet  necessary  for  writing;  and  last,  it  is,  I  think,  very  difficult 
to  put  the  practice  of  child  culture  clearly  and  concisely  into  written 
words.  These  are  but  cold  interpreters  of  the  warm,  living  experiences  of 
daily  practice;  they  cannot  lay  hold  of  what  are  often  the  most  important 
points  in  the  life  of  children.  This  essence  of  things,  in  its  volatility, 
variety,  and  outward  irregularity  of  form,  cannot  be  analyzed  and  clearly 
expressed.  It  is  only  by  living  with  children  that  we  can  be  made  to 
understand  it,  and  you  would  learn  more  by  an  hour's  visit  to  our  Kinder- 
garten than  by  long  written  explanations,  which,  in  regard  to  practice, 
are  what  a  dried  and  preserved  flower  is  to  a  fresh  and  blooming  one. 

Kindergartens  are  generally  conducted  on  too  rigid  principles  of  math- 
ematical regularity.  People  seem  to  believe  that  when  there  ia  a  law, 
there  must  also  be  inflexible  regularity,  not  understanding  that  law  and 
method  can  be  found  in  irregularity  of  appearance,  and  also  that  the 
children's  life  cannot  bear  this  regularity,  in  the  measure  now  given,  as 
it  makes  too  great  a  pressure  upon  their  intellectual  powers,  changing 
thus  the  purpose  of  the  Kindergartens,  and  making  of  them  schools  for 
little  children. 

Froebel's  intention,  on  the  contrary,  was  just  to  work  against  such  a 
precocious  and  one-sided  intellectual  development.  He  desired  to  give  a 
good  moral  direction  to  the  natural  inclinations  of  children,  to  afford 
them  opportunities  of  developing  their  feelings  in  union  with  intellectual 
culture  and  development,  but  so  that  the  latter  should  not  become  the 
starting  point  in  early  education. 

He  thought  that  the  daily  cares  and  business  of  the  mother  and  the 
conditions  of  the  child's  own  life  were  the  best  materials  for  education, 
by  putting  the  child  in  a  loving  and  active  relation  to  the  surrounding 
world,  fastening  him  to  it,  producing  love  in  him  by  giving  him  oppor- 
tunity of  loving,  developing  the  principle  of  action  through  the  exertion 
itself,  thus  making  the  child  gather  a  treasury  of  intuitions  and  experi- 
ences which  are  the  only  sensible  basis  for  the  later  development  of  thought. 

In  this  way  the  whole  of  the  mother's  activity,  of  which  the  child  is  a 
partaker,  and  so  far  as  it  is  kept  in  unison  with  the  care  and  love  due  to 
others,  becomes  the  central  point  out  of  which  the  child  is  guided  to  the 
culture  and  knowledge  of  nature  and  of  the  ''uter  world,  and  adding  to 


MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER.  453 

it  the  occupations  provided  by  Froebel,  he  is  also  initiated  into  the  begin- 
nings of  industry  and  art. 

Froebel's  intention,  when  he  provided  mothers  with  work  and  occupa- 
tions for  their  little  children,  was  not  only  to  prove  the  necessity  of  such 
occupations  in  the  family,  but  also  to  transplant  through  his  Kindergarten, 
into  public  education,  a  corner  of  family  life,  putting  thus  in  practice 
Pestalozzi's  demands,  expressed  as  follows: 

"  Whensoever  the  care  and  forethought  of  parents  fail  to  the  child,  be 
it  in  regard  to  his  material,  intellectual,  or  moral  welfare,  this  want  must 
be  attended  to  in  order  that  he  may  attain  to  his  dignity  as  a  human  being. 
When  this  is  not  done,  you  may  open  schools  to  him,  provide  him  with 
as  much  food  and  clothing  as  you  like;  still  the  poor  forlorn  creature  is 
not  educated,  for  the  basis  for  his  development  as  a  human  being  will  be 
altogether  wanting. 

"It  must  be  seen  that  such  cases  often  present  themselves,  and  the  neces- 
sary provisions  must  be  made  to  supply  through  art  the  deficiency  of  nature. 
When  I  speak  of  the  care  and  forethought  of  parents,  of  course  I  mean 
those  parents  whose  superiority  gives  them  a  true  insight  into  the  neces- 
sary condition  of  the  children's  life,  those  who  know  how  to  make  cir- 
cumstances submit  to  the  child  and  act  as  stimulants  to  his  natural  wants 
of  love  and  activity,  who  derive  from  all  the  conditions  of  the  outer 
world  materials  for  the  child's  development,  who  never  let  any  opportunity 
escape  which  may  be  of  use  and  profit  to  him." 

These  words  were  written  by  Pestalozzi  in  1809.     He  wrote  also : 

"  Domestic  life  in  itself,  the  relation  between  mother  and  child  in  their 
material  sense,  are  neither  moral  nor  immoral,  but  they  offer  the  materials 
for  the  culture  of  morals. 

"Man  is  free  either  to  lay  hold  of  these  moral  means  or  to  disregard 
them,  but  when  man  does  not  soar  above  his  animal  capabilities,  there  are, 
in  my  opinion,  neither  father  nor  mother,  nor  son  nor  daughter.  They 
enjoy  the  conditions  of  domestic  life  in  a  mere  animal  way,  not  in  accord- 
ance with  the  human  dignity,  and  consequently  the  human  being,  the 
man,  cannot  in  such  conditions  develop  himself.  Neither  the  work  of 
hands,  nor  the  profession,  nor  the  situation,  can  in  themselves  cultivate 
the  moral  feeling;  when  these  are  morally  used,  then,  and  then  only,  they 
cultivate  morals. 

"There  is  in  man  an  inner  force;  a  dignity  quite  independent  of  the 
above  circumstances,  as  well  as  of  all  the  physical  conditions  of  domestic 
life,  and  it  is  this  dignity  that  gives  the  moral  stamp  to  the  family  life. 
Such  as  is  the  man,  such  is  his  home." 

The  real  value  of  Froebel's  Kindergarten  lies  just  in  this  transferrence  of 
the  family  atmosphere  into  the  public  education,  in  the  methodical 
training  of  feeling  and  inclinations,  affording  to  the  child  material  and 
opportunity  to  develop  his  productive  force,  not  only  for  his  own  benefit, 
but  for  the  good  of  others ;  while  the  school  occupies  itself  principally 
with  the  methodical  development  of  thought. 

It  is,  however,  necessary  that  the  Kindergarten  «hould  receive  a  fuller 
development  and  a  continuation  in  a  garden  for  the  young,  and  in  an  art 
and  work  establishment  where  the  children  may  continue  their  garden 
occupations,  as  well  as  the  elements  of  art  and  industry;  such  an  estab- 
lishment as  Froebel  had  in  view  when  he  founded  Blankenburg;  for  it  is. 
obvious  that  many  families  want  a  help  towards  the  development  of  will 
and  feeling,  not  only  in  the  first  years  of  childhood,  but  during  all  the 
time  given  to  education. 


454         MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER. 

Considering  Kindergartens  under  this  point  of  view,  we  are  necessarily- 
led  to  infer  that  we  must  take  quite  a  different  direction  in  the  training 
of  Kindergartens  than  the  one  now  in  favor.  They  must  be  taught  domes- 
tic duties  and  acquirements,  their  minds  being  made  aware  of  the  fact 
that  in  those  occupations  are  found  the  best  materials  for  the  education 
of  children.  It  is  important  to  develop  in  them  real  motherly  ways,  such 
as  the  Germans  express  by  the  word  "  Mutterlichkeit " ;  ways  which  no 
abstract  reasonings  of  the  mind  can  give,  but  which  are  the  product  of  a 
deep  insight  into  the  child's  nature,  wants,  and  necessities. 

This  insight,  which  Froebel  possessed  to  a  very  high  degree,  is  wanting 
in  a  great  many  of  his  followers,  I  believe  for  the  two  following  reasons : 
first,  the  too  intellectual  bias  given  to  education,  then  the  too  narrow 
circle  in  which  Froebel's  followers  move  themselves.  They  go  on  study- 
ing Froebel  in  order  to  understand  Froebel  without  taking  into  account 
that  Froebel's  ideas  are  not  the  miraculous  product  of  a  single  individual 
mind,  but  the  result  of  the  accumulated  work  and  experience  of  centuries, 
Froebel  himself  is  but  a  link  in  a  long  chain  of  progression,  and  to  com- 
prehend him  fully  it  is  necessary  to  walk  in  his  steps,  to  stiSdy  what  may 
be  called  the  groundwork  of  his  ideas,  nature  as  well  as  pedagogues  and 
poets;  we  must  enter  deeply  into  the  ideas  of  such  men  as  Comenius, 
Rousseau,  and  above  all,  of  Pestalozzi;  we  must  read  the  great  poets  who 
have  given  us  an  insight  of  human  nature,  study  the  outer  works  of  crea- 
tion to  understand  the  relation  in  which  we  stand  towards  it, — and  then 
return  to  Froebel  himself,  but  freed  from  prejudice  and  no  longer  depend- 
ent upon  his  ways  and  peculiarities,  which  are  only  a  part  of  his  too 
marked  and  strong  individuality. 

By  all  this  you  will  easily  understand  that  the  most  difficult  part  of  my 
task  lies  in  the  training  of  young  Kindergartners,  a  task  rendered  doubly 
difficult  by  the  fact  that  in  Germany  the  situation  of  Kindergartner  is 
undervalued  and  but  ill  requited. 

Advanced  as  Germany  is  in  all  matters  relating  to  instruction,  remark- 
able as  are  many  of  our  methods  for  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  and 
science,  it  has  not  yet  fully  recognized  the  importance  of  elementary  edu- 
cation. The  interest  for  instruction,  the  thirst  for  knowledge,  are  so 
great  that  they  seem  to  draw  a  barrier  across  the  still  and  quiet  way  which 
ought  to  lead  us  to  insight  into  the  child's  nature  and  necessities. 

But  I  am  obliged,  for  to-day,  to  cut  short  and  leave  the  end  of  what  I  have 
still  to  say  about  the  upper  classes  of  my  establishment  for  another  time. 

Pray  remember  me  kindly  to  Mrs.  Aldrich,  in  which  Madam  Hony  joins, 
as  well  as  in  the  expressions  of  regard  with  which  I  remain, 

Yours  truly,  HENRIETTA  B.  SCHRADER. 

BEKLIN,  October  15,  1880. 

Joined  to  this  letter  you  will  find  the  translation  of  a  brief  French 
essay,  written  by  Mad.  Hony,  under  my  direction.  It  contains  the  prin- 
cipal ideas  upon  which  my  Kindergarten  is  conducted,  and  though  not 
yet  complete,  it  will,  I  think,  give  you  an  idea  of  the  way  in  which  I 
have  tried  to  put  into  practice  the  Froebelian  system. 


.MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER.  455 

Froebelian  Institution  at  16  Steinmete  Strasse. 

ORGANIZATION. 

I.  KINDERGARTEN. — IN  THREE  DIVISIONS. 

(1)  Third  Division,  subdivided  in  two  parts  on  account  of  number,  age 
from  2|  to  4. 

(2)  Second  Division,  age  from  4  to  5. 

(3)  First  Division,  age  from  5  to  6. 

II.  Intermediate  Class,  age  from  6  to  6£.     Preparation  for  the  element- 
ary class,  to  which  a  course  for  stitching  and  manual  work  is  joined. 

III.  Elementary  Class,  age  from  6£  to  7-J-.     The  course  of  manual 
work  is  continued. 

IV.  A  class  for  young  girls  having  left  the  Kindergarten  to  enter  into 
the  public  primary  schools,  who  come  several  times  a  week  to  be  taught 
stitching  and  housework. 

V.  A  course  for  the  training  of  young  Kindergartners  of  the  first  and 
second   degree.      With  this   establishment  is   intimately  associated   the 
Union  for  Household  Hygiene  (  Verein  far  Hau  sliche  Gesundheit  Pfiege), 
which  attends  to  the  health  department,  as  well  in  the  establishment  itself 
as  in  the  families. 

PLAN  OF  ROOM*. 

1.  Ground  floor,  a  few  steps  above  the  level  of  the  ground: 

(1.)  A  kitchen  on  the  left,  used  for  the  children's  work  and  as  a  ward- 
robe; next  to  this  a  little  room  for  the  keeping  of  utensils,  garden  tools, 
etc. 

(2.)  Large  room  in  front  of  the  kitchen,  with  two  windows,  and  with 
free  access,  for  the  intermediate  class. 

(3.)  Little  work-room  next  to  this,  for  the  Kindergartners  who  help  in 
the  Kindergarten. 

(4.)    Free  independent  room,  on  the  same  side,  for  the  first  division. 

(5.)  Room  at  the  end  of  the  passage,  with  a  large  window  looking  on  a 
large  and  well-aired  court,  for  the  second  division. 

(6.)  Little  room  next  to  this,  overlooking  the  same  court,  and  used  for 
one  subdivision  of  the  third  division. 

(7.)  Large  play-room,  entered  through  this  little  room,  with  three  win- 
dows looking  also  on  the  court,  and  having  a  free  and  independent  access 
by  this  same  court-yard. 

(8.)  Little  room  next  to  the  play-room,  serving  for  another  subdivision 
of  the  third  division. 

On  the*  same  floor,  on  the  court-yard  side,  two  rooms  and  one  kitchen, 
used  by  the  Union  for  household  hygiene. 

2.  First  Floor.     On  the  right  lives  a  family  entrusted  with  the  clean- 
ing, making  fires,  etc.,  in  the  establishment. 

(9.)  A  room  in  this  apartment  is  used  for  the  elementary  class  in  the 
morning,  and  for  the  class  of  manual  work  in  the  afternoon. 

On  the  left  lives  a  lady  who  has  the  charge  of  the  dep6t  for  tha 
"Union  per  Household  Hygiene,"  and  who  gives  the  stitching  leswons. 

3.  Court-yard  and  little  garden. 


456  MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER, 

SALARIED   OFFICIALS. 

Principal  and  general  overseer  of  the  establishment,  Fr&ulein  A. 
BCHEFEL ; 

Principal  of  the  Kindergarten,  Fraulein  CLARA  HIRSEKORN; 

Assistants  in  the  Kindergarten,  Fraulein  KOSA  HIRSEKORN  and  other 
young  Kindergartners  who  are  learning  the  practice; 

Teachers:  In  the  intermediate  class,  Fraulein  MARIE  FUCHS;  in  the 
elementary  class,  Fraulein  VON  BURSE;  stitching  and  manual  work, 
Fraulein  STANDINGER;  depot  and  class  to  learn  mending  of  clothes,  etc., 
Fraulein  EISNER. 

A  VISIT  TO  MADAME    SCHRADER'S  ESTABLISHMENT. 

On  my  arrival  the  children  are  all  gathered  in  room  No.  2.  They  are 
singing  a  morning  hymn.  After  a  few  kind  affectionate  words  from  the 
principal,  they  separate,  and  the  work  of  the  day  begins. 

Third,  or  Youngest  Division. 

Follow  a  part  of  these  divisions  to  the  play-room,  where  the  children 
set  about  enjoying  themselves  as  they  please.  Some  join  in  a  round 
game,  others  play  quite  alone.  They  have  at  their  disposal  very  plain 
and  simple  toys,  such  as  dolls,  little  chairs,  tables,  tea  services,  etc.  A 
teacher  overlooks  them  without  taking  an  active  part  in  their  game,  unless 
they  desire  it  particularly. 

From  two  to  four  years  of  age,  play  is  the  principal  occupation  of  the 
child;  it  is  for  him  the  power  of  giving  a  form  to  his  ideas  by  the  help  of 
surrounding  objects,  and  at  the  same  time  the  means  of  giving  vent  to 
the  full  play  of  his  activity.  Pestalozzi  says:  "that  no  force  can  be 
developed  unless  by  the  play  of  its  own  power  of  action."  We  must  then 
conclude  that  if  we  wish  to  see  in  the  child  the  development  of  his  most 
essential  faculties,  he  is  to  be  allowed  the  full  play  of  his  energies  and 
faculties,  and  no  restraint  whatever  to  be  put  on  the  first  working  of  his 
individuality  in  his  relation  with  the  outer  world.  At  this  pertod  of  his 
development  the  result  of  his  efforts  is  less  interesting  to  the  child  than 
the  activity  itself;  for  this  reason  the  influence  of  elders  must  here  be 
principally  indirect. 

As  the  child  draws  the  materials  for  his  ideas  out  of  the  things  about 
him,  we  must  try  to  surround  him  with  such  an  atmosphere  as  may  create 
in  him  good,  sound,  healthy  ideas ;  to  attain  this  end,  we  must  give  him 
room  and  space  enough  to  permit  him  to  enjoy  himself  fully  and  freely, 
toys  and  things  appropriate  to  his  physical  strength,  which  he  may  easily 
handle  and  transform  without  breaking  or  destroying  them.  But  above 
all,  he  must  be  surrounded  with  sympathy  and  love ;  he  must  feel  that  we 
are  always  ready  to  enter  into  his  ideas,  to  be  the  partakers  of  his  joy, 
taking  at  the  same  time  due  care  that  he  should  not  feel  any  restraint  nor 
any  special  direction  forced  upon  him.  This  full  liberty,  of  such  an  abso- 
lute necessity  to  the  child,  is  also  the  best  means  offered  to  the  educator 
of  becoming  acquainted  with  his  true  nature,  as  it  shows  itself  through 
his  tastes  and  inclinations  freely  manifested. 

The  home  is  generally  the  best  place  for  the  education  of  the  child,  but 


MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER.  457 

when  the  necessary  conditions  for  his  development  are  not  to  be  found  in 
the  family,  the  Kindergartner  must  fill  this  void  and  create  for  the  child 
what  is  wanting  to  him. 

I  leave  this  room  and  enter  one  where  the  other  children  of  the  third 
division  are  assembled.  They  are  gathered  round  the  teacher;  she  is 
showing  to  them  a  picture  out  of  Froebel's  book  Mutter  und  Koselieder, 
the  basket  of  flowers.  She  gives  no  explanations,  her  object  not  being  to 
teach,  but  merely  to  create  joyful  impressions.  The  children  look  and 
make  remarks,  the  teacher  answers  so  as  to  encourage  them,  to  draw  them 
out,  and  awaken  their  attention  more  and  more.  The  picture  represents 
a  garden,  where  a  mother  and  a  little  girl  are  plucking  flowers  to  take  up 
to  the  father.  They  examine  the  picture,  express  their  feelings  about  it, 
and  when  they  have  done  it  long  enough,  some  pretty  flowers  are  shown 
to  them.  The  teacher  asks  whether  they  would  not  like  to  take  some 
home  with  them?  But  for  this,  they  must  have  baskets;  baskets  can  be 
made  out  of  the  children's  own  fingers.  She  makes  them  all  join  t^heir 
hands  in  the  form  of  a  basket,  making  them,  at  the  same  time,  sing 
"Little  child,  let  us  make  baskets"  (Mutter  und  Koselieder).  When  the 
song  is  finished  they  receive  little  paper  baskets,  to  carry  home  to  their 
parents. 

The  talk  is  at  an  end;  the  children  seat  themselves  round  the  table; 
little  wooden  sticks  are  distributed  among  them,  out  of  which  they  make 
different  things — vases,  baskets,  etc. 

Froebel's  book,  Mutter  und  Koselieder,  is  the  starting  point  for  all  the 
occupations  of  this  division.  These  occupations  are  already  a  kind  of 
work,  for  the  child  is  no  longer  left  to  the  full  play  of  his  imagination, 
but  he  is  limited  by  a  given  space  and  materials,  and  he  must  bring  him- 
self to  execute  an  idea  which  has  not  spontaneously  come  into  his  mind, 
but  has  been  suggested  by  others.  Work,  as  well  as  play,  has  activity 
for  its  basis ;  but  if,  with  the  latter,  activity  in  itself  is  the  principal  end, 
with  work,  on  the  contrary,  the  result  has  its  importance ;  therefore  the 
child  cannot  be  left  entirely  free,  he  must  be  guided  so  as  to  employ  his 
forces  in  a  useful  way.  Activity  in  itself  is  so  charming  for  the  child 
that  he  does  not,  at  first,  make  a  great  difference  between  play  and  work; 
it  is  only  when  the  latter  presents  too  great  difficulties  and  puts  too  great 
a  restraint  upon  his  liberty  that  it  becomes  irksome  and  painful  to  him. 

By  proportioning  the  work  to  the  child's  powers  and  strength,  by  awak- 
ening in  him  a  desire  of  being  useful,  by  taking  care  not  to  fatigue  him, 
one  may  succeed  in  making  him  feel  as  much  pleasure  in  work  as  in  play. 

There  are  in  the  child,  as  in  the  man,  two  personalities:  the  individual, 
and  the  social  being.  Man  lives  not  isolated,  but  moves  in  a  society  to 
which  he  owes  his  own  share  of  profit  and  usefulness.  Education  must 
take  this  into  account,  and  try  to  develop  simultaneously  in  the  child,  the 
individual  and  the  social  being  by  giving  a  full  play  to  the  spontane- 
ous action  of  the  child's  powers,  but  at  the  same  time  giving  such  a 
direction  to  their  powers  that  they  may  be  productive  of  general  good. 
Play  and  work  are  both  necessary,  and  it  is  to  their  united  and  combined 
action  that  the  child  owes  sound  and  normal  development. 


458         MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER. 

Second  Division. 

The  children  follow  their  teacher  to  the  kitchen,  where  they  arc  en- 
trusted with  flower-pots,  earth,  plants,  little  rounds  of  paper,  each  of 
them  carrying  something. 

They  return  to  the  class-rrom,  and  gather  round  the  table,  where  they 
place  the  things  they  have  Lrought  with  them.  A  spoon  in  the  hand; 
they,  one  after  the  other,  half  fill  the  flower-pots  with  earth ;  they  then 
put  the  plants  in  and  cover  them  with  earth.  They  then  water  the  plants 
and  set  them  before  the  window,  when  the  weather  is  too  cold  to  set 
them  out  in  the  open  air.  And  thus  the  children  are,  from  the  beginning, 
placed  directly  in  contact  with  nature;  they  are  brought  to  understand 
the  relation  in  which  man  and  nature  stand  to  each  other,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  reciprocal  action.  In  order  that  the  flower  may  please  our  eyes 
and  rejoice  us  with  its  perfume,  we  must,  after  having  planted,  water  it; 
we  must  take  every  care  of  it,  to  give  and  to  receive;  everything  goes  on 
in  this  world  by  the  law  of  reciprocation. 

Another  day  this  same  plant,  the  violet,  furnishes  the  material  for  a  new 
work.  It  is  stitched  on  a  piece  of  paper,  marked,  and  afterwards  drawn ; 
it  appears  in  different  aspects,  but  it  is  always  the  violet  that  is  presented 
to  the  child,  in  order  that  all  the  experiments  he  is  making  may  leave  deep 
and  lasting  impressions  upon  his  mind.  Almost  all  the  occupations  of 
this  division  relate  to  work,  and  the  reality  is  the  starting  point,  thus, 
always  preceding  by  gradual  steps;  passing  from  the  image  to  the  reality. 
First,  the  picture,  then  the  flower,  and  last  the  plant;  the  semblance  of 
work,  then  the  work  itself. 

First  Division. 

The  same  occupations  are  continued.  The  teacher  tells  a  little  story,  in 
which  the  violet  plays  the  first  part;  the  children  listen  with  pleased  atten- 
tion, and  ask  that  it  should  again  be  told  to  them.  The  tale  finished,  they 
are  shown  a  pretty  picture  by  Ludwig  Rickbe,  representing  a  family, 
enjoying  the  beauty  of  the  spring.  The  mother  has  the  child  in  her 
arms;  she  points  out  to  him,  over  the  wall,  the  green  fields,  the  houses; 
she  seems  to  say :  ' '  See,  my  child,  the  world  which  is  offering  itself  to 
you."  Then  slates  are  distributed  among  them;  they  are  allowed  to  draw 
whatever  they  please,  but  they  endeavor,  generally,  to  represent  an  episode 
of  the  story  they  have  just  heard. 

The  children  learn,  also,  by  heart,  a  little  poem  on  the  violet,  and  this 
poem,  expressing  only  feelings  and  ideas  created  by  the  thing  itself,  no 
explanations  are  required.  The  child  follows  unconsciously  the  same 
path  taken  by  the  poet,  he  goes  through  the  same  impressions  that  have 
created  his  poem,  which  becomes  for  him  as  a  revelation,  the  half -veiled 
expression  of  feelings  to  which  he  is  himself  as  yet  unable  to  give  a  form. 
Berlin,  Oct.  15,  1880. 

[In  the  absence  of  further  direct  information,  we  must  refer  our  readers 
to  Mrs.  Aldrich's  account  of  her  visit  to  this  institution,  and  to  the  extracts 
from  Miss  Lyschinska's  little  volume  on  the  Kindergarten  Principle,  for 
glimpses  of  the  work  done  in  other  divisions  of  Madame  Schrader's  estab- 
lishment.—. 


VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS-BERLIN.  459 

A   GERMAN   KINDERGARTEN.* 

This  institution  consisted  of  two  divisions  of  the  Kindergarten 
proper,  and  of  the  Transition  Class,  altogether  providing  for  children 
from  three  to  six  years  of  age.  What  struck  me  as  especially  worthy 
of  notice  was  the  unity  of  plan  upon  which  the  education  during  these 
three  years  was  conducted.  Each  class  represented  a  year  of  age.  At 
three  a  child  entered  the  lowest  division.  Here  the  work  of  the  Kin- 
dergarten teacher  was  eminently  that  of  a  mother;  yet  with  all  the 
freedom  of  the  nursery  there  was  a  thread  of  reason  running  through 
the  day's  proceedings.  These  were  not  desultory,  but  sustained  by 
some  central  thought,  which  was  generally  taken  from  a  conversational 
lesson  over  the  picture-book,  or  else  from  the  present  circumstance,  such 
as  of  some  live  pet  which  had  to  be  cared  for  and  fed. 

The  first  quarter  of  an  hour  was  generally  devoted  to  a  chat;  but  as 
the  children  were  many,  and  the  family  type  was  upheld,  the  teacher 
took  the  children,  in  relays  of  six  or  seven  at  a  time,  to  look  at  one  or 
two  plates  in  Frobel's  "  Mother's  Book  " ;  the  rest  were  meanwhile 
building  or  stick-laying,  or  playing  in  the  garden  under  the  direction  of 
an  assistant. 

For  example,  a  small  number  of  children  are  seated  round  the  knee 
of  their  motherly  friend,  who  encourages  them  to  talk  freely  on  the 
experiences  of  the  morning.  Who  brought  Mary  to  the  Kindergarten 
this  morning  ?  Who  gave  Annie  that  nice  white  pinafore  ?  The  recol- 
lection of  the  loved  ones  at  home  is  stirred  up,  and  every  child  con- 
tributes some  little  fact  of  its  family  history ;  each  would  like  to  tell 
that  it  has  a  dear  mother,  a  father,  a  sister,  or  brother  at  home.  This 
idea  is  seized  and  worked  out  by  the  motherly  teacher.  She  inquires, 
relates,  and  finally  promises  to  show  them  a  picture  of  a  family  sitting 
together  in  the  parlor.  The  picture  of  a  home  interior  is  shown. 
The  heightened  pleasure  of  the  children  may  be  read  in  their  eager 
faces  as  they  peer  into  the  book  and  recognize  the  different  members  of 
the  family  in  turn.  After  which  the  designs  all  round  the  central  pic- 
ture are  looked  at,  and  the  children  notice  how  there  are  father  and 
mother  hares  in  the  long  grass,  accompanied  by  their  little  ones  ;  how 
there  is  a  pigeon  family,  a  deer  family,  etc.  The  children  return  again 
to  the  central  picture  of  the  human  family  group,  and  finally,  the  dis- 
position having  been  created,  the  finger  game  is  introduced  :  "Let  us 
look  at  our  fingers  ;  are  they  not  like  a  little  family  too  ?  See  how  hap- 
pily they  live  together ;  they  always  help  one  another.  Shall  we  learn  a 
little  song  about  the  family  of  fingers  to-day  ?  "  "  Yes,"  the  children 
wish  to  do  so  ;  and,  imitating  the  action,  they  repeat  the  following 

words  : — 

"  This  is  our  mother,  dear  and  good, 
This  is  our  father  of  merry  mood, 

*16  Steinmetz-strasse,  Berlin.  This  Kindergarten,  when  visited  by  Mrs.  Aldrich, 
had  expanded  so  as  to  embrace  boys  and  girls  somewhat  older  than  six. 


460  A  GERMAN  KINDERGARTEN-BERLIN. 

This  our  big  brother  so"  strong  and  tall, 
This  our  dear  sister  beloved  of  all, 
This  is  the  baby  still  tender  and  small ; 
And  this  the  whole  family  we  call. 
See,  when  together,  how  happy  they  be  ! 
Loving  and  working,  they  ever  agree." 

As  the  building  lesson  comes  round,  the  same  idea  of  the  family  is 
carried  out,  and  the  children  build  a  "  parlor  "  or  a  "  house  "  in  which 
the  happy  family  is  to  dwell.  Then  the  l<  oven  "  is  built,  and  sticks  are 
required  to  light  it,  in  order  that  the  members  of  the  household  may 
enjoy  the  family  meal.  On  another  occasion  the  visit  of  a  dog  to  the 
Kindergarten  is  the  center  of  interest  for  many  days,  and  every  occu- 
pation is  in  turn  brought  into  connection  with  it.  A  trough  is  built 
for  the  dog  to  drink  out  of,  a  kennel  is  laid  in  the  stick-laying  lesson, 
and  so  on.  In  every  instance  there  is  some  center  of  living  interest  around 
which  the  little  life  of  these  children  is  made  to  revolve,  and  it  is  drawn 
from  the  occurrences  of  every  day.  Thus  the  aim  in  this  division  is  to 
awaken  interest  in  the  nearest  surroundings,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
enlist  the  active  powers  of  children  in  the  same  direction  as  their  im- 
pressions. 

Wheat  Grown  in  their  own  Garden. 

Let  us  trace  how  this  method  of  introducing  the  children  to  life 
around  them  was  continued  with  those  from  four  to  six  years  of  age. 
These  were  occupied  once  or' twice  a  week  in  gardening  a  plot  of  ground 
belonging  to  them.  Here  many  of  the  plants  which  were  to  furnish 
subject-matter  for  their  observation  were  sown,  and  carefully  tended 
throughout  the  spring  and  summer.  They  also  became  practically  ac- 
quainted with  a  few  industrial  processes,  such  as  they  could  take  part 
in.  For  instance,  when  "  wheat "  was  being  especially  considered,  the 
children  enjoyed  the  fun  of  actually  reaping  the  wheat  they  had  helped 
to  sow  in  spring,  in  the  plot  of  ground  common  to  all.  They  bound  it 
in  sheaves,  and  carried  it  in  triumph  into  their  school-room,  where  each 
child  received  a  stalk  or  two  with  the  full  ear ;  and  whilst  sitting  qui- 
etly round  the  table  they  held  the  stalks  upright  and  close  together, 
until  the  children  could  very  nearly  picture  to  themselves  a  corn-field 
which  had  taken  root  in-doors.  The  Kindergartnerin*  then  led  them 
by  a  series  of  self-made  experiences  to  an  appreciation  of  such  facts  as — 

1.  The  height  of  the  stalk.     (This  was  very  simply  and  well  brought 
out  by  a  story  being  told  of  how  the  Kindergartnerin  had  played  at 
hide-and-seek  with  a  little  boy  in  a  corn-field  during  the  summer  hol- 
idays.) 

2.  The  hollowness  of  the  stalk.     (The  children  learned  this  by  blow- 
Ing  soap  bubbles  through  the  straw.) 

3.  The  presence  of  knots  in  the  stalk.     (This  experience  was  like- 
wise gained  while  blowing  soap  bubbles ;  some  children  having  been 


*I  keep  the  original  word  in  the  text.    "  Infant  teacher"  is  but  a  cold  translation 
of  what  is  meant. 


A  GERMAN  KINDERGARTEN— BERLIN.  461 

allowed  to  break  the  straws  in  the  spaces  between  the  knots,  they  found 
they  could  not  use  them.) 

4.  The  ear  of  corn  hangs  its  head.   ,Why  ?     (This  led  to  an  examin- 
ation of  an  empty  and  a  full  ear.) 

5.  The  ear  is  a  great  house  in  which  there  are  many  rooms. 

6.  In  each  room  there  lives  a  single  little  grain. 

7.  Of  what  use  is  the  grain  ?     (They  had  sown  it  in  the  spring,  they 
were  now  about  to  learn  its  use  experimentally.) 

Another  day  the  corn  was  threshed  in  the  garden,  the  children  using 
a  small  flail  in  turn.  The  grain  was  gathered  and  separated  from  the 
chaff  by  some  others.  Part  of  the  grain  was  reserved  for  seed,  and  a 
small  quantity  was  ground  by  the  children  between  stones. 

Another  day,  flour  was  taken  and  pancakes  were  baked.  The  chil- 
dren, under  the  direction  of  an  older  person,  had  each  something  to  do 
in  the  process,  the  older  ones  learning  to  beat  the  eggs  and  to  stir  the 
flour,  whilst  the  younger  ones  ran  on  little  errands.  At  last,  the  great 
moment  having  arrived,  the  company  sat  down  to  enjoy  the  feast. 
Meanwhile,  the  leading  idea  was  carried  through  the  various  occupa- 
tions somewhat  in  the  following  manner  : — 

The  elder  children  were  "  pricking  "  on  paper  the  ear  of  corn  or  the 
mill  which  ground  the  corn ;  the  younger  children  only  outlined  the 
millstones.  Again,  a  scythe  was  sewn  in  colored  silk  or  wool.  When 
stick  and  ring  laying  was  the  order  of  the  day,  then  the  cart  which 
carried  the  sacks  of  corn  was  represented,  etc.  The  appropriate  games 
were  the  "  Farmer,"  the  "  Miller,"  the  "  Mill,"  etc. 

Finally  a  story,  or  simple  piece  of  poetry,  summing  up  the  children's 
experiences,  was  spoken  or  sung  to  the  Kindergartnerin's  accompani- 
ment on  the  piano.  A  picture  representing  the  subject  from  an  artistic 
point  of  view  (the  "  Sower,"  by  L.  Richter)  was  shown,  and  enjoyed  as  a 
resume  of  the  children's  experiences  during  the  past  week  or  two. 
There  was  nothing  in  either  the  story  or  the  poem  which  was  foreign 
to  their  experience. 

LESSON   ON    THE    COMMON   IVY. 

The  connection  the  object  has  with  the  lives  of  children  and  of  hu- 
man beings;  these  impressions  are  to  be  conveyed  to  the  children  by 
the  course  of  events. 

When  the  trees  stand  stripped  of  their  green  dress,  when  the  earth 
is  wrapped  in  a  white  mantle  of  snow,  when  no  flower  is  to  be  seen  in 
the  garden,  then  it  is  that  the  kind  ivy  delights  us  with  the  freshness 
of  its  green.  It  cannot  bear  to  leave  the  old  wall  so  ugly  and  gray  ;  it 
throws  its  long  arms  round  the  crumbling  stones,  and  clothes  them  in 
a  garment  of  living  green.  Even  in-doors  we  like  to  see  our  ivy  plant ; 
it  does  not  ask  for  a  place  where  it  can  be  seen  in  the  light  of  the  sun  ; 
it  is  pleased  with  a  shady  corner,  where  it  will  cling  to  our  pictures  and 
encircle  dear  familiar  faces  with  a  framework  of  green  leaves ;  all  it 
asks  for  is  air,  moderate  daylight,  and  cleanliness.  It  gives  its  very 


462  A  GERMAN  KINDERGARTEN— BERLIN. 

best  to  the  poorest  amongst  us ;  it  will  flourish  in  and  adorn  a  garret 
\ust  as  readily  as  a  window  in  Mayfair.  Would  that  the  children  of 
the  poor  learned  through  us  to  open  their  eyes  to  see  the  inexhaustible 
beauties  which  Nature  spreads  out  before  all  her  children,  that  they 
might  learn  to  lay  hold  on  such  pleasures  as  are  simple  yet  enduring. 

The  Course  pursued  ivith  Children. 

I.  A  walk  to  the  Botanical  Gardens,  which  happened  to  be  in  the 
neighborhood.      The  children  are  told  to  look  for  and  to    store  any 
evergreens  they  find  during  their  walk.     With  the  permission  of  the 
gardener  some  box,  fir  twigs,  ivy,  moss,  etc.,  are  gathered,  and  are  put 
into  little  baskets  the  children  take  for  the  purpose. 

II.  The  children  decorate  their  respective  class-rooms.     Plates  are 
filled  with  water  and  the  moss,  etc.,  is  placed  on  them.     The  pictures1, 
walls,  etc.,  are  decorated.     (This  is  once  done  in  the  upper  and  twice  in 
the  lower  division.) 

III.  A  neglected  pot  of  ivy  was  observed  and  bought.     The  children 
observe  its  state  and  remove  the  cobwebs,  sponge  the  leaves,  renew  the 
earth.     A  place  is  chosen  for  it  in  the  room.     (Conditions  of  health  for 
the  plant  are  thus  discussed.     Its  appearance.) 

IV.  A  story  was  told.     Subjects  : — 1.  The  apple-tree  that  had  an  ivy 
dress  on  in  winter.     2.  The  neglected  pot  of  ivy  at  the  gardener's. 
This  leads  up  to  the  piece  of  poetry  spoken  by  the  Kindergartnerin, 
and  gradually  remembered  and  recited  by  the  children  in  both  divi- 
sions : — 

When  the  wind  sounds  dreary,  Long  ago  the  summer 

When  the  dead  leaves  fall  ;  Left  us  all  alone  ; 

Then  the  ivy  's  never  weary  Nothing  fresh  to  look  at 

Creeping  up  the  wall.  Save  the  cold  gray  stone. 

Shaking  off  the  snow-flakes,  Living  leaves  of  ivy 

Laughing  as  they  fall ;  Clinging  to  the  wall,"" 

"  You  may  bury  dead  leaves  !  "  Gladden  with  their  green  dress, 

Say  those  upon  the  wall.  People  big  and  small. 

V.  Occupations  in  connection  with  the  above  : — 
Building  :  a  wall  with  ivy  and  moss. 
Sand-work :  a  garden,  evergreens  planted. 
Paper-folding :  a  basket  to  hold  evergreens  and  moss. 
Pricking :  the  ivy  leaf. 

Sewing :  ditto  (natural  coloring). 
Drawing :  model  of  the  ivy  leaf. 
Modeling :  the  ivy  leaf. 

In  these  diversified  occupations  the  constructive  activity  of  the  class, 
and  of  every  member  of  a  class,  finds  scope. 


A  GERMAN  KINDERGARTEN— BERLIN.  463 

PREPARATION   OF   LESSONS. 

Each  object,  before  being  treated  with  children,  was  studied  by  the 
Kindergartnerin  and  her  assistants,  and  for  this  purpose  a  meeting  was 
arranged  once  a  week  for  the  consideration  and  preparation  of  the 
objects  and  their  accessories.  The  following  scheme  was  followed  in 
gathering  information  upon  a  plant : — 

A.  External  Structure. 

1.  Size.  2.  Covering.  3.  Chief  parts.  4.  Subdivisions  of  parts  and 
their  relative  position. 

B.  Infernal  Structure  and  Development. 

1.  Structure  of  the  seed.  2.  Its  composition.  3.  Station.  4.  Time 
of  germination.  5.  Process  of  germination  (cells,  structure  and  con- 
tents ;  cellular  tissue  ;  vascular  tissue  ;  circulation  of  juices ;  nutrition  ; 
root  absorption  ;  functions  of  leaves  ;  extraordinary  vessels  and  fluids). 
6.  Duration  of  growth,  from  the  germ  to  the  complete  plant.  7.  Prop- 
agation. 8.  Age  of  plant. 

C.  Geographical  Distribution. 

D.  Historical. 

E.  Cultivation. 

1.  General.    2.  Diseases  to  which  the  plant  is  subject. 
F.  Its  Place  in  Domestic  Economy. 
G.  Classification. 
(Natural  orders.) 

In  case  of  an  animal  the  information  was  gathered  under  the  follow- 
ing heads : — 

A.  Description. 

1.  Size.  2.  Covering.  3.  Color.  4.  Description  of  parts :  head ; 
body ;  limbs. 

B.  Apparatus  of  Animal  Life. 

1.  Movement  (anatomy,  general  view ;  muscular  system,  general). 
2.  Sensation  (nervous  system,  general ;  organs  of  sense ;  expression). 

C.  Apparatus  of  Organic  Life. 

1.  Digestive  system  (habitat ;  food).  2.  Circulation.  3.  Respi- 
ration. 

D.  Reproduction. 

1.  Care  of  the  young.  2.  Support  of  the  young.  3.  Metamorpho- 
sis (insects). 

E.  Miscellaneous. 

1.  Geographical  distribution.  2.  Age  attained.  3.  Relations  in 
which  the  animal  stands  to  individuals  of  the  same  species  ;  individuals 
of  other  species,  or  to  other  orders  or  classes;  to  plants;  to  man.  4. 
Means  of  defense  against  attack. 

F.  Historical. 

G.  Domestication,  or  Acclimatization. 

H.  Classification. 

I.  Individual.  2.  Species.  3.  Family.  4.  Order.  5.  Class.  6. 
Sub-kingdom. 


464  A  GERMAN  KINDERGARTEN— BERLIN. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  complete  general  knowledge  of  the  object  to  be 
treated,  each  teacher  gathered  information  on  one  or  two  points  more 
especially,  after  which  the  teachers  met  together  for  the  interchange  of 
such  information.  Prof.  Moseley  [English  Inspector  of  Schools]  points 
out  the  danger  of  incomplete  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  teacher. 

"  Had  the  teacher  known  more  of  the  subject-matter  of  his  lesson,  it 
has  been  my  constant  observation  that  he  would  have  been  able  to 
select  from  it  things  better  adapted  to  the  instruction  of  children  and 
to  place  them  in  a  simpler  point  of  view.  That  he  may  be  able  to  pre- 
sent his  subject  to  the  minds  of  the  children  in  its-  most  elementary 
forms,  he  must  himself  have  gone  to  the  root  of  it ;  that  he  may  ex- 
haust it  of  all  that  it  is  capable  of  yielding  for  the  child's  instruction, 
he  must  have  compassed  the  whole  of  it.  The  cardinal  defect  of  the 
oral  lesson  in  elementary  schools  is  an  inadequate  knowledge  on  the 
part  of  the  teacher  of  that  which  he  is  teaching.  If  his  knowledge  of 
it  had  covered  a  larger  surface,  he  would  have  selected  matter  better 
adapted  to  the  instruction  of  the  children.  If  he  had  comprehended 
it  more  fully,  he  would  have  made  it  plainer  to  them.  If  he  had  been 
more  familiar  with  it,  he  would  have  spoken  more  to  the  point.  I  will 
endeavor  to  illustrate  this  by  an  example.  A  teacher  proposing  to  give 
an  oral  lesson  on  coal,  for  instance,  holds  a  piece  of  it  up  before  his 
class,  and,  having  secured  their  attention,  he  probably  asks  them  to 
which  kingdom  it  belongs — animal,  vegetable,  or  mineral — a  question 
in  no  case  of  much  importance,  and  to  be  answered,  in  the  case  of  coal, 
doubtfully.  Having,  however,  extracted  that  answer  which  he  intended 
to  get  from  the  children,  he  induces  them,  by  many  ingenious  devices, 
much  circumlocution,  and  an  extravagant  expenditure  of  the  time  of 
the  school,  to  say  that  it  is  a  solid,  that  it  is  heavy,  that  it  is  opaque, 
that  it  is  black,  that  it  is  friable,  and  that  it  is  combustible.  In  such  a 
lesson  the  teacher  affords  evidence  of  no  other  knowledge  of  the  par- 
ticular thing  which  is  the  subject  of  it  than  the  children  might  be  sup- 
posed to  possess  before  the  lesson  began.  He  gives  it  easily  because  the 
form  is  the  same  for  every  lesson ;  the  blanks  having  only  to  be  differently 
filled  up  every  time  it  is  repeated.  All  that  it  is  adapted  for  is  to  teach 
them  the  meanings  of  some  unusual  words,  words  useless  to  them  be- 
cause they  apply  to  abstract  ideas,  and  which,  as  the  type  of  all  such  les- 
sons is  the  same,  he  has  probably  often  taught  them  before.  He  has 
shown  some'knowledge  of  words,  but  none  of  things.  Of  the  particular 
thing  called  coal,  as  distinguished  from  any  other  thing,  he  knows  noth- 
ing more  than  the  child,  but  only  of  certain  properties  common  to  it 
and  almost  everything  else,  and  of  certain  words,  useless  to  poor  chil- 
dren, which  describe  these  qualities This  tendency,  from  igno- 
rance of  things,  to  teach  words  only,  runs  in  a  notable  manner  through 
almost  all  the  lessons  on  physical  science  which  I  have  listened  to." 

We  shall  be  glad  to  enrich  our  pages  with  further  extracts  from  this 
excellent  treatise. 


NOTES  OF  VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS, 


INTRODUCTION. 

THE  following  paper  is  by  Mrs.  A.  Aldrich,  the  first  Directress  of  the 
kindergarten  in  Florence,  Mass.,  which  was  founded  by  Mr.  Hill,  who 
erected  a  beautiful  building  for  the  purpose  in  lovely  grounds,  and 
invited  all  the  citizens  of  the  place,  rich  and  poor,  to  send  their  chil- 
dren, promising  to  pay  all  expenses  which  their  voluntary  contributions 
could  not  meet.  The  Institute  now  [1880]  consists  of  four  classes, 
with  suitable  teachers,  all  under  the  able  and  genial  direction  of  Miss 
Carrie  T.  Haven.  The  Florence  kindergarten  has  acquired  a  peculiar 
reputation  from  the  fact  that  its  founder  made  it  a  point  that  there 
should  be  no  direct  religious  teaching,  which  grew  out  of  his  disgust  at 
the  narrow  ecclesiasticism  which  cannot  see  that  little  children  should 
not  be  indoctrinated  in  dogmas.  The  extreme  to  which  he  carries  his 
sentiments  upon  this  point  would  be  disastrous  in  its  effects  if  he  could 
find  no  one  who  knew  how  to  excite  the  religious  sentiment  in  children 
without  formulas  that  involve  dogmatism.  Under  the  charge  of  Mrs. 
Aldrich  there  was  no  lack  of  religious  culture  of  a  vital  nature,  and 
when  these  children  are  old  enough  to  hear  the  common  religious  ex- 
pressions, they  will  have  a  deep  meaning  to  them.  Her  mantle  has 
fallen  upon  one  who  is  also  doing  a  good  work. 

Mrs.  Aldrich  has  passed  a  year  in  Germany  and  sends  an  interesting 
account  of  her  observations.  She  enjoyed  much  intercourse  with  the 
noble  Baroness  Marenholtz,  who  has  done  so  much  for  the  diffusion  of 
kindergartens  in  Europe. — Editor. 

MRS.  SCHRADER'S  KINDERGARTEN  IN  BERLIN. 

When  visiting  the  Berlin  kindergartens  I  found  one  which  was  doing 
an  independent  work,  embodying  the  vital  points  of  the  kindergarten 
system  in  a  little  different  way  from  the  ordinary  one,  but  with  such 
remarkable  results  that  I  felt  it  deserved  close  study.  It  will  be  inter- 
esting to  know  that  the  directress  of  it  is  a  relative  of  Friedrich  Frb'bel, 
known  in  the  history  of  the  institution  at  Keilhau  as  Henrietta  Brey- 
mann.  In  her  own  account  of  how  she  came  to  take  up  the  work,  she 


"  Friedrich  FrobePs  mother,"  Mrs.  Schrader  writes,  "  was  my  grand- 
father's sister.  My  grandfather,  on  the  mother's  side,  was  Consistorial 
Rath  and  Superintendent  at  Nette,  near  Hildesheim.  His  name  was 
Hoffman.  My  mother  married  the  clergyman  of  the  place,  Breymann. 
Frobel  often  visited  my  grandfather,  and  after  his  death  he  used  to  come 

30 


466  VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS  -BERLIN. 

to  see  us  from  time  to  time.  He  saw  me  first  when  I  was  quite  a  child,  but 
I  made  his  acquaintance  at  Keilhau,  at  the  age  of  seventeen  or  eighteen, 
having  been  invited  to  spend  the  summer  there.  I  had  not  then  the 
least  intention  of  becoming  his  pupil ;  it  was  only  a  family  visit  to  my 
relatives.  But  his  conversations  made  such  a  deep  impression  upon  me, 
that  I  asked  permission  of  my  parents  to  study  under  him.  I  was 
allowed  to  attend  a  course  of  lectures  given  by  him  at  Dresden,  and 
afterwards  to  follow  him  to  Liebenstein,  where  he  founded  an  educa- 
tional establishment  to  prepare  young  women  for  his  mission.  I  was 
deeply  impressed  by  all  he  said  and  by  his  general  principles,  but  from 
the  first  the  way  in  which  the  kindergarten  idea  was  put  in  practice 
did  not  satisfy  my  ideal.  I  could  not  say  why,  but  I  felt  quite  unwill- 
ing to  take  the  direction  of  one,  and  returned  home.  The  views  of 
Frobel  were  a  revelation  to  me — a  light  shining  in  darkness.  They  ap- 
peared to  me  far  in  advance  of  the  manners  and  doings  of  the  kinder- 
gartners  who  were  at  work.  I  required  many  years  and  much  experience 
of  life  and  home  to  understand  why  I  did  not  like  the  kindergartens." 
In  conversation,  Mrs.  Schrader  told  me  that  from  childhood  her  chief 
amusement  when  left  to  play  freely  was  school  keeping.  Her  father,  the 
clergyman  Breymann,  who  thought  it  was  a  far  nobler  life  to  have  some 
definite  object  in  it,  and  was  quite  above  the  common  German  prejudice, 
that  if  a  woman  did  anything  for  money  she  immediately  degraded  her- 
self, proposed  to  her  and  to  an  older  sister  and  brother  to  open  a  school 
in  their  native  place.  They  found  suitable  accommodations  and  opened 
a  school,  which  continued  for  many  years,  was  enlarged,  and  became  a 
prominent  institution.  They  were  happy  in  it  for  many  years,  working 
out  their  own  ideas  of  education,  when  Henrietta  married  to  a  govern- 
ment official  who  had  profound  sympathy  for  everything  that  interested 
his  wife,  and  promoted  any  plans  she  might  form.  Her  sister  died,  the 
school  was  discontinued,  and  the  change  from  her  former  pursuits  to 
that  of  a  woman  of  society,  which  was  inevitable,  as  she "  was  obliged, 
of  course,  to  preside  at  her  husband's  dinners  and  receptions,  and  to  pay 
visits  in  return,  was  very  irksome  to  her,  until  she  thought  to  herself, 
why  not  use  the  opportunity  to  spread  her  interest  and  her  views  in 
regard  to  kindergartens,  in  this  society  which  she  was  constantly  meet- 
ing. She  found  a  cordial  response  to  what  she  no  doubt  did  in  a  genial 
manner,  for  she  did  not  make  direct  appeals  for  assistance.  It  was 
her  taste  and  way  to  interest  minds  intelligently  in  the  principles  and 
leave  the  results  to  follow  in  due  time. 

In  1872  Mrs.  Schrader  went  to  Berlin  to  live.  This  was  two  years 
after  the  Baroness  Marenholtz  had  left  it  for  Dresden.  While  in  Berlin, 
Mad.  M.  had  founded  the  Frobel  society,  but  soon  retired  from  it, 
because  of  a  difference  among  the  members  as  to  the  policy  to  be 
pursued.  Mad.  Meyer  was  also  a  member  at  that  time,  and  left  subse- 
quently, for  similar  reasons.  Mrs.  Schrader  accepted  an  invitation  to 
join,  but  finding  very  soon  that  the  leaders  were  more  schoolmasters 


VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS— BERLIN.  467 

than  kindergartners,  she,  too,  retired.  "  After  this,"  Mrs.  Schrader 
writes,  "  I  was  one  day  asked  to  take  interest  in  a  kindergarten  for  the 
poor,  founded  by  Madame  Marenholtz  and  some  of  her  friends,  which 
was  quite  independent  of  the  Frobel  society,  and  at  that  time  was 
without  a  head,  and  had  its  support  from  a  few  people  who  did  not  like 
to  abandon  it.  With  these  my  husband  and  I  formed  a  new  associa- 
tion, in  which  Mrs.  Bertha  Meyer  and  others  became  interested,  because 
it  was  a  work  for  the  poor.  Of  the  executive  committee  of  this  asso- 
ciation I  became  the  president,  and  Mad.  Meyer  a  member. 

"  In  the  winter  of  1874  I  was  asked  to  give  to  a  small  audience  some 
lectures  on  the  ideas  of  Frobel,  which  met  with  warm  sympathy  from 
many  ladies,  who  became  my  best  friends  and  supporters  in  my  work. 
With  Mad.  Meyer  I  soon  after  became  quite  intimate,  and  her  hus- 
band helped  me  a  great  deal  in  all  matters  of  business  connected  with 
the  kindergarten.  Its  support  came  in  part  from  the  subscriptions  of 
the  members  of  our  association,  in  part  from  gifts  and  the  help  of 
people  who  had  not  any  particular  interest  for  the  thing  itself,  but 
wished  to  please  me  and  my  husband. 

"  The  kindergartners  whom  I  found  at  work  could  not  execute  my 
ideas,  so  I  asked  my  friend  and  pupil,  Fraulein  Annette  Scheffel,  to 
take  the  direction  of  it  in  April,  1874.  At  the  same  time,  we  both  be- 
gan to  give  private  lessons,  in  order  to  train  our  own  assistants.  My 
work  in  this  small  circle  of  ladies  of  which  I  have  spoken  gives  me 
great  satisfaction,  but  I  must  say  that  outside  of  it  I  have  encoun- 
tered many  difficulties.  The  older  Frobel  society  is  widely  spread,  has 
money,  an  exterior  organization,  with  a  school  director  for  president, 
which  has  converted  kindergartening  into  school-work,  and  trained 
kindergartners  to  become  inferior  and  cheaper  teachers.  In  our  time, 
people  are  so  fond  of  positive  knowledge  and  of  such  methods  as  will 
employ  the  hands  of  children  in  making  'pretty  little  things  for  show. 
Besides,  mothers  like  to  have  kindergartners  take  a  great  deal  of  work 
off  their  hands.  Of  course,  those  who  like  these  ways  did  not  like  mine, 
as  I  can  show  very  little  in  comparison,  my  opinion  being  that  at  the 
kindergarten  age  the  work  ought  to  be  interior  and  preparatory.  The 
kindergartners  ought  not  to  be  trained  to  take  the  mothers'  places,  but 
only  to  help  them.  I  have  all  those  against  me,  also,  who,  disliking 
the  kindergartens  such  as  they  usually  are,  and  not  knowing  my  ideas, 
think  mine  is  founded  on  the  same  principle — condemning  thus,  with- 
out inquiry,  every  work  that  bears  the  name  of  kindergarten.  My 
work,  therefore,  proceeds  slowly,  but  I  believe,  nevertheless,  firmly  and 
surely. 

"  The  Frobel  society  wanted  the  state  to  take  more  interest  in  the 
kindergarten,  and  addressed  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  on  the 
subject.  He  replied  that  he  could  not  give  any  effectual  help  until  he 
knew  it  was  really  useful,  but  that  he  would  take  steps  to  ascertain 
this.  Accordingly,  he  requested  all  masters  of  public  schools  to  record 


468  VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS— BERLIN. 

and  forward  their  observations  on  the  children  that  had  come  to  them 
from  kindergartens.  These  children,  in  general,  were  badly  judged.  The 
information  thus  acquired  was  often  second-hand,  being  given  by  the 
head-master,  while  the  under  teachers  alone  had  to  do  with  these  chil- 
dren, and  because  there  was  no  mention  made  whether  the  children 
came  from  real,  genuine  kindergartens,  or  only  from  insignificant  infant 
schools,  of  which  we  have  a  great  number.  Among  the  schools  there 
were  two  into  which  I  thought  our  children  had  gone,  that  gave  very  dif- 
ferent reports  about  them  from  any  of  the  others.  I  knew  the  head- 
master of  one  of  these  schools.  A  year  before,  he  had  spoken  to  me  of 
the  children  that  had  come  to  him  from  my  kindergarten.  He  said 
some  of  them  were  the  best  children  in  the  school,  quite  model  pupils, 
and  that  others  were  remarkable  for  their  moral  conduct.  Later,  I  saw 
his  written  report,  which  corroborated  his  personal  statement  to  me. 
The  report  of  the  other  school  was  bad.  What  does  this  prove  ? 

"In  my  opinion,  however,  schools  cannot  be  taken  as  the  test  by 
which  to  judge  of  the  kindergarten.  Some  of  these  schools  are  very 
bad.  Children  going  out  of  good  kindergartens  cannot  endure  them. 
Besides,  it  is  not  the  only  aim  of  the  kindergarten  to  prepare  children 
for  public  schools.  To  have  a  just  idea  of  the  results  obtained,  moth- 
ers and  families  should  be  asked  to  add  their  information." 
The  Kindergarten. 

I  will  now  endeavor  to  describe  Mrs.  Schrader's  kindergarten.  For 
a  few  years  it  increased  very  little,  for  Mrs.  Schrader,  having  very 
decided  ideas  of  her  own  as  to  what  a  kindergarten  should  be,  was  un- 
willing to  increase  the  number  of  children  until  she  had  trained  assist- 
ants who  could  do  what  she  believed  to  be  child- culture.  Three  or  four 
years  ago,  after  having  hitherto  been  in  uncomfortable  quarters,  the 
kindergarten  was  moved  into  an  excellent  room  in  Steinmitz  street, 
with  Mrs.  Schrader's  friend,  Annette  SchefrVl,  installed  over  it  as  direct- 
ress. Eight  rooms  are  occupied  by  the  different  departments.  Added 
to  these  are  bath-room,  dispensary  and  store-room.  A  close  intimacy 
is  kept  up  with  the  mothers,  whose  needs  and  wants  are  fully  and 
judiciously  supplied.  The  most  important  supply  furnished  is  pure 
milk,  for  the  infants  of  the  poorer  class  are  ordinarily  fed  on  beer,  and 
the  death  rate  is  large.  So  great  a  change  has  been  produced  by  this 
alteration  of  their  diet,  that  the  families  whose  children  attend  the 
kindergarten  seemed  quite  renewed  physically  as  well  as  morally.  At 
these  rooms,  bath-tubs  of  all  sizes  are  kept,  to  be  loaned  to  the  mothers 
whenever  wanted.  This  kindergarten  may  be  said  to  be  a  combination 
of  what  are  called,  with  us,  Mrs.  Shaw's  day  nurseries,  and  the  kinder- 
gartens which  these  nurseries  often  contain  under  the  same  roof,  with 
separate  matrons.  In  Mrs.  Schrader's  kindergarten,  an  efficient  and 
motherly  matron  is  always  in  attendance,  night  and  day,  as  she  lives 
in  furnished  apartments,  ready  to  give  out  supplies  whenever  needed. 
Cod-liver  oil,  wine  and  extract  of  beef  are  prominent  articles.  I  also 


VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS-BERLIN.  469 

saw  rolls  of  flannel,  and  linen  bandages,  and  second-hand  garments  of 
every  description.  These  are  brought  to  the  rooms,  and  mothers  and 
the  elder  girls  in  the  families  are  taught  to  repair  and  make  them  over 
to  the  best  advantage.  This  is  a  very  interesting  part  of  the  work. 
Children,  and  even  grown  people,  feel  a  greater  interest  in  preparing 
articles  they  want  than  in  learning  to  mend  and  make  with  only  the 
learning  as  an  object. 

In  the  first  room  I  entered  were  ten  or  twelve  babies,  under  three 
years  old,  drawing  their  dolls  in  little  baby  carriages,  and  one  dressing 
his  doll  for  the  day.  Balls,  ninepins,  reins  and  implements  for  work 
abounded.  A  quiet  young  girl,  who  seemed  to  be  in  full  sympathy 
with  them,  was  in  charge.  Twice  during  the  morning  these  little 
things  were  allowed  a  pleasure  they  enjoyed  greatly— going  into  the 
next  room  where  children  a  little  older  than  themselves  were  playing 
their  games.  On  that  day  the  game  was  washing,  ironing  and  man- 
gling their  dolls'  clothes,  and  putting  into  wardrobes  or  bureaus,  which 
they  constructed  with  sticks,  blocks  and  whatever  other  material  they 
needed  and  asked  for.  The  older  children  had  cut  out  many  paper 
garments  for  these  children's  dolls.  One  little  dot  of  a  girl  was  fold- 
ing pocket  handkerchiefs  and  towels,  and  when  she  had  done  this  she 
picked  up  some  three-inch  sticks  and  then,  as  if  talking  to  herself,  and 
wholly  unconscious  of  anything  else,  said,  "Now  little  sticks,  you  must 
be  my  wardrobe ;  "  at  the  same  time  her  busy  fingers  made  the  ward- 
robe, and  the  handkerchiefs  were  placed  in  it  with  great  care.  An- 
other tiny  little  thing  had  done  her  washing  very  nicely,  giving  special 
attention  to  the  rinsing;  she  was  now  ready  to  hang  them  up,  and 
called  for  sticks,  which  she  laid  on  the  table  to  make  her  drying  frame  ; 
when  fully  dry,  according  to  her  baby  judgment,  she  told  the  sticks 
they  must  now  be  a  bureau,  and  into  a  bureau  they  were  soon  trans- 
formed, which  received  the  clothes  when  they  were  properly  ironed  and 
folded.  Before  the  children  are  given  their  work  they  are  told  to  give 
their  attention,  for  not  more  than  a  minute,  to  something  the  kinder- 
gartner  has  to  show,  and  this  one  moment  is  the  base  of  their  study  for 
the  day.  If  asked  to  give  their  attention  too  long  there  would  be  a 
failure,  for  a  very  young  child  cannot  keep  its  attention  on  one  thing 
long  at  a  time  without  a  strain. 

The  third  gift  was  on  the  table  in  the  next  room  (the  divided  cube). 
As  it  was  the  Emperor's  birthday,  some  one  child  had  built  an  arch 
through  which  he  was  to  pass.  All  the  rest  of  the  children  caught  the 
idea  and  made  arches  for  the  procession — various  arches  and  monu- 
ments in  his  honor.  Finally  a  flag  was  thought  of,  and  all  wanted 
flags.  These  flags  had  been  manufactured  by  the  older  children  on 
some  state  occasion  and  were  now  lent,  so  that  the  jubilee  was  com- 
plete, and  it  would,  perhaps,  have  suited  the  emperor  far  better  than 
the  celebration  gotten  up  a  few  days  later  in  his  honor,  for  this  was 
perfectly  spontaneous,  and  given  with  a  heartiness  that  went  to  my 


470  VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS— BERLIN. 

heart.  In  another  room,  children  were  weaving,  but  the  difference  be- 
tween this  and  other  kindergartens  consisted  in  some  of  the  mats  being 
real  mats,  woven  from  listing,  which  were  to  be  carried  home  for  use, 
and  each  one  felt  conscious  that  he  was  one  of  a  little  community  that 
had  something  to  do  of  which  each  could  perform  a  part.  The  quiet 
simplicity  and  dignity  of  the  children,  as  they  worked,  was  past  belief 
if  it  had  not  been  seen. 

The  next  room  was  the  play-room,  where  some  impromptu  play  was 
going  on — the  dramatizing  of  something  that  had  really  happened, 
their  imaginations  filling  up  any  lack  of  incidents.  This  was  a  true 
picture  of  FrobePs  own  doings.  He  seized  upon  the  rugged  mount- 
ain at  Keilhau  as  soon  as  he  and  his  pupils  got  there,  to  mould  it  to  his 
purposes — digging  out  rocks  and  making  a  path  up  to  a  pretty  opening 
that  was  to  serve  as  a  resort,  for  they  scarcely  had  anything  to  live  in 
there  at  first  that  could  be  called  a  house.  Mrs.  Schrader  had  caught 
his  spirit  truly. 

Our  next  visit  was  to  the  music-room  where  the  elder  children  re- 
paired every  day  to  have  a  real  concert.  Four  drums  and  the  same 
number  of  tambourines,  cymbals  and  castanets  were  used  by  the  chil- 
dren to  accompany  the  piano.  The  time  was  not  perfect,  but  almost 
incredible  for  such  wee  children,  and  they  were  very  happy  and  self- 
possessed.  Strongly  accented  tunes  were  played,  and  those  who  fully 
understand  how  children  revel  in  such  music,  can  perhaps  faintly  imagine 
how  these  rhythmical  waves  filled  the  little  hearts  with  delight.  This, 
like  all  the  other  occupations,  was  of  short  duration— about  fifteen  min- 
utes perhaps — as  long  as  each  one  could  do  his  part  without  weariness. 

As  we  crossed  the  hall  we  saw  a  little  boy  and  girl  washing  dolls' 
clothes.  The  little  boy  was  washing  in  a  tiny  tub  on  a  bench  just  be- 
fore him.  There  stood  a  set  kettle  low  enough  for  Ins  use,  scoured  as 
bright  as  copper  can  be ;  this  work  is  all  done  by  the  children,  each 
child  leaving  it  as  clean  and  bright  as  it  is  found.  A  line  hung  within 
reach  upon  which  was  a  row  of  fairy  stockings,  drawers,  skirts,  dresses, 
aprons,  etc.,  fastened  with  tiny  clothes'  pins.  These  clothes  were  air- 
ing after  having  been  ironed,  and  I  never  saw  nicer  work  done.  The 
little  flat-irons  were  just  the  right  size.  Indeed,  it  was  a  perfect  laun- 
dry, and  I  now  saw  the  charm  of  it.  The  dear  dolls  were  waiting  to 
be  dressed,  and  when  that  was  done,  the  night-gowns  were  to  be  washed. 
Here  was  a  motive  for  work  quite  at  the  child's  level.  It  brought  pu*e 
delight  because  it  had  an  immediate  object  which  a  dreary  practice  in 
laundry  work  would  not  have  had. 

This  year  there  are  ten  children  who  have  been  through  the  kinder- 
garten, and  now  form  an  advanced  class.  This  will  sound  like  a  para- 
dox to  those  who  know  that  in  Germany  all  children  are  required  to  go 
to  school  at  six  years  of  age,  and  the  kindergarten  has  not  been  ac- 
cepted as  a  part  of  public  instruction.  The  influence  of  this  particular 
kindergarten  has  been  such,  and  so  marked  upon  the  children  and  their 


VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS— BERLIN.  471 

families,  that  the  law  is  not  strictly  enforced  in  this  instance,  though  it 
was  so  in  the  early  part  of  its  existence.  Indeed,  this  is  the  first  year 
any  have  been  allowed  to  remain  any  length  of  time  after  it  is  known 
or  suspected  that  they  are  six  or  more.  It  is  the  complaint  of  all  the 
kmdergartners  I  meet  here  that  the  children  are  not  allowed  to  remain 
long  enough.  The  children  of  this  advanced  kindergarten,  having  had 
all  their  faculties  so  naturally  cultivated,  can  tell  little  incidents  in  very 
pretty  and  concise  language ;  they  are  then  asked  to  write  down  what 
they  have  said,  which  they  readily  do,  and  then  it  is  examined  as  to  its 
value ;  anything  that  is  wrong  is  made  right,  and  then  the  children  read 
it  and  spell  the  words.  It  can  easily  be  seen  how  much  ground  this  can 
be  made  to  cover  legitimately  without  an  arbitrary  direction. 

The  pots  in  which  the  children  cultivate  plants  have  a  tiny  picture 
or  arrangement  of  bright  colors  pasted  on  according  to  the  taste  of  the 
child,  who  thus  knows  it  for  his  own,  having  done  it  himself.  The 
hooks  for  the  coats  and  hats  are  marked  in  a  similar  way  on  frames 
they  make  themselves.  Parents  of  the  better  classes  sometimes  come 
and  ask  to  have  their  children  admitted,  and  plead  that  they  shall  be 
put  in  a  class  of  the  better  grade.  The  parents  are  told  there  is  no 
difference,  that  all  are  good  and  clean,  and  are  asked  to  go  through  the 
rooms  and  see  for  themselves  if  there  is  any  one  place  they  would 
choose  over  another.  Without  an  exception  no  choice  is  made.  The 
decided  liberality  of  Mrs.  Schrader's  views  is  apparent  in  this.  She 
does  not  think  it  best  to  have  many  children  in  one  class,  because  she 
wishes  to  have  everything  as  nearly  like  family  life  as  possible.  The 
directress,  Miss  Scheffel,  is  a  lady  of  the  cultivated  class.  She  takes 
no  class  herself,  and  is  thus  free  to  listen  and  to  watch  for  the  needs 
and  opportunities  of  the  children.  This  kindergarten  has  been  work- 
ing quietly  because  Mrs.  Schrader  knew  she  could  not  accomplish  much 
without  the  right  helpers.  Her  first  object  is  to  train  thoroughly  such 
persons  as  would  make  sure  the  quality  of  the  work  for  many  years. 
The  kindergartners  of  her  own  training  are  women  who  are  not  so  set 
in  school  ideas  that  they  are  unable  to  accept  the  new  education  freely. 
The  whole  atmosphere  is  growth,  the  principal  aim  to  secure  spon- 
taneous ideas.  Mrs.  Schrader  confines  herself  less  to  the  kindergarten 
material  proper  than  any  kindergartner  that  I  have  known,  but  she 
knows  how  to  take  hold  of  other  things  in  the  Frobelian  spirit.  If  a 
box  is  wanted,  boxes  are  the  occupation  of  the  day.  The  folding,  cut- 
ing,  pasting  and  ornamenting  of  the  covers  are  done  by  the  children, 
and  they  are  not  only  for  themselves  but  for  the  younger  ones  who  are 
not  able  to  do  it.  Whether  it  is  beads,  seeds,  bits  of  wool,  or  a^ew 
pine  needles  that  are  picked  up  when  walking,  there  is  always  an  oppor- 
tunity to  preserve  them.  From  the  beginning  Mrs.  Schrader  has 
desired  to  have  a  work-school  connected  with  her  kindergarten,  and 
last  year  it  was  established.  Fancy  work  of  various  kinds,  plain  knit- 
ting, wood  carving,  basket-making,  willow  mat  weaving,  etc.,  I  saw  pup 


472  VISITS  TO  KINDERGARTENS -BERLIN. 

sued  here.  The  school  is  open  two  hours  in  the  afternoon.  Here,  as 
throughout  the  whole  establishment,  the  natural  needs  are  first  attended 
to.  An  advanced  school  has  also  been  opened,  based  on  natural  princi- 
ples, finding  science  and  art  and  their  uses  in  the  needs  of  the  moment. 
The  varied  world  of  enjoyment  arising  out  of  this  movement  fills  the 
life  here  with  a  continual  charm  that  is  at  first  surprising,  but  when 
one  sees  it  with  heart  as  well  as  eyes,  the  wonder  is  that  any  kinder- 
garten should  be  kept  on  any  other  basis.  I  have  not  mentioned  that 
the  children  are  invited  to  come  back  in  the  afternoons  if  they  wish  to 
do  so,  to  carry  on  any  work  in  which  they  may  be  interested.  The 
children,  who  have  le'ft  the  kindergartens  and  gone  into  other  schools, 
are  also  invited,  and  they  come  regularly  on  Wednesday  and  Saturday 
afternoons.  They  go  into  the  work  rooms,  or  play  with  the  young  ladies 
who  are  being  trained  for  kindergartners,  who  preside  over  these  meet- 
ings without  any  superintendence  by  Miss  Scheffel.  This  is  the  mode 
in  which  these  young  ladies  become  acquainted  with  the  children. 

The  tables  in  Mrs.  Schrader's  kindergarten  are  not  lined.  She 
thinks  the  lines  draw  the  attention  from  the  true  artistic  work,  which 
needs  training  of  the  eyes,  according  to  the  opinion  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful German  teacher  of  drawing,  Peter  Schmidt.  The  result  in  Mrs. 
Schrader's  kindergarten  is  very  fine. 


To  this  account  of  Mrs.  Aldrich  we  add  a  few  extracts  from  a  very 
attractive  and  instructive  volume  by  Miss  Lyschinska,  entitled  *"  THE 
KINDERGARTEN  PRINCIPLE — its  Educational  Value  and  Chief  Applica- 
tions." Miss  Lyschinska  is  superintendent  of  Method  in  Infant  Schools 
under  the  School  Board  of  London,  and  she  credits  to  her  association 
with  one  of  Frobel's  family,  Henrietta  Schrader  (nee  Breyimm)  of  Ber- 
lin, and  her  tuition,  her  knowledge  of  the  Kindergarten  Principles  as 
developed  in  this  volume.  The  opening  chapter  is  devoted  to  "  A  Ger- 
man Kindergarten,"  the  institution  established  by  Mrs.  Schrader,  and  in 
which  Mrs.  Aldrich  sees  so  much  to  admire. 


*Published  by  W.  Isbister,  56  Ludgate  Hill,  1880.    180  pages  with  numerous  illus- 
trations. 


CRITICISMS  ON    FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM  AND  ITS  EXTENSION. 

BY  MADAME   A.    DE  PORTUGALL.* 
Inspectress  of  Infant  Schools  in  the  Canton  of  Geneva 


I.      CRITICISMS   CONSIDERED. 

The  views  of  Froebel,  a  man  of  original  mercurial  genius,  working  inde- 
pendently of  all  traditions,  were  sure  to  provoke  criticism  and  opposition. 
The  objections  to  their  practical  application  may  be  grouped  as  follows: 
1,  Expense;  2,  social  disturbance;  and  3,  violations  of  pedagogic  canons. 

1.     Objections  on  account  of  Expense. 

That  the  new  education,  covering  several  years  of  the  child's  life  not 
bef(  To  utilized  for  purposes  of  development,  and  requiring  space,  con- 
structions, equipment,  and  skilled  personal  attention,  calls  for  expenditure 
of  money,  cannot  be  denied;  but  the  results  should,  and  we  believe  do, 
justify  this  expenditure. 

Spacious  and  well-ventilated  premises,  halls  for  work  and  for  play,  a 
yard  and  a  garden,  are  indispensable.  If  we  add  the  expenses  of  the 
management  and  the  material,  numerous  and  capable  teachers,  it  will  bo 
seen  that  to  establish  and  support  Kindergartens  imposes  great  sacrifices, 
and  that  the  municipalities  and  governments  must  be  entirely  convinced 
of  the  excellence  of  these  institutions  before  they  can  be  expected  to  swell 
their  budgets  for  the  purpose  of  founding  them.  We  shall  not  insist 
upon  the  very  imperative  reasons  which  make  us  think  that  the  expenses 
of  construction  and  management  will  tend  to  increase  rather  than  dimin- 
ish. The"  quite  practical  solution  which  some  Belgian  cities,  Liege,  for 
example,  and  the  Canton  of  Geneva,  in  Switzerland,  have  given  to  this 
question  is  the  best  answer  to  these  criticisms.  The  Kindergartens  of 
Liege  are  communal  establishments,  for  which  that  city  makes  great  sac- 
rifices. The  large  number  of  children  on  their  list  (3,200  children  in  1876) 
proves  that  they  are  in  high  favor,  and  that  the  Froebelian  institutions 
are  highly  appreciated  by  the  population. 

In  Geneva  the  Kindergartens  still  bear  the  name  of  Infant  Schools,  but 
the  method  of  Froebel  is  applied  in  them.  The  law  of  October  19,  1872, 
while  leaving  the  initiative  to  the  communes,  placed  the  schools  under 
the  surveillance  of  the  Cantonal  authorities.  The  law  is  as  follows: 

ART.  17.  One  infant  school  at  least  is  established  by  the  Commune. 
The  Department  of  public  instruction  approves  the  regulations  of  these 
schools  and  watches  their  progress.  The  Council  of  Stale  grants  a 
subsidy  for  the  creation  and  maintenance  of  the  infant  schools. 

ART.  18.  The  infant  schools  are  optional  and  gratuitous ;  they  receive 
children  until  they  are  six  years  of  age,  and  are  directed  by  mistresses 
and  sub-mistresses. 

ART.  10.  The  salaries  of  the  mistresses  and  sub-mistresses  are  fixed  by 
the  State.  The  premises  are  furnished  by  the  commune. 

*  Taper  in  Proceedings  of  International  Congress,  1880.    Translated  by  Mrs.  Mann. 


474  CRITICISMS  ON  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM  AND  ITS  EXTENSION. 

This  law  has  taken  full  effect.  There  are  scarcely  five  or  six  communes 
in  the  Canton  of  Geneva  that  are  not  already  provided  with  Kindergartens. 
Every  child  who  attends  them  costs  the  Commune  and  the  Canton  on  an 
average  twenty-four  francs  per  year,  or  two  francs  per  month.  These 
grants  are  established  by  the  budget  of  the  Canton  of  Geneva  for  the 
years  1879  and  1880.  In  this  moderate  sum  are  comprised  all  the  expenses 
of  the  Froebel  material,  the  salaries  of  the  mistresses,  the  courses  of  in- 
struction for  the  teachers,  etc.,  etc. 

The  construction  of  the  buildings  and  the  furniture  are  not  included. 
These  figures  prove  that  the  cost  of  the  Kindergartens  is  not  great. 
Whoever  compares  these  expenses  with  those  incurred  by  the  old  Salles 
d'Asyle,  for  which  the  maximum  expense  rose  to  fifty  centimes  per  child 
per  month,  will  feel  that  the  establishment  of  the  Kindergartens  is  an 
onerous  charge.  But  if  the  governments  and  the  contributors  think  that 
the  system  created  by  Froebel  is  the  basis  of  a  good  public  instruction 
and  constitutes  a  progress  in  school  institutions,  we  think  they  will  not 
recoil  from  sacrifices  which  we  have  by  no  means  exaggerated. 

2.     Kindergartens  do  not  meet  the  wants  of  the  Poor. 

1.  M.  R.  de  Guimps,  in  his  Philosophy  and  Practice  of  Education,  re- 
marks: "The  Kindergarten  could  not  receive  the  great  mass  of  the 
children  of  the  poor;"  and  others  go  still  further,  and  assert  that  the 
very  excellences  of  the  Kindergarten, — its  regularity,  order,  neatness., 
and  happiness,  are  incompatible  with  the  harsh  necessities  of  not  a  few 
families  in  all  cities  and  villages.  This  is  not  a  full  statement  of  the  case. 
The  poor  child  in  these  institutions  does  enjoy  comfort  and  happiness, 
'but  that  is  precisely  what  Froebel  intended.  The  child  is  indeed  happy 
there ;  as  its  gaiety  and  contentment,  its  whole  expression,  prove  it.  Placed 
there  under  a  motherly  direction,  surrounded  by  little  companions,  it 
enjoys  a  true  family  life,  which  the  paternal  home  can  rarely  furnish. 
The  father,  and  often  the  mother,  obliged  to  work  for  the  maintenance 
of  their  children,  abandon  their  domestic  hearth  every  day,  leaving  their 
children  in  the  care  of  an  aged  or  infirm  grandmother,  or  perhaps  of  a 
neighbor  who  often  has  something  else  to  do  than  to  watch  them.  What 
dangers  do  not  the  poor  little  ones  run!  And  these  are  the  little  deserted 
waifs  whom  the  Kindergarten  collects,  to  whom  it  offers  a  happy  and 
busy  life.  But  the  taste  for  neatness  and  order  which  the  Kindergarten 
inculcates  on  its  little  pupils,  and  which  the  latter  carry  home,  is  an  inap- 
preciable gain  to  them  instead  of  a  cruelty.  The  child  does  not  like  to 
go  to  school  improperly  clothed,  badly  washed  and  badly  combed.  He 
knows  that  he  will  be  spoken  to  by  the  teacher,  and  we  shall  find  that  he 
insists  upon  his  mother's  giving  him  the  most  indispensable  physical  care. 
Thanks  to  his  constant  importunities  and  improved  habits,  order,  and 
with  order  economy,  penetrate  many  dwellings,  and  insensibly  raise  the 
moral  code  of  the  family. 

2.  It  is  further  objected  that  the  Kindergarten  interferes  with  the  rights 
of  the  family.  This  criticism,  if  well  founded,  would  be  an  absolute  con- 
demnation of  the  system  of  the  great  Thuringian  pedagogue.  But  let  us 
open  his  works;  let  us  open  the  Education  of  Man ;  we  find  on  every 
page  the  solicitude,  the  respect,  which  the  sacred  institution  of  the  family 


CRITICISMS  ON  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM  AND  ITS  EXTENSION.  475 

inspired  in  Froebel,  an  institution  in  which  he  saw  the  first  elements  of 
society.  We  are  certain  that  those  who  make  this  reproach,  have  never 
read  or  known  either  his  thought  or  his  system.  Is  not  that  which  people 
attack  most  violently  often  that  which  they  know  least  about?  Froebel 
was  so  preoccupied  with  the  future  of  the  family  that  all  his  aspirations 
tended  to  reform  it,  to  re-edify  it,  to  elevate  it.  And  he  confided  this 
reform  to  the  mother.  How  great  and  noble  is  the  part  which  Froebel 
assigns  to  her,  and  how  far  we  still  are  from  realizing  it.  How  many 
mothers  are  even  the  centers  of  the  family  life.,  or  acquit  themselves  of 
their  manifold  duties,  and  without  assistance?  Uncultivated,  ignorant, 
governesses,  these  are  the  assistants  they  procured  up  to  the  day  when 
Froebel  offered  them  his  Kindergarten.  There  parents  can  safely  send 
their  children  every  day,  and  know  that  they  will  find  in  it  what  their 
home  cannot  give  them,  a  little  world,  where,  under  enlightened  direction, 
they  will  learn  to  live.  And  the  return  home!  How  many  things  to 
recount  after  an  absence  of  some  hours!  The  Kindergarten  is  necessary 
to  the  child  and  to  the  family,  to  the  rich  and  to  the  poor,  to  the  well-to  do 
citizen  and  to  the  workman,  for  it  is  a  humanitarian  and  a  social  work. 
It  is  necessary  for  the  wife,  for  the  mother;  it  assists  her  and  forms  her 
for  her  educational  mission. 

"In  order  to  establish  my  work,"  said  Froebel,  at  the  inauguration  of 
his  Kindergarten  at  Blankenburg,  in  Thuringia,  in  1840,  "I  need  the 
cooperation  of  every  one,  especially  of  women.  Yes,  what  is  necessary 
for  my  success,  is  the  concurrence  of  mothers,  wives,  sisters.  I  therefore 
make  a  serious  appeal,  not  only  to  the  female  population  of  my  country, 
of  Germany,  but  to  all  the  civilized  world.  I  place  my  new  institution  in 
the  hands  of  women;  it  is  to  their  zeal  and  their  tenderness  that  I  confide 
this  garden,  that  they  may  cultivate  it  and  make  it  prosper  by  the  care 
that  they  alone  can  and  know  how  to  give." 

3.     Pedagogical  Objections. 

Some  pedagogical  critics,  who  value  the  school  only  for  certain  tradi- 
tional habits  and  acquisitions — keeping  still,  and  the  ability  to  read,  write, 
and  cipher,  complain  that  pupils  who  pass  into  the  school  from  the  Kin- 
dergarten have  little  or  no  knowledge,  and  are  often  even  turbulent  and 
impatient  of  discipline.  The  mission  of  the  Kindergarten  is  not  to 
impart  book  knowledge,  but  its  plays  and  occupations  should  give  intelli- 
gence, and  the  power  of  adaptation.  But  even  the  friendly  critics  com- 
plain that  this  intelligence  is  of  ten  accompanied  with  a  want  of  concentra- 
tion. But  whenever  we  have  met  with  it  and  sought  out  the  cause,  we 
have  been  sure  that  it  proceeded  from  a  defective  application  of  the  system. 
How  many  young  teachers  are  not  up  to  their  task !  how  many  go  astray 
in  the  method,  and  take  the  means  for  the  end,  the  letter  for  the  spirit! 
Yet  we  do  find  some  well-directed  Kindergartens,  although  they  are  still 
too  rare,  and  these  furnish  excellent  pupils  to  the  schools.  We  have 
verified  the  fact  that  the  influence  of  a  first  rational  education  continues 
through  years  of  study,  and  that  this  influence  makes  itself  felt  espec- 
ially when  the  instruction  appeals  to  reason,  logic,  and  good  sense. 

Finally,  we  believe  that  the  main  criticisms  made  upon  Froebel's  sys- 
tem proceed  from  incomplete  knowledge  of  it,  from  the  imperfect  appli- 


476  CRITICISMS  ON  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM  AND  ITS  EXTENSION. 

cation  of  it,  as  well  as  from  a  too  literal  interpretation  of  it.  It  is  to  the 
exaggerated  zeal  of  certain  disciples  of  Froebel,  that  many  criticisms  of 
his  system  are  due.  Those  disciples  admit  of  no  changes  or  modifications 
in  the  application,  and  give  a  stereotyped  form  to  the  method;  many  even 
go  so  far  as  to  pretend  that  it  cannot  be  touched  without  injury. 
This  leads  us  to  the  second  division  of  our  subject. 

II.   FURTHER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ADAPTATIONS. 

The  method  produced  by  an  original  mind  can  be  neither  mechanically 
applied,  nor  servilely  imitated.  It  is  to  be  modified  by  the  influence  of 
circumstances,  personalities,  and  national  character.  The  character,  the 
tendencies,  even  the  aptitudes,  vary  in  different  countries;  the  system  can 
be  modified  in  its  form,  while  the  spirit  of  it  remains  the  same. 

And  how  many  changes,  not  foreseen  by  the  founder,  have  gradually 
been  introduced,  without  ceasing  to  be  faithful  to  this  spirit.  With  Froe- 
bel, the  Kindergarten  was  only  the  family  enlarged,  and  was  to  contain 
but  a  comparatively  small  number  of  children.  Now  that  the  Salles  dAsyle 
and  the  infant  schools  have  adopted  Froebel's  method,  we  have  been 
forced  to  multiply  the  plays  and  occupations,  especially  for  the  little 
children  who  are  received  at  the  age  of  two  and  one-half  years.  It  has 
been  necessary  to  introduce  a  whole  series  of  innovations  too  long  to  be 
enumerated.  In  the  countries  peopled  by  the  Latin  races,  where  the 
children  are  by  temperament  more  lively  and  precocious,  we  must  not 
think  of  imposing  the  method  in  all  its  rigor.  It  is  necessary,  besides,  to 
admit  a  period  of  transition,  to  concede  to  the  upper  class  in  Kindergart- 
ens some  of  the  branches  of  instruction  of  the  primary  school,  particu- 
larly reading  and  writing.  As  M.  Buisson  said  in  his  report  upon  the 
Vienna  Exposition,  "What  should  be  absolutely  condemned  and  pro- 
scribed, is  not  the  teaching  of  reading  and  writing  in  the  Kindergartens, 
but  the  preponderant  role  and  abstract  character  given  to  these  lessons." 
The  details  of  the  programme  naturally  depend  upon  the  usages  of  each 
country,  and  even  of  each  city.  But  it  must  not  be  concluded  from 
certain  concessions  and  variations  needed  by  the  conditions  of  things, 
that  a  Salle  d'Asyle  becomes  a  Kindergarten  as  soon  as  a  little  weaving  and 
pricking  are  introduced  into  it.  These  superficial  adaptations  are  neither 
desirable  nor  useful ;  something  more  is  necessary  than  the  material  and 
the  manual  application  of  it;  the  thought  that  presided  over  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  method,  the  spirit  of  Froebel,  these  are  what  are  necessary  to 
animate  and  vivify  the  whole. 

As  to  new  industrial  adaptations,  these  are  possible,  but  not  before  a 
certain  age;  they  must  not  be  thought  of  for  little  children.  The  braiding 
of  straw,  an  easy  transition  from  the  weaving  of  paper,  might  be  intro- 
duced in  an  upper  class  of  the  Kindergarten,  together  with  many  system- 
atic occupations;  folding  and  cutting  may  be  transformed  into  box-mak- 
ing; and  we  should  recommend  to  pupils  from  eight  to  ten  years  of  age 
rattan  basket-making,  which  we  have  seen  more  than  once  well  executed 
by  children  who  had  been  in  Kindergartens.  But  we  must  not  presume 
too  far  on  the  strength  of  the  little  pupils. 

As  to  the  influence  exercised  by  the  embroidery  work  of  Froebel  upon 
needle-work,  it  is  no  longer  contested. 


CRITICISMS  ON  FROEBEI/S  SYSTEM  AND  ITS  EXTENSION.  47 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  modern  school  is  the  unity  in  educa- 
tion. But  this  unity  does  not  exclude  a  graduated  division.  The  great 
whole  of  school  institutions  is  divided  into  several  steps;  each  step  is  a 
preparation  for  that  which  follows.  The  Kindergarten,  being  the  first 
step,  must  be  in  intimate  connection  with  the  primary  school,  to  which  it 
serves  as  a  basis. 

This  connection  will  only  be  possible  when,  on  one  side,  the  Kindergart- 
ners  shall  receive  good  normal  training,  and  on  the  other,  every  primary 
instructor,  male  or  female,  shall  be  initiated  into  Froebel's  system. 

III.      SPECIAL  NORMAL  TRAINING. 

We  think  a  measure  analogous  to  the  decree  of  the  27th  of  June,  1872, 
by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  in  Austria,  should  be  introduced  in 
every  country  where  there  is  compulsory  instruction.  The  teachers  of 
Kindergartens,  as  well  as  the  primary-school  teachers,  should  be  com- 
pelled to  submit  to  normal  training,  and  to  pass  through  examinations  for 
their  certificate  of  capacity.  To  a  certain  point  the  normal  training  given 
to  teachers  of  every  degree  would  be  identical.  It  would  be  the  same  for 
the  principles,  the  same  for  the  method,  but  there  would  be  special  instruc- 
tion, according  to  the  stage  of  teaching  to  which  the  candidate  was  going 
to  consecrate  himself.  The  theory  and  practice  of  the  Kindergarten, 
including  the  study  of  psychology  and  general  pedagogy,  would  be  one 
of  these  specialties. 

In  conclusion,  we  would  say  that  the  Kindergartner  should  be  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  the  programme  and  organization  of  the  primary 
grade  of  instruction,  an  indispensable  condition  if  she  wishes  to  prepare 
pupils  for  the  primary  school  so  that  they  can  pursue  its  studies  with  profit. 

The  primary- school  teachers  should  study  the  Froebelian  pedagogy,  in 
order  to  understand  the  principles  upon  which  their  pupils  have  been 
prepared,  for  there  are  as  many  points  of  contact  between  the  Kinder- 
garten and  the  primary  school,  as  between  different  classes  of  the  latter. 

Is  it  desirable  to  apply  the  principles  of  Froebel  in  primary  instruction  ? 

Better  to  answer  this  important  question,  let  us  examine  to  what  degree 
of  development  the  little  pupil  has  arrived,  who  leaves  the  Kindergarten 
for  the  primary  school  at  the  age  of  six  or  seven  years. 

If  ne  has  attended  a  good  Froebelian  institution  for  three  or  four  years, 
he  will  certainly  have  acquired  the  gift  of  seeing  for  himself,  the  gift  of 
observation.  Questioned  upon  objects  that  are  daily  striking  his  attention, 
he  ought  to  be  able  to  express  what  he  sees  and  what  he  conceives  in 
simple  and  precise  language.  Pie  ought  to  be  capable  of  designating  each 
object  which  is  familiar  to  him  by  its  name;  he  ought  to  be  able  to  give 
an  account  of  the  properties  of  things,  of  their  practical  use,  to  know 
their  relations  of  size  and  number,  to  distinguish  their  colors,  etc.  Be- 
sides this  general  knowledge,  he  should  be  already  developed  in  reference 
to  individual  and  inventive  work. 

At  this  period  the  character  of  the  child  should  have  been  outlined ; 
conscience,  will,  and  moral  sense  should  be  already  developed  in  him. 
He  should  have  attained  that  degree  of  human  development  in  which. 


478  CRITICISMS  ON  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM  AND  ITS  EXTENSION. 

without  prejudice  to  the  sentiment  of  personal  dignity,  he  comprehends 
that  he  is  to  submit  voluntarily  and  fully  to  the  rule  which  is  the  law  for 
the  whole.  He  ought  to  know  how  to  obey  spontaneously,  from  a  senti- 
ment of  obedience ;  that  is,  he  ought  to  have  learned  to  love  what  is  good 
and  detest  what  is  evil.  The  love  of  his  neighbor,  the  first  germ  of  love 
to  God,  the  germ  of  religious  feeling,  should  have  bloomed  in  his  heart. 

As  to  the  physical  development  we  will  not  insist.  Every  day,  every 
hour  passed  in  the  Kindergarten  contributes  to  the  development  of 
strength,  skill,  and  grace. 

Is  the  child  ready  to  begin  study,  properly  so-called?  Is  the  school 
ready  to  receive  him? 

Has  the  school,  as  it  is  organized  to-day,  a  programme,  a  system  of  dis- 
cipline and  instruction  adapted  to  continue  the  work  of  the  Froebelian 
system?  If  we  take  everything  into  consideration  in  the  public  school 
which  the  child  attends  from  his  sixth  to  his  fourteenth  year,  we  say  with- 
out hesitation,  no.  We  recognize  the  progress  that  has  been  made,  the 
immense  path  traversed,  but  for  causes  too  numerous  to  be  summed  up 
here,  from  our  own  personal  experience  especially,  we  think  there  is  room 
for  a  reform,  the  first  step  of  which  would  be  to  provide  a  transition 
between  the  Kindergarten  and  the  school.  The  founder  of  the  Froebelian 
method,  persuaded  "that  there  is  no  leap  in  the  human  mind,"  that 
everything  is  coordinated,  and  that  its  development  must  also  be  coordi- 
nated, demanded  this  intermediate  class  between  the  Kindergarten  and 
the  school.  This  intermediate  class,  which  he  called  the  upper  class  of 
the  Kindergarten,  was  the  object  of  his  solicitude,  and  we  will  study  the 
hints  which  we  meet  upon  the  subject  in  his  works,  and  the  ways  and 
means  to  realize  its  existence. 

Intermediate  Class. 

According  to  Froebel,  the  plays,  talks,  exercises,  and  occupations  of 
the  system  should  be  continued  in  this  intermediate  class.  The  occupa- 
tions are  far  from  being  exhausted  in  the  Kindergarten  proper;  they  are 
scarcely  half  disposed  of;  they  should  be  continued,  then,  and  a  more 
preponderating  part  given  to  the  instruction,  of  which  they  represent  the 
intuitive  element;  the  building-blocks,  the  sticks,  the  folding,  the  weav- 
ing, etc.,  help  the  processes  of  calculation  and  intuitive  geometry.  The 
folding  into  squares,  rectangles,  triangles,  etc. ,  will  initiate  the  child  into 
the  knowledge  of  a  great  many  plane  figures,  their  different  angles,  the 
value  of  these  angles  in  relation  to  their  position,  etc.  In  the  same  man- 
ner, the  building,  modeling,  and  box-making  will  initiate  him  into  the 
knowledge  of  solids.  These  exercises,  which  are  quite  intuitive,  are  the 
point  of  departure  for  plane  geometry  and  stereometry  (or  the  measuring 
of  solids),  whose  elements  the  child  acquires  without  scientific  definitions, 
or  having  recourse  to  abstraction.  Not  a  lesson  can  pass  without  his 
being  called  upon  to  compare  the  relations  of  objects  and  their  properties. 

The  rings  and  the  sticks,  used  separately  or  in  combination,  give  an 
opportunity  for  invention,  and  the  charming  figures  that  can  be  made 
with  them,  and  afterwards  copied,  give  a  great  attraction  and  a  powerful 
impulse  to  drawing,  for  the  Kindergarten  hardly  exhausts  the  elements 


CRITICISMS  ON  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM  AND  ITS  EXTENSION.  479 

which  prepare  for  the  admirable  method  of  linear  drawing  that  Froebel 
composed.  It  is  in  the  intermediate  class  and  the  primary  school  that  the 
teaching  of  linear  drawing  will  find  its  true  place.  It  constitutes  an 
excellent  preparation  for  the  study  of  penmanship,  of  which  the  pupil 
now  gains  his  first  notions. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  use  of  the  little  sticks  in  the  Kindergarten  is 
the  preparation  for  arithmetic.  The  child  counts  there  with  these  sticks  as 
he  counted  with  counters,  cubes,  etc.,  without  go'ing  beyond  twelve.  In 
the  intermediate  class,  he  does  not  go  beyond  twenty,  but  restrained  in 
these  limits,  he  passes  intuitively  through  all  the  different  operations  of 
arithmetic,  progressing  strictly  from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  imitat- 
ing the  little  sticks  upon  the  slate,  then  gradually  replacing  them  by  fig- 
ures. As  to  the  talks  and  object  lessons  to  which  selected  poems  serve  as 
illustrations,  they  take  a  more  instructive  character  in  the  intermediate 
class,  and  serve  (as  well  as  in  the  lower  classes  of  the  primary  school)  as 
preparation  for  natural  history  and  geography.  But  another  advantage 
can  be  taken  of  them.  A«t  the  end  of  every  talk  the  teacher  can  sum  up, 
in  a  few  simple,  clear,  concise  sentences,  some  elementary  notions  to 
which  the  little  story  or  object-lesson  has  led.  These  short  propositions, 
pronounced  clearly  and  correctly,  are  the  points  of  departure  for  the 
study  of  the  mother-tongue,  or  rather  of  its  first  steps,  reading.  Then 
these  propositions  can  be  analyzed  into  words  (five  or  six  words),  the 
words  into  syllables,  the  syllables  into  sounds.  This  first  initiation  into 
the  constituent  elements  of  language  may  occupy  six  months  at  least,  and 
prepare  for  the  reading  lessons  which  the  child  will  receive  in  the  lower 
stage  of  the  primary  school.  Then  the  symbol,  the  sign,  the  letter  will 
be  given  him  for  the  sound  which  he  knows.  This  preparatory  work 
abridges  and  facilitates  the  study  of  reading,  takes  from  it  all  its  dryness, 
and  secures  its  results.  This  intermediate  class  for  children  six  or  seven 
years  old  is  a  very  important  one.  We  will  even  say  that  we  think  it 
indispensable,  in  order  to  secure,  through  the  coming  years  of  study,  the 
advantages  of  Froebel's  system;  indispensable  to  the  primary  school, 
provided  the  primary  school  accepts  the  Kindergarten  as  its  basis,  and  its 
points  of  departure,  and  consents  to  be  the  continuation,  the  natural  con- 
sequence of  it.  The  intermediate  class  opens  the  way;  it  alone  can  ren- 
der possible  the  introduction  and  application  of  the  principles  of  Froebel 
to  the  primary  school;  it  is  the  necessary  link  which  will  one  day  make 
of  the  Kindergarten  and  the  primary  school  an  organized  whole. 

Education  by  Doing. 

But  the  intermediate  class  is,  as  we  have  said,  only  the  first  step  of  the 
reform  which  Froebel  looked  forward  to  for  the  present  primary  school. 
This  reform  is  to  consist  especially  in  the  introduction  of  the  Froebelian 
principle  of  work,  of  intelligent,  methodical  work,  which  demands  the 
concurrence  of  all  the  activities  of  the  child,  and  which  procures  him  the 
satisfaction  that  every  effort  brings  which  is  crowned  with  success.  To 
make  work  anything  but  a  hard  and  inevitable  law,  to  make  it  loved  for 
the  pure  enjoyment  of  which  it  is  the  source,  this  is  to  be  the  result  of 
the  Kindergarten  in  the  future. 


480  CRITICISMS  ON  FROEBEL'fe  SYSTEM  AND  ITS  EXTENSION. 

A  great  point  in  this  conception  of  work  is  that  it  alone  permits  the 
parallel  development  of  the  physical  and  intellectual  forces.  The  thought 
of  organizing  classes  of  industrial  labor  does  not  date  from  the  present 
time;  and  wherever  the  trial  has  been  made,  it  has  given  excellent  results.* 
The  pupils  prepared  in  the  Kindergartens  occupy  a  distinguished  place  in 
them,  and  prove  their  skill  and  intelligence.  To  introduce  manual  labor, 
we  are  told,  is  an  impossible  thing;  the  programmes  are  never  executed. 
Where  is  the  necessary  time?  We  are  among  those  who  think  that  in  the 
actual  execution  of  the  programmes  there  is  much  time  lost,  many  forces 
frittered  away.  Before  his  tenth  or  eleventh  year  the  child '  is  still  too 
young  to  be  restrained  during  several  consecutive  hours  in  a  purely  intel- 
lectual labor,  without  injuring  the  development  of  his  faculties.  Besides, 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  having  been  prepared  for  in  a  rational  man- 
ner, the  difficulties  and  delays  against  which  the  teacher  has  struggled, 
and  which  absorb  much  precious  time,  no  longer  existing,  we  should  see 
the  hours  of  study  diminish  of  themselves.  Three  hours  a  day  conse- 
crated to  actual  study  would  be  sufficient,  and  would  allow  two  hours 
devotion  to  manual  labor.  The  progress  of  the  pupils,  far  from  suffering 
by  it,  would  gain  by  it;  for  the  child,  always  on  the  alert  and  well  dis- 
posed, would  beam  with  pleasure  and  eagerness.  The  occupations  of  the 
Froebel  method,  developed  and  adapted  to  the  age  of  the  pupils,  would 
find  their  place  here,  and  would  do  excellent  service,  especially  in  the  first 
two  or  three  classes  of  the  primary  school.  The  branches  mentioned  in 
the  following  list  are  those  whose  introduction  into  the  programme  of  the 
primary  school  we  think  both  desirable  and  possible.  We  join  to  the  list 
of  the  occupations  the  number  of  hours  that  might  be  devoted  to  them: 
weaving,  two  hours  a  week;  paper-cutting,  one  hour;  folding,  two  hours; 
drawing,  two  hours;  modeling,  two  hours;  box-making,  two  hours. 

It  results  from  what  precedes,  that  the  question  of  introducing  the 
principles  of  Froebel  into  the  primary  school  should  be,  according  to  us, 
answered  in  the  affirmative,  but  that  this  introduction  is  only  possible  by 
the  assistance  of  an  intermediate  class,  annexed  as  an  upper  step  to  the 
Kindergarten,  and  forming  the  connection  between  this  and  the  primary 
school,  which,  on  its  side,  is  to  adopt  the  principles  of  the  great  philo- 
sophic pedagogue.  To  develop  the  instrument  of  labor,  the  hand,  and 
also  the  intelligence,  to  make  the  body  strong  and  supple,  and  the  mind 
lucid  and  profound,  to  educate  men  and  not  scholars,  would  not  this  be  a 
great  step  towards  the  solution  of  the  social  problem?  We  will  not  deny 
that  this  aim  is  an  ideal  one,  but  we  think  with  our  great  compatriot, 
Emmanuel  Kant,  "that  we  ought  to  educate  children  not  according  to 
the  present  condition  of  the  human  race,  but  according  to  a  better  possible 
condition  in  the  future,  that  is  to  say,  according  to  the  idea  of  humanity, 
and  its  completed  destiny." 

*  See  Barnard's  Journal  of  Education  : 

Labor  in  Juvenile  Reform  Schools,  III.,  12.  382,  393,  566,  821. 

Kindermann  and  Schools  of  Bohemia,  XXV1L,  811. 

Realistic  Studies  and  Labor,  XVII. ,  38,  151 ;  XIX.,  628;  XXI.,  202. 

Technical  Schools  in  Europe  Generally,  XVII.,  33;  XXL,  9-800;  XXVIII.,  1014. 

Labor  Element  in  Systems  of  Pestalozzi,  Fellenberg,  and  Wehrli,  X.,  81 ;  XXX.,  268. 

Manual  Labor  in  American  Schools,  XV.,  231 ;  XXV1L,  257. 

Labor  Element  in  English  Schools,  X.,  765 ;  XXII.,  23-250. 


KINDEEGAETEN  AND  CHILD  CULTUEE  IN  FEANCE, 


INFANT  ASYLUMS-CRADLE  SCHOOLS— KINDERGARTEN. 

ASYLUMS  for  children  form  a  subject  of  the  greatest  interest  and  importance, 
particularly  in  a  country  like  France,  where  the  custom  of  sending  infants  out 
to  be  nursed  has  been  universally  prevalent  for  a  long  time.  The  social  posi- 
tion of  the  parents  will  of  course  determine  the  fate  which  awaits  the  tender 
infant  during  the  first  months  of  its  existence.  If  the  parents  be  wealthy,  or 
even  belong  to  the  middle  class,  a  healthy  nurse  is  procured,  according  to  the 
advice  of  an  experienced  physician  ;  nothing  is  left  undone  that  tends  to  ameli- 
orate the  condition  of  the  infant,  and  all  possible  precautions  are  taken  to  meet 
successfully  the  many  dangers  incidental  to  its  young  life.  Far  different  is  the 
case  with  that  vast  majority  of  infants  whose  parents  either  live  in  abject 
poverty,  or  who,  in  order  to  earn  a  scanty  livelihood,  are  both  obliged  to  work 
from  early  morn  till  late  at  night  away  from  home.  That  which,  with  rich 
parents,  is  only  a  close  adherence  to  a  long-established  custom,  intended  to  meet 
the  wants  of  an  effeminate  age,  becomes  to  poor  people  a  dire  necessity. 

The  danger  of  this  whole  system  of  sendmg  infants  out  to  be  nursed  was  fully 
exposed  by  M.  Mayer,  who,  in  his  capacity  as  physician,  could  speak  from 
experience,  and  in  1865  he  published  an  appeal  to  the  public,  in  which  he  says  : 

"  This  is  a  crusade  which  we  are  going  to  wage  against  an  absurd  and  bar- 
barous custom,  that  of  abandoning,  a  few  hours  after  its  birth,  a  cherishe<( 
being,  whose  advent  has  been  ardently  desired,  to  the  care  of  a  rough  peasant- 
woman,  whom  the  parents  have  never  seen  before,  whose  character  and  manners 
the  real  mother  does  not  know,  who  carries  away  the  dearest  treasure  to  some 
unknown  village  in  the  provinces,  the  name  of  which  perhaps  is  not  even  given  on 
the  map  of  France.  There  is  something  so  revolting  to  the  moral  sense  in  this, 
that  twenty  years  hence  it  will  hardly  be  credited.  There  are  excellent  mothers 
who  resignedly  submit  to  this  sacrifice  without  any  other  sign  of  being  shocked 
than  some  furtive  tears,  which  they  carefully  hide,  as  too  great  an  indulgence 
to  human  weakness.  If  we  add  that  the  mother  has  not  always  even  the  satisfac- 
tion of  placing  the  newly-born  infant  directly  in  the  hands  of  the  person  who  is 
to  nurse  it,  but  that  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  women  from  the  country 
come  to  Paris  to  gather  the  nurselings  and  to  distribute  them  afterwards  through 
the  provinces,  we  shall  seem  to  exceed  the  bounds  of  truth ;  yet  this  is  strictly 
in  accordance  with  the  facts,  and  it  forms  a  regular  branch  of  industry,  a  trade 
no  less  productive  of  strange  developments  than  the  slave-trade." 

To  remedy  this  state  of  things  M.  Mayer  proposed  to  form  a  "  Society  for  the 
protection  of  infants,"  the  aim  of  which  is  to  be : 

1.  To  guard  the  infants  against  the  dangers  usually  attending  the  nursing  by 
hired  nurses,  far  from   their  parents,  without  sufficient  superintendence  and 
without  satisfactory  guarantee. 

2.  To  put  into  practice  the  regulations  laid  down  by  the  present  advanced 
medical  science  for  the  physical  development  of  infants,  before  undertaking  to 
cultivate  their  mental  powers.  31 


482  SUPPLEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  AND  ASYLUMS  IN  FRANCE. 

3.  To  pursue  simultaneously  at  u  suitable  age  the  physical,  moral,  and  intel- 
lectual training  of  the  child. 

This  society  is  to  attain  this  threefold  end  by  establishing  so-called  "  Maternal 
colonies"  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  great  cities,  and  providing  them  with 
carefully-selected  nurses;  also  with  milch-cows  of  superior  breed,  to  furnish  the 
milk  required  for  artificial  nursing,  and  by  a  system  of  rewards  given  to  those 
nurses  who  accomplish  their  task  in  the  best  manner. 

The  efforts  of  M.  Mayer  have  led  to  the  organization  of  societies  in  Lyons, 
Bordeaux,  Marseilles,  and  Rouen  to  carry  out  the  idea. 

GARDERIES. 

But  even  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  even  with  a  devoted  and 
attentive  nurse,  the  painfulness  of  the  infant's  separation  from  its  mother  is  not 
diminished  whether  the  parents  of  the  child  be  rich  or  poor.  In  the  case  of 
poor  parents  there  will  be  additional  circumstances  to  make  this  separation  a 
very  painful  one.  The  father  and  mother  are  obliged  to  work  incessantly  in 
order  to  gain  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  no  other  course  is  left  open  to  them 
than  either  to  confide  the  infant  to  the  care  of  the  hospital  founded  by  Saint 
Vincent  de  Paul,  or  to  keep  it  at  home,  thus  depriving  themselves  of  part  of 
the  earnings  indispensable  for  their  living.  The  charitable  societies  lend  some 
aid  in  this  latter  case,  but  not  sufficient ;  and  when  the  child  has  been  weaned, 
and  the  mother  goes  out  to  work  again,  it  is  given  to  the  care  of  a  little  brother 
or  sister,  who  generally  are  sadly  in  want  of  being  taken  care  of  themselves. 
If  the  mother  confides  her  infant  to  a  so-called  garderie,  or  to  one  of  those 
"weaning  establishments"  which  have  no  legal  existence,  and  which,  with  or 
without  the  approbation  of  the  mayor,  prescribed  in  the  regulations,  are  but  too 
often  directed  by  careless  women,  she  has  still  reason  to  tremble  for  the  health 
and  well  being  of  her  infant.  In  a  narrow  room,  deprived  of  fresh  air  and 
light,  the  unhappy  creatures  are  crowded  together;  their  bodily  development  is 
retarded,  and  as  a  natural  consequence  their  mental  powers  remain  totally 
undeveloped,  on  account  of  the  incapacity  of  the  superintending  women,  who 
rule  only  by  the  rod.  And  even  if  the  mother  keeps  her  child  at  home  on 
Sundays  and  feast  days  the  expense  will  be  70  centimes  per  day,  or  17  fr.,  20 
cts.  per  month. 

CRECHE,    OR   CRADLK-SCIIOOL. 

The  evil  had  certainly  reached  its  climax  when,  in  the  year  1P44,  M.  Marheau 
paid  a  visit  to  one  of  these  establishments.  This  visit  had  far-reaching  con- 
sequences, and  became  in  fact  the  turning  point  towards  a  better  system  of 
infant-education  in  France.  The  woman  who  had  several  little  infants  huddled 
together  in  a  miserable  room,  on  being  questioned  gave  the  following  account : 
that  as  a  general  rule  she  had  only  five  or  six  infants;  that  her  customers  paid 
her  only  eight  sous  per  head,  and  six  sous  in  addition  if  she  provided  food  for 
the  child;  that  in  the  morning  the  mothers  used  to  bring  clean  linen  and  take 
the  soiled  away  in  the  evening,  when  they  fetched  their  children,  and  that  if  the 
infants  were  not  yet  weaned,  the  mothers  came  to  nurse  them  themselves  at  the 
hours  when  they  took  their  meals.  These  last  words  were  a  ray  of  light  to  M. 
Marheau,  and  gave  him  the  first  idea  of  instituting  "cradle-schools."  Instead 
of  indulging  in  idle  laments  on  the  evil  effect  of  large  factories,  or  making  vain 
efforts  to  stop  the  irrepressible  march  of  modern  industry,  this  thoroughly 


SUPPLEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  AND  ASYLUMS  IN  FRANCE.  483 

honest  and  common-sense  man  at  once  conceived  a  plan  to  remedy  the  evil. 
Two  problems  were  to  be  solved.  As  regards  the  mothers,  how  a  safe  guarantee 
could  be  provided  which  neither  the  superintendence  of  a  young  child  nor  an 
old  woman  could  offer ;  as  regards  the  infants,  how  they  could  have  the  milk 
which  nature  herself  provides  in  the  mother's  breast,  and  the  affectionate  care 
which  their  tender  age  demands.  M.  Marbeau  immediately  went  to  work  to 
realize  his  projects.  lie  gave  a  full  and  true  account  of  the  actual  state  of 
affairs  to  the  Department  of  Benevolent  Institutions,  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
and  submitted  to  their  approbation  his  plan  for  a  "cradle-school."  A  com- 
mittee was  appointed,  and  M.  Marbeau  charged  with  the  report.  He  proved  in 
this  report  "  that  it  was  a  solemn  duty  to  extend  aid  to  these  poor  mothers  and 
poor  infants;  that  a  cradle-school  was  possible;  that  it  would  cost,  all  told, 
only  about  fifty  centimes  per  head ;  that  the  expenses  of  organizing  the  first 
establishment  would  be  trifling,  and  easily  met  by  charitable  donation  !  "  This 
report  awakened  the  sympathy  of  many,  and  though  the  Department  of  Benev- 
olent Institutions  did  not  feel  justified  in  giving  official  aid  to  this  private 
undertaking,  yet  most  of  its  members,  as  founders  of  the  establishment,  sub- 
scribed a  sum  towards  its  support.  Contributions  came  in  from  all  sides,  and 
the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  by  a  large  donation,  completed  the  required  sum. 

On  the  14th  November,  1844,  M.  Marbeau  was  thus  enabled  to  open  the  first 
institution,  organized  after  his  plan,  in  one  of  the  most  wretched  parts  of  Paris, 
No.  81,  Rue  de  Chaillot.  In  remembrance  of  the  infancy  of  our  Savior  he 
called  it  creche  (manger.)  There,  in  a  light  and  well-ventilated  room,  the 
infants  were  kept  from  5.30  A.  M.  till  8.30  P.  M.  in  summer,  and  from  6.30 
A.  M.  till  8  P.  M.  in  winter,  at  the  small  charge  of  twenty  centimes  per  day 
for  each  infant.  During  this  time  the  mothers,  who  were  obliged  to  go  out  to 
work,  came  at  certain  stated  times  each  day  to  nurse  their  children,  till  they 
were  weaned.  After  the  children  have  all  been  taken  home  in  the  evening  the 
room  is  left  open  all  night,  to  let  the  vitiated  air  escape,  and  be  entirely  reno- 
vated. Sundays  and  feast  days  the  cradle-school  remains  closed,  in  order  that 
by  thus  bringing  parents  and  children  together  once  a  week  the  family-tie  may 
not  be  too  much  relaxed.  Kind,  patient,  and  intelligent  women  attended  the 
children  all  day  long,  under  the  superintendence  of  a  lady  inspectress,  whose 
chanty  and  social  position  gave  sufficient  guarantee  for  their  being  well  cared 
for.  A  physician  was  employed  to  pay  daily  visits  to  the  school,  to  attend  to 
all  cases  of  sickness,  and  see  that  the  children  from  the  age  of  1  to  3  years  were 
supplied  with  food  best  suited  to  their  age. 

The  rapid  success  of  this  institution,  which  soon  could  not  contain  the  num- 
ber of  infants  that  were  sent  thither,  created  quite  a  sensation.  It  was  felt  that 
to  aid  the  working  man  in  the  care  and  education  of  his  infants  was  rendering 
a  great  service  to  the  family,  as  thereby  greater  inducements  were  held  out  to 
him  to  marry,  and  the  general  misery  of  the  poorer  classes  greatly  alleviated. 
Frequent  enquiries  came  from  all  parts  of  the  country  in  regard  to  the  organi- 
zation of  the  institution,  and  numerous  visitors  convinced  themselves,  by 
personal  inspection,  of  its  successful  working. 

In  February,  1845,  M.  Marbeau  published  his  work,  entitled:  "Cradle 
schools,  o-r  the  means  of  lessening  the  misery  of  the  people  by  increasing  the 
population,"  which  (Sept.  10,  1846)  was  rewarded  by  the  Monthyon  prize  given 
by  the  French  Academy.  M.  Villemain  very  appropriately  remarked  on  this 
occasion  :  "  Thus  is  realized  whatever  there  was  practicable  in  the  theories  and 


484  SUPPLEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  AND  ASYLUMS  IN  FRANCE. 

wishes  of  some  speculative  men.  The  object  is  not  to  establish  a  chimerical  and 
oppressive  community  amongst  men,  but  to  give  a  safe  support  to  the  com- 
mencement of  life  in  order  to  render  its  after-course  easier  and  better.  Here  as 
everywhere  the  work  of  humanity  is  a  political  work.  It  prepares  for  the 
family  and  the  state  a  more  numerous,  a  healthier,  and  stronger  population, 
accustomed  from  earliest  infancy  to  habits  of  order,  which  are  the  germs  of  all 
social  discipline." 

What  favor  these  institutions  found  with  the  public  may  be  inferred  from  a 
work  by  M.  Jules  Delbruck,  whose  name  is  worthy  to  be  placed  side  by  side 
with  that  of  the  founder,  entitled  :  "  Visit  to  the  Model  Cradle-School,"  and  his 
"General  Report  on  the  Cradle-Schools  of  Paris,"  both  published  towards  the 
end  of  1846,  in  which  he  counts  already  nine  institutions  of  this  kind,  containing 
180  cradles,  and  receiving  as  many  as  223  infants. 

The  example  of  Paris  was  soon  followed  by  other  cities,  viz. :  Bordeaux, 
Brest,  Melun,  Metz,  Nancy,  Nantes,  Orleans,  and  Rennes,  and  it  was  likewise 
soon  imitated  by  other  countries,  Holland,  Belgium,  Italy,  Spain,  Austria, 
China,  and  America. 

February  25th,  1847,  M.  Dupin,  senior,  inaugurated  the  "Society  for  Cradle 
Schools,"  which  aids  in  founding  and  maintaining  such  establishments  in  the 
Seine  Department.  The  clergy  also  sanctioned  and  encouraged  these  efforts ; 
men  like  Thiers,  Dufaure,  de  Fallou,  de  Melun,  lent  their  aid,  and  Emile 
Deschamps  made  them  the  subject  of  some  of  his  most  touching  poems. 

The  central  and  administrative  authorities  no  less  favored  the  work.  An 
imperial  decree  of  February  26,  1862,  placed  the  cradle-school  in  the  same  rank 
as  the  "  Maternal  Society "  and  the  "  Asylums."  The-'  empress  herself  took 
them  tinder  her  protection,  and  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  M.  de  Persigny, 
sent  his  order  concerning  these  schools  to  the  Prefects  (dated  June  30,  1862). 
The  Prefect  of  the  Seine  Department  likewise  strongly  recommended  them  in 
his  order  of  January,  1863. 

At  the  Universal  Exposition  of  1867,  on  the  day  of  the  opening  of  the  Exposi- 
tion, the  Model  Cradle-School  of  Sainte-Marie  was  opened  in  the  grounds  of 
the  Exposition  for  the  reception  of  infants,  and  was  in  successful  working  order 
till  the  closing  of  the  Exposition.  It  had  a  committee  of  administration,  a 
ladies'  committee,  and  a  medical  committee,  and  was  amply  supplied  with  every 
thing  required,  linen,  kitchen  and  washing  apparatus,  and  all  the  implements 
for  nursing  as  well  as  amusing  infants.  Special  mention  is  due  to  the  ingenious 
invention  of  M.  Jules  Delbruck,  called  by  him  la  Pouponniere,  which  must  be 
seen  to  be  fully  appreciated.  He  thus  describes  it  :  "  This  piece  of  furniture  I 
call  la  pouponniere,  from  the  word  poupon  (an  endearing  name  for  quite  a  small 
child).  It  forms  his  first  field  of  activity,  as  the  cradle  is  his  first  place  of  rest. 
The  children,  if  they  do  not  wish  to  sleep  any  longer,  find  here:  1.  A  place 
where  they  are  safe  from  all  danger;  2.  Something  to  lean  upon  whilst  making 
their  first  steps;  3.  A  gallery  with  a  double  bannister,  where  they  can  make 
their  first  tour  of  the  world;  4.  A  dining-room,  where  one  woman  suffices  to 
distribute  to  them  their  food,  as  to  a  nest  full  of  little  birds."  Whilst  the  pou* 
ponniere  serves  as  a  dining-room  and  playground  for  children  who  are  no  longer 
in  the  cradle,  and  who,  stretched  out  on  a  soft  carpet,  amuse  themselves  in  a 
manner  totally  unknown  to  the  victims  of  the  old  swaddling-clothes  system,  M. 
Marbeau  provides  also  an  exercise  for  the  larger  children  by  an  invention  which 
he  calls  la  petite  diligence,  "  the  little  mail  coach."  Six  children  who  cannot  yet 


SUPPLEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  AND  ASYLUMS  IX  FRANCE.  485 

walk  are  placed  in  it,  three  who  are  old  enough  to  do  so,  and  who  are  glad  to 
serve  as  horses,  are  attached  to  it ;  three  more  push  behind,  whilst  others,  armed 
with  innocent  little  whips,  gallop  alongside  of  the  vehicle,  and  all  this,  super- 
intended by  a  nurse,  results  in  a  healthy  exercise  for  some  of  them,  and  a  capital 
amusement  for  the  others. 

We  may  safely  assert  that  the  object  for  which  the  "Cradle-School"  was 
placed  in  the  Exposition  was  fully  attained.  It  was  constantly  crowded  with 
visitors,  and  not  a  single  objection  was  raised  to  its  practical  operation.  la  six 
months  it  threw  more  light  on  the  wants  of  the  infantile  age,  and  the  powerful 
influence  of  the  earliest  education,  than  could  otherwise  have  been  done  in 
twenty  yeat-s.  It  demonstrated  how  to  counteract  the  dreadful  mortality  of 
infants  (17  per  cent,  on  an  average  during  the  first  year),  which  to  a  large 
degree  may  be  traced  to  the  system  of  sending  children  to  be  nursed  away  from 
home,  or  to  their  careless  treatment  at  home. 

ASYLUMS   FOR   CHILDREN. 

The  idea  of  instituting  asylums  for  children  from  the  age  of  three  years  to 
seven  years  is  of  much  older  date  than  the  cradle-schools.  As  early  as  787  of 
the  Christian  era  we  find  that  a  priest  (Dateo)  founded  such  an  asylum  at 
Milan,  where  poor  children  were  kept,  fed,  clothed,  and  instructed  up  to  the 
seventh  year  of  their  age.  The  object  of  this  asylum  was  to  open  a  place  of 
refuge  for  children  of  poor  parents,  to  secure  them  from  the  dangers  of  being 
left  at  home  alone,  or  of  roaming  about  the  streets,  and  to  offer  an  opportunity 
to  the  parents  of  following  undisturbedly  their  daily  avocation.  This  benevolent 
idea  in  founding  such  asylums  is  therefore  many  centuries  old,  but  the  educa- 
tional idea  is  more  modern  ;  we"  find  it  mentioned  by  Diderat,  in  France,  1763  ; 
Bctzky,  in  Prussia,  1775;  Oberlin  and  Louisa  Schaeppler,  1770;  Madame  de 
Pastoret,  in  France,  1801;  Robert  Owen,  in  Scotland,  1819;  in  the  letters 
written  by  Pestalozzi  (Switzerland)  to  M.  Greaves  in  London,  in  1818,  and  in 
the  masterly  speech  of  Lord  Brougham  in  the  House  of  Lords,  May  21,  1835. 

Institutions  of  this  kind  were  started  under  different  names  in  various 
countries.  In  Germany  as  "  Kleinkinderschule,"  by  the  Princess  of  Lippe- 
Detmold  (1807),  and  the  Queen  of  Wurtemberg  (1816) ;  in  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land as  "Infant  Schools,"  by  Robert  Owen  (1819);  in  Italy  as  "  Scuole 
Infantile,"  by  Ferrauta  Aposti  (1829);  in  Belgium  as  "Ecoles  Gardiennes  " 
(1827). 

Before  entering  on  the  history  of  these  asylums  in  France  we  will  quote  the 
words  of  Madame  Mallet,  very  clearly  defining  their  object  (written  in  1835)  : 
"  The  asylum  receives  the  child  of  the  poor  during  the  daytime,  whilst  the 
mother  is  working  away  from  homo;  here  it  is  carefully  guarded  and  instructed; 
here  it  is  happy,  and  learns  to  know  its  duties  ;  it  receives  its  first  religious  im- 
pressions, and  contracts  pure  and  peaceful  habits  ;  secure  from  the  dangers  of 
isolation  and  bad  example,  it  grows  in  strength  of  body  and  mind,  and  when 
the  moment  arrives  of  leaving  the  asylum,  and  being  cast  on  the  wild  sea  of 
life,  it  is  better  able  to  keep  a  clear  course  amidst  its  roaring  waves.  The 
object  of  the  asylum  is  not  only  a  moral  and  religious  one,  but  eminently  a 
social  one,  because  by  guarding  the  children  from  all  the  dangers  to  which  they 
would  otherwise  be  exposed,  we  prevent  them  from  becoming  dangerous  to 
society  in  after  years.  The  education  which  the  child  receives  here  is  the  same 
which  a  good  and  faithful  mother  would  give  during  the  first  years  of  her  child's 


486  SUPPLEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  AND  ASYLUMS  IN  FRANCE. 

life,  if  she,  being  endowed  with  the  necessary  moral  and  intellectual  faculties, 
could  devote  all  her  time  to  it." 

The  first  impetus  toward  establishment  of  such  asylums  in  France  was  given 
in  1801  by  Madame  de  Pastoret,  but  it  did  not  lead  to  any  important  results. 
When,  however,  in  1826,  it  became  known  in  France  that  "Infant  Schools" 
had  been  established  in  England,  it  was  determined  to  imitate  this  example  at 
once.  A  committee  was  appointed  under  the  direction  of  Abbe  Desgenettes, 
superintendent  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  Madame  de  Pastoret.  This  committee 
of  ladies  published  a  prospectus  and  solicited  contributions,  which  during  the 
first  year  reached  the  amount  of  6,901  francs.  As  this  sum  was  not  sufficient, 
an  application  for  aid  was  sent  to  the  "  General  Council  of  Hospitals,"  which,  in 
May,  1826,  made  a  donation  of  3,000  francs,  and  gave  a  house  situated  in  the 
Rue  du  Bac,  where  soon  eighty  children  (from  2  to  6  years)  were  instructed  by 
Sisters  of  Providence  de  Portieux.  As  however  the  system  had  not  yet  been 
fully  understood,  only  two  English  pamphlets  on  the  subject  having  been  trans- 
lated, enquiries  had  to  be  instituted  anew.  It  was  at  this  time  (1827)  that  M. 
Cochin,  who,  without  knowing  anything  about  these  efforts  of  the  ladies'  com- 
mittee, had  privately  inaugurated  a  similar  school  on  a  small  scale  in  the  Rue 
des  Gobelins,  was  first  brought  in  connection  with  it.  He  entered  heart  and 
soul  into  their  undertaking,  and  procured  an  active  and  persevering  person, 
Madame  Millet,  who  was  sent  to  England  for  the  express  purpose  of  studying 
practically  the  system  pursued  in  the  infant  schools  of  that  country.  M.  Cochin 
shortly  after  went  there  himself.  Having  studied  the  system  theoretically, 
whilst  Madame  Millet  had  gone  through  a  practical  course,  they  both  returned 
to  France.  This  lady  at  once  undertook  the  superintendence  of  an  asylum  in 
the  Rue  des  Martyrs,  and  M.  Cochin,  at  his  own  expense,  founded  the  great 
free  asylum  for  1,000  children,  Avhich  since  March  22,  1831,  has  been  called 
after  his  name,  and  which  has  not  yet  been  surpassed  in  excellence  by  any  other 
institution  of  the  kind.  During  the  first  two  or  three  years  the  ladies'  com- 
mittee founded  three  asylums,  where  600  children  were  kept  every  day.  This 
of  course  soon  exhausted  their  slender  funds,  the  contributions  diminished,  and 
in  the  month  of  June,  1829,  things  came  to  such  a  pass  that  there  were  only 
1,250  francs  in  the  treasurer's  hands,  whilst  the  annual  expenses  for  Paris 
amounted  to  about  16,000.  No  other  course  was  left  open  but  to  apply  again 
for  aid  to  the  "  General  Council  of  Hospitals."  This  appeal  proved  not  in  vain, 
for  by  a  decree  of  this  council,  published  October  23,  1829,  and  sanctioned  by 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  the  government  took  the  whole  work  under  its 
protection,  and  the  ladies'  committee  was  charged,  February  3,  1830,  with  the 
superintendence  of  all  the  asylums  in  the  city  of  Paris.  The  work  now  lost  its 
private  character,  and  became  a  public  institution,  receiving  a  sure  support  from 
the  government,  thus  establishing  it  on  a  firm  basis. 

In  July,  1836,  a  rescript  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  placed  the 
asylums  from  January  1,  1837,  under  the  administration  of  the  school  authori- 
ties, created  by  the  law  of  June  28,  1833.  The  legal  existence  of  the  ladies* 
committee  thus  reached  its  end,  after  a  period  of  eleven  years,  during  which 
time  it  had  received,  by  charitable  gifts,  and  subsci-iptions,  the  sum  of  247,912 
francs  37  centimes,  and  gradually  founded  24  asylums.  In  spite  of  this  change, 
the  ladies  of  the  committee  were  invited  to  continue  their  functions,  under  the 
title,  "Ladies'  Directress,"  and,  joyfully  consenting,  have  since  that  time 
devoted  all  their  leisure  hours  to  this  work.  When  in  1837  a  "  Committee  on 


SUPPLEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  AND  ASYLUMS  IN  FRANCE.  487 

Asylums  "  was  appointed,  all  of  them  found  a  place  in  it.  Since  that  time  the 
"  Asylums  for  Children  "  have  been  reckoned  among  the  primary  schools  ;  their 
future  has  been  fully  secured,  and  little  remained  to  be  done  but  to  give  a  public 
exhibit  of  their  advantages,  and  the  best  way  of  founding  and  directing  them. 
This  was  done  in  1833  by  M.  Cochin,  who  in  that  year  published  his  "  Manual 
for  Primary  Infant  Schools  or  Asylums."  Though  this  standard  work  thoroughly 
exhausts  the  subject,  it  was  nevertheless  thought  advisable  to  promulgate  the 
ideas  contained  in  it  still  further,  and  a  journal  was  consequently  started  by  M. 
Cochin  and  M.  Batelle,  called  " L'ansi  I'enfance"  ("The  Infant's  Friend,") 
which  has  been  published  by  M.  Hachctte  (Paris)  from  January  1, 1835,  to 
December  31,  1840,  and  has  thoroughly  treated  every  subject  of  interest  concern- 
ing infant  schools.  For  a  short  time  it  ceased  to  appear,  because  it  was  thought 
that  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  subject  had  been  diffused.  When  the  whole 
work  of  infant  schools  extended  to  such  a  degree  that  new  methods  and  regula- 
tions became  necessary,  the  journal  was  taken  up  again  in  1846,  under  the 
auspices  of  M.  de  Sal  van  dy,  May  16,  1854  (by  an  imperial  decree).  The  asy- 
lums were  placed  under  the  protection  of  her  Majesty  the  Empress,  and  under 
the  direction  of  a  central  committee,  presided  over  by  the  Archbishop  of  Paris. 
In  this  same  year  a  third  series  of  the  journal  was  commenced  by  M.  Eugene 
Rendre,  and  has  in  its  new  form  continued  to  appear  to  the  present  day.  It 
has  been  a  perfect  success,  and  has  been  the  means  of  continually  throwing  more 
light  on  the  subject,  and  suggesting  new  improvements.  One  of  these  has  been 
the  so-called  "  Kindergarten,"*  first  introduced  by  Froebel,  a  pupil  of  Pestalozzi, 
which  has  found  special  favor  in  Germany,  Holland,  Belgium,  and  Switzerland. 
Thus,  theoretically  and  practically  much  has  been  done  to  further  "  infant 
education,"  and  with  the  constant  development  of  science  in  all  its  various 
spheres,  we  can  joyfully  look  into  the  future,  hoping  that  this  plant,  rooted  in  a 
fertile  ground,  may  constantly  bear  richer  fruits,  spread  its  branches  over  all 
parts  of  the  world,  and  continue  to  be  a  blessing  to  humanity. 

NORMAL   SCHOOL   FOR   TEACHERS   OF    INFANT    ASYLUMS. 

To  complete  this  sketch,  we  add  some  remarks  on  "  The  Normal  School " 
now  connected  with  the  asylums.  Till  December  22,  1837,  the  day  which  gave 
official  sanction  to  these  establishments,  the  only  means  of  instruction  were  the 
advice  given  by  Madame  Millet  and  the  excellent  manual  of  M.  Cochin  ;  as  for 
the  rest,  only  a  good  moral  reputation  was  required  of  the  directresses  and 
teachers.  The  royal  decree  now  obliged  them  to  undergo  an  examination,  and 
obtain  a  certificate  of  qualification,  which  of  course  implied  the  necessity  of  a 
regular  course  of  instruction.  Nothing  was  done,  however,  till  the  year  1847, 
when  Madame  Pape-Carpenticr,  directress  of  an  asylum  at  Mans,  published  her 
work,  "  Suggestions  for  the  Direction  of  Asylums,"  which  was  very  well 
received  by  the  public  and  the  authorities.  M.  de  Salvandy,  then  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction,  took  the  matter  in  hand,  and  at  his  suggestion  Madame 
Jules  Mallet  and  Madame  Pape  formed  a  ladies'  committee.  A  small  room  was 
hired  in  the  Rue  Neuve-Saint-Paul,  and  arrangements  made  to  receive  five 
pupils,  which  number  soon  increased  to  ten.  Madame  Pape  was  the  directress. 

*The  Kindergarten  of  Froebel,  was  first  brought  to  the  notice  of  French  philanthropists  and 
teachers  by  the  Baroness  Marenhaltz  Balow  through  a  series  of  Letters  and  Lectures,  after- 
wards published  in  a  volume  entitled  Die  Asbeit  Labour. 


48$  CHILD  CULTURE  IN  FRANCE. 

Madame  Pape-Carpentier. 

Maria  Carpentier  was  born  at  La  Fleche  in  the  department  of  La  Sartlie 
in  1815.  She  showed  early  a  decided  taste  for  letters  and  the  management 
of  children,  and  in  1834  she  was  associated  with  her  mother  in  the  direction 
of  a  Salle  d' aisle,  or  infant  school,  founded  by  a  philanthropic  society. 
After  several  years  successful  experience  in  this  associated  work,  she 
became  in  1842  directress  of  a  Model  Infant  School  at  LeMans,  and  in  1847 
was- summoned  to  the  capital  to  organize  a  Training  Class  for  teachers  of 
this  grade.  In  1849  she  was  married  to  M.  Pape,  an  officer  in  the  Paris 
guard.  Her  husband  died  in  1858,  when  she  was  left  with  the  education 
and  support  of  two  girls  of  her  own,  three  orphan  children  of  her  brother, 
and  a  fourth  of  a  deceased  friend.  She  did  her  work  nobly  as  teacher  and 
mother — making  her  Training  Class  and  Infant  School  a  model  for  similar 
work  elsewhere,  and  by  her  Manual  of  Directions  for  Infant  School 
Teachers,  her  Object  Lessons  (Lecons  de  Chores),  Zoologie  and  similar 
works  for  young  people,  making  valuable  additions  to  the  pedagogical 
and  juvenile  literature  of  France.  Her  Manual  was  crowned  by  the 
Academy  and  received  the  prize  of  three  thousand  francs. 

In  1855-6  she  became  interested  through  the  Baroness  V.  Marenholtz- 
Bulow  in  Froebel's  system,  and  in  connection  with  her  Infant  School 
made  demonstration  of  the  methods  and  value  of  the  Kindergarten. 

In  1867  at  a  conference  of  teachers  held  at  the  Sorborne  during  the  great 
exposition  of  that  year,  under  the  appointment  of  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction,  she  gave  a  course  of  practical  pedagogy  in  the  Kindergarten  and 
Infant  School  System,  with  demonstrations  by  classes  of  little  children. 
She  urged  all  teachers  and  mothers  "to  get  more  space  and  air,  and  out  of 
door  life  for  their  children;  make  them  familiar  with  the  phenomena  of 
nature;  transfer  a  portion  of  your  school  grounds  into  garden,  that 
flowers  and  verdure  may  gladden  the  eyes  and  hearts  of  your  children, 
and  employ  at  once  their  hands  and  their  minds." 

After  twenty-five  years  of  successful  practical  work  as  a  teacher  she  was 
made  in  1874  Inspectress  General  of  Salles  d'  Aisle  throughout  France, 
and  died  in  July  1878  in  the  midst  of  preparation  of  her  own  work  for 
the  Paris  International  Exhibition  of  that  year. 

Baroness  V.  Marenholtz-Bulow. 

In  1855  many  of  the  leading  minds  of  France,  representing  the  most 
diverse,  official,  educational,  and  literary  activity,  became  interested  in 
Froebel's  doctrines  of  education  through  the  efforts  of  the  Baroness  Von 
Marenholtz  Billow,  who,  without  letters  of  introduction,  and  without 
recourse  to  any  sensational  appliances,  by  the  mere  force  of  her  own  genius 
and  the  profound  importance  of  the  views  she  presented,  obtained  not 
only  a  hearing,  but  received  the  most  satisfactory  assurance  of  their 
convictions  and  adoption  of  the  truths  which  she  presented,  from  the 
minds  referred  to.*  The  fruits  of  her  labors  will  be  found  in  the  modifica- 
tions of  the  Creche  and  Salles  d' Aisles,  and  not  in  institutions  named 
Kindergartens. 

*  See  brief  Memoir  of  Bertha  V.  Marenholtz-Bulow  in  Barnard's  American  Journal  of 
Education,  vol.  XXXI :  the  correspondence  which  grew  put  of  the  Baroness'  labors  in 
different  countries,  it  is  there  announced  by  the  editor,  will  be  found  in  a  fuller  memoir 
hereafter. 


KINDEEGAKTEN  AND  CHILD  CULTUEE  IN  BELGIUM. 


INTRODUCTION.* 

THE  present  system  of  primary  instruction  in  Belgium  grew  out  o*" 
the  efforts  made  by  voluntary  associations  organized  after  the  model  of 
the  Society  of  Public  Utility  in  Holland,  after  the  former  country  came 
under  the  Dutch  government  in  1814.  Besides  aid  given  to  adult  and 
Sunday  schools,  a  beginning  was  made  in  establishing  ecoles  gardiennes, 
as  infant  schools  were  called.  In  1826,  a  special  society  was  started  at 
Brusselles,  charged  with  this  work.  In  the  school  law  of  1842.  the  com- 
munal authorities  were  authorized  to  apply  a  portion  of  the  public 
money  appropriated  to  primary  schools  "to  increase  the  establishment 
of  infant  schools,  especially  in  cities  and  factory  villages." 

In  a  circular  addressed  by  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  charged  with 
the  supervision  of  public  instruction,  the  provincial  inspectors  were 
directed  to  give  special  attention  to  "  les  ecoles  gardiennesf  as  the  basis 
of  popular  education. 

In  1857,  the  great  apostle  of  the  kindergarten,  the  Baroness  V. 
Marenholtz-Biilow,  visited  Brusselles,  on  invitation  of  the  Minister  Ro- 
gier,  who  had  listened  to  her  exposition  of  its  principle  and  aim,  at 
Frankfort,  before  the  Charity  Congress  of  that  year.  She  here  met  Mrs. 
Guilliaume,  who  had  been  trained  in  FroebePs  system  at  Hamburgh, 
and  addressed  numerous  circles  of  Indies,  school  officers,  and  teachers, 
on  the  kindergarten.  By  public  addresses  and  personal  labors  in  eight 
or  ten  of  the  largest  cities  in  Belgium,  she  succeeded  in  establishing 
model  kindergartens,  interesting  many  school  officers  in  the  work,  modi- 
fying the  methods  of  the  orphan  asylums,  and  securing  the  publication 
of  a  Manuel  des  Jardines  d^Enfants,  edited  partly  by  herself.  She  also 
secured  for  a  model  kindergarten  the  personal  services  of  Miss  Henrietta 
Breymann,  niece  of  Froebel  (afterwards  married  to  Mr.  Schrader,  and 
now  (1881)  at  Berlin,  with  a  kindergarten  institute  in  charge). 

In  1860,  the  government  directed  that  "instruction  in  the  methods  of 
Froebel  should  be  introduced  into  the  normal  courses  for  female  teach- 
ers." In  the  statistics  for  1872,  there  are  returns  of  780  ecoles  gardiennes, 
of  which  262  are  communal,  220  penal  and  subject  to  inspection,  and 
348  connected  with  religious  asylums  and  associations.  These  institu- 
tions were  under  the  charge  of  11  instructors  and  1196  female  teachers 
and  assistants,  and  numbered  78,241  pupils. 

In  the  regulations  drawn  up  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction 
(M.  Van  Humbeeck)  from  the  new  school  law  of  1879,  the  local  authori- 

*For  Historical  Development  of  Public  Instruction  in  Belgium  see  Barnard's  National 
Systems  of  Public  Instruction,  Vol.  II.  BELGIUM,  p.  869-462. 

489 


490  KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD  CULTURE  IN  BELGIUM. 

tics  must  distinguish  between  the  institutions  which  are  parts  of  the 
public  system  and  those  which  are  mere  asylums  for  the  care  of  neg- 
lected infants.  The  principal  districts  must  employ  persons  u  trained  in 
the  theory  and  practice  of  the  method  of  the  illustrious  German  peda- 
gogue," and  in  the  organization  and  discipline  of  ecoles  maternelles. 

To  effect  a  thorough  reform  in  existing  institutions,  and  create  a 
higher  grade  of  infant  schools,  provision  is  made  for  the  training  of  a 
sufficient  number  of  intelligent  and  devoted  kindergartners.  By  a  royal 
ordinance  of  March,  1880,  a  special  diploma  is  issued  for  aspirants  to 
the  charge  of  these  institutions,  and  special  courses  of  instruction  are 
given  in  the  regular  normal  schools  and  the  temporary  institutes. 

During  the  year  (1880),  at  Antwerp,  Brusselles,  Bruges,  Charleroi, 
Ghent,  Liege,  Mons,  Namur,  and  St.  Josseton-Noode,  830  caadidates 
were  enrolled  in  the  normal  courses,  and  720  obtained  the  certificate  of 
capacity,  for  instructors  of  the  ecoles  gardiennes,  in  addition  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  ordinary  school  branches,  which  require  previous  at- 
tendance of  three  years.  At  the  end  of  three  years  of  actual  practice 
the  holders  get  a  full  diploma  for  the  higher  position  of  principal. 

The  programme  of  instruction  embraces:  1.  Froebel  and  his  system; 
2.  Story-telling,  conversation  on  real  objects  and  pictures,  narrative,  sim- 
ple poetry;  3.  Singing;  4.  Simple  gymnastics  and  plays;  5.  Gardening. 

The  ecole  maternelle  embraces  children  from  three  to  six  years  of  age, 
and  excludes  reading  and  writing.  After  the  age  of  six,  attention  is 
given  to  reading  and  penmanship,  preparatory  to  the  lower  division  of 
the  public  primary  school.  It  is  enjoined  on  the  directors  to  continue 
certain  of  Froebel's  exercises,  and  to  make  the  transition  from  the  kin- 
dergarten to  the  school  without  any  violent  break.  The  formation  of  a 
transition  class  is  recommended  by  the  minister. 

The  Belgian  League  (Ligue  Beige  de  Henssignemenf),  organized  in 
1866,  has  taken  an  active  interest,  both  by  its  individual  members  and 
its  associated  efforts,  to  strengthen  the  foundation  of  all  popular  educa- 
tion by  improving  the  earliest  stages  of  child-culture  in  the  homes  of 
the  poor,  and  by  substituting  the  kindergarten  for  the  ordinary  infant 
school  and  child's  asylum.  Under  its  auspices  the  Model  School  in 
Brusselles  was  instituted  to  secure  the  best  moral,  mental  and  physical 
training  for  its  pupils. 

KINDERGARTEN   IN   HOLLAND. 

From  Belgium,  in  the  summer  of  1856,  the  Baroness  V.  Marenholtz 
visited  Holland,  and  was  successful  in  instituting  Kindergartens  in 
Amsterdam,  the  Hague,  Rotterdam,  and  Gueldern,  and  in  interesting 
the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  and  several  Inspectors  of  Elementary 
Schools,  and  Directors  of  Children's  Asylums,  in  Froebel's  System. 


PUBLIC  KINDERGARTENS  IN  BRUSSELS. 

REPORT  OF  M.  BULS  TO  CITY  AUTHORITIES  ON  THEIR  ORGANIZATION. 


ATMS   AND    ORGANIZATION. 

THE  Kindergarten  is  of  prime  importance  in  the  organization  of  public 
instruction  in  cities  having  a  large  working  population,  where  the  children 
have  not  proper  care  at  home,  and  where  proper  care  is  well-nigh  impos- 
sible to  many  families,  from  the  ignorance  or  the  loss  or  the  intemperance 
of  one  or  both  parents,  and  the  early  exposure  of  the  children  to  moral  de- 
terioration and  vagabondage  in  the  streets. 

The  aim  of  the  Kindergarten  is  to  give  to  all  children,  and  particularly 
to  those  who  are  neglected  and  exposed,  early  physical  and  moral  develop- 
ment—and to  protect  them  from  forming  bad  habits  in  respect  to  language, 
manners,  and  conduct.  To  accomplish  these  results  the  Kindergarten 
must  be  organized  and  conducted  on  the  Froebel  method — a  method  in  which 
the  senses,  the  intelligence,  and  the  necessary  activity  of  children  are 
trained  in  a  rational  way  pointed  out  by  wise  observation  and  experience 
of  child  nature.  This  method  belongs  primarily  to  a  well-regulated  home, 
and  should  be  exercised  by  the  mother  in  accordance  with  the  motherly 
instinct  properly  enlightened.  Its  place  is  more  like  a  home  with  its 
liberty  of  locomotion  and  occupation  than  a  school  with  its  necessary 
restraints.  Its  pupils  are  not  so  much  instructed,  as  their  faculties  and 
intelligence  are  developed  by  activity  and  observation  in  pure  air  and 
favorable  surroundings. 

By  a  graduated  series  of  plays,  exercises,  occupations,  and  moral  and 
instructive  talks,  children  are  led  to  see  correctly,  to  listen  intelligently,  to 
acquire  correct  notions,  to  be  interested  in  everything  that  surrounds 
them;  they  are  led  to  observe,  to  express  themselves  clearly,  to  develop 
their  inventive  and  constructive  faculties;  and  great  success  is  met  with  in 
inculcating  the  need  and  habits  of  order  and  cleanliness,  a  taste  for  labor 
and  love  of  goodness,  which  form  the  basis  of  all  aesthetic  and  moral  edu- 
cation. 

The  things  with  which  the  children  in  a  Kindergarten  are  occupied  are 
not  to  be  chosen  for  their  value  as  knowledge,  but  as  the  means  they  fur- 
nish for  leading  them  to  observe,  to  think,  and  to  express  their  ideas. 

They  are  to  be  drawn  out  of  the  intellectual  somnolence  produced  by 
ignorance,  care  always  being  taken  to  avoid  exciting  them  by  artificial 
means.  It  is  not  by  tickling  a  child  that  it  is  made  to  laugh.  Joy,  like 
curiosity,  must  be  the  result  of  the  natural  expansion  of  the  being,  content 
to  live  and  attracted  by  the  novelty  of  eternal  things. 

The  Kindergartner  will  endeavor  to  combat  the  natural  selfishness  of  the 
child  by  giving  it  an  opportunity  to  be  kind  and  amiable  to  its  companions; 
she  will  at  the  same  time  transform  the  brutal  ways  the  child  often  brings 


492  PUBLIC  KINDERGARTENS  IN  BRUSSELS. 

from  home  or  the  street,  into  affable  and  polite  manners.  The  extemal 
arrangements  of  the  Kindergarten  should  be  such  that  in  good  weather  the 
greater  part  of  the  day  can  be  passed  in  the  open  air ;  for  what  must  be 
secured  to  the  child  above  all  things  is  robust  health,  to  enable  it  to  resist 
the  deleterious  influences  it  will  be  subjected  to  at  home  and  in  the  street. 

To  this  first  condition  must  be  added  scrupulous  neatness ;  the  parents 
must  be  rigorously  required  to  change  their  children's  linen  at  least  twice 
during  the  week. 

Every  morning,  the  first  hour  must  be  set  apart  for  the  duties  of  cleanli- 
ness, and  the  children  must  not  be  sent  home  at  night  till  the  guardians  have 
verified  the  fact  that  their  garments  are  in  good  condition  and  their  bodies 
perfectly  clean;  the  Kindergartners  must  be  aided  in  these  cases  by  the 
waiting-maids,  and  bathing  facilities  must  be  annexed  to  every  Kinder- 
garten. 

In  order  that  the  primary  school  shall  be  furnished  by  the  Kindergartens 
with  well-prepared  children,  the  Kindergartners  must  be  penetrated  with 
the  spirit  of  Froebel's  method,  and  no  hybrid  compromise  must  be  made 
between  the  Kindergarten  and  the  school  originally  so  called. 

But  the  intelligent  application  of  this  method  supposes  a  certain  culture 
of  mind :  it  is  not,  then,  too  much  to  demand  of  the  Kindergartners  that 
they  shall  be  furnished  with  a  diploma  of  primary  instruction,  and  that 
they  shall  be  recognized  as  having  profited  by  a  normal  course  of  the 
Froebel  method. 

The  Kindergartens  must  not  contain  too  many  children,  and  they  must 
be  disseminated  throughout  the  city,  in  order  that  the  children  may  not 


Accommodations  Necessary. 

The  accommodations  necessary  for  a  Kindergarten  are  as  follows: 

1.  Three  rooms,  each  capable  of  containing  fifty  pupils.  2.  A  covered 
yard.  3.  A  play-ground.  4.  A  garden  divided  into  small  gardens. 
5.  A  small  room  furnished  with  wash-stands  and  towels.  6.  Privies 
with  suitable  vessels.  7.  A  closet  in  which  the  materials  for  play  and 
work  can  be  locked  up.  8.  An  apartment  for  the  Kindergartners  which 
will  at  the  same  time  answer  for  the  meetings  of  committees.  9.  An 
office  for  the  superintending  Kindergartner.  10.  A  lodging  for  the  janitor. 

The  furniture  of  each  class  will  consist  of  tables  at  which  the  children 
shall  sit  on  seats  with  backs,  proportioned  to  their  stature;  and  a  few 
couches  for  children  who  fall  asleep. 

A  table  and  chair  for  the  Kindergartner,  also  a  cabinet  to  contain  the 
ordinary  material  used  in  the  Froebel  method. 

The  hall  should  be  decorated  with  pictures  and  various  objects  which  the 
committee  will  endeavor  to  procure  gratuitously  for  each  Kindergarten. 

The  curiosity  of  the  children  of  the  poor  should  be  excited  by  the  sight 
of  the  new  objects  they  will  see  in  the  Kindergarten,  as  that  of  the  children 
of  the  rich  who  see  in  their  own  houses  a  thousand  objects  calculated  to 
provoke  questioning. 

The  children  should  also  be  incited  to  work  for  the  decoration  of  their 


PUBLIC  KINDERGARTENS  IN  BRUSSELS.  493 

halls;  their  little  productions  should  be  hung  upon  the  walls;  they  will 
thus  learn  that  nothing  can  be  obtained  without  exertion,  and  that  gratifi- 
cation must  always  be  attained  by  some  degree  of  labor. 

The  elder  children  should  be  taught  to  clean  their  hall,  their  benches, 
and  their  tables  themselves ;  they  should  every  day  arrange  the  things  that 
have  been  used  in  the  cabinet,  in  order  to  practice  neatness  and  order. 

The  discipline  of  the  Kindergarten  should  be  humane  but  not  effemi- 
nate; the  children  must  be  taught  to  take  care  of  themselves,  to  bear  the 
inconveniences  of  their  giddiness  and  carelessness,  to  clean  whatever  they 
soil,  to  wait  upon  themselves;  they  must  be  led  by  a  gentle  but  firm  hand. 

The  children  of  the  upper  division  should  be  led  to  do  everything  they 
can  to  assist  those  in  the  lower  divisions,  in  order  to  acquire  those  senti- 
ments of  solidarity  and  familiarity  which  should  unite  all  members  of  the 
same  community.  They  will  then  feel  the  satisfaction  of  being  useful,  so 
pleasant  to  all  children ;  they  will  taste  the  happiness  of  devoting  themselves 
to  those  weaker  than  themselves,  a  sentiment  which  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  the  great  law  of  charity  and  love,  to  which  is  attributed  the  superiority 
of  our  modern  society  over  any  ancient  civilization. 

With  the  system  of  small  schools,  it  will  no  longer  be  necessary  to  place 
a  directress  at  the  head  of  each  Kindergarten ;  the  principal  Kindergartner 
will  receive  an  indemnity  for  filling  the  office  of  chief  Kindergartner;  she 
will  watch  over  the  material  order  of  the  establishment,  maintain  disci- 
pline among  the  teaching  corps,  and  direct  the  distribution  of  time. 

General  Inspection. 

The  pedagogic  direction  will  be  confided  to  an  inspectress;  her  mission 
will  be  to  watch  over  the  progress  of  the  occupations,  to  observe  the  pro- 
gramme and  proper  application  of  Froebel's  method,  and  control  the  order 
and  the  neatness  and  preservation  of  the  material.  At  intervals  determined 
by  the  school  authority,  the  inspectress  will  assemble  the  teaching  force 
for  conference,  or  give  model  talks  or  typical  exercises,  and  thus  maintain 
a  constant  spirit  of  progress  and  prevent  them  from  ever  falling  into  a 
mechanical  teaching  or  a  mere  routine. 

Committee  for  each  Kindergarten. 

For  the  special  committees  of  each  Kindergarten  we  should  like  to 
depend  upon  the  volunteer  cooperation  of  the  ladies  of  Brussels.  What 
better  way  can  they  find  to  employ  their  benevolence,  their  native  charity, 
than  to  watch  over  the  education  of  the  poor  children?  How  often  might 
they  be  able  to  give  useful  counsels  to  the  mothers,  and  ameliorate  secret 
sufferings!  They  should  be  our  co-laborers  in  the  great  civilizing  work 
that  we  are  undertaking;  they  especially  have  it  in  their  power  to  be  the 
bond  of  union  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  ignorant  and  the  culti- 
vated. Our  country  is  happily  free  from  that  caste  hatred  which  so  cruelly 
divides  rich  and  poor  in  some  lands;  may  all  the  women  whom  fortune 
has  favored  understand  how  much  the  maintenance  of  this  favorable  con- 
dition depends  upon  their  charity  and  their  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the 
people  1 


494  PUBLIC  KINDERGARTENS  IN  BRUSSELS. 

REGULATIONS. 

ARTICLE  I.     The  object,  of  the  kindergarten  is  to  develop  harmoniously 
the  moral  and  intellectual  faculties  and  physical  forces  of  children. 
This  result  may  be  obtained  by  the  application  of  Froebel's  Method. 

II.  The  distribution   of  time  and  of   the  pedagogic   instruction    are 
decreed  by  the  Board  (College  of  Bourgmestre  and  Echevins.) 

Conditions  of  Admission. 

III.  The  parents  who  desire  to  place  a  child  in  a  kindergarten  must 
produce  first,  a  declaration  from  the  police  indicating  the  child's  age,  the 
domicile  and  profession  of  the  parents:    Second.  The  certificate  of  vacci- 
nation. 

IV.  The  attendance  is  without  cost  to  the  child  that  belongs  to  the 
commune  between  three  and  seven  years  of  age,  and  where  the  parents 
request  it. 

V.  Children  who  breakfast  at  the  kindergarten  must  be  furnished  with 
a  basket  for  their  food  and  a  goblet. 

Hours  of  Attendance. 

VI.  The  kindergartens  are  open  from  eight  in  the  morning  until  four 
in  the  afternoon.     The  children  can  be  dismissed  from  half  past  eleven 
till  half  past  one.     The  children  who  breakfast  at  the  kindergarten  are 
placed  under  the  care  of  the  assistants  and  waiting  maids. 

VII.  The  children  are  received  at  any  hour  at  which  they  present 
themselves. 

VIII.  The  children  who  are  not  taken  away  by  their  parents  at  the 
closing  hour  of  the  kindergarten  will  be  in  the  care  of  one  of  the  mis- 
tresses or  confided  to  some  safe  person  to  be  taken  home.     They  will  no 
longer  be  admitted,  if  the  parents  after  being  duly  notified,  fall  habitually 
into  the  same  negligence. 

The  exclusion,  however,  can  only  be  pronounced  by  the  Board. 

IX.  The  vacation  days  are,   Sundays;  the  1st  of  November;  15th  of 
November;  25th  of  December:  1st  of  January. 

Mardi-Gras  in  the  afternoon,  Easter  Monday.     Monday  afternoon  of  the 
kermesse  of  Brussels. 

X.  The  epoch  and  duration  of  the  long  vacations  are  as  follows: 
Eight  days  before  Easter.     The  month  of  August. 

The  Inspectress. 

XI.  The  pedagogic  direction  of  the  kindergartens  is  confided  to  an 
inspectress. 

XII.  The  inspectress  watches  over  the  execution  of  the  programme 
decreed  by  the  Communal  Administration,  she  directs  its  application  by 
conforming  strictly  to  the  principles  of  Froebel's  Method  such  as  they  are 
determined  by  the  instructions  of  the  Board.     Her  inspection  extends  also 
to  the  material  part  of  the  institute. 

The  inspectress  summons  the  teaching  force  to  conference  at  regular 
epochs  decreed  by  the  minister  of  publique  instruction. 

XIII.  A  detailed  table  of  the  employment  of  time  will  be  drawn  up 
by  the  inspectress  in  conformity  to  the  general  table  decreed  by  the  Board 
and  posted  in  all  the  divisions  of  the  kindergarten. 

XIV.  The  chief  kindergartner  of  each  kindergarten  is  subordinate  to 
the  inspectress  and  will  follow  her  direction  at  all  points. 

XV.  Every  year  the  inspectress  makes  a  report  to  the  Board  upon  tha 
progress  of  the  kindergartens  and  the  teaching  force. 

The  Chief  Kindergartner. 

XVI.  The  chief  kindergartner  is  charged  with  the  general  superintend- 
ence of  the  kindergarten.     She  sees  that  vigorous  order  and  neatness  reign 
in  the  establishment.     She  fills  the  function  of  a  kindergartner  in  one  of 
the  divisions. 

XVII.  ^The  chief -kindergartner  keeps  the  following  books: 

1.     Register  of  Orders  in  which  she  transcribes  all  "the  communications 
of  the  Board  of  Education. 


PUBLIC  KINDERGARTENS  IN  BRUSSELS.  495 

2.  Register  in  which  she  inscribes: 

a.  The  family  and  first  name  of  all  the  children. 

b.  The  date  and  place  of  their  birth. 

e.     Name  of  the  practitioner  to  the  certificate  of  vaccination. 

d.  The  name  and  profession  of  the  parents  or  guardians. 

e.  The  domicile  of  the  latter. 
/.     A  column  of  observations. 

3.  Register  of  presence  in  which  the  kindergartners  place  their  signa- 
tures every  day  when  they  arrive  at  the   establishment.     This  register 
is  countersigned  by  the  chief  as  soon  as  the  entrance  bell  has  rung. 

4.  An  inventory  register  of  the  material  of  the  school. 

5.  A  family  register  in  which  the  chief-kindergartner  inscribes  every 
day  the  quantities  and  prices  of  provisions  received. 

XVIII.  In  the  three  first  days  of  every  month,  the  chief-kindergartner 
makes  known  to  the  Chairman  the  changes  in  her  school  during  the  pre- 
ceding month,  indicating  the  number  of  vacant  seats. 

XIX.  She  sends  every  month  to  the  council  the  bulletin  that  mentions 
the  conduct  and  absences  of  the  kindergartners  under  her  jurisdiction. 

XX.  On  the  1st  of  August  of  each  year  she  will  draw  up  a  report 
upon  her  management,  and  upon  the  attendance  of  the  pupils,  and  men- 
tions any  facts  in  which  the  Communal  Administration  may  have  any  inter- 
est.    On  the  1st  of  July  she  will  indicate  the  repairs  or  changes  desirable  in 
the  premises  during  the  vacation. 

XXI.  She  cannot  absent  herself  without  being  authorized  by  the  city 
authorities.     She  must  .be  the  first  to  present  herself  and  the  last  to  leave 
the  establishment  she  directs. 

XXII.  The  chief-kindergartner  may,  in  case  of  urgency,  grant  a  holi- 
day to  a  member  of  her  teaching  corps,  but  she  must  immediately  inform 
the  bureau  of  public  instruction. 

The  Personal  Service. 

The  personal  service  of  the  kindergarten  is  composed  of,  first,  a  chief- 
kindergartner;  second,  of  kiudergartners;  third,  assistants;  fourth,  wait- 
ing maids. 

XXIII.  No  applicant  will  be  admitted  into  the  kindergartens  as  kin- 
dergartner  if  she  is  not  furnished  with  a  diploma  of  primary  instruc- 
tion, and  a  certificate  testifying  that  she  has  profitably  pursued  a  course  of 
kindergarten  training. 

The  primary  teachers  who  are  pursuing  the  normal  course  of  Froebelian 
pedagogy  can  be  admitted  as  assistants. 

XXIV.  The  teachers  must  be  found  in  the  kindergarten  fifteen  minutes 
before  the  time  of  opening  the  classes. 

The  assistants  and  waiting  maids  must  be  present  at  the  hour  indicated 
by  the  chief-kindergartner. 

XXV.  The  teachers  are  forbidden:— 

To  absent  themselves  without  the  authorization  of  the  public  council. 
To  occupy  themselves  with  any  other  work  than  that  prescribed. 
To  make  the  children  repeat  any  other  songs  or  to  distribute  to  them  any 
other  pictures  than  those  approved  by  the  council. 

To  receive  from  the  parents  any  description  of  presents. 

XXVI.  The  kindergartners  are  expected  to  observe  four  times  a  day 
the  degrees  of  heat  and  mark  them  upon  the  thermometric  lists ;  every 
week  they  will  take  the  average  and  remit  the  list  duly  signed  to  the  chief- 
kindergartner,  who  wrill  communicate  it  to  the  bureau  of  health. 

XXVII.  The  waiting  woman  receives  from  the  chief-kindergartner  or 
from  the  kindergartner  or  assistant  who  mayrake  her  place  during  ab- 
sence, all  the  orders  that  concern  her  duty  for  the  day.     She  owes  respect 
and  obedience  to  them  all. 

XXVIII.  She  is  charged,  with  the   assistants,  with  all  the  material 
duties,  with  the  neatness  of  the  establishment,  and  of  the  children,  and  is 
to  lend  herself  to  all  accidental  necessities  which  may  occur. 

XXIX.  Before  and  after  school  hours,  she  must  open  the  windows  to 
air  the  rooms,  and  afterwards  carefully  close  them. 

XXX.  She  must  kindle  the  fires  an  hour  before  the  arrival  of  the 
children  and  keep  them  in  order. 


496  PUBLIC  KINDERGARTENS  IN  BRUSSELS. 

Care  of  the  Children. 

XXXI.  The  children,  before  presenting  themselves  at  the  establish- 
ment must  be  washed  and  combed,  and  furnished  with  a  pocket-handker- 
chief; they  must  besides,  on  Monday  and  Thursdays,  have  on  clean  linen. 

XXXII.  Every  day,  before  beginning  school,  the  kindergartners  must 
ask  to  see  the  pocket-handkerchiefs ;  they  must  see  that  the  stockings  are 
pulled  up,  the  shoes  tied  and  blackened.     If  they  see  any  dirty  children, 
they  must  .see  that  they  are  washed  by  the  waiting-maids.     The  good  con- 
dition of  the  children  must  be  the  constant  object  of  their  attention.     A 
quarter  of  an  hour  before  dismissal,  the  kindergartners  will  pass  in  review 
all  the  children,  that  they  may  be  sent  home  clean  to  their  parents. 

XXXIII.  If  after  repeated  warnings  from  the  chief  kindergartner,  the 
parents  continue  to  keep  their  children  in  a  constant  uncleanly  condition, 
the  chief  kindergartners  may  request  the  Board  to  inflict  a  warning  upon 
the  parents.     If  this  is  inefficacious,  the  Board  must  exclude  the  child. 

XXXIV.  Every  day  to  each  child  who  dines  at  the  kindergarten  sub- 
stantial soup  is  given.     The  rest  of  the  food  is  brought  by  the  children. 

XXXV.  The  children  are  to  take  their  repast  seated  in  good  order. 
They  must  restore  to  their  baskets  what  is  left  from  their  meal. 

XXXVI.  The  assistants  watch  all  that  passes  during  the  repast.     They 
take  turns  as  observers  and  make  their  repasts  also  with  the  children. 

XXXVII.  It  is  formally  forbidden  to  strike  the  children.     They  must 
always  be  reprimanded  gently. 

The  following  punishments  are  the  only  ones  that  can  be  inflicted  in 
cases  of  absolute  necessity,  and  never  continued  beyond  one  exercise; 
To  seat  them  aside,  but  always  in  view  of  the  teachers. 
To  forbid  them  to  join  in  the  exercises. 

Committee  on  Instruction. 

XXXVIII.  For  each  kindergarten  a  special  committee  is  formed  to  be 
called  comite  scolaire. 

XXXIX.  The  mission  of  this  committee  is  to  aid  the  communal  admin- 
istration in  diffusing  the  benefits  of  this  instruction  as  far  as  possible,  viz: 

1.  To  observe  the  exercises  and  to  point  out  to  the  communal  admin- 
istration whatever  may  be  for  the  interest  of  the  law,  the  improvement  of 
the  teaching  and  the  position  of  the  kindergartners. 

2.  To  find  children  who  do  not  attend  the  kindergartens;  to  use  their 
influence  with  the  parents  to  induce  them  to  ask  admittance  for  them;  to 
have  an  understanding  upon  this  subject  with  the  committees  of  charities. 

3.  To  aim  at  introducing  the  care  and  discipline  practised  in  the  kin- 
dergartens into  the  families  of  the  children. 

XL.  Each  special  committee  will  consist  of  six  members  chosen  by  the 
Common  Council,  the  President  not  included. 

They  are  nominated  for  four  years,  and  half  of  them  renewed  every  two 
years  accordingly  to  the  order  indicated  by  the  drawing  of  the  lots. 

The  members  of  the  special  committee  of  a  school  shall  be  chosen  if 
possible  from  among  the  persons  being  in  the  vicinity  of  said  school. 

XLI.  The  alderman  of  public  instruction  presides  by  right  over  each 
special  committee;  he  is  assisted  in  this  function  by  a  communal  counsellor 
or  by  a  member  of  the  committee,  delegated  specially  by  the  Board. 

In  case  of  a  division  in  the  deliberations,  the  vote  of  the  President  will 
turn  the  scale,  but  mention  must  be  made  of  it  in  the  report. 

The  Secretary  of  the  committee  is  chosen  annually. 

XLII.  The  Board  decrees  the  regulations  of  the  internal  order  and 
service  of  the  special  committees. 

The  special  committee  meets  once  a  month. 

XLI1I.  It  delegates  one  or  several  of  its  members  to  assist  in  the  exer- 
cises, in  conformity  with  the  regulation  of  internal  order. 

XLIV.  Each  committee  reports  to  the  communal  administration  before 
the  end  of  the  school  year,  upon  the  situatian  of  the  school,  presenting  in 
it  its  wishes  and  advice  in  respect  to  the  kindergartens.  These  reports  are 
submitted  to  the  City  Council  at  the  time  of  the  vote  for  the  budget. 


INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS, 

BY    A.    SLUYS. 

Director  of  the  Model  School,  Brussels. 


QUESTIONS    PROPOUNDED    BY    THE    BRUSSELS    CONGRESS. 

Has  experience  discovered  any  rocks  to  be  avoided  in  the  use  of  intuitive  methods? 

"What  is  the  intuitive  method  ? 

What  are  the  sciences  of  observation  to  be  taught  ? 

Is  it  best  in  primary  schools  to  co-ordinate  scientific  notions  and  group  them  under 
the  name  of  the  science  to  which  they  belong,  or  to  place  them  under  the  general 
denomination  of  object  lessons?  » 

LITTRE  defines  intuition  to  be  :  "sudden,  spontaneous,  indubitable 
knowledge,  like  that  which  the  sight  gives  us  of  light  and  sensuous 
forms,  and  consequently  independent  of  all  demonstration." 

In  Kant's  system,  intuition  is  :  "the  particular  representation  of  an 
object  formed  in  the  mind  by  sensation." 

Larousse  attributes  the  same  signification  to  the  word  ;  "  it  applies," 
he  says,  u  to  every  clear  and  immediate  perception ;  and  we  call  the 
faculties  to  which  we  owe  perceptions  offering  this  characteristic,  intui- 
tive faculties."  "  These  are  distinguished  from  reflective  faculties, 
which,  needing  the  support  of  knowledge  before  acquired,  or  of  hypo- 
thetical data,  only  arrive  indirectly  at  their  end." 

"  In  1817,"  says  M.  Buisson,  "  the  word  intuition  made  its  entrance 
into  the  official  teaching  at  the  Sorbonne  with  all  the  eclat  of  Mr. 
Cousin's  word." 

No  French  dictionary  gives  the  definition  of  this  term  in  its  peda- 
gogic acceptation. 

The  Intuitive  Method. 

The  expression  intuitive  teaching  is  the  equivalent  of  what  the  Ger- 
mans call  Anschauungsunterricht,  which  is  sometimes  translated  teaching 
b'f  inspection  or  the  sight.  These  expressions  are  improper,  for  the  intui- 
tion of  things  is  acquired  by  the  other  senses  as  well  as  by  the  sight. 

Intuitive  leaching  is  that  teaching  which  proceeds  in  conformity  with 
the  laws  of  the  development  of  human  intelligence.  It  consists  in 
making  the  child  observe  things  directly  by  the  senses,  in  teaching 
him  natural  history  in  nature  itself,  physics  with  the  necessary  instru- 
ments, chemistry  in  the  laboratory,  industry  in  workshops  and  manu- 
factories. In  intuitive  teaching  the  perceptions  and  the  words  that 
express  them  are  furnished,  and  then  the  mind  ise  exercised  in  judging 
and  reasoning  upon  the  exact  notions  acquired  by  observation.  It  is 
the  opposite  of  .dogmatic  and  purely  literary  teaching,  which  considers 
language  as  the  principal  factor  of  intellectual  development,  and  which 
sets  forth  notions  of  things  under  the  form  of  verbal  explanations,  defi- 
nitions, rules,  laws,  formulas,  descriptions,  reasonings,  etc.,  without 


K)8  INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  ilETHOLS. 

having  beforehand  prepared  the  underslanding  for  comprehending 
them  by  exercises  of  direct  observation,  or  by  experiments. 

The  idea  of  making  observation  and  experiment  the  basis  of  the 
study  of  nature  comes  from  Bacon,  who  was  the  precursor  of  a  radical 
revolution  in  science,  in  teaching  and  in  philosophy.  At  that  epoch 
what  was  called  science  was  not  worthy  of  the  name.  The  most  absurd 
things  were  taught  by  the  dogmatic  powers,  which  consisted  in  affirm- 
ing without  proof,  without  demonstration,  without  serious  discussion. 
Philosophy,  confounded  with  theology,  was  but  a  science  of  words  and 
empty  reasonings.  Nature  was  unknown,  scholasticism  having  hidden 
it  under  a  thick  veil  of  errors,  prejudices  and  superstitions. 

Xo  one  thought  of  opening  his  eyes  to  observe  the  most  simple 
facts  and  phenomena,  and  m;m  yalked  about  like  a  blind  man  in  the 
midst  of  nature,  of  which  he  understood  nothing.  The  smallest  phe- 
nomena frightened  him;  he  attributed  them  to  occult  and  supernatural 
causes,  which  led  him  into  the  strangest  aberrations. 

As  early  as  the  13th  century  Roger  Bacon  had  attempted  to  draw  the 
attention  of  his  contemporaries  to  nature,  but  his  voice  was  not  listened 
to,  and  he  passed  for  a  sorcerer.  People  still  continued  for  ages  to  live 
outside  of  realities,  to  nourish  their  minds  exclusively  upon  the  reading 
of  Greek  and  Latin  books,  to  carry  on  science  according  to  Aristotle, 
and  to  consider  the  Ma  gist  er  dixit  as  the  supreme  reason  of  all  things. 

It  was  the  Chancellor  Francis  Bacon  who  attempted  in  the  16th  cen- 
tury completely  to  modify  ideas  on  the  subject  of  method.  "  It  is  not 
in  the  books  of  the  ancients,"  he  said,  "  that  we  are  to  study  stones, 
plants  and  animals,  it  is  in  nature  herself,  which  alone  can  redress 
errors  and  enrich  us  with  new  knowledge."  These  words  were  fertile 
in  important  results.  They  were  the  death  sentence  of  the  old  scho- 
lasticisms. Science  was  at  last  to  free  itself  from  its  leading  strings. 
The  illustrious  pedagogue,  John  Amos  Comenius,  introduced  the  prin- 
ciple of  observation  or  intuition  into  his  general  plan  of  study. 
"During  the  first  six  years,"  said  he,  "put  into  the  child  the  foun- 
dation of  all  knowledge  necessary  to  life.  In  rature  show  him  stones, 
plants,  animals,  and  teach  him  to  make  use  of  his  limbs  (natural  //?.-•- 
tory,  phyticf)  ;  to  distinguish  colors  (optics')  ;  and  sounds  (acoustic*)  ; 
to  contemplate  the  stars  (astronomy)  ;  he  will  observe  his  cradle,  the 
room  he  lives  in,  the  house,  the  neighborhood,  the  roads,  the  fields  (ne- 
oyaphy)  ;  make  him  attentive  to  the  succession  of  day  and  night,  to 
the  seasons,  to  the  divisions  of  time,  the  hours,  weeks,  months,  festival 
days  (chronology)  ;  let  him  learn  the  administration  of  the  house  (poli- 
ties) \  let  him  familiarize  himself  with  the  first  notions  of  calculation, 
sales  and  purchases  (commerce)  •  the  dimensions  of  bodies,  their  lines, 
surfaces,  solids  (geometry}  •  he  will  hear  singing,  and  his  voice  will  learn 
to  reproduce  sounds  and  musical  phrases  (singing,  music)  ;  he  will  sur- 
vey the  formation  and  development  of  his  mother-tongue  (grammar')  ; 
he  will  exercise  himself  in  expressing  his  thoughts  and  sentiments  by 


INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS.  499 

gestures  and  the  inflexions  of  the  voice  (/  hetoric).  By  the.se  means  the  ma- 
ternal school  will  develop  the  germs  of  all  the  sciences  and  all  the  arts." 

Comeuius  was  the  true  creator  of  inluitice  leaching.  The  following 
principles,  taken  from  his  works,  characterize  this  method  :  *•  It  is  a 
fundamental  error  to  begin  teaching  with  language  and  to  end  it  with 
things,  mathematics,  natural  history,  etc.,  for  things  are  the  substance, 
the  body ;  and  words  are  accident  and  dress.  These  two  parts  of 
knowledge  are  to  be  united,  but  it  is  necessary  to  begin  with  things 
which  are  the  object  of  thought  and  speech. 

"  We  should  at  first  exercise  the  senses  {perception)  ;  then  the  mem- 
ory, then  the  intelligence,  then  the  judgment  (reawniruj)  ;  for  science 
begins  by  observation  ;  tfre  impressions  received  are  then  engraven  on 
the  memory  and  imagination;  intelligence  then  takes  possession  of 
the  notions  collected  in  the  memory,  and  draws  from  them  general 
ideas  ;  at  last  draws  conclusions  from  things  sufficiently  well  known, 
and  co-ordinated  by  the  intellect. 

"  It  is  not  the  shadow  of  things  that  makes  an  impression  upon  the 
senses  and  imagination,  but  the  things  themselves.  It  is,  therefore,  by 
a  real  intuition  that  teaching  should  be  begun,  and  not  by  a  verbal 
description  of  things." 

All  the  pedagogues  since  Comenius,  arid  almost  all  the  philosophers 
who  have  written  upon  education,  have  demonstrated  that  it  is  neces- 
s:iry  to  begin  it  by  that  of  the  senses,  and  have  protested  against  the 
abuse  of  verbalism  and  abstraction  in  early  instruction.  In  France, 
Montaigne,  Rabelais,  J.  J.  Rousseau  and  many  others,  eloquently  de- 
fended these  ideas.  Basedow,  Francke,  Locke,  Pestalozzi,  Frobel 
based  their  systems  of  education  upon  this  principle  of  observation  by 
the  senses. 

Pestalozzi,  although  he  understood  the  capital  importance  of  intuition, 
and  denned  intuitive  teaching  as  that  in  which  the  study  of  things  and 
that  of  words  are  always  'closely  united,  yet  did  not  succeed,  in  spite 
of  his  patient  efforts,  in  a  happy  application  of  his  theories.  Most  of  his 
lessons  were  only  mechanical  repetitions  of  words  and  phrases  which 
the  instructor  dictated  in  some  way,  and  the  pupils  repeated  after  him. 

The  con  tinners  of  Pestalozzi 's  system,  Von  Turk,  Grassmann, 
Harnisch.  have  recourse  to  intuitive  teaching  in  order  to  arrive  at  the 
knowledge  of  language,  in  order  to  succeed  in  expressing  correct 
thoughts  correctly.  Graser  assigns  to  intuitive  teaching  a  more  elevated 
and  more  general  aim.  He  considers  it  an  instruction  from  which  all 
branches  ramify.  This  is  the  thought  of  Comenius. 

Diesterweg  arid  Denzel,  initiated  into  the  experimental  psychology 
of  Beneke,  also  made  intuitive  teaching  the  foundation  of  instruction  in 
all  branches,  buf  they  also  attribute  to  it  great  value  as  a  means  of 
development  of  the  intellectual  faculties.  This  is  the  opinion  which 
is  coming  to  prevail  more  and  more  at  the  present  day  in  Germany. 

With  these  pedagogues,  the  object  which  is  subjected  to  the  obser- 


500  INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS. 

ration  of  the  child  is  an  important  educative  factor;  they  think  it  is  to 
be  observed  less  with  the  aim  of  furnishing  an  item  of  positive  knowl- 
edge than  with  that  of  exercising  the  senses,  the  attention,  the  spirit 
of  observation,  and  language.  They  also  guard  against  that  pretended 
intuitive  instruction  which  consists  in  endless  digiessions  without  end 
upon  the  pointer,  pen  handle,  pencil,  slate,  etc. — which  have  been  so 
much  abused  under  the  name  of  object  lessons,  and  which  have  dis- 
credited intuit  ice  teaching.  . 

Frobel  brought  the  thought  of  Comenius  and  Pestalozzi  to  comple- 
tion. While  Comenius  stopped  in  his  application  of  it  to  show  graphic 
representations  (orbis  pictu*)  of  the  objects  to  be  observe'd  instead  of 
taking  the  objects  themseves,  and  while  Pestalozzi  contented  himself 
with  attracting  the  attention  of  the  children  to  the  things  found  in 
the  school-room,  and  with  making  them  repeat  his  phrases  about  them, 
Frobel  introduced  into  his  school  the  spirit  of  action.  In  his  system 
the  child  observes  and  gives  his  own  account  of  his  observations,  and 
moreover,  he  imitates,  works,  combines,  creates.  The  school  is  no 
longer  some  place  where  a  master  teaches  ex  cathedra  to  pupils  wTio  are 
expected  to  believe  him  and  repeat  his  phrases.  It  is  a  medium  in 
which  the  child  blossoms  out  freely  according  to  the  laws  of  his  nature ; 
the  notions  he  acquires  by  observation  are  immediately  utilized  by 
their  application  in  exercises  or  games  that  develop  the  creative  facul- 
ties. He  learns  to  become  acquainted  with  things,  to  draw  them,  to 
represent  them,  to  construct  them,  and  he  is  incessantly  occupied  in 
finding  new  combinations  and  applications  of  them. 

This  is  the  way  in  which  intuitinn  is  to  be  understood.  It  is  not  a 
special  branch  of  the  programme,  it  is  a  principle  which  embraces  the 
whole  teaching.  Intuitive  teaching  may  be  defined  as  that  which  de- 
velops all  the  faculties  by  employing  them  in  a  useful  manner,  and 
which  proceeds  by  means  of  exercises  which  are  provocative  of  sensa- 
tions and  excite  spontaneity  and  keep  it  awake. 

Intuitive  teaching  tends  consequently  :  1.  To  exercise  the  faculties  of 
the  child  with  the  aim  of  developing  them.  2.  To  furnish  exact  notions 
upon  the  different  sciences  and  to  give  aptitude  in  utilizing  them.  3. 
To  make  known  perfectly  the  signification  of  terms,  by  applying  them 
to  the  ideas  furnished  by  sensation  or  created  by  reflection  bearing 
upon  the  perceptions  acquired. 

Of  these  three  important  points  of  view*,  the  first  should  predominate. 
Indeed  the  brain  of  the  child  is  not  an  empty  tablet,  or  a  receptacle  to 
be  filled  with  words,  notions,  ideas  which  the  educator  introduces  into 
it  in  fragments.  The  child,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  thinking  and  acting 
being,  endowed  with  an  initiative,  possessing  as  germs  the  active  facul- 
ties which  are  to  be  awakened,  excited,  developed,  in  order  that  they 
may  arrive  at  their  complete  blossoming ;  he  is  destined  to  become  a 
free  man,  master  of  himself  and  responsible  for  his  acts,  capable  of 
perfecting  himself. 


INTUITION  AND  l.Sf LiriYE  METHODS.  501 

The  most  complex  acts  of  intelligence  have  their  point  of  departure 
in  sensation.  Ideas  present  themselves  to  ths  mind  of  the  little  child 
under  the  intuitive  form,  and  are  entirely  independent  of  the  words 
which  express  them. 

These  ideas  are  at  first  vague,  floating;  they  take  consistence  and 
become  an  integral  part  of  the  memory  only  by  a  series  of  strong  sen- 
sations, which  produce  more  and  more  profound  impressions.  The 
words  by  which  we  designate  them  and  which  the  mother  patiently 
endeavors  to  make  the  child  retain  and  repeat,  end  by  awakening  in 
him,  when  they  strike  his  ear,  the  idea  which  they  represent,  even  a 
long  time  before  he  knows  how  to  pronounce  them.  By  degrees  he 
forms  his  vocabulary  and  he  often  creates  words  for  which  he  after- 
wards substitutes  those  of  ordinary  language.  Seeing  a  dog  which  is 
barking,  the  child  imitates  his  cry  and  •'  wow  wow  "  becomes  the  name 
of  the  animal.  He  repeats  it  every  time  he  sees  a  dog,  and  even  when 
his  attention  is  drawn  to  a  sketch  or  an  engraving  that  represents  one. 
Mothers'  Intuitive  Method. 

The  mother  naturally  follows  the  processes  of  intuitive  teaching  in  the 
first  education  she  gives  to  her  child.  She  shows  him  objects,  makes 
him  listen  to  sounds,  inhale  odors,  touch  and  handle  solid  bodies,  ob- 
serve and  execute  different  acts,  taste  different  substances,  and  at  the 
same  time  tells  him  words  and  makes  him  repeat  them  which  represent 
the  ideas  Uiat  arise  from  these  sensations.  Tl  e  child  thus  learns  his 
substantives,  adjectives,  verbs,  etc.,  and  every  word  with  which  his 
memory  is  enriched  remains  intimately  associated  with  a  clear  and  ex- 
act notion. 

Sensation  then  is  the  natural  mode  of  the  formation  of  ideas. 
Words  are  only  the  representative  signs  of  ideas  ;  as  Comenius  said, 
they  are  only  the  accident,  the  dress,  while  things  are  the  substance, 
the  body.  The  fact  that  in  all  languages  abstract  conceptions  are  repre- 
sented by  words  borrowed  from  the  vocabulary  of  concrete  things, 
proves  that  sensation  is  the  origin  of  all  our  knowledge.  It  is  only 
quite  late  that  the  child  attains  to  the  comprehension  of  abstractions, 
relations,  scientific  or  moral  laws.  He  seizes  the  general  or  abstract 
sense  of  words,  only  after  having  attached  a  concrete  sense  to  them. 
The  passage  from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract  is  not  made  hastily. 
The  mind  must  be  long  prepared  for  it,  and  it  is  only  so  prepared  when 
it  possesses  a  certain  power  acquired  by  the  faculties,  by  means  of  a 
gradual  intuitive  teaching.  It  is  impossible,  for  instance,  to  furnish  exact, 
mathematical  notions  of  the  terms  :  line,  circle,  cylinder,  by  the  aid  of 
a  definition  even  carefully  explained.  It  is  first  necessary  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  child  to  the  material  things  which  show  these 
forms,  to  show  him  the  edges  of  a  toy  and  call  them  lines,  to  put  a 
cylinder  before  his  eyes  and  call  it  by  that  name,  to  make  him  observe 
that  its  basis  is  a  plane,  and  that  the  line  that  limits  it  is  everywhere 
at  an  equal  distance  from  the  center, etc=  The  notion  will  be  so  much  the 


INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS. 

more  clear  if  the  child  has  the  opportunity  to  observe  many  geometric 
figures,  and  has  constructed  a  great  number,  and  imagined  different 
ways  of  combining  them.  By  degrees  he  will  create  abstract  notions 
for  himself  and  mathematical  concepts,  and  then  he  will  understand 
the  definit.ons  of  them  and  find  them  for  himself. 

All  the  other  conceptions  of  abstract  nature  such  as  those  expressed 
by  the  words  right,  goodness,  duty,  justice,  law,  etc.,  could  not  be  under- 
stood by  children  by  the  aid  of  a  definition  or  a  verbal  description. 
But  these  words  must  not  be  banished  from  their  vocabulary.  By 
using  them  in  a  concrete  sense  according  to  the  opportunities  that 
present  themselves  during  school  life,  their  meaning  will  be  seized. 
When  the  notion  is  once  acquired,  it  may  be  fixed  by  a  definition. 

The  culture  of  the  faculties  having  its  point  of  departure  in  sensa- 
tion, we  must  attach  great  importance  to  the  perfecting  of  the  senses 
considered  as  primitive  faculties.  The  sight  is  generally  the  only  sense 
we  exercise.  We  thus  deprive  ourselves  of  numerous  means  of  intel- 
lectual development  which  are  the  source  of  many  usable  sensations. 
Hearing,  smell,  taste,  touch  can  alone  furnish  us  with  exact  and  clear 
notions  of  a  great  number  of  terms  of  common  parlance.  M.  Const. 
Delhez,  whom  death  swept  away  at  the  very  moment  when  success  was 
about  to  crown  his  work,  had  imagined  a  gymnastics  of  the  senses  which 
agrees  perfectly  with  the  first  stage  of  primary  teaching.  In  this  sys- 
tem the  senses  arid  consequently  the  intelligence  are  exercised  by  mak- 
ing children  observe  colors,  and  their  shades,  the  forms  and  relations 
of  position  of  objects,  sizes,  sounds,  tones  and  qualities  of  tones,  tem- 
peratures, weights,  savors,  odors,  etc.  This  series  of  exercises  is  a  first 
intuitive  teaching  which  furnishes  innumerable  fundamental  notions  and 
the  exact  meaning  of  the  words  which  represent  them. 
Subjects  of  Intuitive  Instruction. 

All  the  sciences  of  observation  lend  themselves  to  intuitive  teaching. 
At  first  sight  it  seems  impossible  to  teach  them  in  a  primary  school  be- 
cause it  is  supposed  that  the  intelligence  of  the  children  is  not  suffi- 
ciently developed  to  comprehend  them.  There  is  reason  in  this  view, 
if  science  has  been  looked  at  as  it  is  conceived  in  the  higher  teaching 
and  explained  in  the  books.  The  science  which  proceeds  by  the  way 
of  deduction,  and  which  is  supported  upon  hypotheses,  definitions, 
laws,  and  abstractions  is  not  to  be  approached  in  the  primary  school. 
Far  from  being-  of  any  use  for  the  culture  of  the  intelligence,  it  clogs 
the  faculty  of  observation,  and  degenerates  fatally  into  a  science  of 
words.  To  begin  with  abstract  notions  is  intuitive  leaching  backwards. 

The  order  to  be  followed  in  the  primary  teaching  of  these  sciences 
is  that  indicated  by  the  historical  development  of  each  one  of  them. 
They  have  gradually  arranged  themselves.  The  attentive  observation 
of  things  and  phenomena  has  been  the  point  of  departure  of  true 
science.  Premature  theories  and  hypotheses  have  been  completely 
overturned  in  proportion  as  observations  have  become  more  complete 


INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS.  503 

and  have  been  made  with  more  care.  Thus  it  is  by  observation  that 
we  must  proceed  in  the  primary  school. 

We  must  not  seek  to  accumulate  numerous  notions  in  the  brain,  nor 
wear  out  the  attention  of  the  child  by  going  into  trifles  and  mlnutice 
which  are  not  interesting.  It  is  best,  on  the  contrary,  to  choose  in  the 
domain  of  each  science  the  notions  which  may  most  easily  lend  them- 
selves to  the  observation,  and  give  opportunity  for  application  which 
may  exercise  the  initiative, — the  spirit  of  invention. 

By  concentrating  the  attention  upon  fundamental  scientific  notions 
in  a  tangible  form,  presented  in  all  their  brilliancy  by  interesting  experi- 
ments, we  prepare  the  understanding  for  comprehending  science. 

Zoology — Botany — Mineralogy. 

Natural  history— animal,  vegetable  and  mineral — offers  the  most  sim- 
ple exercises  which  can  be  suitable  for  beginners.  It  is  purely  descrip- 
tive. The  principle  of  intuition  is  easily  applied  to  it,  the  programme 
comprises  the  knowledge  of  a  series  of  types  put  before  the  eyes  of 
the  pupils  and  studied  by  way  of  analysis  and  comparison. 

As  much  as  possible,  it  is  necessary  to  take  living  types  of  animals 
and  vegetables,  and  have  recourse  to  artificial  representations  by 
pictures  only  when  it  is  impossible  to  do  otherwise  ;  the  difficulty  of 
doing  it  is  not  insurmountable.  An  extensive  series  of  animals  and 
vegetables  can  usually  be  seen  in  the  locality  and  its  environs  wherever 
a  school  is  situated ;  school  excursions  for  this  part  of  the  programme 
offer  the  best  means  of  furnishing  intuitive  notions.  It  is  very  impor- 
tant constantly  to  attract  the  attention  of  children  to  the  gradual  trans- 
formations of  organisms  (as  in  the  caterpillar)  and  which  they  will  see 
to  be  a  vast  series,  going  by  a  train  of  modifications  from  the  most 
simple  existence,  the  cell,  up  to  the  most  complex  ones.  The  mind  is 
thus  prepared  for  the  conception  of  modern  science  and  put  on  its 
guard  against  the  prejudices  which  encumber  and  disturb  the  rational 
study  of  natural  history. 

The  best  means  to  ensure  that  this  teaching  shall  produce  the  greatest 
results  consists  in  exercising  the  children  in  making  collections  them- 
selves during  their  excursions. 

This  habit  of  making  collections  of  objects  to  be  studied  obliges  the 
child  to  pay  attention  to  the  special  characteristics  of  objects,  to  re- 
mark their  resemblances  and  their  differences  ;  it  thus  gives  not  only 
numerous  sensations  which  help  the  ideas  gained  to  be  more  profoundly 
understood,  but  it  prepares  him  to  understand  classification. 

Geography — A  stronomy —  Geology. 

Geography,  astronomy  and  geology  are  also  concrete  sciences  whose 
study  in  the  primary  school  is  possible  by  the  intuitive  process,  and 
which  opens  the  mind  to  the  most  elevated  conceptions. 

The  point  of  departure  of  the  teaching  of  geography  is  the  notion  of 
orientation  furnished  by  observation  of  the  apparent  motion  of  the  sun 


oC4  INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METIIODS. 

and  the  position  of  the  polar  star,  and  the  use  of  the  compass.  The 
sight  of  the  horizon,  some  experiments  that  will  reproduce  the  phe- 
nomena observed  which  have  for  their  cause  the  sphericity  of  the  earth, 
lead  to  this  last  notion  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  isolation  of  our  planet 
in  space. 

The  meridians  which  are  at  first  shown  as  real  lines  traced  upon  the 
ground  in  the  direction  of  the  shadow  of  a  vertical  -line  at  noon,  after- 
wards become  the  imaginary  circles  whose  notion  and  utility  the  child 
seizes. 

The  map  is  made  perfectly  intelligible  if  in  the  beginning  the  child 
is  made  to  draw  a  map  of  the  school-room,  then  that  of  the  school- 
house,  afterwards  adding  the  surrounding  streets.  The  common  names 
of  the  vocabulary  of  geography  are  learned  by  the  sight  of  the  things 
they  designate,  and  which  are  met  with  in  the  school  excursions  or  im- 
agined by  plastic  or  graphic  constructions.  At  labt  real  journeys  into 
the  country,  during  which  the  pupils  consult  the  map,  fictitious  journeys 
upon  the  globe,  the  dramatic  recital  of  great  discoveries  made  in  the 
presence  of  pictures  representing  picturesque  views  of  striking  regions 
where  it  is  impossible  to  take  the  pupils,  are  so  many  means  of  making 
the  teaching  of  geography  intuitive. 

The  observation  of  the  sun's  apparent  motion  and  of  the  polar  star 
is  also  the  point  of  departure  for  the  elementary  instruction  in  astron- 
omy, which  opens  a  vast  and  wonderful  field  to  the  attention  of  chil- 
dren. Few  sciences  can  rival  this  in  the  profound  influence  exercised 
upon  the  imagination.  How  many  men  there  are,  even  well-informed, 
who  never  raise  their  eyes  toward  that  starry  vault  which  was  the  first 
field  of  observation  to  primitive  nations  !  This  is  because  neither  pri- 
mary instruction  nor  secondary  instruction  prepare  the  mind  for  the 
study  of  it.  We  are  satisfied  with  reciting  a  manual  affirming  facts 
and  phenomena  which  neither  the  professor  who  teaches,  the  pupil 
who  listens  and  repeats,  nor  often  even  the  author  who  wrote  the  book, 
have  observed  with  their  own  eyes  !  The  memory  is  thus  burdened 
with  a  knowledge  of  words  which  has  no  salutary  action  upon  the  in- 
telligence. The  primary  school  can,  however,  throw  out  landmarks  for 
this  study.  It  is  sufficient  sometimes  to  collect  pupils  in  an  evening, 
make  them  observe  the  starry  heavens,  teach  them  to  know  a  few  con- 
stellations at  sight,  to  distinguish  the  milky  way  and  a  few  planets, 
and  let  them  add  some  simple  experiments  by  which  they  may  verify 
the  apparent  ami  real  movements  of  the  stars.  It  might  be  possible  to 
create  a  very  elementary  observatory  in  every  private  school  at  very 
little  expense.  This  i.s  an  important  question  which  deserves  atten- 
tion.* But  without  its  being  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  special  in- 
struments, there  are  many  things  which  can  be  made  the  subject  of 
observation,  and  which  constitute  the  basis  of  an  elementary  teaching 

*A  very  good  spy- glass,  even  an  opera-glass,  will  show  the  moons  of  Jupiter  and 
and  the  rings  of  Saturn- 


INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS.  505 

of  astronomy.  The  words :  sun,  planet,  satellite,  milky  way,  star, 
comet,  eclipse,  and  so  many  others  which  hive  entered  into  c-rninon 
parlance,  are  to  many  minds  vague  terms  to  which  are  attached  only 
incomplete  or  false  notions.  These  would  convey  their  true  meaning 
if  in  the  primary  school  for  six  or  seven  years  a  few  observations  of 
the  kind  just  rapidly  sketched  could  be  carefully  made.  The  history 
of  astronomical  science,  properly  presented,  would  be  of  use  to  point 
out  the  errors,  the  prejudices  and  superstitions  which  the  spectacle  of 
the  heavens  has  inspired  in  man  for  the  want  of  correct  ideas. 

As  M.  Tenipels  says:  "In  the  upper  classes  astronomy  leads  tie 
teacher  to  speak  of  infinity,  of  the  genius  of  man  which  has  ever  been 
engaged  in  sounding  its  depths,  of  the  emotions  inspired  by  this  study, 
of  the  care  with  which  it  must  be  guarded  from  the  pride  of  science  as 
well  as  from  the  terror  of  ignorance.  Considerations  of  this  nature, 
even  measured  by  the  intelligence  of  a  child,  but  made  \\ith  simplicity 
and  luminously,  open  large  horizons  and  dispose  minds  for  philosophic 
meditations,  for  the  want  of  which  the  mind  remains  narrow  and  un- 
progressive." 

Geologic  phenomena  offer  material  for  considerations  of  the  same 
kind.  Here,  again,  the  treatises  upon  the  science  can  be  of  no  use 
except  to  the  instructor  who  can  find  in  them  tie  suggestions  and 
knowledge  he  needs.  It  is  in  nature  itself,  that  the  subjects  of  the 
lessons  must  be  sought.  Let  us  draw  the  attention  of  the  child  to  the 
arrangement  of  the  rocks,  to  their  composition,  to  the  fossils  they  con- 
tain, to  the  action  of  erosion  exercised  by  the  courses  of  water  upon  their 
sides.  These  intuitions,  incessantly  repeated  during  the  whole  period 
of  primary  study,  exercise  the  faculty  of  observation,  give  rise  to  reflec- 
tions upon  the  causes  of  geologic  phenomena,  and  are  a  provision  against 
the  false  notions  and  old  theories  which  fill  the  little  books  with  which 
the  schools  are  inundated. 

Experiments  in  Physics  and  Chemistry. 

Physics  and  chemistry  are  sciences  which  treat  of  matter,  but  which 
have  for  their  special  object  to  study  its  properties.  They  may  be 
called  abstract-concrete,  and  seem  to  offer  less  hold  for  intuitive  teach- 
ing, but  in  the  primary  school  the  pupils  may  be  led  to  physico-chemical 
generalizations  by  the  path  of  experiments.  The  most  easy  and 
simple  notions  are  chosen  to  be  rendered  intuitive,  and  by  the  aid  of 
apparatus,  they  can  be  presented  in  a  way  to  strike  the  mind  of  the 
child  vividly.  This  teaching  must  be  made  useful  to  the  pupils  by 
allowing  them  to  make  their  own  experiments.  In  this  science,  as  in 
all  the  others,  it  is  necessary  carefully  to  avoid  beginning  with  defini- 
tions and  laws.  Children  cannot  comprehend  these  until  nearly  the 
end  of  their  studies  and  after  they  have  made  innumerable  observa- 
tions in  the  cabinet  of  physics  and  in  the  laboratory.  The  beginners 
then  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  molecules,  atoms,  hypotheses  upon 
heat,  light,  electricity,  etc. 


5UO  INTUITION  AND  IN  i  UiTlVE  METHODS. 

The  chemical  terminology,  notations  and  equations  cannot  be" taught 
exprofesso;  but  used  experimentally  in  the  upper  classes,  they  become 
familiar  by  degrees. 

Physics  is  a  science  which  permits  the  incessant  application  of  the 
fertile  principle  of  action  in  aid  of  the  numerous  experiments  which 
the  pupils  can  imagine  and  perform  themselves.  Mechanics  is  also 
very  valuable  in  this  point  of  view.  The  notions  of  f»i c<-  and  mo- 
tion may  be  inculcated  by  the  observation  of  moving  bodies ;  the  study 
of  simple  machines  makes  the  pupils  ingenious,  and  a  powerful  argu- 
ment for  culture  can  be  drawn  from  them  by  inciting  the  pupils  to 
construct  little  mechanical  objects  and  resolve  certain  problems,  not  by 
the  aid  of  figures,  but  by  means  of  apparatus. 

Geometric  Forms  and  Conn/ruction. 

Frbbel  made  geometry  one  of  the  pivots  of  his  system.  It  is  indeed 
a  science  which  teaches  rectitude  of  mind  and  the  process  of  reason- 
ing. It  prepares  the  child  to  conceive  of  abstraction  without  which 
science  is  impossible.  It  must  be  presented  in  the  primary  school  un- 
der the  concrete  and  intuitive  form,  by  the  aid  of  material  figures  and 
graphic  constructions.  At  first  the  child  learns  to  distinguish  the  dif- 
ferent solids,  to  name  them,  to  make  them  of  paper,  of  wire,  or  of  clav. 
These  exercises  give  skill  to  the  fingers,  justness  to  the  eye,  and  fur- 
nish fundamental  notions  of  geometric  terms  which  it  is  impossible  to 
make  understood  by  beginning  with  definitions.  In  the  kindergarten, 
large  use  is  made  of  these  exercises,  which  the  primary  school  should 
resume  and  complete.  Most  of  the  properties  of  objects  are  made 
intuitive  by  easy  and  gradual  constructions.  This  is  a  vast  field  to  be 
exploited. 

A  rithrnetic — Drawing. 

Arithmetic  must  be  attached  to  geometry.  The  science  of  numbers 
is  difficult  only  when  taken  in  its  purely  abstract  character,  which 
makes  it  inaccessible  to  the  minds  of  children.  By  applying  it  to 
geometry  it  is  rendered  concrete,  and  becomes  a  powerful  means  of 
intellectual  development.  It  is  the  same  with  the  metric  system,  which 
gives  no  useful  and  persistent  result  if  confined  to  definitions  and  nu- 
merical applications.  It  is  by  making  learners  measure  with  a  verita- 
ble meter,  teaching  them  to  manipulate  the  weights  and  measures,  to 
construct  square  or  cubic  measure,  to  appreciate  at  sight  the  extent  of 
bodies,  that  these  important  notions  are  engraved  upon  the  mind. 

Drawing  is  one  of  the  most  efficacious  means  of  rendering  the  teach- 
ing of  the  sciences  intuitive.  Children  have  a  special  liking  for 
drawing.  This  natural  disposition  should  be  taken  advantage  of  to 
make  them  represent  largely  the  objects  studied  in  their  different  les- 
sons. We  do  not  speak  here  of  aesthetic  drawing,  but  only  of  very 
simple  graphic  constructions.  The  apparatus  for  teaching  physics  and 
chemistry,  the  machines  and  utensils  which  have  been  analyzed,  the 
geometric  figures  which  have  been  studied,  form  good  subjects  for 


INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS.  507 

drawing.  Sometimes  let  the  child  draw  from  objects,  which  habituates 
his  eye  to  observe  proportions ;  sometimes  let  him  draw  them  from 
memory,  which  is  a  rnucn  more  intense  intellectual  labor,  and  one  de- 
sirable for  frequent  use. 

Thus  we  see  all  the  sciences  are  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  exercise, 
of  observation  for  the  development  of  the  creative  faculties. 

When  we  pass  in  review  the  whole  series  of  the  sciences  of  observa- 
tion, we  are  struck  with  the  immense  number  of  notions  they  contain. 
We  are  apt  to  think  there  will  not  be  time  enough  to  teach  them  in 
the  primary  school,*  where  writing  and  reading  take  a  large  place. 
This  is  a  misapprehension.  The  important  thing  is  not  to  make  the 
children  go  to  the  bottom  of  all  these  sciences,  to  form  physicists,  chem- 
ists, geometricians  of  them.  The  accumulation  of  notions  is  an  evil, 
for  the  mind  can,  no  more  than  the  stomach,  assimilate  food  taken  in 
too  large  quantities.  It  is  necessary  to  make  a  choice  from  this  mass 
of  knowledge  upon  all  points,  to  take  the  most  important,  that  to 
which  the  principle  of  intuition  can  best  apply.  The  instructor  must 
not  be  anxious  to  teach  too  many  things  to  his  pupils.  The  important 
thing  is  to  develop  the  faculties,  and  the  scientific  elements  are  the  only 
means  adapted  to  this  culture.  To  form  a  sound  judgment  should  be 
the  constant  aim  of  the  efforts  of  the  professor.  He  must  watch  with 
especial  care  not  to  fatigue  the  brain.  The  prodigies  of  ten  years  old 
are  always  badly  balanced,  and  become  mediocre  beings.  It  is  better, 
as  Montaigne  said,  "  to  have  the  head  well  made  than  too  full." 
Objections  to  Intuitive  Teaching  Considered. 

Intuitive  teaching  has  often  been  reproached  with  being  dry,  arid, 
tedious ;  with  not  developing  the  imagination  or  the  literary  aptitudes ; 
with  suppressing  the  idea  of  pains-taking  and  effort,  making  study  a 
kind  of  play ;  destroying  religious  faith,  the  belief  in  the  supernatural, 
giving  the  child  the  habit  of  scientific  research  which  leads  him  to  pos- 
itivism and  materialism. 

Intuitive  teaching  is  not  dry,  arid,  tedious,  except  when  given  under 
the  form  of  object  lessons  in  which  the  attention  of  the  child  is  only 
drawn  to  objects  with  which  he  is  perfectly  acquainted,  of  which  he 
has  long  had  the  intuition,  and  when  things  of  all  kinds  are  spoken  of 
which  he  ha*  not  seen  and  which  are  not  shown  to  him.  Tlrus,  a  penknife  is 
given  to  a  pupil,  and  he  is  told  that  it  consists  of  a  handle  and  one  or  two 
blades,  then  the  making  of  steel  is  explained,  the  elephant  that  fur- 
nished the  ivory  handle  is  mentioned,  Africa  and  India,  which  that 
pachyderm  inhabits,  negroes,  slavery,  etc.  Nothing  can  be  less  intui- 
tive, so  ordinary  an-d  so  uninteresting  as  such  exercises,  which  neither 
teach  how  to  observe  nor  how  to  judge,  or  even  how  to  talk. 
Influence  on  Imagination  and  Style. 

Far  from  cooling  off  the  imagination,  the  true  intuitive  study  of  the 

sciences  by  observation  develops  it  far  better  than  exclusively  literary 

*In  Belgium  and  France  the  primary  school  keeps  the  pupils  till  they  are  fourteen. 


608  INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS. 

studies.  The  latter  produce  superficial  minds,  pre-occupied  alone  with 
form,  which  are  in  tlu-  habit  of  looking  only  at  the  phrase,  and  remain 
inattentive  to  the  reality  behind  it.  In  no  language  is  there  any  liter- 
ary work  that  can  act  as  powerfully  upon  the  imagination  as  nature 
when  observed  with  an  attentive  and  intelligent  eye.  There  is  more 
true  poetry  in  astronomy  than  in  Racine  or  Boileau.  The  spectacle 
of  the  starry  heavens  opens  to  thought  vaster  horizons  and  fills  the 
soul  with  an  enthusiasm  far  greater  than  that  elicited  by  the  reading 
of  an  epic  poem.  What  writer  ever  imagined  a  variety  of  colors,  forms 
and  manifestations  of  all  kinds  to  be  compared  with  that  presented  by 
animals  and  plants  ?  What  are  the  metamorphoses  of  Ovid,  the  tales 
of  Perrault  by  the  side  of  the  wonderful  phenomena  revealed  by  the 
life  of  the  silk- worm,  the  bee,  the  ant.  the  lowest  animals  and  the  most 
common  plants  ? 

It  is  not  true  that  intuitive  teaching  is  unfavorable  to  literary  culture. 
It  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  essential  condition  of  a  rational  literary  cul- 
ture. It  furnishes  words  and  the  thoughts  they  represent  from  the 
very  earliest  age.  It  teaches  to  enunciate  with  clearness  and  simplicity 
the  thoughts  which  have  been  spontaneously  formed  in  the  mind.  It 
is  true  that  it  repudiates  those  rules  of  style  which  consist  in  amplify- 
ing a  dictated  summary,  in  describing  things  which  have  not  been  ob- 
served, and  in  recounting  feelings  which  the  child  has  hot  felt.  But 
these  exercises  do  not  teach  to  express  thoughts  in  writing,  and  accus- 
tom their  victims  to  be  satisfied  with  mere  words. 

There  is  reason  in  saying  that  the  study  of  great  writers  is  excellent 
for  literary  culture;  but  intuitive  teaching  does  not  exclude  it;  it  pre- 
pares the  mind  to  undertake  it  successfully.  It  is  wrong  to  begin  to 
explain  authors  too  soon.  How  do  we  suppose  a  primary  school  pupil 
can  reap  any  benefit  from  reading:  Animals  sick  with  the  pestilence, 
a  scene  from  Tartuffe,  the  Imprecations  of  Camillug,  a  Funeral  Oration 
by  Bossuct,  an  E/nttle  of  Boileau,  when  we  dare  not  pretend  that  a 
child  of  twelve  years  of  age  possesses  enough  experience  of  life,  enough 
ideas  and  judgment,  to  seize  upon  the  true  meaning  of  those  works, 
which  were  written  for  the  instruction  or  amusement  of  men,  and  not 
for  the  education  of  children  in  a  primary  school?  Lamartine,  in  his 
Voijaije  en  <>ri<-nt,  makes  a  very  ju-t  reflection  apropos  to  this  :  "Every 
wave,"  he  says,  "  urgvs  me  towards  Greece;  I  touch  it.  Its  appearance 
moves  me  profoundly,  much  less  however  than  if  all  these  memories 
had  not  withered  in  my  heart  by  having  been  amassed  in  my  memory 
before  my  thought  understood  them.  Greece  is  to  me  like  a  book 
whose  beauties  are  tarnished  because  we  were  made  to  read  it  before 
we  had  the  power  to  comprehend  it.  I  prefer  a  tree,  a  fountain  under 
a  rock,  a  laurel  rose  on  the  border  of  a  river,  under  the  crumbled  arch- 
way of  a  bridge  tapestried  with  vines,  to  the  monument  of  one  of  those 
classic  kingdoms  which  recall  nothing  to  my  mind  but  the  ennui  they 
gave  me  in  my  childhood." 


INTUITION  AND  INTUITIVE  METHODS.  500 

But  how  can  we  form  the  style  by  intuitive  leaching  ?  it  will  be  r.sked. 
Shall  we  only  require  of  the  pupil  to  describe  the  things  he  lias  s-eeu 
and  the  feelings  he  really  felt  ? 

And  why  should  we  seek  for  other  subjects  ?  Do  we  teach  style  by 
imitated  composition  and  verbiage  ? 

We  highly  appreciate  the  originality  of  writers  who  are  imposing  by 
their  talent  or  their  genius,  and  we  would  make  the  pupils  in  the  pri- 
mary and  secondary  schools  make  imitations  and  amplifications  which 
can  have  no  other  effect  than  to  prevent  that  precious  quality  from  de- 
veloping! Has  not  Boileau,  that  master  in  the  art  of  writing,  said, 
"  Before  writing,  learn  to  think  ";  "what  is  well  conceived  is  clearly 
spoken,  and  the  words  come  easily  to  tell  it." 

Intuitive  teaching,  which  teaches  how  to  think  and  produces  concep- 
tion before  description,  is  what  must  be  preferred  even  as  preparation 
for  literary  studies. 

Intuitive   Teaching  makes  School  attractive. 

Shall  we  speak  of  the  reproach  cast  upon  intuitive  t< aching  because  it 
banishes  pain,  labor  and  effort  by  transforming  studies  into  a  species 
of  joy  ?  Is  the  school  then  supposed  to  be  a  gloomy  place  where  little 
children  are  condemned  to  painful,  wearisome  labors  ?  Is  it  not  better 
to  make  them  feel  that  work  is  not  a  punishment,  and  that  the  ideal, 
which  is  the  sovereign  good,  is  not  repose  but  useful  activity?  Intui- 
tive teaching  abolishes  the  sterile  efforts  which  these  pupils  must  make 
to  whom  things  are  spoken  of,  of  which  they  have  not  the  least  idea 
and  which  they  do  not  see,  but  replaces  them  by  that  fertilizing  effort 
of  the  mind  which  seizes  with  avidity  the  notions  presented  to  it  in  an 
attractive  form.  By  rendering  the  earliest  .studies  painful,  we  rebuff 
the  children  and  disgust  them  with  study.  This  is  why  the  school,  so 
badly  organized,  has  need  of  punishments  and  rewards  as  a  provoca- 
tive of  labor,  while  the  kindergarten  and  the  school  in  which  the 
teaching  is  intuitive  do  very  well  without  those  factitious  means  of 
emulation  and  repression. 

Intuitive   Teaching  not  Irreligious,  nor  Immoral. 

Intuitive  teaching  has  been  accused  of  being  opposed  to  morality,  and 
of  leading  to  materialism  by  the  habit  it  gives  the  mind  to  admit  only 
what  has  been  proved,  to  observe  only  what  is  tangible. 

In  certain  places  the  development  of  the  natural  sciences  and  their 
introduction  into  the  programmes  of  primary  instruction  are  bitterly 
combatted,  because  they  are  accused  of  being  irreligious.  Herbert 
Spencer  has  perfectly  answered  this  obiection.  "  Far  from  science 
being  irreligious,"  he  says,  "  it  is  the  aoandonment  ot  science  that  is 
irreligious.  Let  us  make  an  humble  comparison.  Let  us  suppose  an 
author  whom  we  should  salute  every  day  with  praises  expressed  in 
pompous  style.  Let  us  suppose  thnt  the  wisdom,  grandeur  and  beauty 
of  his  works  are  the  constant  subject  of  the  praises  addressed  to  him. 
Let  us  suppose  that  those  who  praise  his  works  have  never  seen  even 


510  INTUITION  AND  INTTITIYE  METHODS- 

the  cover  of  them,  have  never  read  them,  never  even  tried  to  compre- 
hend them;  of  what  value  would  the^r  praises  be?  And  yet,  if  we 
may  be  permitted  to  compare  small  things  with  great,  let  us  see  how 
humanity  has  generally  conducted  itself  toward  the  universe  and  its 
great  cause.  It  is  not  science,  then,  but  indifference  to  science,  that  is 
irreligious." 

Intuitive  teaching  can  only  be  considered  immoral  by  those  who  look 
upon  morality  as  a  mass  of  traditional  prescriptions  to  be  inculcated 
upon  children  by  the  aid  of  formulas  which  they  are  taught  to  learn 
by  heart.  It  is  thought  that  moral  culture,  which  is  the  essential  part 
of  general  education,  consists  in  preaching  sermons  and  saying  cate- 
chisms." 

The  field  for  the  culture  of  morality  is  consequently  the  family  and 
the  schools.  It  is  obtained  by  observing  a  discipline  that  is  conforma- 
ble to  nature.  By  developing  good  feelings  inculcated  early,  by  inspir- 
ing sincerity,  by  forming  upright  hearts  and  characters,  by  showing 
that  in  all  circumstances  labor  is  the  law  of  humanity,  by  transforming 
the  school  into  a  little  society  in  which  reign  truth  and  justice,  we 
form  moral  beings  much  more  easily  than  by, telling  them  stories  called 
moral  stories,  and  by  discourses  upon  virtue  and  vice. 

"  The  intuition  of  morality,"  says  M.  Guilliauine,  "  is  the  knowledge 
of  duty.  Now  duty  is  not  the  result  of  theories,  It  is  derived  as  little 
from  ethics  as  digestion  is  derived  from  physiology.  Theory,  true  or 
false,  plays  but  a  subaltern  part  in  it.  It  exercises  control  for  the 
acquiescence  of  the  intellect  over  the  will  already  fixed  without  it. 
But  the  practice  of  duty  which  is  the  result  of  action  that  has  become 
habit,  alone  has  importance  for  the  ends  of  education." 

Faith  in  the  supernatural  has  been  in  all  times  the  greatest  obstacle  to 
social  progress.  The  school  of  the  people  was  not  made  to  preserve  the 
chains  which  have  so  long  interfered  with  the  blossoming  out  of  the 
human  intellect.  A  powerful  scientific  current  bears  us  along.  Free 
examination  is  the  characteristic  of  modern  civilization.  In  our 
society  man  lias  no  longer  to  expect  anything  but  from  himself,  from 
his  own  will,  his  own  energy,  his  own  intelligence.  If  we  wish  to  pre- 
serve the  conquests  that  are  dear  to  us  and  constitute  our  glory,  we 
must  conform  our  system  of  education  to  the  principles  which  rule 
modern  society.  Authoritative  teaching,  dogmatic,  narrow  and  full  of 
errors,  prejudices  and  falsehoods,  bequeathed  to  us  by  the  scholasticism 
of  the  middle  ages  is  to  give  place  to  intuitive  teaching  which  develops 
the  child  in  the  integrity  of  his  faculties  and  will  prepare  generations 
of  intelligent,  moral  and  iree  men. 


INTUITIONS  IN  OBJECT  TEACHING. 


SUITABLE  TO  THE  KINDERGARTEN   PERIOD.* 

DIESTERWEG,  in  answer  to  the  questions  of  his  pupils,  "What  are  the 
intuitions  that  shall  be  addressed  ?'!  "What  shall  we  awaken?"  "  Out  of 
what  fields?  "  "  Whence  shall  we  take  them? " — gave  the  following  beau- 
tiful resume. 

"  Let  us  look  at  the  different  kinds  of  intuitions — let  us  enumerate  them.' 

1.  Sensuous  intuitions — not  given  merely  mediately  through  the  senses, 

but  immediately  or  directly — outward  objects. 

2.  Mathematical  intuitions — representations  of  space,  time,  number,  and 

motion,  also  belonging  to  the  outward  world  and  not  directly  given 
by  the  senses,  but  mediately  through  them. 

3.  Moral  intuitions — The  phenomena  of  virtuous  life  in  man. 

4.  Religious  intuitions,  originating  in  man  whose  sentiments  relate  him  to 

God. 

5.  JEttJietic  intuitions, — from  the  beautiful  and  sublime  phenomena  in 

nature  and  human  life  (artistic  representations). 

6.  Purely  human  intuitions,  which  relate  to  the  noble  mutual  relations  of 

man  in  love,  faith,  friendship,  etc. 

Social  intuitions,  which  comprise  the  unifying  of  men  in  the  great 
whole  in  corporations,  in  communities,  and  State  life.  The  school 
cannot  offer  all  these  subjects  of  intuition  according  to  their  differ- 
ent natures  and  their  origin;  for  the  school  will  not  take  the  place 
of  life:  it  only  supposes  them,  connects  itself  with  them,  and  refers 
to  them,  it  points  them  out  in  all  their  compass,  occupies  itself  with 
them,  and  builds  up  with  them  on  all  sides  the  foundation  of  intel- 
ligence. 

The  sensuous  intuitions  relate  to  the  corporeal  world  and  the  changes  m 
it.  The  pupil  must  see  with  his  own  eyes,  as  much  as  possible,  must  hear 
with  his  own  ears,  use  all  his  senses,  seek  the  sensuous  tokens  of  things  in 
their  phenomena  upon,  under,  and  above  the  ground,  in  minerals,  plants, 
animals,  men  and  their  works,  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  physical  phe- 
nomena, etc. 

The  mathematical  intuitions  are  developed  out  of  the  sensuous,  by  easy 
air.rractions  lying  near  at  hand, — the  representations  of  the  expansion  of 
sp-ice  compared  one  with  another,  those  of  time  in  succession,  the  repre- 
sentations of  number — the  how  much — the  ever-moving  representations 
of  change  in  space,  and  the  progression  of  the  same.  The  simplest  of 
These  representations  are  those  of  space;  the  rest  become  objects  of  intui- 
tion by  means  of  these,  by  points,  lines,  and  surfaces.  In  arithmetic,  for 
instance,  points,  Hues,  and  their  parts,  bodies  and  their  parts  are  the  ma- 
terial of  intuitions. 

The  moral  intuitions  come  to  the  pupil  through  man,  through  his  life 
with  his  relatives,  as  in  the  school  through  schoolmates  and  teachers. 
These  are  naturally  inward  intuitions  which  embody  themselves  in  the 

*Taken  from  Chapter  on  Auschauungsunterricht  (•'  Intuitional''  or  ''Object  Teaching") 
in  the  edition  of  Die  Wegweiser  fur  Deutsche  Lehrer,  issued  by  Diestenveg's  friends 
after  his  death  in  numbers  from  1873  to  1879.  The  Chapter  entire  will  be  found  ii? 
Barnard's  Journal  of  Education  for  1880,  p.  417. 


INTUITIONAL  OR  OBJECT  TEACHING. 

expression  of  the  countenance,  in  the  eye,  in  the  speech.  The  pupil's  own 
experience  is  the  chief  thing  here  as  elsewhere.  Happy  the  child  that  is 
surrounded  by  thoroughly  moral,  pure  men,  whose  manifestations  lay  in 
him  the  moral  foundation  of  life.  The  moral  facts  of  history  are  pointed 
out  to  him  by  the  teacher  from  his  own  intuition,  in  a  jiving  manner  by 
means  of  the  living  word,  the  eloquent  lips,  ami  liie  feeling  heart. 

To  religious  intuitions  the  child  comes  through,  ilie  contemplation  of  r.u- 
ture,  its  phenomena  and  beneficent  workings,  through  the  piety  of  /;}P, 
parents,  the  commands  of  the  father  and  mother,  through  contemplating 
the  community  in  the  house  of  worship,  through  religious  songs  in  th^ 
school,  through  religious  instruction  and  confirmation  in  school  and 
church,  through  religious-minded  teachers  and  pastors,  biblical  stories,  etc. 

Esthetic  intuitions  are  awakened  by  the  sight  of  beautiful  and  sublime 
objects  of  nature  (flowers,  trees,  stars,  crystal's,  sky,  and  sea,  rocky  moun- 
tains, landscapes,  storms,  thunder-showers,  etc.),  and  the  real  objects  of 
art,  pictures  and  picture-galleries,  statues,  gardens,  poetical  products,  and 
human  speech.  We  can  classify  their  specific  differences,  calling  them 
moral,  aesthetic,  etc. ,  but  I  hold  it  better  to  place  them  in  one  category. 
The  strong  moral  law  equally  binding  upon  all  men,  this  field  of  view 
does  not  include,  for  its  contents  cannot  be  unconditionally  required. 
That  belongs  to  the  free,  beautifully  human  development,  which'  is  de 
pendent  upon  conditions  that  are  not  attainable  by  every  one. 

The  so-called  purely  human  intuitions  are  related  to  the  nobly  formed 
human  lives  of  individual  men  whose  characters  (Inhalt)  proceed  from  the 
strongest  conceptions  of  morality  and  duty,  from  sympathetic  affections, 
friendship,  and  love,  compassion,  and  loving  fellowship,  and  other  shining 
phenomena  of  exalted  human  life  as  they  are  met  with  in  the  more  refined 
development  and  culture  of  lofty  and  pure  men.  Happy  is  the  child  who 
is  in  their  sphere!  If  the  home  offers  nothing  in  this  respect,  it  is  difficult 
to  supply  the  want.  Let  the  teacher  do  what  is  possible  by  the  hold  he 
has  upon  the  school  and  by  all  his  own  manifestations. 

The  social  intuitions,  that  is  the  social  circumstances  of  men  in  a  large 
sense  are  determined  for  the  child  by  the  manifestations  of  the  community 
in  the  schools,  in  the  churches,  in  the  assemblies  of  the  people,  in  public 
festivals,  -and  especially  in  stories  in  which  the  teacher,  by  his  living 
insight  into  states,  nations,  and  warlike  communities,  defines  to  the 
scholar  the  best  living  representations  of  great  deeds.  Our  early  domes- 
tic life,  not  a  public  one,  was  an  obstacle  to  the  growth  of  these  so  impor- 
tant intuitions.  How  can  he  who  has  experienced  nothing,  understand 
history?  How  can  he  who  has  not  seen  the  people  make  a  'living  picture 
of  its  "life?  Small  republics  have  endless  advantage  in  respect  to  the 
observation  of  public  life  and  patriotic  sentiment.  Words,  even  the  most 
eloquent,  give  a  very  weak,  unsatisfactory  compensation  for  observation. 
The  year  1848  has,  in  this  respect,  brought  most  important  steps  of  pro- 
gress.* Prominent  above  all  other  considerations  is  the  importance  of- the 
life,  the  intelligence,  the  standpoint,  the  character  of  the  teacher,  for  lay- 
ing the  foundation  of  living  observation  in  the  soul,  in  the  mind,  and  ic 
the  disposition  -of  the  pupil.  What  he  does  not  carry  in  his  own  bosom 
he  cannot  awaken  in  the  bosom  of  another.  Nothing  else  can  compensate 
for  the  want  of  this.  The  teacher  must  himself  have  seen,  observed, 
experienced,  investigated,  lived,  and  thought  as  much  as  possible,  and 
should  exhibit  a  model  in  moral,  religious,  aesthetic,  and  purely  human 
and  social  respects.  So  much  as  he  is,  so  much  is  his  educational  instruc- 
tion worth.  He  is  to  his  pupils  the  most  instructive,  the  most  appreciable, 
the  most  striking  object  of  observation. 

*  "  We  hope,"  says  Diesterweg's biographer,  "that  Father Diefterweg  would  have  been 
satisfied  with  the  'progress  from  1848  to  1871  if  he  could  have  experienced  it,  but  let  us 
kuep  watch  of  ourselves  in  spite  of  all  that,  for  security.  The  chief  battle  of  the 
German  nation  seems  but  just  now  (1873)  to  be  beginning." 


SOME  DIFFICULTIES  AND  ENCOURAGEMENTS 

IN     KINDERGARTEN    WORK.* 
BY   MISS   E.    A.    MANNING. 


THE    SITUATION. 

IN  attempting  to  bring  before  you  Kindergarten  work  in  its  discourag- 
ing and  its  encouraging  aspects,  I  felt  it  would  be  impossible  to  treat  the 
subject  exhaustively,  so  I  have  used  the  word  some  in  the  title  of  my 
paper.  It  is  to  some  of  the  difficulties  and  some  of  the  encouragements 
that  I  wish  to  refer.  It  would  have  been  presumptuous  in  me  to  aim  at 
giving  a  full  view  of  the  matter,  nor  would  the  short  time  at  disposal 
allow  of  my  presenting  to  you  such  a  view,  even  had  I  been  capable  of 
doing  it.  I  hope,  however,  that  my  shortcomings  and  gaps  and  omis- 
sions will  be  made  up  and  filled  in  by  you  later  in  the  evening.  If  from 
your  varied  and  growing  experience  you  will  give  the  help  that  you 
can  so  well  render,  my  poor  word  "  some  "  may  change  itself  into  "many" 
before  we  part,  even  if  it  cannot  take  the  comprehensive  style  of  "all." 

But  of  what  use  is  it  to  look  at  this  subject?  Will  it  prove  helpful  to 
do  so?  I  certainly  think  it  ought.  We  generally  recognize,  so  that  to  say 
so  sounds  almost  like  a  truism,  that  in  all  departments  of  life  and  action 
it  is  desirable  to  stand  still  now  and  then,  and  to  reconnoiter  our  position. 
We  need  occasionally  to  notice  how  much  ground  we  have  traversed,  and 
whither  our  present  line  of  march  is  tending.  And  this  is  true  in  regard 
to  Kindergarten  work  as  much  as  any  other  kind  of  work.  Besides,  I 
think  that  for  the  sake  of  sympathy,  those  who  are  laboring  for  a  com- 
mon object  ought  to  compare  experiences.  It  is  often  a  relief  to  find  that 
our  own  difficulties  are  not  peculiar  to  ourselves.  As  soon  as  people 
throw  off  their  shells  and  husks,  we  perceive  that  in  other's  minds  there 
exist  the  same  puzzles  as  in  our  own,  in  other's  lives  the  same  disheartening 
obstacles.  Thus  a  fellow-feeling  springs  up,  which  is  one  of  the  strongest 
bonds  of  life,  and  which,  moreover,  imparts  such  force  in  the  pursuit  of 
a  common  aim,  that  by  it  a  few  may  become  a  thousand,  and  weak  hands, 
united  in  their  effort,  may  effect  the  stroke  of  a  giant. 

Now  I  prefer  to  take  the  difficulties  of  Kindergarten  work  before  its 
encouragements,  because  I  do  not  wish  our  latest  impressions  to  be  of  a 
hopeless  kind.  You  will  perhaps  afterwards  again  draw  attention  to  the 
depressing  side  of  the  subject,  but  it  is  not  my  desire  to  close  with  that. 

I  must  premise  that  by  difficulties  I  mean  the  hindrances  that  we  meet 
in  the  realization  of  what  may  be  called  the  possible.  I  think  an  aim 
which  is  pronounced  difficult  is  one  which  is,  under  favorable  circum- 
stances, attainable.  No  one  but  Jules  Verne  talks  of  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  our  reaching  the  moon,  bscause  tha  conditions  of  the  universe  make 

*  A  Paper  read  to  tho  members  of  the  London  Frcebel  Society,  February  11, 1879. 

33 


514  DIFFICULTIES  AND  ENCOURAGEMENTS 

such  an  aim  impossible.  It  is  true  that  we  speak  of  insuperable  difficul- 
ties, but  1  think  the  expression  is  generally  relative.  It  means  impossible 
to  you  or  to  me,  but  not  to  the  human  race.  At  any  rate,  the  difficulties 
that  I  shall  refer  to  are  like  logs  and  stones  that  lie  in  our  road,  which, 
indeed,  may  perhaps  lie  there  for  ever,  but  which;  by  a  sufficient  number 
of  stout,  active  arms,  may  perhaps  be  dragged  away,  if  not  in  our  own 
day,  yet  by  others  at  a  later  time. 

DIFFICULTIES — PRACTICAL   AND   THEORETICAL. 

I.  I  will  divide  our  difficulties  into  two  kinds,  practical  and  theoretical, 
and  I  shall  take  the  practical  ones  first. 

1.  In  the  management  of  a  Kindergarten,  the  teacher  has  to  encounter 
the  ordinary  hindrances  that  every-day  life  presents  to  all  workers — those 
outward  obstacles  which  seem  as  if  they  had  a  spite  against  any  ideal 
ever  being  realized  by  any  one.  Some  of  these  ordinary  difficulties  crowd 
especially  around  teachers,  partly,  I  think,  because  teaching  is  one  of 
those  professions  which  depend  for  success  on  extreme  regularity.  Some 
other  kinds  of  work  can  be  partly  timed  at  will,  so  that  you  can,  if  need- 
ful, stand  behind  the  hedge  till  the  way  is  clear.  But  teachers  have  to 
go  straight  along  the  middle  of  the  road,  and  thus  cannot  escape  the  force 
of  the  wind  and  the  roughest  stones.  And  there  are  so  many  different 
kinds  of  trouble  to  encounter  in  an  undertaking  like  a  school  or  a  Kinder- 
garten— troubles  from  landlords,  from,  servants,  from  ill-health,  from 
family  anxieties,  from  want  of  capital,  and  so  on.  And  when  all  things 
are  for  once  at  their  best,  in  stalks  one  morning  scarlet  fever  or  whooping- 
cough,  seizes  a  child  or  two  and  scares  the  others  away,  leaving  the 
teachers  to  an  empty  school-room.  Many  of  these  troubles  are  the  lot  of 
any  household,  but  they  fall  on  teachers  with  extra  frequency  and  force. 
And  when  the  air  is  thus  full  of  perplexities,  how  impossible  it  is  to  spend 
that  quiet  thought  on  the  preparation  for  teaching  which  alone  can  make 
it  tell  on  the  pupils!  A  potter  cannot  mould  his  clay  jar  while  some  one 
is  jogging  his  arm.  The  teacher  may  then  have  a  high  ideal  for  her  Kin- 
dergarten, but  these  external  difficulties  maim  and  spoil  her  highest  pur- 
poses. Prudence  and  precaution  can  doubtless  enable  her  to  ward  off 
many  of  such  evils;  these  qualities,  however,  must  have  time  for  growth, 
and  besides,  we  are  all  so  interlinked  in  life,  that  the  carelessness  of 
others  hinders  us  often  as  much  as  our  own.  Outward  difficulties  may 
have  the  best  subjective  results,  only  we  arc  not  now  considering  devel- 
opment of  character,  but  the  attainable  standard  of  work;  and  I  feel 
strongly  that  in  judging  of  Kindergarten  success,  these  difficulties  of  an 
ordinary  kind  have  to  be  taken  into  account.  They  tend,  in  spite  of 
patience,  energy,  and  persistency  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  to  make  her 
practice  disappointingly  below  her  ideal.  One  difficulty  of  this  class  I  may 
specially  refer  to,  that  of  finding  efficient  assistants.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
this  hindrance,  which  is  already  lessening,  will  vanish  more  and  more  as 
a  greater  number  of  students  come  forward  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
.facilities  afforded  for  Kindergarten  training,  but  at  present  it  often  causes 
teachers  to  fail  of  accomplishing  what  they  otherwise  would  and  could. 
Sometimes,  however,  the  salaries  offered  do  not  attract  the  most  capable 


IN  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  515 

helpers,  If  the  experience  of  the  head  of  a  Kindergarten  is  supplemented 
in  a  responsive  way  by  earnest  and  willing  assistants,  whose  training  is 
still  in  progress,  or  who  have  just  finished  their  course,  an  organic  whole- 
ness prevails,  which  conduces  to  economy  of  effort,  effectual  division  of 
labor,  and  the  happiest  relations  of  mutual  confidence  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  teacher's  plan.s  are  not  seconded  by  the  bright  and  ready  intel 
ligence  of  her  fellow-workers,  she  could  not  have  to  encounter  a  greater 
difficulty  in  the  Kindergarten  path. 

2.  Now  another  hindrance  has  to  be  considered — a  very  important  one 
— the  absence  of  enough  cooperation  on  the  part  of  parents.     Froebel's 
principles  have  as  yet  been  so  little  studied  by  English  mothers  that  they 
show  much  indifference  and  lack  of  interest  as  to  what  the  Kindergarten 
teacher  is  attempting  with  their  children.     Johnnie  and  Ethel  are  at  an 
inconvenient  age,  troublesome  in  the  nursery  and   interrupting  in  the 
school-room,  so  their  mother,  by  a  friend's  advice,  sends  them  to  a  Kin- 
dergarten.    The  children  delight  in  the  change;  it  is  ascertained  that  they 
are  treated  kindly  and  kept  amused.     The  plan  is  therefore  regarded  as 
satisfactory,  and  the  mother's  part  is  ended.     But  the  teacher  agrees  with 
Froebel  as  to  the  essential  importance  of  unity  of  training  between  the 
home  and  the  Kindergarten.     She  observes  the  harm  to  the  child  of  a  want 
of    continuity  of  influence.     In  some  cases  actions  forbidden  here  are 
allowed  there;  often  the  nurse  imparts  an  undesirable  tone  and  feeling. 
This  want  of  harmony  sometimes  obliges  the  teacher  to  begin  again,  as  it 
were,  each  day,  the  knitted  stitches  having  been  allowed  to  drop  through 
at  home.     But  suppose  the  home  treatment  is  of  the  very  best,  the  teacher 
still  feels  that  she  is  working  a  good  deal  in  the  dark.     She  longs  to  be 
able  to  confer  on  the  child's  character  with  those  who  see  it  constantly, 
to  be  assured  of  the  mother's  sympathy,  and  to  obtain  the  help  that  only 
a  mother's  experience  can  give.     Besides,  if  parents  entered  more  fully 
into  what  Froebel  meant  by  training  for  little  children,  they  would  co- 
operate more  than  they  do  in  regard  to  regular  attendance,  and  would  not 
think  that  it  was  mainly  a  debarring  the  child  from  amusement  if  they 
keep  it  away  for  a  term.     Kindergarten  teachers  constantly  say  that  the 
only  pupils  upon  whom  their  influence  tells  are  those  that  arc  left  quietly 
under  their  direction  term  after  term.     Again,  parents  do  not  often  see 
the  use  of  sending  children  while  very  young  to  a  Kindergarten.     Little 
ones  of  three  or  four  are  not  in  the  way  at  home.     But  the  teacher  is  at  a 
disadvantage  if  she  may  not  have  these  children  under  her  care  from  a 
very  early  age.     Perhaps  the  mother  thinks  that  the  teacher  is  apt  to  view 
the  matter  only  from  one  side,  and  that  she  forgets  how  many  family  con- 
siderations have  to  be  weighed.     But  this  too,  only  points  to  the  need  of 
increased  intercourse  and  confidence  between  the  two. 

3.  Having  now  hinted  at  some  of  the  practical  difficulties  that  the 
teacher  has  to  face  in  trying  to  carry  out  her  ideal,  I  will  ask  you  to 
notice  for  a  few  moments  the  more  theoretical  difficulties,  those  which 
attend  the  forming  of  a  true  ideal.     And  here  several  puzzling  questions 
seem  to  me  to  arise;  as,  for   instance,  What  is  an  ideal  Kindergarten? 
Should  we,  or  not,  all  describe  it  in  the  same  manner?    I  am  not  going  to 


51g  DIFFICULTIES  AND  ENCOURAGEMENTS 

venture  to  picture  one.  I  should  expect  those  to  have  the  best  ideal  who 
simultaneously  with  close  study  of  children  by  means  of  experience,  have 
studied  Froebcl's  writings,  because  it  was  in  his  mind  that  the  beautiful 
scheme  originated.  But  unfortunately  only  such  as  can  read  German 
have  full  access  to  his  works,  and  it  is  also  unfortunate  that  his  style  is 
by  no  means  easy  or  attractive.  Something  has  already  been  accom- 
plished by  his  iniimate  friends  in  regard  to  simplifying  and  interpreting 
his  writings.  A  few  original  books,  too,  have  appeared  in  England  and 
the  United  States,  in  which  Frccbel's  principles  are  set  forth.  But  it  is  an 
abiding  misfortune  that  only  a  few  can  study  his  own  books  to  full  advan- 
tage. Hence  it  becomes  difficult  to  form  an  ideal,  and  there  is  consider- 
able danger  lest  the  ideal  formed  should  be  a  low  one.  I  think  the  name 
Kindergarten,  though  open  to  some  objections,  is  in  itself  a  help  towards 
keeping  up  the  thing;  for  it  indicates  that  education  should  consist  in 
aiding  the  child's  self-development,  which  view  Frccbcl  insisted  on  very 
strongly.  But  a  name,  after  all,  is  not  very  much  as  a  safeguard.  Phil- 
ology shows  us  how  singularly  words,  after  a  while,  get  to  be  used  in  an 
opposite  sense  to  the  original  one;  only  a  true  name  does  give  us,  I  think, 
more  chance  of  returning  to  the  true  thing  in  our  thoughtful  moods. 

4.  But  another  difficulty  arises.  Will  a  German  system  suit  English 
children?  Should  not  Kindergartens  be  in  some  way  nationalized?  I 
think  these  questions  ought  to  be  well  discussed;  I  can  only  offer  a  sug- 
gestion or  two  on  the  subject.  By  nationality  I  suppose  we  mean  broadly 
those  characteristics  distinguishing  one  nation  from  another,  which  are 
due  to  the  moulding  force  of  the  nation's  past  life  and  of  its  present  cir- 
cumstances; and  it  seems  inevitable  that  each  people  should  have,  in  a 
degree,  a  peculiar  system  of  education,  because  whatever  it  likes  to  be 
it  will  train  its  youth  to  become.  But  Frcebel's  principles  of  education 
must,  I  should  think,  be  accepted  as  true  everywhere,  because  he  con- 
cerned himself  with  the  humanity  that  underlies  all  nationality.  The 
instincts  and  faculties  for  which  he  provided  scope  arc  not  those  of  Ger- 
man children  only,  but  of  all  children.  It  is  this  deep  basis  which  gives 
permanence  to  Kindergarten  principles.  Taking,  however,  a  more  lim- 
ited view  of  the  question,  a  certain  amount  of  adaptation  does  seem  to  be 
desirable  in  regard  to  his  methods,  or  rather  in  the  way  of  applying  those 
methods.  Frrebel  dealt  with  children  just  as  he  found  them.  He  util- 
ized, therefore,  their  associations,  their  games,  their  surroundings,  in  aid 
of  his  plans  of  culture.  Necessarily,  then,  there  was  a  German  coloring 
to  a  part  of  his  system.  To  make  Kindergartens  national  here,  do  they 
not  need  to  take  an  English  coloring?  Many  Kindergarten  teachers  have 
perceived  this,  and  have  exerted  their  imaginations  to  effect  it.  Y^e  are  but 
acting  in  harmony  with  Froebel's  ideas  if  we  adapt  our  teaching  to  the  child 
as  it  is,  and  inasmuch  as  a  German  child  lives  amonj  different  influences 
from  an  English  child,  or  a  town  child  is  more  intelligent  than  a  peasant 
child,  the  means  adopted  for  reaching  intellect  and  feelings  will  some- 
times necessarily  differ.  With  respect  to  nationality,  it  ought,  however, 
to  be  borne  in  mind  that  nations  can  learn  of  each  other  to  the  great 
advantage  of  both  (or  all).  We  are  apt  to  mix  up  with  right  feelings  as 
to  nationality  the  prepossessions  that  rest  on  national  vanity.  These  we 


IN  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  517 

must  cast  off  before  we  can  judge  faiily  of  systems  of  education  (or  of 
anything  else)  belonging  to  neighbor  nations.  The  disdain  of  all  that  is 
not  native  is  neither  healthy  nor  admirable,  and  cuts  off  many  channels 
of  benefit.  Surely  each  nation,  aware  of  its  own  imperfections,  ought  to 
welcome  from  any  other  nation,  all  true  thought  and  all  good  forms  of 
embodying  that  tl'ought,  and  I  think  we  may  well  be  grateful  to  Germany 
for  the  idea  of  the  Kindergarten,  which  might  never  have  originated  else- 
where. We  have  then  lo  meet  this  modified  difficulty  as  to  how  to  nation- 
alize Kindergartens.  I  have  classed  it  among  theoretical  difficulties,  not 
because  it  has  not  everything  to  do  with  practice,  too,  but  because  it  pri- 
marily concerns  the  type  and  ideal,  which  being  once  fixed  the  teacher 
\vill  aim  at  i;s  realization  by  practical  effort.  I  am  sure  that  all  adapta- 
tion which  is  the  result  of  an  earnest  study  of  Frail's  principles  would 
have  found  much  more  sympathy  with  him  than  a  servile  reproduction  of 
the  form  which  he  adopted,  under  the  circumstances,  as  the  most  living 
and  efficacious.  « 

5.  IX  ow  we  come  to  another  difficulty  in  forming  an  ideal.  It  refers  to 
the  connection  between  the  Kindergarten  and  the  school.  There  appears  to 
be  considerable  danger  lest  the  school  should  foice  itself  into  the  Kinder- 
garten. In  regard  to  this  danger,  I  would  ask  you  to  notice  certain  facts. 
Beyond  the  Kindergarten — still  in  the  future — lie  ten  or  twelve  years  of 
school  life.  Numbers  of  children  now  in  the  Kindergarten  will  remain 
in  the  hands  of  teachers  till  after  the  year  1890.  Now  the  present  school 
system  involves  a  good  deal  of  pressure.  There  is  so  much  to  be  learned, 
and  there  is  so  little  time  to  learn  in.  And  then  many  teachers  of  these 
days  are  happily  more  considerate  than  formerly  as  to  conditions  of  health, 
and  seek  to  cultivate  other  faculties  as  well  as  the  intellectual  ones.  Thus 
they  need  more  time  at  command.  Can  we  wonder  that  they  desire  to 
appropriate  the  Kindergarten?  The  education-tree  has  grown  larger,  and 
wants  room  lor  its  roots.  Naturally  it  invades  the  space  which  it  finds 
lying  be-low  it.  There  used  to  be  less  opportunity  for  this  spreading  pro- 
cess. Km  now  the  Kindergarten  has  collected  the  children,  and  the  school 
presses  downward  in*o  it.  I  think  the  same  thing  has  taken  place  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools.  If  it  had  not  been  for  earnest  efforts  the  original  infant 
school  would  have  become,  more  than  it  now  is,  simply  a  field  for  teaching 
the  elements  of  reading,  wi  i! ing.  and  arithmc  tic.  The  Kindergarten  seems 
to  be  encountering  the  same  risk,  and  I  think  some  Kindergarten  teachers 
find  it  difficult  to  make  up  their  minds  how  to  deal  with  this  difficulty. 
Plausible  arguments  are  at  hand  in  favor  of  the  early  acquirement  of 
school  habits.  Parents  exert  a  strong  pressure  in  regard  to  learning  to 
read.  The  routine  of  school  is  familiar  to  young  teachers  (who  have  just 
passed  througli  it),  and  children  arc  so  pliable  that  you  can  do  with  them 
pretty  much  as  you  like,  if  you  choose  to  forget  the  ir°r' ions  that  will  fol- 
low. Moreover,  it  is  the  fashion  of  the  present  day  to  look  for  results, 
and  we  are  asked,  What  sort  of  results  are  your  paper  imts  and  clay  birds' 
nests?  Well!  here  again  I  should  sny  that  full  discussion  is  important, 
and  that  the  difficulty  in  forming  an  ideal  should  be  earnestly  met.  One 
of  the  first  educational  principles  of  Frcebel  is  that  the  Kindergarten  lays 
the  basis  of  an  education  which  should  go  on  gently  and  harmoniously 


518  DIFFICULTIES  AND  ENCOURAGEMENTS 

through  its  whole  course.  The  child,  then,  should  not  be  a  subject  fot 
contention.  No  antagonism  should  exist  between  the  Kindergarten 
teachers  and  the  school  teachers.  But  another  of  his  principles  is  that 
every  portion  of  the  child's  life  has  its  own  special  type.  Take  the  child 
of  four  and  the  child  of  eight.  Each  is  in  a  peculiar  phase  of  develop- 
ment, and  needs  training  adapted  to  that  phase.  Then  let  the  Kinder- 
garten suit  itself  to  the  Kindergarten  age,  and  the  school  (I  mean  the 
school  as  it  ought  to  be)  to  the  school  age.  The  very  little  child  does  not 
naturally  show  itself  bookish;  it  prefers  to  learn  from  nature,  by  the  inlets 
of  its  senses,  through  companionship,  b}r  its  fancy,  by  efforts  of  short 
duration,  through  loving  trust  in  those  who  care  for  it.  Perhaps  learning 
to  read  may  be  taught  earlier  than  Froebel  recommended  if  taught  intel- 
ligently, but  the  main  thing  is  to  let  the  child  learn  as  its  nature  indicates. 
The  mats  and  birds'  nests  are  not  the  teacher's  true  results.  These  lie  in 
quickened  observation,  in  habits  of  attention  and  perseverance,  in  bright- 
ness of  mind,  in  command  of  speech,  in  strengthened  health,  in  a  rever- 
ential tone,  in  gentle  conduct,  in  a  happy,  well -developed  childhood. 
The  Kindergarten  has  its  own  conditions,  its  own  growth  and  substance. 
It  is  not  a  mere  empty  space,  into  which  the  school  can  force  itself  at  will. 
I  think,  then,  that  this  difficulty  as  to  invasion  will  settle  itself  in  time,  if 
only  Kindergarten  teachers  carry  out  their  work  in  a  true  and  faithful 
spirit.  It  does  seem  to  me  that  in  some  cases  the  Kindergarten  is  already 
too  much  like  a  school.  The  matter  of  the  lessons  is  sometimes  given, 
imparted  to  the  children,  or  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  teacher  tries  to 
elicit  thought  and  replies,  the  poor  little  intellect  may  be  unnaturally 
strained,  whereas  it  is  extremely  important  that  children  should  be 
allowed  to  gather  in  from  all  that  surrounds  them  in  their  own  curiously 
grave  way,  and  to  ask  questions  on  what  they  want  to  know,  and  not 
on  what  does  not  interest  them.  Is  there  not  also  occasionally  too  much 
repression?  Might  not  the  children  have  more  often  a  little  free  play  and 
opportunity  of  following  their  own  bent?  I  believe  that  our  ideal  needs 
some  rectifying  in  these  respects.  Let  but  the  Kindergarten  be  what  it 
ought  to  be,  and  let  the  transition  class  occupy  its  proper  place  and  school 
teachers  will,  I  think,  have  no  reason  to  regret  that  the  children  have  not 
begun  "lessons"  at  five  years  old.  The  determining  of  the  relation 
between  the  school  and  the  Kindergarten  must  then  at  present  be  counted 
among  our  difficulties,  but  already  there  are  cases  where  that  relation  is 
satisfactorily  settled. 

I  have  now  referred  to  several  kinds  of  difficulties — the  ordinary  ones 
attached  to  teaching  and  its  organization,  including  the  difficulty  of  rind- 
ing efficient  assistants,  the  want  of  cooperation  of  parents,  and  then  the 
difficulty  of  forming  an  ideal  of  a  Kindergarten  and  finding  out  Froebel's 
ideal,  the  difficulty  as  to  nationalizing  it,  amd  also  in  regard  to  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Kindergarten  with  the  school. 

ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

II.  We  now  come  to  the  second  division  of  my  subject — some  of  the 
encouragements  in  Kindergarten  work.  I  hope  I  shall  not  unduly  mag- 
nify these,  but  I  think  it  is  a  great  disadvantage  to  those  who  are  inter- 
ested in  a  movement  if  they  do  not  realize  what  causes  for  hopefulness  it 


;:;  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  519 

may  and  docs  present.  Encouragements  are  the  matters  which  make  us 
take  heart.  Unless  \ve  may  take  heart,  take  courage,  we  are  powerless  in 
work  and  wre  cannot  expect  to  succeed.  They  arc  the  signs  on  our  horizon 
which  may  legitimately  nerve  us  to  braver  efforts.  No  doubt  it  is  very 
easy  to  misinterpret  such  signs  for  good  or  for  evil,  particularly  as  the  work 
of  interpretation  falls  a  good  to  the  temperament;  but,  while  we  ought  to 
make  every  endeavor  to  see  facts  truly,  a  hopeful  spirit  is  well  worth  cul- 
tivating. Hopefulness  helps  to  lessen  our  anxieties,  and  it  has,  besides,  a 
happy  facility  for  accomplishing  its  own  predictions.  Let  me  then  bring 
before  you  a  few  of  the  encouraging  aspects  of  Kindergarten  work,  asking 
you  to  add  any  cheering  facts  that  I  shall  omit,  and,  if  necessary,  to  qual- 
ify the  picture  with  some  gloomy  tints. 

1.  The  first  encouragement  that  I  wish  to  mention— and  it  seems  to  me 
the  greatest  of  all — is  that  Frrebel's  methods  prove,  in  application,  their 
intrinsic  value.  The  more  they  are  adopted,  the  more  fitting  they  show^ 
themselves  to  be.  This  may  be  called  an  assertion  without  proof,  but  1 
think  it  is  confirmed  by  the  experience  of  teachers  and  the  testimony  of 
many  parents.  I  believe  we  may  be  really  encouraged  by  feeling  that  wre 
have  to  do  with  a  sj^stem  of  education  which  is  not  guess-work,  not  a 
short  cut  to  results,  but  a  system,  adapted  by  patient  thought  and  care  to 
the  child's  whole  nature.  Most  of  the  work  in  life  seems  to  consist  in 
fitting  one  thing  to  another,  more  or  less  satisfactorily.  The  shoemaker 
preeminently  succeeds  only  by  fitting.  We  use  other  words  for  it — suit- 
ing, conforming,  adapting,  accommodating,  employing  means  towards  an 
end,  and  so  on,  but  they  all  point  to  this  process  of  fitting.  Labor  is 
always  an  adaptation  of  effort  to  result,  an  attempt  to  imiiate  the  wonder- 
ful fittingness  of  the  arrangements  of  God  in  nature.  Now  Frcebel 
appears  to  have  possessed  in  a  special  degree  the  genius  of  fitting.  He 
looked  at  the  child  with  a  mind  free  from  prepossessions,  and  with  that 
philosophic  simplicity  which  waits  patiently  until  insight  comes,  and  he 
saw  how  the  ch.'.d  was  selecting  all  that  assisted  its  being  to  develop,  in 
the  home,  the  garden,  and  the  wood,  and  then  he  arranged  his  Kinder- 
garten so  as  to  tit  the  child's  tastes,  tendencies,  habits,  and  requirements. 
This  work  took  a  long  time,  but  he  accomplished  it  at  last,  and  the  meth- 
ods that  we  employ  are  the  outcome  of  his  patient  zeal.  We  are  some- 
times accused  of  being  fanatical  about  Frcebel.  The  best  means  of  ascer- 
taining whether  we  give  him  more  than  his  due  is  to  encourage  the  com- 
pletest  examination  of  his  system  by  those  who  disparage  it.  Let  other 
educational  reformers  have  their  full  share  of  encouragement.  Let  their 
systems  be  studied  as  thoroughly  as  Frcebcl's.  He  himself  felt  as  much 
as  any  educator  his  inter-dependence  with  those  who  preceded  him,  and 
with  his  contemporaries.  After  such  investigation,  let  Froebel's  place  be 
fixed,  and  I  think  it  will  not  fail  to  be  a  high  one,  and  in  some  respects 
unique.  We  ought  to  be  the  last  to  allow  ourselves  to  be  dogmatic  on 
this  subject,  But  let  teachers  say  whether  they  find  any  methods  at  pres- 
ent available  more  fitted,  more  adapted,  than  Fropbel's  to  the  child's  men- 
tal and  moral  growth.  We  need  not  argue  too  much  from  the  happiness 
that  pervades  the  Kindergarten,  yet  this  decidedly  supj^ies  a  certain 
measure  of  favorable  testimony,  except  to  those  wrho  think  that  guided 
self-development  has  a  tendency  to  make  children  miserable.  The  way 


520  DIFFICULTIES  AND  ENCOUKAGMENTS 

in  which.  Froebel's  methods  are  fitted  to  each  part  and  to  the  whole  of  a 
child's  nature  fills  one  more  and  more  with  wonder.  We  sometimes  get 
almost  tired  of  the  words  and  phrases  in  which  his  views  are  expressed 
and  reiterated,  but  we  can  recall  the  time  when  we  first  heard  or  read  of 
them,  and  we  remember  how  strongly  the  sense  of  adaptation  impressed 
and  struck  us.  And  in  all  Kindergarten  teaching  of  a  real  kind  its  fitting 
ness  is  recognized.  We  notice  how  the  child  responds,  like  a  musical 
instrument,  to  the  teacher's  endeavors,  and  how  gently  the  faculties  unfold 
themselves.  I  think  then  that  the  encouragement  to  be  derived  from 
experience  is  in  itself  enough  to  give  us  the  heart  and  hope  that  we  need. 
2.  But  we  must  go  on  to  the  second  encouragement  to  be  referred  to. 
It  is  that  Kindergarten  work  is  extending,  and  that  the  system  is  becom 
ing  widely  known  and  valued.  If  you  are  inclined  to  despond,  you  may 
say,  and  I  cannot  deny  it,  that  this  process  of  extension  is  after  all  less 
than  we  might  hope  or  desire,  but  I  do  think  it  is  enough  to  increase  our 
courage.  A  few  years  ago,  if  one  mentioned  a  Kindergarten,  one  was 
required  to  explain  from  the  very  "beginning  what  it  was.  But  now  the 
word  is  sufficient,  in  many  quarters,  though  by  no  means  everywhere,  and 
though  the  name  may  often  call  up  a  very  imperfect  image.  It  has  not 
been  without  effect  that  so  many  of  those  best  acquainted  with  Froebel's 
principles  have  written  and  lectured  upon  these  principles.  But  the  great 
point  is  that  good  Kindergartens  have  -been  established,  and  that  thus 
parents  have  had  the  opportunity  of  judging  for  themselves  what  they 
are.  Every  Kindergarten  does  work  for  the  whole  movement,  as  well  as 
for  its  individual  little  pupils.  And  so  it  has  come  to  pass  that  parents 
often  enquire  where  good  Kindergartens  are  situated,  so  that  they  may 
form  their  plans  of  residence  accordingly.  Some  of  our  opponents 
explain  this  by  saying  that  Kindergartens  have  become  the  fashion.  I  do 
not  think  this  is  true,  if  by  fashion  we  mean  something  unreasoning.  We 
might  as  well  say  that  we  use  post-cards  because  it  is  the  fashion  to  do 
so.  Kindergartens  exist,  and  they  are  adopted  not  because  others  adopt 
them,  but  because  they  have  been  proved  to  be  useful.  But  not  only 
are  Kindergartens  more  in  demand;  it  is  encouraging  to  find  that  edu- 
cational authorities  give  more  consideration  to  their  nature  and  value. 
Certainly  we  are  treated  with  somewhat  less  indifference  than  a  few  years 
ago.  In  lectures  on  educational  reformers  Frrebel  now  has  a  recognized 
position.  Cyclopedias  include  mention  of  his  system.  School  boards 
have  begun  to  incline  towards  Kindergarten  teaching,  and  thus  it  has 
come  under  the  eye  of  Inspectors,  whose  opinion  seems  to  increase  in 
favorableness.  Training  colleges  are  taking  into  consideration  and  in  some 
cases  have  adopted  Fra'bel's  system  as  a  part  of  their  course.  Is  there 
not  some  solid  encouragement  in  all  this?  And  when  we  look  abroad  we 
see  that  in  Germany  Kindergartens,  after  a  period  of  comparative  decline 
are  getting  into  a  more  satisfactory  condition;  and  the  labors  of  those  who 
have  thought  deeply  on  the  subject,  the  Baroness  Marenholtz-Bulow, 
Frau  Schrader,  and  others,  arc  now  telling  on  practical  Kindergarten 
work.  In  Switzerland  Mme.  de  Portugall  is  effecting  most  salutary 
changes  in  the  infant  schools  of  the  Canton  of  Geneva.  Mrs.  Salis 
Schwabes'  institution  at  Naples  is  helping  to  spread  a  knowledge  of  what 
the  system,  wisely  applied,  really  is.  In  Austria  and  Hungary,  and 


IN  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  521 

other  countries,  Kindergartens  arc  spreading.  From  the  United  States 
we  have  encouraging  reports  of  progress.  Making  due  allowance  for  dis- 
appointments, from  imperfect  and  supeiticial  work  in  some  quarters,  I 
cannot  but  think  that  we  have  solid  ground  for  satisfaction  from  this 
extension.  If  Kindergartens  ore  a  foolish  fashion  they  will  soon  die  out 
Let  us  see  whether  in  five  years  more  the  present  degree  of  .stabi!  ty  rail 
not  prove  to  be  greatly  increased. 

3.  The  third  encouragement  that  I  shall  mention  is  that  some  of  Fra- 
ud's principles  are  becoming  more  and  more  accepted  in  all  departments 
of  education.  I  do  not  mean  lo  imply  that  this  has  com:;  to  pass  just 
b.'-c/iuve  of  the  Kindergarten  movement.  That  may  have  helped  towards 
it,  probably  has  helped,  but  this  is  not  the  point.  It  has  been  well  said, 
"Iflthe  oak  flourish,  it  matters  little  who  planted  the  acorn."  But  it  is 
in  every  way  a  real  source  of  encouragement  if  broader  and  more  natural 
and  harmonious  views  of  education  are  beginning  to  prevail  than  for- 
merly. I  may  remind  you  that  Frcebel  did  not  originally  occupy  him- 
self about  the  training  of  U"lc  children.  He  had  been  for  most  of  his  life 
a  teacher  of  boys,  and  it  was  his  experience  with  boys  that  helped  him  to 
develop  and  fix  his  educational  theories.  He  did  not  feel  that  infants 
should  have  one  kind  of  cehieativ.i  and  older  children  another  Different 
in  method,  truly,  because  every  year  of  a  child's  life  has  its  own  type,  but 
not  different  in  principle,  and  that  in  every  case  the  future,  the  manhood, 
should  be  kept  in  view.  Now  the  general  principles  that  lie  insisted  on 
are  evidently  those  to  which  educational  opinion  is  somewhat  tending. 
Take  as  an  instance  one  of  Frabel's  main  ideas — that  education  is  con- 
cerned more  with  development  of  faculty  than  with  the  imparting  of 
knowledge.  This  is  now  the  frequent  test  for  educati"nal  discourses. 
In  an  address  lately  delivered  (by  Mr.  Goschen)  it  was  sr.id,  "I  hold  that 
when  a  young  nuin  has  completed  his  studios  it,  is  not  enough  to  ask, 
•  What  does  he  know? '  but  '  Has  he  learnt  to  learn?  '  A.  too-narrow  view 
of  education  ignores  this  vital  necest-ity.  It  looks  to  acquirements  alone, 
instead  of  the  capacity  to  learn  "  With  Fro?bcl,  the  unfolding  of  powers, 
the  training  of  the  instruments  of  thought  and  action,  was  an  all  impor- 
tant matter,  and  it  is  satisfactory  to  perceive  that  this  principle  is  gain- 
ing ground  Again,  Froabel  insisted  that  education  mny  and  should  be 
enjoyed  And  have  not  good  teachers  begun  to  find  now  that  hours  at 
school  may  be  happy  hours  to  the  pupil,  in  spite  of  old  traditions?  If 
instruction  is  adapted  to  the  child's  stage  of  intellectual  growth,  if  it  is 
just  the  food  required  by  the  hungry  mind,  whyshould.it  not  also  be  con- 
nected with  pleasure?  The  old  notion  as  to  the  inscparabloness  of  school 
and  misery  still  seems  to  linger  in  regard  to  the  accepted  view  of  holidays 
Friends  condole  with  children  that  the  vacation  is  coming  to  an  end.  when 
very  probably  they  are  longing  to  return  to  the  "something-to-do"  that 
school  provides.  Children  of  the  Kindergarten  do  not  adopt  this  orthodox 
idea,  and  will  cry  if  they  arc  obliged  to  stay  away  from  it.  And,  as  a  more 
natural  treatment  of  childhood  and  youth  is  gaining  ground,  it  is  becom- 
ing recognized  that  a  school  may  have  its  enjoyments,  and  yet  not  be  a 
place  of  idleness.  Then,  as  to  the  importance  of  training  for  teachers. 
Here  again  we  find  that  the  educational  world  is  much  more  in  harmony 


522  DIFFICULTIES,  ETC.,  IN  KINDERGARTEN  WORK 

with  Frcebel  than  could  have  been  said  fifty  years  ago.  It  used  to  be 
thought  that  the  art  of  teaching  came  by  intuition,  or  that  there  was  no 
harm  in  acquiring  it  at  the  expense  of  the  scholars.  At  last  training  was 
introduced  for  elementary  school  teachers,  and  now  it  is  becoming  recog- 
nized that  all  teachers  require  it.  Frrebel  had  too  high  an  idea  of  the 
teacher's  vocation,  whether  for  children  of  four  or  of  any  other  age,  to 
imagine  that  they  could  exercise  their  art  well  without  earnest  prepara- 
tion. I  must  not  dwell  on  other  principles  of  Frcebel's  which  are  getting 
to  be  more- accepted.  I  will  simply  further  mention  his  view  that  educa- 
tion is  not  of  the  intellect  only,  but  should  include  the  moral  and  religious 
nature,  the  imagination,  manual  work,  and  artistic  training.  That  view 
also  is  making  its  way.  The  idea  that  he  had  of  the  dignity  of  labor  is 
also  spreading  widely.  We  might  multiply  examples  of  this  gradually- 
increasing  accordance.  I  think  I  have  shown  sufficiently  that  we  may 
reckon  such  accordance  as  one  of  our  encouragements.  Perhaps  the  time 
will  come  when  our  Frcebel  Society  will  dissolve  itself,  not  because  it  has 
failed  of  its  objects,  but  because  it  will  have  no  need  for  a  separate 
existence. 

The  encouragements  that  I  have  brought  to  your  notice  are  that  Kin- 
dergarten work  supplies  proof  of  its  own  value — that  it  is  on  the  whole 
extending — and  that  Frrebel's  principles  are  gaining  ground  in  regard  to 
education  generally 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  weigh  against  each  other  our  various  difficulties 
and  encouragements.  But  there  is  one  point  which  should  be  noticed  in 
regard  to  the  resulting  balance.  It  is  that  our  difficulties  seem  to  be  dim- 
inishing and  our  encouragements  to  be  growing.  You  may  differ  from 
me  as  to  the  position  of  the  Kindergarten  movement,  but  if  we  can  agree 
that  on  the  one  side  there  is  decay,  and  on  the  other  vigo^  and  advance, 
we  may,  I  think,  all  feel  that  the  balance  is  on  the  side  of  hope,  and  we 
may  go  on  with  increased  toil  and  increased  trust,  which,  in  this  as  in  all 
lines  of  work,  are  the  unfailing  conditions  of  true  progress. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  suggest  that  we  might  as  a  body  help  forward 
Kindergarten  principles'  more  than  we  have  yet  done.  The  Froebel 
Society  exists  for  the  promotion  of  a  high  and  noble  aim.  There  must 
be  stores  of  experience  hidden  in  its  members'  private  barns,  which  all  of 
us  ought  to  be  allowed  to  share.  Enough  time  has  now  elapsed  for  the 
effects  of  Kindergarten  work  to  have  come  to  light.  Experiments  have 
been  made,  and  have  succeeded  or  failed.  The  Kindergarten  has  come 
into  contact  with  the  school,  and  we  are  all  anxious  to  learn  the  result  of 
the  slight  collision  which  may  have  ensued.  Our  progress  might  be 
greatly  assisted  if  members  of  this  society  would  throw  their  informaiion 
and  their  opinions  into  the  common  heap,  and  I  shall  be  very  glad  if  I 
have  helped  to-night  to  throw  down  any  barriers,  to  open  any  doors 
through  which  such  stores  may  pour  out.  I  feel  that  my  remarks  in  this 
paper  lack  the  full  support  of  experience,  and  I  have  offered  them  with  a 
full  consciousness  of  their  imperfection,  but  I  beg  you  to  treat  them  as 
mercilessly  as  you  will,  for  we  need  thorough  discussion  of  several  of  the 
points  I  have  referred  to,  in  order  to  arrive  at  true  and  matured  judg- 
ments of  Kindergarten  work. 


PLACE  OF  NATURE  AND  LIFE  IN  EARLY  CULTURE. 

SUGGESTIONS  OF  PESTALOZZI  AND  FROEBEL. 


1.      PESTALOZZI. 

Miss  LYSCHINSKA,  in  her  recent  volume  on  the  "  Educational  Uses  of 
the  Kindergarten  Principle,"  cites  the  following  passages  from  Pestalozzi's 
Leonard  and  Gertrude  to  enforce  the  importance  of  developing  the  activity 
and  moral  sensibility  of'yotmg  children  by  communion  with  nature  and 
home  surroundings  and  occupations.  The  italics  are  Miss  L.  's : 

1.  "Neither  book  nor  any  product  of  human  skill,  but  life  itself,  yields 
the  basis  for  all  education  and  instruction." 

"  She  [Gertrude]  drew  her  children's  attention  to  various  natural  phe- 
nomena as  these  occurred  in  the  fulfilment  of  domestic  duties,  whether  in 
the  kitchen  or  parlor,  in  the  field,  the  garden,  or  the  woods.  Her  aim  in 
all  this  was  not  to  impart  knowledge,  but  to  awaken  sympathy  with  objects  in 
as  far  as  they  were  interwoven  with  the  incidents,  duties,  joys,  and  wants  of 
the  children  s  existence.  Whilst  helping  her  [their  mother]  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  family  meal,  whilst  engaged  in  carrying  wood,  in  lighting  the 
fire,  and  in  fetching  water,  they  were  forced,  by  the  very  nature  of  their 
occupations,  to  observe  many  of  the  properties  of  water,  the  effects  of  the 
atmosphere,  smoke,  wind ;  they  noticed  the  changes  in  water  when  motion- 
less in  a  tub  or  when  flowing  from  a  pump;  they  observed  the  transforma- 
tions of  water  into  ice,  snow,  rain,  hail,  sleet;  they  registered  its  action 
upon  salt  and  upon  a  flame;  were  aware  that  charcoal  and  ash  were 
obtained  from  wood,  and  that  the  latter  was  subject  to  changes  termed 
decay.  All  this  they  learned,  not  so  much  through  the  medium  of  words, 
but  through  having  their  attention  fixed  upon  the  objects  and  upon  the 
changes  which  took  place  "  [as  they  busied  themselves  with  the  things]. 

We  append  a  few  passages  from  ChristopJier  and  Alice  in  the  same  spirit 
and  aim. — Editor. 

2.  "The  great  point,  in  bringing  up  a  child  is,  that  he  should  be  well 
brought  up  in  his  own  house:  he  must  learn  to  know,  and  handle  and  use 
those  things  on  which  his  bread  and  his  quiet  will  depend  through  life; 
and  it  seems  to  me  plain  that  fathers  and  mothers  can  teach  that  much 
better  at  home  than  any  schoolmaster  can  do  it  at  school.     [And  so  of 
moral  culture :]    The  schoolmaster  tells  the  children  of  many  things  which 
are  right  and  good,  but  they  are  never  worth  as  much  in  his  mouth  as  in 
the  example  of  an  upright  father,  or  a  pious  mother.     The  child  sees  his 
father  give  him  milk  and  bread,  and  his  mother  denies  herself  a  morsel 
that  she  may  give  it  to  him.     He  feels  and  understands  that  he  must 
4  honor  his  father  and  mother '  who  are  so  kind  to  him.     So  if  at  home  a 
child  sees  a  neighbor  in  distress  of  mind  or  body  enlivened  by  kind  words 
or  actions  of  father  or  mother,  or  assists  in  such  act  towards  any  fellow 
creature,  he  learns  to  be  merciful  and  to  love  one's  neighbor.     He  learns 
it,  without  the  aid  of  words,  by  the  real  fact;  he  sec  mercy  itself  instead 
of  learning  words  about  mercy.     The  parents'  teaching  is  the  kernel  of 
wisdom.     The  knowledge  got  from  doing,  under  wise  parental  example, 
is  what  the  world  calls  practical  common  sense." 

To  the  citations  from  Froebel,  we  add  several  valuable  suggestions  from 
Miss  Lyschinska  to  the  same  point. 


524  NATURE  AND  1.1'fR  IN  EARLY  CULTURE. 

2.      FROEBEL. 

Froebcl  enforces  the  same  fundamental  ideas  in  his  work  on  the  "Edu- 
cation of  Man,"  as  will  be  seen  in  the  following  paragraphs.  The  italics 
are  by  Miss  L. : 

"  Is  there  a  solitary  blossom,  or  outcome,  of  human  thought,  feeling,  or 
volition,  that  does  not  send  its  taproot  deep  down  into  the  subsoil  of  early 
years?"— (P.  54,  paragraph  30.) 

"  Every  trade,  whatsoever  the  parents'  calling  be,  furnishes  a  starting 
point  to  the  child  from  whence  he  must  work  his  way  outwards  towards 
the  acquisition  of  any  department  of  human  knowledge." — (P.  58,  para- 
graph 40.) 

"Numberless  perceptions  regarding  the  constitution  of  things  around 
might  thus  be  garnered  in  the  mind;  such  experience  can  only  be  supplied 
by  the  whole  time  and  apparatus  of  school  at  arf  enormous  cost  afterwards, 
and  perhaps  it  never  can  be  supplied.  So  much  is  lost  by  neglecting  the 
educational  opportunities  of  home  life." — (As  above.) 

"  A  little  child  knows  intuitively  that  the  conditions  of  its  mental  well- 
being  are  bound  up  in  the  avocations  of  its  parents;  hence  it  follows 
wherever  they  go;  where  they  remain,  it  remains;  it  hovers  about  and 

asks  questions Parents,  do  not  send  it  away  in  a  fit  of  impatience, 

....  neither  answer  its  questions  directly.  ...  .  It  is,  no  doubt,  easier 
to  listen  to  the  statement  of  another  than  to  formulate  one  for  one's  self. 
But  the  quarter  of  a  self -found  answer  is  of  infinitely  greater  value  to  your 
child  than  one  half  understood  from  you.  Only  secure  to  your  child  the 
conditions  under  which  th<e  answer  is  to  be  found.'" — (As  above.) 

"  How  eagerly  does  the  boy  or  girl  take  part  in  the  labors  of  father  and 
mother,  not  In  the  recreative  or  trilling  activities  of  life,  but  in  those  de- 
manding concentration  and  exertion!  But  it  is  just  at  such  a  time  that  it 
behooves  parents  to  be  careful;  for  by  one  look,  one  word,  they  may 
crush  the  instinct  of  activity,  the  constructive  faculty,  for  a  lengthened 
period  of  time.  Parents,  I  beseech  you  not  to  refuse  your  children's  prof- 
fered help  because  it  is  childish,  useless,  or  even  obstructive.  Think  of 
the  surcharge  of  energy  pent  up  in  the  being  of  a  little  child  thus  cast 
upon  his  own  resources,  knowing  not  in  what  direction  this  power  is  to 
expend  itself!  The  child  is  a  burden  to  itself;  peevishness  and  listless- 
ness  are  the  result." — (P.  68,  paragraph  49.) 

"If  you  ever  count  upon  receiving  help  at  your  children's  hands,  take 
early  heed  to  cherish  the  desire  for  activity,  even  at  the  cost  of  some  self- 
control  and  self-sacrifice." — (P.  GO,  paragraph  49. ) 

"  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  children  should  acquire  the  habit 
of  cultivating  a  plot  of  ground  of  their  own,  long  before  the  period  of 
school  life  begins,  for  this  reason:  Nowhere,  as  in  the  vegetable  world,  can 
his  action  be  so  clearly  traced  by  him,  entering  in  as  a  link  in  the  chain  of 
cause  and  effect.  The  effects  are  no  less  due  to  the  intervention  of  hu  IOM 
than  to  the  sequence  of  Nature.''' — (P.  75,  paragraph  49.) 

"An  instinctive  yearning  drives  a  child  to  busy  himself  with  natural 
objects;  but  this  longing  is'not  only  neglected,  but  deliberately  frustrated 
from  the  beginning.  This  instinct  does  not  rest  satisfied  with  apprehen- 
sion of  the  facts  of  Nature,  nor  of  the  secondary  principles  which  govern 
these;  its  root  lies  far  deeper.  Stripped  of  all  disguises,  it  is  the  eternal 
search  made  by  man  after  the  first,  great,  personal  cause — the  Godhead." 
—(P.  87,  paragraph  55.) 

"How  simple,  how  infinitely  simpler  than  we  at  all  imagine,  are  the 
sources  and  means  of  human  well-being!  All  the  conditions  of  human 
happiness  lie  at  the  door  of  each  one  of  us,  and  we  are  blind.  We  may 
see  them,  but  we  do  not  heed  them;  too  simple  by  far,  too  easy  of  appli- 
cation to  attract  our  notice,  they  are  held  in  utter  contempt.  We  send 
afar  off  in  search  of  help,  and  wre  know  not  that  the  educational  remedy 
can  only  come  from  ourselves.  Hence  it  is  that  a  whole  fortune  does  not 
suffice  to  restore  a  lost  inheritance  to  our  children,  nor  to  make  good  the 
deficiencies  in  after  life,  which  never  would  have  existed  if  we  had  pos- 
sessed greater  insight  into  the  wants  of  early  childhood." — (P.  36.) 


NATURE  IN  EARLY  EDUCATION.  525 

3.      MISS  LYSCHINSKA. 

1.  Our  ideas  arc  rapidly  undergoing  great  modification  with  regard  to 
what  is  the  meaning  and  probable  scope  which  Nature  has  in  human 
affairs.     Underlying,  as  it  does,  all  existences,  drawing  as  we  do  from  it 
all  the  highly  wrought  material  products  of  civilized  life,  finding  in  the 
recognition  of  its  higher  uniformities  an  exercise  worthy  of  the  keenest 
intellects,  the  source  of  the  artist's  inspiration,  many  arc  even  now  ready 
to  see  in  Nature's  teachings  the  symbols  of  yet  higher  truth,  most  weighty 
iL  their  ethical  bearings.     In  the  face  of  all  these  changes,  is  it  strange  to 
suppose  that  even  in  education  Nature  may  wear  a  new  aspect  and  may 
occupy  a  new  position? 

2.  The  method  above  described  of  introducing  natural  phenomena  to  the 
observation  of  young  children  requires  a  few  words  of  exposition.     The 
Frabelian  believes  that  the  younger  the  child  is,  the  more  he  is  part  and 
parcel  with  Nature — at  one  with  her.     The  animal  is  so  strong  in  him 
that  he  is  born  with  a  very  great  capacity  for  enjoyment  of  the  sights  and 
sounds  and  changes  which  Nature  spreads  out  before  him.    This  sympathy 
with  beasts  and  birds  and  flowers  ought  to  be  fostered  and  to  receive 
direction.      The  object  lesson,  with  its  stereotyped  number  of  heads 
ranged  in  unvarying  order,  is  too  artificial  a  method  to  attain  the  end 
desired,  namely,  that  of  inspiring  young  children  witn  the  love  of  Nature, 
giving  them  a  habit  of  looking  into  her  every-day  marvels,  a  familiarity 
with  her  ways.     The  first  thing  to  do  is  not  so  much  to  talk  about  the 
things,  as  to  be  busy  with  them;  as  a  part  of  their  education,  children 
must  have  opportunities  given  them  of  entering  into  a  kind  of  compact 
with  Nature  to  serve  and  be  served  by  her.     It  is  not  the  dry  anatomy  of 
Nature's  facts  but  the  personal  relation  in  which  the  child  finds  himself  to 
certain  objects  that  first  awakens  his  interest.     For  this  reason  the"  educa- 
tional institution  I  have  taken  as  a  sample  counted  a  plot  of  ground  under 
cultivation,  a  few  pet  animals,  a  few  kitchen  utensils  for  the  illustration 
of  the  simplest  domestic  processes  as  they  occurred,  amongst  their  indis- 
pensable educational  apparatus.     Of  course  it  is  not  the  fact  of  possessing 
them,  but  of  weaving  their  use  into  the  general  scheme  which  constitutes 
the  value  of  such  means. 

Home  surroundings,  too,  gain  in  importance  in  our  eyes  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young  as  we  proceed  on  this  plan.  There  is  so  much  to  inter- 
est and  to  occupy,  that  we  have  only  to  select  from  our  vast  store.  The 
practice  has  hitherto  been  rather  to  despise  what  is  near,  with  a  view  to 
sending  the  infant  mind  abroad  in  search  of  marvels;  the  mind,  it  is  said, 
•Tiust  rise  above  its  immediate  surroundings  to  the  unseen. 

A  few  general  considerations  which  serve  as  guides  in  the  selection  of 
subjects,  according  to  Frnebelian  principles,  may  be  shortly  stated,  viz: 

1.  The  season  of  the  year. 

2.  Local  conditions  (such  as  the  pursuits  of  the  people  in  the  neighbor- 
hood). 

3.  Social  customs. 

To  make  a  proper  selection  of  subjects,  and  cany  out  the  above  sug- 
gestions effectually,  the  head  of  the  institution  should  have  received,  in 
her  professional  training,  a  practical  acquaintance  with  the  simplest 
gardening  operations. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  PRINCIPLE  IN  INFANT  SCHOOLS. 

BY  MISS  MARY  J.  LYSCHINSKA. 


SUGGESTIONS  PRIMARILY   FOR  ENGLAND,  BUT  SOUND  EVERYWHERE. 

Much  of  the  educational  work  attempted  in  the  English  infant  school  is  provided  for, 
theoretically  at  least,  in  our  primary  schools— the  lowest  grade  of  our  city  public  schools  ; 
but  the  work  is  not  begun  so  early  or  followed  out  so  systematically  as  in  English  infant 
schools  modeled  after  those  of  the  Home  and  Colonial  Infant  School  Society.  The 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  introducing  the  fundamental  principle  of  natural  development 
into  the  infant  school-  of  England,  arises  from  the  impatience  of  parents,  as  well  as  the 
requisitions  of  the  Code,  for  results  which  can  he  seen  in  actual  attainments  of  book 
knowledge  and  measured  by  official  examinations.  Neither  the  infant  pchool,  or 
Kindergarten,  is  regarded  in  reference  to  its  own  nature  and  functions,  but  in  reference 
to  the  children  making  more  rapid  progress  in  certain  studies  which  are  attended  to 
further  on.  The  proper  treatmentof  children  between  the  ages  of  3  and  7  years  requires 
more  individual  attention  than  can  be  given  to  large  masses,  or  by  teachers  not  specially 
trained  in  Kindergarten  occupations,  and  with  certain  refinement  of  feeling.  There  is  a 
strong  tendency,  as  well  as  great  temptation  to  a  class  of  parents,  to  dcvelope  early  the 
productive  activities  of  their  children,  and  to  show  off  their  proficiency  in  this  and  other 
directions.  The  innate  modesty  of  children  should  not  be  prematurely  brushed  away. 
On  all  these  points  the  suggestions  of  Miss  Lycchinska.  who  has  rare  opportunities  of 
studying  these  phases  of  child  culture,  as  Superintendent  of  Method  in  Infant  Schools 
under  the  School  Board  of  London,  and  in  the  Kindergarten  of  Mqclamc  Schrader  of 
Berlin,  are  of  great  value. — Editor. 

It  has  been  justly  a  boast  with  the  Germans  that  they,  more  than  any 
other  European  nation,  recognized  Pestalozzi's  efforts  in  the  direction  of  a 
psychological  basis  for  the  beginning  of  instruction,  and  in  considering 
education  as  a  branch  of  statesmanship.  The  political  and  social  circum 
stances  of  the  time  were  peculiar!}'  favorable  to  the  reception  of  a  new, 
creative  principle  in  education.  Geographically  and  politically  Germany 
was  a  name;  she  had  sunk  to  the  depths  of  national  degradation.  But  as 
with  individuals,  so  with  nations — the  moments  of  a  crushing  misfortune 
are  often  those  most  favorable  to  the  birth  of  new  spiritual  truths.  In 
his  memorable  " Addresses,"  Fichte's  voice  was  heard  like  a  trumpet-call 
throughout  the  land;  he  pointed  to  Pestalozzi  as  a  saviour  of  the  nations. 
From  that  hour  the  whole  German  scholastic  world  has  become  literally 
saturated  with  the  principles  of  Pestalozzianism.  So  unreserved,  so  whole- 
sale has  been  the  adoption  of  the  new  educational  life,  that,  from  its 
extent  alone,  it  must  be  reckoned  with  as  a  national  feature  by  all  those 
who  would  study  the  intellectual  life  of  Germany.  Since  then  another 
wave  of  educational  thought  has  been  slowly  passing  over  Germany,  pro- 
ceeding from  the  original  impetus  given  by  Pestalozzi,  yet  with  features 
sufficiently  distinct  to  entitle  it  to  a  separate  name.  It  has  now  reached 
our  shores,  and  has  been  crystallized  in  the  form  of  the  "  Kindergarten. '» 
The  principle  must,  however,  admit  of  a  variety  of  adaptations;  and  it 
must,  sooner  or  later,  exert  a  greater  influence  than  hitherto  upon  the 
co-existing  institution  of  the  infant  school. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  PRINCIPLE  IN  INFANT  SCHOOLS.  527 

Meanwhile  there  seems  to  be  one  loophole  of  escape  out  of  the  difficulty, 
and  that  is  the  introduction  of  extraneous  help — help  not  supplied  in  the 
usual  way  from  elementary  training  colleges.  Of  course  the  weakness  of 
such  an  experiment  as  that  of  introducing  new  auxiliaries  into  the  routine 
of  trained  labor  is  evident,  and  consists  in  (1)  the  probable  irregularity  of 
such  service,  (2)  the  unskilled  character  of  such  help.  If  these  arguments 
against  voluntary  aid  are  true  generally,  they  hold  good  especially  in  the 
domain  of  school  keeping,  where  a  little  irregularity  is  sufficient  to  throw 
the  whole  educational  machinery  out  of  order.  1  am  not,  therefore,  about 
to  advocate  the  throwing  open  the  floodgates  for  undisciplined  energy  to 
expend  itself  to  the  detriment  of  the  children  of  the  poor. 

Suppose  an  infant  school  to  be  exccpted  from  the  ordinary  conditions  of 
examination,  though  still  subject  to  inspection  and  receiving  aid  on  satis- 
factory proof  of  efficiency,  according  to  Kindergarten  principles.  It  is 
surely  not  inconceivable  that  permission  for  such  an  experiment  might  be 
obtained,  nor  need  the  sacred  rules  of  the  Code  be  infringed  to  any  peril- 
ous extent.  The  Head  would  be  a  person  generally  acquainted  with  the 
principles  and  practice  of  education  (not  merely  those  of  instruction),  and 
she  should  be  especially  versed  in  the  principles  underlying  Kindergarten 
practices.  She  might  be  assisted  by  a  staff  of  auxiliary,  but  not  unpaid, 
workers.  These  would  rank  as  and  receive  the  pay  of  pupil  leathers  in 
their  second  year,  and  they  should,  if  possible,  be  numerous  enough  to 
admit  of  an  average  of  not  more  than  25  children  to  each  class.  Thus  a 
small  school  of  100  children  in  average  attendance  would  be  worked  by 
the  head  and  four  pupil-teachers  (viz.  one  of  the  ordinary  kind,  so  as  to 
comply  with  the  requirements  of  the  code,  and  three  auxiliaries),  who 
should  be  completely  under  the  control  of  the  Head,  being  nominated  for 
appointment  or  subject  to  removal  by  her;  and  she,  in  turn,  should  be 
directly  and  solely  responsible  to  a  sub-committee  of  the  school  board  or 
other  highest  school  authority.  The  pay  of  such  extra  pupil-teachers  need 
not  be  high.  There  arc  many  young  people  to  whom  the  opportunity  of 
instruction  and  practice  in  genuine  Kindergarten  work  would  be  a  con- 
sideration more  valuable  than  money. 

Mr.  ]\Ic'3'ers,  an  Inspector  of  one  of  the  London  Districts,  observes  i.i 
his  Report  for  1876: 

"When  I  had  charge  of  the  Hackney  district,  I  repeatedly  visited  a 
School  Board  School  where  almost  all  of  the  girls  were  the  children  of 
professional  thieves.  The  mistress  was  a  lady  who  resigned  a  good 
position  as  private  governess  out  of  desire  for  this  missionary  work.  "The 
result  of  her  work,  as  seen  in  the  contrast  in  expression,  speech,  and 
aspect,  between  the  new  arrivals  and  those  who  had  enjoyed  a  year's 
schooling,  was  almost  startling.  I  certainly  felt  that  this  lady  had  made 
a  career  which  was  entirely  satisfactory,  where  every  power  that  she 
possessed  was  finding  its  exercise  in  a  direction,  undoubtedly  and  without 
drawback,  beneficent.  In  a  career  where  the  satisfaction  derived  from 
the  work  itself  may  be  so  sound  and  so  pervading,  the  amusements  of 
leisure  become  less  important.  .  .  .  The  great  needs  of  Elementary 
Schools  is  an  improvement  of  their  teachers;  a  large  accession  of  teachers 
who  have  the  gentleness  of  life-long  culture  and  the  hereditary  instinct  of 
honour." 

[The  experience  of  St.  Louis,  under  the  wise  and  beneficent  lead  of 
Miss  Blow,  and  Dr.  Harris,  is  of  great  value  in  this  connection.] 


528  THE  KINDERGARTEN  PRINCIPLE  IN  INFANT  SCHOOLS. 

Our  national  system  is  not  only  covering  all  England  with  elementary 
schools,  but  it  is  also  multiplying  centres  for  the  discussion  and  elucida- 
tion of  questions  relating  to  education.  For  the  functions  of  school 
boards  will  be  but  half  performed  in  the  future  if  they  limit  their  action 
to  voting  supplies  and  to  setting  a  blind  machinery  in  motion.  As  the 
mechanism  may  be  expected  to  work  with  increasing  smoothness,  and 
with  decreasing  need  for  attention  to  the  first  elements  of  management, 
the  higher  work  of  school  boards  will  consist  in  bringing  a  certain  amount 
of  educated  thought  to  bear  directly  upon  the  problems  of  educational 
science. 

Would  it  not  be  possible,  even  now,  to  allow  more  scope  for  the  appli- 
cation of  Pcstaloz/i-Froebelian  principles  within  the  operations  of  the 
Elementary  Education  Acts?  Why  should  not  school  boards  here  and 
there  set  apart  a  few  infant  schools  to  begin  with,  for  a  certain  term  of 
years,  for  the  especial  purpose  of  applying  the  principles  of  the  Kinder- 
garten still  more  thoroughly  to  our  national  system?  Why  should  not 
such  experiments  receive  the  sanction  of  Government,  and  be  judged 
under  special  instructions  to  Inspectors  to  consider  them  in  the  light  of 
the  educational  principles  they  involve  rather  than  by  the  trick  of  "pass- 
es," already  beginning  to  be  found  fallacious  in  guaging  the  ultimate 
worth  of  educational  institutions? 

In  1877  Mr.  Scoltock,  II.  M.  Inspector  for  the  Birmingham  district, 
spoke  of  the  educational  work  in  elementary  schools  generally  in  the  fol- 
lowing strain  :— 

....  "  It  will  be  seen  that  the  inspector  and  his  assistants  agree  in 
thinking  that  the  teaching  has  become  mechanical  rather  than  intelligent; 
that  the  school  is  valued  rather  by  the  number  of  '  passes '  and  largeness 
of  the  grant;  that  attempts  are  being  made  to  reduce  teaching  to  a  dry 
matter  of  statistics,  and  to  drive  children  in  a  hackneyed  road,  instead  of 
developing  their  intelligence  and  gently  guiding  their  faculties.  More- 
over, to  teachers  themselves  this  comparison  of  averages  is  most  unfair. 
An  idle  and  slippery  master  in  a  well-to  do  neighborhood,  if  aided  by 
clever  assistants,  may  show  glorious  results  without  doing  a  hour's  real 
work;  whereas,  in  a  neighborhood  thronged  by  the  careless  and  the  vicious, 
another  may  work  the  very  life  out,  and  his  results  will  show  but  a 
wretched  percentage." 

Under  the  London  Board  a  staff  is  supplied  at  the  rate  of  an  average  of 
30  children  to  a  pupil -teacher,  and  60  to  an  assistant ;  but  practically  a 
pupil-teacher  is  expected  to  teach  40,  and  an  assistant  70  infants.  To 
people  interested  in  the  education  question  it  must  appear  especially  unde- 
sirable that  children  under  six  years  should  be  educated  in  such  masses; 
and  although  a  State  system  can  at  the  best  offer  but  a  poor  substitute  for 
the  divinely-appointed  means  for  the  young  child's  education,  the  family, 
surely  it  would  be  well  for  the  controllers  of  our  national  educational 
system  to  consider  whether  there  is  not  some  limit  to  legitimate  divergence 
from  the  natural  conditions  of  child  life.  A  teacher  with  from  60  to  70 
children  must,  in  self-defence,  allow  the  least  possible  scope  for  individu- 
ality to  assert  itself;  the  personal  links  between  children  and  teacher  are 
weakened;  the  whole  character  of  her  intercourse  with  her  children 
changes;  uniformity,  drill,  a  superficial  order  (the  elements  of  which  are 
almost  entirely  physical)  must  be  maintained. 


IJNDERGAETEN  WORK  IN  UNITED  STATES. 


PIONEERS    IN    IMPROVED    CHILD    CULTURE. 

Our  readers  are  not  unfamiliar  with  the  subjects  and  methods 
of  elementary  instruction  pursued  in  the  Dame  Schools,  District 
Schools,  and  Common  Schools  generally,  as  described  by  pupils 
and  teachers  in  the  same  about  the  beginning  of  this  century.* 
We  have  given  elsewhere  the  history  of  Infant  Schools,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Primary  School,  as  the  first  grade  of  public 
instruction  in  several  of  our  chief  cities.  We  add  in  this  chapter 
extracts  and  suggestions,  by  one  of  the  most  advanced  educators 
of  the  country, j-  in  letters  written  in  1828  and  1838,  which,  if 
acted  on  at  the  time,  would  have  put  the  children  of  the  land 
into  a  course  of  development,  that  would  at  a  much  earlier  day 
have  reached  the  present  stage  of  the  Kindergarten. 

THOMAS    H.    GALLAUDET. 

In  March,  1828,  Rev.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet,  Principal  of  the 
American  Asylum  for  Deaf  Mutes  at  Hartford,  addressed  a  letter 
to  a  friend  in  Boston,  from  which  the  following  extracts  are  taken. 

I  have  thought,  for  a  long  time,  that  the  attention  of  the  public  is  by 
DO  means  sufficiently  direoted  to  the  education  of  children  and  youth  in 
its  earliest  stages,  I  mean  between  the  ages  of  three  and  eight.  You 
know  what  is  doing  in  England  on  this  subject,  at  the  original  instigation 
of  the  distinguished  Mr.  Brougham.  I  am  told  that  there  is  now  two 
hundred  infant  schools  in  England,  and  th/it  a  great  national  society  is 
about  to  be  formed  with  reference  to  this  object. 

*  Series  of  articles  in  American  Journal  of  Education  (volumes  xiii  to  xxx)  on  Schools 
as  they  were,  about  the  beginning  of  this  century,  by  Noah  Webster.  President 


and  Common  Schools  in  different  States.  These  articles  are  brought  together,  as  far  as 
then  published,  in  volume  xxv,  and  in  the  editor's  monogram,  entitled,  Historical 
Development  of  Education  in  the  United  States,  issued  in  1876.  The  whole  series  will  be 
reprinted  in  'connection  with  a  History  of  the  original  Free  or  Endowed  Grammar 
Schools  of  Massachusetts  and  other  Colonies,  and  the  Incorporated  Academies  and 
Public  High  Schools  of  later  origin. 

tMr.  Gallaudet,  in  1825,  addressed  the  public  through  the  Connecticut  Observer,  on  a 
Plan  of  a  Seminary  for  the  education  of  instructors  of  youth,  the  first  elaborated  plan  of 
a  normal  school  in  this  country;  in  182<!  he  suggested  and  assisted  in  organizing  at  Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  one  of  the 'earliest  Associations  for  the  improvement  of  common  schools  ;  in 
1827,  he  proposed  and  assisted  in  the  establishment  of  an  Infant  School  in  Hartford,  and 
about  the  same  time  in  connection  with  William  C.  Woodbridge,  proposed  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Teacher's  Seminary  in  Hartford,  one  or  two  years  in  advance  of  the  Seminary 
of  the  same  name  in  Andover,  Ma^s.;  in  1831  he  was  elected  to  the  Chair  of  the  Philoso- 
phy of  Education  in  the  New  York  University;  in  1835  he  was  urged  to  become  principal 
of  the  Andover  Teachers'  Seminary  ;  in  1838  he  was  invited  to  take  charge  of  the  first 
State  Normal  School  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  the  same  year  he  was  elected  Secretary  of 
the  State  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Common  Schools  for  Connecticut  —See  Life  in  vol. 
I,  p.  417-444. 

34 


530  HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHILD  CULTURE. 

Amid  all  the  other  projects  of  doing  good,  have  Christians  felt  the 
importance  of  directing  greater  efforts  to  the  religioux  as  well  as  intel- 
lectual instruction  of  quite  young  children,  especially  the  children  of 
the^Church,  upon  an  intelligible,  rational,  and  philosophical  plan?  Will 
not  most  Christian  parents  admit,  that,  to  say  the  least,  the  education  of 
their  children  till  the  age  of  six  or  seven  years  is  conducted  in  a  very 
loose  and  desultory  way?  How  few,  very  few,  suitable  books,  especially 
on  religious  subjects,  are  to  be  found  for  children  of  that  age,  let  oifr 
Sabbath-school  teachers  tes'  y.  In  developing  the  intellectual  and  moral 
powers  of  children,  in  teaching  them  language,  and  in  conveying  knowl- 
edge, especially  religious  truth,  to  their  ruinds,  is  it  not  of  importance  to 
begin  right? 

May  not  great  improvements  in  the  earliest  stages  of  education  be 
leasonably  anticipated?  Ought  not  great  efforts  to  be  made  to  have  them 
introduced? 

I  have  been  teaching  infantile  minds  for  ten  years,  daily  and  labo- 
riously. I  think  I  see  clearly  how  I  could  bring  the  results  of  my  expe- 
rience to  bear  upon  the  minds  of  children  who  can  hear  and  speak,  so  as 
to  produce  most  important  effects  in  the  early  stages  of  education,  and 
also  upon  the  preparation  of  suitable  books,  especially  of  a  religious  kind, 
which  would  greatly,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  promote  the  early  growth 
of  piety  in  the  human  heart.  What  an  aid  would  such  books  afford  both 
to  parents  and  teachers! 

1.  Suppose,  in  a  city  like  Boston,  some  ten  or  twelve  families  should 
unite  and  establish  a  private  school  for  the  instruction  of  their  children 
under  six  or  seven  years  of  age,  and  I  should  take  charge  of  it  for  one 
year,  devoting  to  it  about  five  hours  a  day,  and  having  sufficient  vacation 
for  relaxation. 

In  such  a  school  and  in  such  a  time  I  could  apply  the  principles  which 
we  have  found  so  successful  in  teaching  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  devise, 
arrange,  and  mature,  a  new,  and  permit  me  to  say,  more  rational  mode  of 
instruction  than  any  now  in  operation.  I  speak  of  a  private  school, 
because  1  had  rather  begin  in  a  noiseless  way,  and  have  the  best  opportu- 
nity of  being  able  to  present  to  the  public,  with  a  good  degree  of  confi- 
dence, a  system  of  instruction  for  such  young  minds. 

2.  At  the  end  of  the  year,  or  sooner  if  all  things  were  ready,  I  would 
show  the  results  of  my  efforts  and  I  am  sanguine  enough  to  believe  that 
they  would  both  interest  and  surprise  all  intelligent  and  benevolent  minds. 
I  would  then  propose  to  enlarge  the  school  to  any  practicable  extent,  and 
make  it  a  permanent  model  school  for  the  education  of  young  children, 
on  philosophical  and  evangelical  principles. 

3.  In  such  a  school,  made  if  thought  best  a  public  one,  or  continued  as 
a  private  one  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  higher  classes  of 
society,  persons  might  easily  be  qualified  to  diffuse  the  system  pursued, 
to  any  extent,  throughout  our  country,  both  among  the  children  of  the 
poor,  in  public  establishments,  and  among  those  of  the  more  affluent  in 
private  ones.     What  good  might  thus  be  done,  when  you  consider  the 
whole  youthful  population  of  the  country! 

4.  At  first,  I  should  expect  to  devote  "myself  personally  to  the  actual 
details  of  teaching,  having  an  assistant,   however,  who,   by  becoming 
familiarly  acquainted  with  my  mode  of  instruction,  would  be  qualified  to 
aid  in  the  contemplated  enlargement  of  the  school. 

5.  Eventually,  by  training  up  suitable  assistants,  I  should  expect  to  be 
released  from  many  of  the  details  of  teaching,  having  still  the  constant 
and  daily  oversight  of  the  school,  but  thus  finding  leisure  to  prepare  books 
for  such  little  children,  which,  being  the  results  of  actual  experience, 
and  being  tested  among  my  own  pupils,  would  possess  many  and  great 
advantages  for  being  used  in  other  similar  schools,  in  Sabbath-schools, 
and  in  families. 

6.  Such  a  school  should  eventually  be  located  in  a  healthful  and  pleas- 
ant part  of  the  city,  having  ample  play-grounds  for  the  children,  and  my 
own  residence,  if  possible,  forming  a  part  of  the  general  establishment. 


HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHILD  CULTURE.  531 

7.  Do  not  think  me  chimerical;  but  I  must  go  still  further— the  field  of 
enterprise  opens  wide  before  me.     Connected  with  the  permanent  model 
school,  and  in  the  same  or  a  contiguous  building,  should  be  "An  Athe- 
naeum of  Juvenile  Literature."     The  funds,  small  in  amount,  necessary  to 
carry  it  into  effect  should  be  raised  by  shares  in  stock,  entitling  each 
stockholder  to  its  advantages.     Here  I  would  have  collected  all  the  books 
published  in  our  own  country,  in  England,  and  in  France,  or,  at  any  rate, 
most  of  them,  for  the  use  of  children  in  the  early  stages  of  education, 
together  with  all  the  practical  treatises  on  this  subject.     Copies  of  all 
books  published  in  our  own  country  would,  I  have  no  doubt,  be  cheer- 
fully furnished  gratis.     I  would  also  have  all  the  ingenious  apparatus  and 
contrivances    employed    in  the  instruction  of  children  here  collected. 
Such  an  Athenaeum  would  exhibit  all  that  is  doing  in  this  interesting 
department  of  education;  it  would  be  a  source  of  great  gratification  and 
improvement  to  parents,  to  teachers,  and  to  all  interested  in  the  subject; 
it  would  furnish  many  valuable  books  for  republication;  and  it  would 
afford  me  a  great  deal  of  valuable  information  with  regard  to  still  fur- 
ther improvements  in  the  model  school,  and  in  the  preparation  of  school 
books. 

8.  Have  patience  still.     I  would  have  connected  with  the  establish- 
ment a  "  Child's  Museum,"  containing  objects    calculated  not  only  to 
gratify  the  curiosity  of  little  folks,  but  also  furnishing  the  means  of  con- 
versing with  them  on  subjects  which,  without  such  objects,  it  would  be 
very  difficult  to  explain  intelligibly  to  them.     Such  a  museum  would  be 
of   immense  advantage  to  the  model  school.     It  would   receive  ample 
donations  from  the  benevolent;  and  by  admitting  the  public  at  suitable 
stated  times,  at  a  moderate  charge,   would  support  itself.     I  should  be 
willing  to  undertake  it  at  my  own  risk. 

9.  Once  more,  and  I  have  done.     Should  I  go  to  Boston  or  elsewhere, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  for  such  objects,  I  would  propose  to  the  church 
to  which  I  should  attach  myself,  to  take  the  children  of  the  members  of 
the  church,  and  of  such  of  the  society  as  would  wish  to  unite  with  them 
on  the  Sabbath,  and  have  a  little  (or  perhaps  it  would  be  a  large)  congre- 
gation of  youth  under  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  with  whom  I  would 
pray,  and  to  whom  I  would  preach,  in  a  manner  suited  to  their  capacity. 
What  an  interest  would  thus  be  excited  in  their  minds,  instead  of  that 
tediousness  which  they  feel  in  attending,  as  they  now  do,  on  services 
which  they  cannot  understand!     Would  not  such  a  plan,  if  successfully 
carried  into  effect,  be  worthy  of  being  adopted  extensively? 

You  see  how  I  would  thus  become  the  children's  teacher  and  friend 
and  spiritual  guide.  Work  enough  for  a  life,  if  Providence  should  afford 
strength.  In  all  that  I  have  said  I  beg  to  be  considered  as  giving  no 
pledge.  Such  plans  I  have  revolved  in  my  own  mind,  and  now  suggest 
them  to  yours. 

The  suggestions  of  this  letter  are  all  in  the  line  of  educational 
development  in  which  Proebel  was  at  the  time  moving  in  Keil- 
hau.  They  were  not  acted  on,  at  least  in  the  way  proposed  by 
Mr.  Gallaudet.  He  soon  after  resigned  his  position  in  the  Amer- 
ican Asylum,  and  unvoted  his  rare  ability  in  child  culture  to  con- 
tributions to  religious  juvenile  literature,*  and  to  the  superintend- 
ence of  a  school  for  little  children  in  his  own  family. 

In  1838,  in  reply  to  inquiries  addressed  to  him  by  a  committee 
of  the  Primary  School  Board  of  Boston,  charged  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  Model  School  for  children  between  the  ages  of  four 
and  seven  years,  Mr.  Gallaudet  wrote  as  follows: 

*  Child's  Book  on  the  Soul,  Child's  Book  of  Bible  Stories,  Youth's  Book  on  Natural 
Theology,  Child's  Picture  Defining  and  Reading  Book,  and  Mother's  Primer. 


532  HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHILD  CULTURE. 

We  have  much  yet  to  learn  in  the  department  of  juvenile  education. 
Had  I  the  care  of  such  a  school,  I  should  feel  this  deeply.  I  would  adopt 
pertinaciously  no  particular  system,  but  commence  with  a  few  simple 
principles  of  procedure,  and  preserve  as  much  as  possible  the  features  of 
the  family  state  in  the  school;  feel  my  way  along,  moulding  things  into 
shape  gradually,  altering,  amending,  and  abolishing,  when  necessary, 
and  slowly  maturing  what  I  might  hope,  at  the  expiration  of  some  four 
or  five  years,  to  call  a  model  school.  It  seems  to  me  that  everything 
depends  on  him  whom  you  get  as  the  principal  of  such  an  institution. 
He  should  be  a  man  of  piety,  simplicity,  childlike  and  Christianlike ;  a 
man  of  prayer,  of  practical,  everyday,  self-denying  benevolence,  who 
loves  to  study  his  Bible,  imbibe  its  spirit,  and  to  make  it  his  constant 
counselor  and  guide.  He  should  have  genuine  originality  of  mind,  and 
the  power  of  investigation;  be  wedded  to  no  system,  neither  his  own  or, 
to  one  of  others;  apt  to  learn  as  well  as  to  teach;  ready  to  hear  sugges- 
tions, and  to  profit  by  them;  speculative,  yet  practical;  enthusiastic,  yet 
cautious;  and,  above  all,  be  able  to  enter  into  the  very  souls  of  children, 
to  think  as  they  think,  and  to  feel  as  they  feel,  loving  them  as  if  he  were 
their  father,  and  winning  them  by  his  looks,  voice,  manners,  and  conversa- 
tion to  love  him  and  to  confide  in  him.  He  should  have  had  experience 
in  teaching,  the  more  the  better,  and  have  acquired  a  tact  of  managing 
young  pupils,  but  without  anything  pedagogically  stiff,  or  formally  dog- 
matic, or  unyielding. 

Find  such  a  man,  or  such  a  woman,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  you  will 
have  gone  through  more  than  half  of  your  labor.  Give  such  an  individual 
the  results  of  your  inquiries,  and  your  general  directions  as  to  irhe  plan 
(as  simple  as  possible,  and  susceptible  of  continual  modification,  as  the 
light  of  experience  shall  be  cast  upon  it,)  that  is  to  be  pursued.  Treat 
him  with  great  confidence;  let  him  feel  the  laudable  ambition  of  himself 
devising  and  maturing,  under  your  auspices  and  supervision,  but  without 
dictating  the  precise  course  which  he  is' to  follow,  what  may  at  length 
truly  deserve  the  high  appellation  of  a  model  primary  school,  worthy  of 
universal  praise  and  imitation.  Excuse  the  freedom  with  which  I  give 
you  these  terse  hints. 

While  I  think  on  the  one  hand  that  the  actual  amount  of  book-study- 
ing to  be  pursued  in  the  school  which  you  propose  should  be  compara- 
tively small,  that  thore  should  be  no  pushing  forward  the  young  and 
tender  minds  in  it,  in  a  way  to  make  them  precocious,  or  the  school  a 
wonder  for  the  early  attainments  it  can  exhibit,  and  everything  should  be 
done  to  cultivate  to  the  highest  point  of  perfection  bodily  health,  cheer- 
fulness, elastic  buoyancy  of  happy  feeling,  pious  and  benevolent  affec- 
tions, taste,  good  habits  and  manners  of  the  children,  and  to  impart  the 
knowledge  suited  to  their  age  and  capacity;  on  the -other  hand,  while  I 
contemplate  what  the  education  (using  the  word  in  its  comprehensive 
import)  of  a  child  is  from  the  age  of  four  to  that  of  seven,  and  the  pow- 
erful influence  for  good  which  a  model  school  for  such  children,  judi- 
ciously conducted,  might  exert  throughout  our  whole  country,  1  feel 
anxious  that  the  head  of  it  should  be  worthy  of  the  elevated  station  he 
would  be  called  to  fill. 

But  can  all  our  primary  schools  hope  to  have  such  an  individual  to 
conduct  them?  That  cannot  be  expected;  but  you  are  to  mature  a  sys- 
tem ;  you  are  to  hold  up  a  model ;  you  hope  to  set  a  great  moral  ma- 
chinery in  motion,  on  a  somewhat  new  and  improved  principle.  You 
need  no  common  mind  to  be  your  successful  agent  in  doing  this. 

Find  this  mind,  and  look  to  God  for  His  guidance  and  blessing,  and 
the  rest  of  your  work  will  be  easy. 

[The  Model  School  was  established  with  "the  individual"  and  "mind," 
referred  to  by  Mr.  Gallaudet,  left  out,  and  although  it  did  much  good, 
this  good  was  in  the  line  of  class  instruction,  and  not  in  that  of  individ- 
ual development — the  harmonious  growth  of  the  entire  human  being  by 
natural  methods. — Ed.~\ 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  NOEMAL  TRAINING, 

Causes  of  Failure  and  Subsequent  Success  in  the  New  York  Normal  College. 


LETTER  OF  THOMAS  HUNTER,  PH.  D.,  President. 

Utterly  disgusted  with  the  barbarous  system  of  restraint,  ignorantly 
called  "discipline,"  in  vogue  in  some  of  the  primary  schools  of  the  city, 
I  had  resolved,  on  the  establishment  of  the  Normal  College,  that  our 
pupil-teachers  should  be  trained  to  a  higher  and  better  knowledge  of 
child  nature.  With  this  object  in  view  I  carefully  studied  the  life,  the 
labors,  and  the  system  of  the  immortal  Froebel,  and  found  in  his  Kinder- 
garten the  true  foundation  of  all  correct  teaching — a  deep,  broad,  natural 
foundation,  capable  of  sustaining  the  most  solid  superstructure*. 

The  key-note  of  the  Kindergarten  is  the  natural  activity  of  the  child, 
which  is  utilized  for  purposes  of  bodily,  moral,  and  mental  growth.  The 
child  needs  physical  exercise.  Play  is  a  necessity  of  its  nature.  The 
simple  but  profoundly  philosophical  mind  of  Froebel  seized  this  necessity 
and  turned  it  into  a  powerful  instrument  of  culture.  He  adapted  and 
gave  to  the  world  the  celebrated  games  which  are  now  amusing,  develop- 
ing, and  instructing  thousands  of  children  all  over  the  world. 

Any  one  who  has  observed  the  habits  of  children  can  scarcely  avoid 
the  conclusion  that  man  is  born  with  an  instinctive  desire  to  destroy; 
and  that  "  the  natural  state  of  man  is  war."  Every  parent  realizes  this 
to  his  cost.  The  child  delights  to  pick  things  to  pieces,  to  pluck  up 
flowers,  to  break  shrubs,  to  rob  birds'  nests,  to  smash  the  eggs,  to  quarrel, 
to  fight,  and  to  be,  in  fact,  a  most  cruel  little  animal.  It  takes  the  con- 
stant vigilant  care  of  a  wise  mother  to  check  and  cure  these  natural  pro- 
pensities. And  hence,  long  before  Froebel's  time,  lettered  blocks  and 
other  agencies  were  employed  to  minister  to  the  child's  natural  desire  to 
construct  and  destroy.  It  may  be  worthy  of  notice  that  while  the  child 
seems  pleased  with  the  work  of  building  his  blocks  into  an  imaginary 
house  or  church,  his  joy  is  unbounded  and  his  laugh  the  loudest  when 
he  destroys  the  work  of  his  own  hands  and  beholds  the  little  edifice  a 
heap  of  ruins.  Culture  has  done  wonders  in  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
more  certainly  than  it  has  done  in  the  animal;  for  the  reason,  perhaps, 
that  the  former  passively  submits,  while  the  latter  actively  resists.  With 
all  the  barbarian  races,  as  far  back  as  history  reaches,  destructiveness 
has  been  their  characteristic ;  and  wherever  man  has  become  civilized  he 
has  become  a  builder.  Constructiven?ss  has  been  the  visible  sign  of  his 
civilization.  Destructiveness  is  natural  activity  viciously  exercised;  con- 
structiveness  is  natural  activity  cultivated  and  employed  for  beneficent 
purposes ;  and  this  truth  is  the  basis  of  the  Kindergarten,  of  the  weaving, 
and  making  and  building,  and  instructive  amusements  which  will  ere 
long  work  a  great  reform  in  professional  teaching. 

The  common  schools  were  established  to  conserve  the  state.  This  is 
the  only  logical  reason  for  their  existence.  If  the  state  could  be  con- 


534  KINDERGARTEN  IN  NORMAL  TRAINING. 

served  without  them,  it  has  DO  more  right  to  supply  education  than  it 
has  to  supply  paintings,  statuary,  or  any  other  expensive  luxury.  If  all 
people  were  wealthy  a  common  school  system  would  be  unnecessary. 
But  since  the  great  majority  are  poor,  and  struggling  for  a  bare  subsist- 
ence, si  j  the  condition  of  orphanage  and  half-orphanage  compels 
children  at  a  very  tender  age  to  go  forth  into  the  world  to  fight  for  exist- 
ence, since  millions  of  parents  are  ignorant,  or  depraved,  or  selfish,  and 
either  will  not  or  can  not  give  their  children  an  education,  the  state  must 
save  itself  from  destruction  by  maintaining  a  system  of  common  schools. 
Charity  schools  or  free  schools  will  flourish  in  a  monarchy  where  society 
is  divided  into  castes,  and  where  young  people  are  taught  "to  order 
themselves  lowly  and  reverently  before  their  betters,"  but  will  not  thrive 
in  a  republican  atmosphere  where  there  are  no  "  betters" — at  least  before 
the  law.  In  a  republic  the  common  school  is  a  common  necessity.  But 
the  common  school  is  far  from  perfect.  Teachers  have  long  known,and 
pointed  out  its  imperfections,  not  for  the  purpose  of  injuring  but  of  im- 
proving it.  In  doing  this  we  have  furnished  the  enemies  of  the  system 
the  very  technical  terms  which  enabled  them  to  assail  it,  and  which,  but 
for  us,  they  would  never  have  known.  Did  the  "citizen  and  tax-payer" 
ever  reflect  on  what  it  costs  to  hang  one  of  these  neglected  waifs?  From 
the  policeman  to  the  prison,  with  all  its  wardens  and  keepers,  through 
the  court  with  its  judges,  prosecuting  officers,  and  costly  appliances,  to 
the  sheriff,  who  finally  hurls *the  wretch  into  eternity,  the  cost  is  simply 
enormous;  and  the  money,  if  expended  on  education,  would  give  a  col- 
legiate education  to  a  dozen  orphans.  In  the  ratio  in  which  we  multiply 
schools  we  diminish  crime,  which,  after  all,  is  the  heaviest  burden  on  the 
"citizen  and  tax-payer."  We  are  aware  that  a  snobbish  Anglicised 
American,  more  fitted  for  the  region  of  St.  James  than  for  the  land  of 
Jefferson,  has  asserted  that  the  common  school  is  the  nursery  of  crime; 
but  as  he  did  not  give  one  particle  of  proof,  and  as  his  articles  were  full 
of  mistakes  and  redolent  of  Tory  prejudices,  we  must  still  adhere  to  our 
statement,  and  insist  upon  the  multiplication  of  schools  as  a  mere  matter 
of  economy.  But  the  schools,  to  be  truly  economical,  must  be  thoroughly 
efficient.  The  system  must  be  thoroughly  graded,  commencing  with  the 
Kindergarten  and  passing  up  to  the  high  and  normal  school.  This  gives 
a  head,  trunk,  limbs,  and  feet — a  completely  organized  body. 

Deeply  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  a  Kindergarten  in  the  "model 
school "  connected  with  the  Normal  College,  I  requested  the  Committee 
in  charge  to  employ  an  experienced  Kindergartner,  and  to  expend  the 
necessary  amount  of  money  in  the  purchase  of  material.  The  request 
was  granted,  Froebel's  games  were  procured,  and  Dr.  Douai  and  his 
daughter  employed.  In  justice  to  both  it  must  be  stated  that  they  proved 
themselves  excellent  teachers,  and  that  the  subsequent  failure  was  no 
fault  of  theirs.  If  Dr.  Douai  was  to  blame  at  all,  it  was  because  he  did 
not  insist  upon  the  first  essential  requisite  of  success;  he  did  not  insist 
upon  having  children  of  the  right  age;  or  if  he  did  insist,  his  insistence 
availed  him  nothing.  His  first  step  was  fatal.  lie  began  the  Kindergarten 
with  children  sewn,  eight,  nine,  ten,  and  eleven  years  old.  Unfortunately 
the  College  was  nearly  half  a  mile  from  the  "Model  School1',  so  that  I 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  NORMAL  TRAINING.  5^5 

found  it  difficult  to  give  Dr.  Douai  that  aid  and  support  which  he  needed. 
The  principal  of  the  "Model  School''  had  no  faith  in  it  and  ridiculed  the 
idea  of  "teaching  children  to  play."  She  took  special  pains  to  inform 
the  different  members  of  the  Committee  on  the  College  that  the  introduc- 
tion and  maintenance  of  the  Kindergarten  was  a  useless  waste  of  the 
public  money.  It  should  be  remembered  that,  at  that  time  (1870),  Froe- 
bcl's  system  was  comparatively  new  to  America,  and  that  its  principles 
were  but  imperfectly  comprehended,  even  by  the  majority  of  eminent 
teachers.  Thus  failed  my  first  attempt  to  establish  the  Kindergarten. 

Although  I  must,  in  justice,  accept  my  fair  share  of  the  blame,  the 
failure  was  not  without  its  benefits.  It  was  to  me  a  profitable  lesson.  It 
showed  me  the  proper  conditions  under  which  the  Kindergarten  could  be 
made  a  success.  These  conditions  are  as  follows: 

1.  An  able  and  thoroughly  trained  Kindergartner. 

2.  A  uniform  class  of  children  of  the  average  age  of  four  years. 

3.  A  full  supply  of  the  requisite  material. 

4.  A  principal  teacher  in  full  sympathy  with  the  Kindergarten 

An  American,  or  at  least  a  lady  with  whom  English  is  the  mother 
tongue,  will  succeed  most  easily  among  American  children.  A  conti- 
nental European  may  be  abler  and  more  experienced;  bnt  the  slightest, 
accent  is  an  impediment,  for  one  of  the  principal  aims  of  the  teacher  is  to 
cultivate  language  and  harmony.  The  true  Kindergartner  should  be 
able  and  willing  to  perform  all  the  functions  of  a  wise  educated  mother. 

Accordingly  when  the  "Model  School,"  now  the  Training  Department, 
wras  transferred  in  1874  to  the  new  building  erected  for  its  use,  and  con- 
nected with  the  College  by  a  covered  causeway,  one  of  its  critic  teachers, 
thoroughly  adapted  by  nature  and  education  for  the  work,  completely 
mastered  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  Kindergarten  under  Mrs. 
Kraus,  and  having  been  promoted  by  the  Committee  to  the  position  of 
Kindergartner,  she  subsequently  introduced  the  system  with  the  most 
satisfactory  and  gratifying  results.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  we  use 
the  Kindergarten  as  an  experimental  class  for  the  pupil-teachers  of  the 
College,  the  demand  for  admission  is  so  great  that  it  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that  we  could  form  ten  classes,  had  we  the  necessary  accommo- 
dations. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  what  is  the  effect  of  the  kindergarten 
instruction  on  the  children  when  they  reach  the  higher  grades  of  the 
school?  The  effect  has  been  tested  by  comparing  them  with  children 
who  have  not  had  the  benefits  of  the  Kindergarten ;  and  we  have  invaria- 
bly found  that  the  children  trained  in  the  Kindergarten  are  brighter, 
quicker,  and  more  intelligent;  and  that  especially  in  all  school  work,  such 
as  writing  and  drawing,  requiring  muscular  power  and  flexibility  in  the 
wrist  and  fingers,  they  pre-eminently  excel. 

There  should  be  a  Kindergarten  class  in  every  primary  school  in  the 
land.  Of  course  the  children's  garden  in  which  to  perform  their  games, 
in  great  cities  or  towns,  is  out  of  the  question.  Children  play  in  the 
basement,  in  the  garret,  in  the  nursery.  How  many  children  in  New 
York  play  in  a  garden?  The  children  in  the  primary  schools  can  use 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  NORMAL  TRAINING. 

the  playground  and  the  class-room,  and  have  ample  accommodation  for 
many  of  the  practices  of  the  Kindergarten. 

One  great  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  Kindergarten  has  not  been 
sufficiently  dwelt  upon — one  that  should  occupy  the  attention  of  the 
patriot  and  the  political  economist — and  that  is  that  the  principles  arvd 
practice  of  the  Kindergarten  uiiconsciously  create  and  foster  a  taste  for 
mechanical  trades.  In  these  days,  when  the  great  majority  of  young  men 
seek  the  counting-house  and  the  learned  profession,  in  order  to  escape 
manual  labor,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  great  importance  to  extend  a  system 
of  instruction  which  inculcates  a  love  and  respect  for  work  and  the  work- 
ing-man. All  the  little  songs  about  the  farmer,  the  cooper,  the  carpenter, 
etc.,  while  cultivating  the  ear  for  harmony,, insensibly  lead  the  children 
to  form  a  high  opinion  of  all  industrial  occupations. 

The  poor,  and  especially  the  poor  in  great  cities,  most  need  the  refining 
and  ennobling  influence  of  the  Kindergarten.  Among  this  class,  the 
wisdom,  the  kindness,  the  care  of  an  educated  motherly  teacher  (i.e.  the 
Kindergartner)  could  accomplish  the  greatest  amount  of  good.  She  can 
mould  them  at  the  most  plastic  age,  and  thus  prevent  a  great  deal  of 
future  crime.  But  it  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to  this  part  of  the  subject 
in  a  short  article  like  the  present. 

The  pupil-teachers  of  the  Normal  College  learn  through  the  Kinder- 
garten a  great  deal  of  child  nature  which  they  could  not  otherwise  learn; 
and  although  they  find  no  Kindergarten  classes  in  the  public  schools  to 
teach,  they  enter  upon  their  work  with  a  loftier  idea  of  their  duties  and 
responsibilities,  and  with  a  broader  humanity  for  the  errors  and  miseries 
of  their  fellow  beings. 

NOTE   BY   THE   EDITOR. 

The  time  will  soon  come,  we  trust,  when  the  Kindergarten  will  have 
a  Transition  Class  composed  of  children  between  the  ages  of  five  and 
seven  years,  and  the  Primary  School  will  modify  its  classification  and 
methods,  so  as  to  continue  the  work  of  development  begun  in  the  Kin- 
dergarten by  further  applications  of  Froebel's  method. 

In  the  State  Normal  School  building  in  Baltimore,  and  under  the 
supervision  of  Prof.  M.  A.  Newell,  the  principal  and  state  superintend- 
ent, a  training  class  and  Kindergarten  was  conducted  by  Miss  Anna  W. 
Barnard,  a  graduate  of  Miss  Burritt  in  1879-80.  The  four  ladies  who  grad- 
uated in  1880  are  now  conducting  Kindergartens  in  Baltimore  and  Wash- 
ington. The  success,  both  of  the  training  class  and  the  Kindergarten, 
was  unquestioned,  and  the  principle  and  methods  of  Froebel's  system 
Prof.  Newell  holds  in  the  highest  estimation  as  the  basis  of  all  child  cul 
ture  and  normal  training  ;  but  the  reduced  appropriation  for  the  support 
of  the  state  Normal  School  prevented  his  continuing  the  work  so  auspi- 
ciously begun,  mainly  by  private  resources  [donation  by  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Thompson]. 

A  Training  Class  and  Model  Kindergarten  have  been  established  in  the 
State  Normal  School  at  Oshkosh,  in  Wisconsin,  in  the  State  Normal 
School  of  Minnesota  at  Wiuona,  and  in  the  Oswego  Training  School,  by 
Prof.  Sheldon. 


EEMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK. 

BY  MRS.   MARIA   KKAU8   BOKLTE. 


Addressed  to  Dr.  Henry  Barnard.* 

In  compliance  with  your  request  to  communicate  my  experience 
in  Kindergarten  work,  as  well  as  my  preparations  for  the  same,  I 
begin  at  the  beginning  with  some  particulars  of  home  and  school 
training,  which  you  think  was  better  than  any  special  course  that 
could  have  been  projected  by  Fronbel  himself. 

I  am  a  native  of  Hagenow,  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Merklenburg- 
Schwerin,  where  I  was  born  Nov.  8,  1836. 

Dr.  Ernst  Boelte,  my  father,  the  oldest  of  thirteen  children,  was 
by  profession  a  lawyer,  and  for  forty-six  years  discharged  the  duties 
of  judge  and  local  magistrate.  On  his  side  we  were  descended  from 
Admiral  Peter  LeFort,  who  took  &  prominent  part  in  Russian  mari- 
time affairs  under  Peter  the  Great.  My  father's  immediate  ancestors 
were  in  the  public  service,  and  his  Aunt  Fanny  Tarnow  was  well 
known  as  a  popular  writer,  as  is  Amely  also  his  sister.  My 
mother  was  a  daughter  of  Hofrath  August  Killers.  Her  family 
included  many  professional  men ;  and  with  such  large  connections 
our  home  was.  from  my  earliest  recollections,  the  center  of  literary 
meetings,  musical  entertainments,  and  dinner,  tea,  and  coffee  parties, 
which  naturally  carried  along  with  them  much  social  cultivation. 

DOMESTIC    TRAINING. 

Although  Kindergartens  were  not  yet  in  existence,  the  occupations 
which  Froebel  has  systematized  in  the  new  education,  were  in  requisi- 
tion in  the  family  nurtuie  of  our  household.  Building  with  blocks, 
tablet-laying  games,  form-laying  with  sticks  and  seeds,  were  much 
practiced.  Beads  were  used  for  counting  and  inventing  patterns, 
either  by  threading  them,  or  by  pressing  them  into  wax.  Baskets 
were  woven  of  rushes,  grasses,  and  straw,  sometimes  intermingled 

Extract  from  Dr.  Barnard's  letter : 

"I  beg  you  will  jot  down  all  those  interesting  particulars  which  yon  were  so  kind  a« 
to  narrate  to  me  of  your  own  early  home  and  self-training,  as  well  as  of  your  cpecia' 
studies  of  Froebers  principles  and  method  at  Hamburg,  and  your  own  veritable  Kinder 
garten  practice  before  you  ever  heard  of  Froebel,  as  well  as  after.  They  at  once  confirrr 
the  sagacity  of  the  great  master  of  child  culture,  by  showing  his  system  to  be  in  accord 
ance  with  nature,  and  indicate  the  type  of  character,  education,  and  training  required  fo: 
the  highest  success  in  Kindergarten  work.  I  doubt  if  Frosbel  could  have  projected  i 
epecial  course  more  admirably  fitted  than  that  which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  you  pur 
sued.  Such  Reminiscences  as  yours  are  full  of  interest  and  instruction  to  all  educators. 

(537) 


533  REMINISCENCES  OP  KINDERGARTEN  WORK. 

with  ribbons.  Forms  were  perforated  and  sewn  in  colored  silks. 
What  now  is  called  t%  mat-weaving,"  we  practiced  with  worsteds  on  a 
wooden  frame,  with  narrow  ribbons  and  in  leather.  Certain  forms 
were  folded  from  the  square  and  oblong  piece  of  paper.  The  scis- 
sors were  used  for  cutting  out  various  useful  and  ornamental  forms 
in  paper  and  cloih.  Card  modeling  was  a  charming  resource  during 
the  long  winter  evenings.  Drawing,  and  also  modeling,  was  much 
practiced  with  potter's-clay,  wax, — and  on  baking  day.  The  dolls 
were  not  forgotten.  I  had  twenty-one  dolls,  and  a  pumpkin,  when  I 
could  have  it,  which  was  dress  d  like  a  baby,  and  the  clothes 
for  this  large  family  I  learned  to  make  m}  self.  We  had  a  little 
kitchen,  and  learned  to  cook  many  dishes  in  play.  My  mother 
was  our  guide  and  friend  in  all  this ;  she  made  the  nursery  the 
pleasantest  room  in  the  house.  Each  of  us  children  owned  a  little 
garden,  where  we  were  taught  to  grow  various  vegetables  and  flowers. 
In  our  yard  we  had  various  apparatus  for  gymnastics,  a  see-saw,  a 
climbing-pole,  a  balancingjboard ;  besides  there  was  found  a  tame 
deer  that  often  lay  in  one  kennel  with  the  large  dog ;  also  cows, 
horses,  a  goat,  a  sheep,  rabbits,  guinea-pigs,  a  porcupine,  an  owl, 
and  a  stork.  We  had  more  liberty  than  other  children,  and  our 
family,  though  aristocratic,  was  often  called  "  the  small  Republic." 
Our  parents  were  our  best  friends,  and  good  companions,  although 
we  stood  in  a  little  awe  of  our  father.  The  latter  told  us  in  contin- 
uous evenings  trfie  story  of  Robinson  Crusoe ;  these  evenings  were 
mo.-t  instructive,  and  ended  with  the  treat  of  "roasting  potatoes  as 
Robinson  Crusoe  was  said  to  have  done." 

I  began  to  learn  to  read  with  a  gentleman  teacher  when  four 
years  old,  in  a  class  of  twelve  little  boys  and  girls,  all  about  my  age. 
Only  one  hour  daily  was  given  to  this,  to  writing  and  arithmetic. 
Another  hour  was  given  to  knitting  and  sewing,  and  a  third  hour 
for  dancing  the  "Minuet"  with  my  two  elder  brothers  and  sister, 
under  a  dancing  master;  this  dance  we  had  finally  to  execute  "en 
costume,"  at  a  ball.  From  my  sixth  to  seventh  year  I  j<  fcied  a 
small  class  of  two  boys  and  three  girls,  for  three  hours  daily,  when 
we  were  taught  the  following  subjects  by  one  of  the  first  clergymen 
of  the  city,  viz.:  four  hours  per  week  were  devoted  to  Bible-stories; 
geography  intermingled  with  universal  arid  natural  History  ;  German 
reading  and  writing;  learning  by  heart  of  poetry  and  hymns.  Piano 
lessons  I  received  from  the  Cantor  of  the  church.  Besides  this,  my 
brothers  and  sisters  and  I,  as  well  as  several  other  children  of  the 
so-called  upper  class,  joined  daily  in  the  afternoons  one  hour  in  the 
instruction  given  to  the  poor  children,  thus  teaching  us  early  not  tc 


REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  539 

measure  ourselves  with  others  according  to  rank,  pretty  clothes, 
good  home,  etc.,  but  rather  according  to  our  own  worth.  When  I 
was  seven  years  old  my  father  engaged  a  special  teacher  for  us,  who 
lived  in  our  family,  namely  a  Candidatus  Theologies,  Mr.  Ma-smann, 
who  was  named  to  us  "  as  a  man  who  never  in  all  his  life  received  a 
punishment."  This  gentleman  stayed  three  years  with  us.  We 
received  instruction  in  the  morning  and  afternoon ;  Mr.  M.  superin- 
tended also  our  preparations  for  the  next  day,'  and  gave  us  piano 
and  singing  lessons,  he  being  a  first-class  musician,  both  vocally  and 
on  the  piano.  My  mother  also  was  a  pianist,  and  my  father,  b  sides 
the  piano,  played  the  flute  and  the  violin.  Latin  and  French  were 
commenced,  mathematics,  universal  history,  geography,  arithmetic, 
drawing,  and  natural  history  were  taught.  In  our  daily  excursions 
we  were  introduced  to  the  wonders  of  nature ;  he  accompanied  us 
to  the  blacksmith's,  joiner's,  turner's,  weaver's,  baker's,  pottery,  etc., 
and  we  had  thus  most  practical  instructive  lessons;  on  returning 
home,  we  made  experiments.  Mr.  M.  was  a  good  gymnast,  and 
became  also  our  teacher  in  tins.  Skating  we  were  taught, — sleigh- 
ing, a  snow  man,  and  snow-balling  belonged  to  the  pleasures  in  win- 
ter. Exercise  on  the  balancing-board  and  target-shooting  were 
among  the  pleasures  in  summer.  Mr.  M.  left  us,  on  receiving  a 
government  appointment.  My  second  brother  and  I  then  were  sent 
to  the  u  Candidaten  Schule,"  i.e.,  a  school  for  boys  and  girls,  con- 
ducted by  two  theologians,  where  we  continued  our  studies  com- 
menced under  Mr.  M.  In  the  afternoons  I  accompanied  rny  eldest 
sister,  for  one  hour's  instruction,  to  the  Rector,  who  imparted  to  us 
chiefly  general  knowledge,  universal  history,  and  literature. 

In  1848  the  great  Revolution  came,  when  my  father,  who 
had  b' en  chief  magistrate  hitherto,  retired.  The  entire  event  made, 
necessarily,  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  our  young  minds.  We 
moved,  by  invitation  of  the  Grand  Duke,  to  the  summer  residence, 
Ludwigslust, — another  great  event  in  our  young  lives.  My  sisters 
and  I  now  were  sent  to  a  private  girls'  school,  or  rather  "  Class," 
which  occupied  us  only  for  three  hours  in  the  mornings;  this  class 
had  eighteen  girls,  in  two  divisions,  and  was  conducted  by  a  true 
pedagogue,  Director  Wachtler,  and  further  instruction  was  given  by 
two  theologians,  Pastor  Dankert  and  Rector  Willbrandt.  The 
instruction  comprised  elementary  branches,  physics,  mathematics, 
astronomy,  botany,  composition,  literature.  We  made  excursions 
with  our  teachers,  and  often  in  the  evening  we  studied  the  stars  with 
Pastor  D.,  and  were  taught  how  to  make  various  apparatus  nec- 
essary for  our  instruction.  In  the  afternoon  French  was  studied  with 


540  REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK. 

a  lady  teacher,  and  I  learned  to  sew  and  make  fancy  work.  Piano 
lessons  and  drawing  was  studied  under  masters.  On  Saturday  after- 
noons a  Professor  of  the  Fine  Arts,  a  friend  of  our  family,  took  me 
to  the  Art  Gallery  of  the  Grand  Ducal  castle,  which  I  considered, 
young  as  I  was,  one  of  the  greatest  treats.  The  rest  of  the  time  I 
devoted  to  my  dolls,  twenty-one  in  number,  the  largest  being  two 
feet  long,  the  smallest  one  inch ;  their  clothes  had  to  be  mended, 
washed,  and  ironed ;  the  dolls'  house,  consisting  of  a  parlor,  dining- 
room,  bed-room,  kitchen,  pantry,  had  to  be  kept  in  order.  A  younger 
sister  of  mine,  usually  called  my  twin-sister,  because  of  our  great 
resemblance  to  each  other,  asked  me  often  to  play  loud  with  my 
dolls,  so  that  she  could  play  the  same  with  her  dolls  I  lived  partly 
in  fairy-land ;  I  saw  fairies,  life,  wonders  in  each  flower — among  the 
stones,  insects,  etc.,  which  made  me  the  center  of  my  little  friends, 
for,  as  they  said,  "  I  could  tell  such  pretty  stories."  Once  each  week 
we  cooked  a  *'  dolls'  dinner ; "  or  we  invited  our  friends,  and  we  all 
were  cooks,  preparing  our  own  meal  under  the  supervision  of  an 
adult.  In  my  father's  study  I  had  a  place  where  I  was  allowed  to 
prepare  for  my  lessons.  I  had  to  perform  certain  little  household 
duties ;  for  instance,  I  filtered  the  coffee  for  my  father  and  mother 
in  the  morning,  prepared  our  luncheon  for  school,  and,  whenever  at 
leisure,  had  to  take  care  of  my  youngest  brother,  a  mere  babe,  who 
showed  a  special  affection  for  me  and  I  also  for  him.  Thus  I  grew 
to  be  fourteen  years  old,  when  our  class  broke  up,  the  teachers  re- 
ceiving government  appointments.  Many  diversions  interrupted  our 
daily  routine ;  a  party,  dancing  lessons,  a  game,  or  play  rather,  in 
the  garden  of  one  of  the  parents  of  the  girls  of  our  class.  Con- 
jointly we  made  walks  in  the  beautiful  park,  or  went  skating,  etc. 
A  new  girls'  school  was  opened,  and  our  work  became  very  hard ; 
for  from  eight  to  twelve,  and  from  two  to  four  o'clork,  we  received 
instruction,  besides  the  preparatory  work  at  home,  which  occupied 
us  about  two  hours  more.  I  must  say,  I  did  enjoy  this,  but  at  my 
age  it  proved  to  be  too  severe  work.  French  conversation  and 
German  WHS  one  of  the  chief  studies ;  also  German  grammar,  geog- 
raphy, universal  history,  natural  history,  arithmetic  (algebra),  geom- 
etry, mathematics,  natural  philosophy  (physics),  literature,  drawing, 
singing,  composition,  sewing  and  fancy  work,  Bible  instruction,  reci- 
tation. Among  our  teachers  were  again  two  clergymen,  the  Director 
Ackerman  of  the  teachei  s'  seminary,  and  two  other  teachers  from  the 
same  Institute. 

When  fifteen  years  old  my  health  broke  completely  down,  and  I 
had  to  give  up  school,  having  held  the  head  place  among  my  class- 


REMINISCENCES  OP  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  541 

mates  for  years.  About  this  time  my  father  was  appointed  by  the 
government,  Judge  and  Chief  Magistrate  of  another  city,  and  we 
had  to  move  there.  I  was  sent  to  the  girls'  school,  but  was  disgusted 
with  its  standard,  management,  and  spirit,  and  therefore  did  not  con- 
tinue to  attend.  I  was  sent  to  Hamburg,  to  the  home  of  one  of 
the  first  patrician  families,  the  head  of  which  had  be^n  a  fellow- 
student  with  my  father  at  the  University  of  Gottingen.  I  spent 
about  seven  months  in  this  family,  the  elegant  surroun'dings  of  which 
were  refining  in  themselves.  In  one  large  ball-room  I  could  sit  by 
the  hour ;  the  walls  were  lined  with  yellow  marble,  one  side  being 
a  single  massive  looking-glass,  and  the  border  above  being  a  cast  of 
one  of  Thorwaldsen's  master-pieces.  The  stair-case  in  this  house 
was  made  of  white  marble,  and  its  railing  of  bright  brass.  Another 
room  was  called  "  the  Chinese  room,"  its  walls  being  hung  with 
heavy  yellow  silk,  and  the  furniture  was  covered  with  the  same, 
beautiful  Chinese  ornaments  being  everywhere.  Another  room  was 
a  "  fine  library,"  another  "  the  picture  gallery,"  etc.  The  youngest 
daughter  was  of  my  own  age. 

We  studied  drawing,  Bible  literature,  piano,  natural  phenomena 
and  health  ;  in  modeling  I  received  from  the  eldest  daughter  my 
first  ideas.  Having  attained  the  age  of  sixteen  I  returned  home,  where 
I  continued  to  study  by  myself  in  a  little  studio  assigned  to  me.  I 
took  up  the  following  subjects  in  regular  order ;  Becker's  Universal 
History,  Ungar's  Geography,  literature,  arithmetic,  drawing,  music.  I 
was  further  initiated  in  dress-making,  together  with  four  young 
friends  of  mine,  under  a  regular  dress-maker,  and  also  fancy-work, 
the  art  of  cooking,  household  management,  French,  etc.  A  great 
deal  of  information  was  received  from  my  father,  in  conversation 
during  a  daily,  two  hour's  walk,  or  by  discussions  at  home.  Our 
reading  matter  were  biographies,  geographical  books,  historical  ones, 
etc.  My  father  made  it  for  all  of  us  a  rule,  with  only  rare  exceptions, 

that — 

"Early  to  bed,  and  early  to  rise, 
Makes  a  man  healthy,  wealthy,  and  wise.'* 

When  eighteen  years  old  I  received  religious  instruction  by  our 
clergyman,  and  finally  was  confirmed.  After  this  I  was  introduced 
into  society,  and  a  happy  time  began.  The  afternoon  from  two 
till  four  o'clock  belonged  to  us  to  spend  just  as  we  liked  best. 
Generally  I  entertained  a  large  flock  of  poor  children  on  the 
meadow  near  our  house,  and  on  Saturdays  those  children  received  a 
penny,  who  during  the  week  had  their  faces  and  hands  clean ;  or  I 
visited  the  Kinder-und  Bewahranstalt  (Creche),  and  for  a  while  I 


542  REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK. 

hoped  to  be  able  to  assist  the  old  matron ;  but  she  was  jealous  and 
suspicious,  and  1  had  to  stop  my  visits.  On  Saturdays  I  distributed, 
for  my  mother,  clothes  and  food  for  the  poor.  My  Aunt  Amely,  the 
oldest  sister  of  my  father,  a  well-known  writer,  who  regards  the 
woman's  question  as  her  special  mission,  when  once  visiting  us,  broke 
up  this  careless  sort  of  happiness  by  her  conversation  and  views 
expressed ;  and  in  consequence  I  succeeded  in  receiving  permission 
to  go  to  Hamburg,  to  FrcebeFs  widow,  in  order  to  study  the  Kin- 
dergarten system  under  her,  becoming  a  member  of  her  family. 
There  I  came  in  contact  with  a  class  of  intelligent  people,  who  made 
it  their  business  to  devote  their  time  and  money  to  "  doing  good 
work."  Among  them  were  Madame  Emilie  Wiistenfeld,  the  founder  of 
the  female  Gewerbe  Schule  (Industrial  School) ;  Dr.  Jessen,  now  in 
Berlin,  the  director  of  the  male  Gewerbe  Schule ;  Miss  Ida  Kriiger 
pupil  of  Friedrich  Frcebel ;  Dr.  Wichard  Lange,  Frau  Alwine 
Lange,  the  daughter  of  Middendorf  and  Dr.  W.  Lange's  wife,  also 
a  pupil  of  Froebel ;  Dr.  Ree,  who  has  done  so  much  for  the  little 
Israelites  of  Hamburg ;  Theodor  Hoffmann,  who  was  so  active  in  re- 
gard to  the  United  Kindergartens  of  Hamburg,  etc. 

I  entered  two  different  courses  of  Kindergarten  training  under 
Madame  Frcebel,  and  attended  the  seminary  for  teachers,  in  which 
Mr.  Tiedemann  was  the  professor  of  general  and  special  pedagogics, 
assisted  by  five  other  professors.  Whilst  with  Madame  Froebel, 
she  published  the  "  Ring-games,"  in  which  I  became  particularly 
interested. 

First  Residence  in  England. 

When  I  had  finished  my  course  of  studies,  I  went  to  England, 
not  being  enabled  to  work  out,  in  my  own  home,  the  ideas  received. 
I  remember  yet  the  bleak,  cold,  wet  night,  when  Madame  Wiistenfeld 
arid  Madame  Ree  brought  me  on  board  of  a  little  coal  steamer  that 
went  to  Hull,  I  being  the  only  lady  passenger.  But  go  I  must,  or 
the  Kindergarten  would  have  been  lost  to  me.  And  so  I  was  brave, 
not  di-closing  to  any  one  my  trembling  heart  and  failing  courage. 
I  well  remember  the  storm  during  our  voyage,  and  how  the  vessel 
was  almost  lost  among  the  cliffs.  After  three  days  we  landed  in 
Hull ;  it  was  such  a  sunny,  beautiful  Sunday  morning,  the  bells 
ringing  cheerily,  that  I  regained  all  my  courage.  From  Hull  I 
went  to  Manchester.  Not  understanding  the  English  language,  I 
was  often  greatly  embarrassed,  but  met  with  so  much  kindness,  that 
finally  everything  turned  out  well.  In  Manchester  I  went  to 
Madame  Ronge's  house,  where  I  was  expected,  finding  a  warm  wel- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  543 

come.  Maclume  Ronge  had  been  invited  to  Manchester  by  some  of 
the  prominent  families,  in  order  to  lecture  on  the  New  Education, 
and  to  or,  anize  a  Kindergarten.  She  was  a  pupil  of  Froebel,  when 
the  latter  was  in  Hamburg  in  1849,  and  a  sister  of  the  late  Mrs. 
Carl  Schurz. 

Ma-lame  Ronge  sent  me  after  a  while  to  London,  to  assist  i«  her 
Kindergarten  and  school.  1  was  forced  to  learn  English  in  order  to 
conduct  the  Kindergarten,  and  also  teach  part  of  the  advanced 
classes,  as  well  as  the  young  ladies  in  training.  Here  I  became 
acquainted  with  Charles  Dickens,  Arnold  Huge,  Carl  Blind,  G. 
Kinkel,  Angelike  von  Lagcrstrorn,  P'erdinand  Freiligrath,*  Mazzini, 
Charles  Kean  and  wifr,  and  others. 

When  the  London  Kindergarten  was  broken  up  because  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Ro"ge  returning  to  the  continent,  I  was  left  to  my  own 
resources,  although  my  work  up  to  this  time  had  been  ''without 
price,"  the  children  being  from  among  the  poor.  The  two  Misses 
Praetorius,  Rosalie  and  Minna,  daughters  of  an  excellent  teacher  in 
Nassau,  near  Frankfort-on-the- Alain,  took  charge  of  ihe  school,  the 
Kindergarten  proper  not  being  continued. 

I  must  »ot  omit  to  say  a  word  about  Mr.  Borschitzky,  who 
was  associated  with  Madame  Rouge  in  her  work,  and  whose  orig'nal 
and  beautiful  music  places  him  worthily  by  the  side  of  Frobel  —as 
inventor,  teacher,  and  friend  of  the  children ;  for  in  his  gymnastic 
marches  and  in  his  international  system  of  music  and  song  he  has 
given  a  worthy  contribution  to  the  Kindergarten  system.  "Every 
educator,"  he  says,  ''should  be  essentially  an  author,  a  teacher,  and 
a  perpetual  inventor ;  whatever  he  has  to  impart  to  his  pupil*  lie 
must  bring  f*om  ihe  bottom  of  his  heart,  and  balance  it  well  in  his 
mind,  so  as  to  correspond  with  his  pupil's  capacity.  The  art  of 
infant  education  requires  more  tact  and  self-sacrifice  ihan  any  other 
art."  And  I  also  fully  agree  with  him  when  he  says :  "  As  music  is 
very  conducive  to  thtj  formation  of  the  child's  character,  so  an  extem- 
pore accompaniment,  or  an  accompaniment  on  a  piano-forte  out  of 
tune,  does  more  harm  than  good  ;  the  employment  even  of  legal 
dissonances,  at  an  eaily  age,  tends  to  make  the  ear  less  sensiiive  to 
pun-  harmony ;  and  in  order  not  to  injure  the  child's  voice,  the  piano 
must  be  kept  to  the  standard  pitch,  so  that  the  childien  of  the 
Kindergarten  do  not  cultivate  their  voices  higher  than  soprai  o,  and 
not  lower  than  contralto."  The  Kindergarten- Gymnastics  rest  on 
the  same  principle  as  the  German  gymnastics;  all  pans  of  the  body 

*  Two  of  his  daughters— one  being  a  poetess*,  are  married  in  London  to  Germ  n  met- 
chautb,  whilst  his  two  sons— Wolfgang  aud  Percy,  are  merchants  in  America. 


544  REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK. 

should  be  developed  in  the  most  complete  and  harmonious  manner; 
and  also  it  is  of  great  moral  influence.  In  the  Kindergarten  only 
'•  free  exercises "  are  made,  and  these  are  accompanied  by  music. 
It  is  a  pleasure  to  move  or  march  rythmically  to  the  sounds  of  fine 
music.  The  Kindergarten  games  rest  on  the  imitation  of  what  we 
pen  e*ive  in  nature  or  occupations  of  man :  for  instances,  the  fishes,  thei 
hare,  t  j  pigeons,  the  farmer,  the  cobbler,  the  miller,  etc.  In  this 
Frrebel  found  out  the  children's  secret  pleasure;  many  of  the  songs 
accompanying  these  games  have  popular  airs." 

Return  home  I  would  not,  although  my  parents  desired  it  greatly ; 
for  in  that  case  all  my  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  Kindergarten  would 
have  been  in  vain.  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Anna  von  Hohlen, 
who  wanted  me  to  go  to  Stockwell,  but  af:er  investiga  ion  I  foui.cl 
the  people  there  not  yet  ready  for  the  work.*  Meanwhile  I  spent 
all  my  spare  time  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum  and  in  the 
British  Museum;  in  the  latter  the  library  was  my  chief  attraction. 

At  last  I  received  an  offer  from  the  family  of  t'le  daughter  of 
Chief  Justice  Lord  Denman,  sister-in-law  of  Lord  Macaulay.  I 
was  required  to  teach  French,  German,  Latin,  Mathematics,  Litera- 
ture, the  elementary  branches,  drawing,  modeling,  music? calisthenics, 
dancing,  di ess-making,  millinery,  cooking,  and — Kindergarten.  I 
hesitated  on  account  of  all  these  varied  requirements.  After  a 
visit  to  this  family,  who  owned  a  beautiful  country-seat  in  Kent, 
I  decided  to  accept,  and  never  regre'ted  having  done  so;  for  I 
truly  found  a  home  among  highly  intelligent,  refined  people  with 
expanded  views,  and  every  facility  I  could  wish  for  in  regard  to 
carrying  out  the  Kindergarten  system.  The  mother  of  the  family 
became  my  teacher  in  English — not  in  the  grammar,  but  in  the 
"natural"  way.  Sundays  she  and  I  read  also  a  chapter  from 
the  Bible  to  each  other,  she  the  German,  /  the  English.  In  the 
evenings  she  often  read  to  us,  when  we  had  no  company,  biographies 
of  great  and  good  men  and  women.  I  had  the  fullest  swing  to  carry 
out  my  Kindergarten  ideas  with  ever  so  m  my  big  and  litt  e  children  ; 
tLe  mothers  and  children  from  the  neighborhood  came  to  us ;  I 
explained  and  talked  to  the  former  and  worked  with  all.  The  Park 
and  garden  allowed  us  to  do  ideal  work.  We  had  a  music  room,  a 
play-room,  a  modeling-room,  a  study-room.  Saturday  mornings  the 
pantry  and  kitchen  were  our  domain ;  we  had  a  special  garden  and 
animals ;  also  a  cabinet  of  natural  history,  which  we  continually 
increased.  Together  with  the  older  members  of  the  family,  I  took 

*  Twelve  years  later,  in  September,  1874,  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society  en- 
gaged Miss  Eleanor  Heerwartfor  the  Infant  School  of  the  Stockwell  Training  College. 


REMINISCENCES  OP  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  545 

again  lessons  in  drawing,  and  in  the  French,  Latin,  and  Italian  lan- 
guages ;  also  in  music  and  dancing  (the  so-called  Spanish  exercises 
taught  by  Madame  Michaud).  One  of  the  Queen's  sergeants  gave  us 
"  drilling  lessons."  In  the  winter,  on  certain  evenings  we  were 
sewing  clothes,  etc.,  for  the  poor,  and  on  Sunday  afternoons  we  visited 
the  sick  and  old,  bringing  them  food  or  clothes,  often  reading  to  them 
from  the  Bible. 

In  1862  the  Mis-es  Praetorius,  Heinrich  Hoffmann,  and  myself 
exhibited  the  Kindergarten  material  and  work  together  in  the  Lon- 
don International  Exhibition ;  each  of  us  had  undertaken  to  provide 
certain  work,  and  I  had  my  part  executed  by  my  little  pupils.  I 
instructed  the  older  children  of  the  family  entirely  for  several  years, 
until  the  eldest  daughter  married  and  the  younger  children  had  out- 
grown the  Kindergarten  age, — and  then  my  love  for  the  Kindergarten 
allowed  me  no  longer  to  stay.  In  this  family  I  often  met  Mr.  James 
Nasmyth,  the  inventor  of  the  stenm-hammer,  also  well  known  as 
artist  and  astronomer.  It  was  a  grand  treat  to  visit  his  most  artisti- 
cally arranged  house!  Both  he  and  his  wife  were  greatly  interested 
n  the  Kindergarten  method.  We  often  saw  Lord  Brougham's  family, 
and  his  grandchildren  were  year  after  year  my  pupils  for  weeks. 

On  going  up  to  London,  I  found  by  invitation  a  home  with  some 
beloved  friend*,  the  family  of  the  well-known  physician,  Dr.  A. 
Henriqnes.  Through  them  I  became  acquainted  with  one  of  the 
first  Jewish  families — the  A.  Goldsmids.  Here  I  met  Sir  Moses 
Montefiore,  the  Waleys,  Sir  David  Solomon  (once  Lord  Mayor  of 
London).  The  only  daughter  of  this  family  became  my  pupil  for 
years,  and  through  her  I  was  introduced  in  the  family  of  Baron 
Meyer  Rothschild.  The  greater  part  of  my  time  I  devoted,  how- 
ever, to  Kindergarten  work,  assisting  kindergartners,  giving  them 
instruction  and  advice  without  price,  in  person  and  by  letter — visit- 
ing schools  and  asylums,  and  doing  charitable  work,  also  taking  up 
old  and  new  studies.  I  took  up  modeling  again  under  Prof.  Miller 
of  the  South  Kensington  School  of  Art,  who,  conjointly  with  others, 
tried  to  persuade  me  to  give  up  Kindergarten  and  become  an  artist. 
But — it  was  impossible  for  me  to  give  up  what  was.  so  to  speak,  my 
second  nature.  My  one  object  was  to  do  the  be*t  work  possible  in 
the  Kindergarten,  knowing  how  much  mediocrity  there  was,  and 
seeing  with  dismay  how  little  true  Kindergarten  education  was 
understood.  I  saw  a  difficulty  arising  in  not  having  true,  thoroughly- 
educated  and  trained  kindergartners  who  would  be  able  to  train  and 
teach  others. 

In  the  fall  of  1867  I  left  England  and  went  to  Hamburg,  where  I 
35 


546  REMINISCENCES  OP  KINDERGARTEN  WORK. 

became  acquainted  with  Madame  Johanna  Goldschmidt,  mother-in-law 
of  Jenny  Lind,  and  I  was  her  guest  during  several  months,  giving 
instruction  in  the  Frcebel  Union,  of  which  she  was  President,  and 
visiting  the  Kindergartens  of  the  city.  She  desired  very  much  that 
I  should  connect  myself  permanently  with  the  Union ;  but  I  had 
promised  already  to  Froebel's  widow  to  become  a  co-worker  and 
partner  with  her,  and  to  conduct  her  training-class  for  kindergartners, 
which  she  considered  to  be  my  chief  calling.  Whilst  doing  this, 
Madame  Goldschmidt  planned  that  I  should  give  one  model  lesson 
each  day  alternately  in  one  of  her  Kindergartens.  But  all  this  was 
frustrated.  For,  when  visiting  my  parents,  I  fell  desperately  ill  with 
a  nervous  fever,  and  all  idea  of  work  had  for  the  time-being  to  be 
given  up.  When  I  was  strong  enough  to  resume  my  work  I 
thought  of  starting  a  Kindergarten  in  Schwerin,  capital  of  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin.  I  wrote  an  article  on  the 
system  which  was  presented  to  the  chief  councillor  of  the  consistory, 
who  seemed,  however,  neither  to  know  nor  to  care  much  about  the 
matter,  and  I  was,  in  brief,  informed  that  Froebel's  ideas  were  too 
liberal,  etc.,  and  that  my  plan  of  opening  such  a  Kindergarten  would 
neither  receive  support  nor  consideration.  So  I  shook  off  once  more 
the  dust  from  my  feet  and  turned  my  back  on  Mecklenburg. 

Kindergarten    Work  in  Lubeck. 

In  a  visit  to  my  sister  in  Lubeck,  I  succeeded  in  persuading  her 
to  engage  for  her  children  a  kindergarten-nurse,  a  pupil  of  the 
Frrebel-Union  in  Hamburg.  By  conversation  I  interested  a  few  of 
the  Lubeck  people,  and  not  long  after  I  opened  a  Kindergarten, 
although  teachers,  clergymen,  and  physicians  declared  openly  that 
they  would  be  my  opponents.  This — and  also,  that  others  had 
tried  before  me  and  failed,  only  stimulated  me  more  to  gain  the 
point!  When  I  received  permission  from  the  magistrate  it  was 
under  the  condition  not  to  call  it  "  Kindergarten."  To  this  I  adhered 
only  as  long  as  my  Kindergarten  was  not  an  established  fact.  The 
President  of  the  School  Council,  an  old  friend  of  my  father's, 
informed  me  briefly  that  he  was  not  in  favor  of  the  Kindergarten 
mode  of  education,  and  would  in  no  way  further  or  aid  my  object. 
I  opened  in  October  with  only  seven  children,  and  at  Christmas  I  had 
twenty-two  children  in  my  Kindergarten,  and  in  June  the  number 
had  increased  to  fifty-five  children.  I  had  four  beautiful  rooms  and  a 
garden  with  a  large  tent,  under  which  in  summer  we  worked  and 
played.  The  mothers  visited  the  Kindergarten  daily  in  turn. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  547 

Kindergarten-trained  Nurses. 

Besides  kindergartners  I  trained  young  girls  for  the  nursery.  The 
latter  had  been  carried  out  under  Madame  Goldschmidt's  direction 
for  years  in  the  Hamburg  Frrebel  Union.  Madame  Goldschmidt 
urged  at  the  General  Educational  Union  the  necessity  of  training 
young  girls  to  go  into  families  as  hand  maidens  to  mothers,  and  spe- 
cified the  differences  of  this  training  from  that  for  training  kinder- 
gartners,  but  said  "a//  must  be  on  FrcebePs  principles,"  which  were 
identical  for  nurseries  and  Kindergartens,  with  differences  of  appli- 
cation in  each.  In  the  same  spirit  Mr.  Wm.  Walker,  in  an  address 
at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Kindergarten  Association,  held  in  Man- 
chester, on  the  Nursery  Influence,  said :  "  The  true,  real  nurses  have 
to  be  made.  Trained  nurses  for  sick  people  are  trained  in  a  special 
training  institution.  Where  is  the  institution  for  training  nurses  for 
the  children  of  our  gentlefolk  ?  I  do  not  merely  advocate  the  Kin- 
dergarten system,  but  let  me  say  that  where  there  is,  in  the  midst  of 
a  poor  population,  a  well -conducted  Kindergarten,  the  poor  man's 
child  has  a  wiser,  more  scientific,  more  natural,  happy,  and  useful 
nursery  than  is  found  in  many  a  rich  man's  house.  There  one  may 
find  young  girls  who  have  been  taught  and  trained  in  those  common- 
sense  subjects,  and  those  wise  and  patient  modes  of  dealing  with 
children,  the  want  of  which  has  been  a  perpetual  loss  to  those  we 
most  love.  But  not  only  should  there  be  training-schools  for  nurses 
and  governesses,  but  such  an  amount  of  pecuniary  renumeration 
should  be  offered  as  will  command  a  better  class  of  girls  ;  for  whilst 
warehouses  and  shops  can  offer  high  wages  and  more  liberty  we  can 
only  have  the  residuum  of  young  females  from  which  to  select  those 
who  are  to  join  in  sowing  seeds — and  what  seeds  ?  Seeds  which  will 
develop  a  harvest  of  good  or  bitter  fruit  in  the  hearts  and  lives 
of  our  children.  So  long  as  we  pay  our  nurses  and  governesses  as 
little  or  less  than  we  pay  our  cooks,  or  the  coachman  who  cares  for 
our  horses,  or  the  gardener  who  supplies  our  table  with  flowers, — how 
can  we  reasonably  expect  to  meet  with  persons  fit  and  capable  to 
tend  those  nobler  and  more  tender  plants  which  are  growing  up 
around  our  hearths  ?  This  then  is  what  is  wanted,  that  mothers  shall 
take  a  higher  view  of  their  work  and  their  helpers,  and  that  nurses 
shall  be  selected,  educated,  and  raised  to  a  higher  sense  of  their  work, 
and  be  better  paid,  and  thus  take  their  proper  and  legitimate  station 
as  the  deputy  mother." 

In  November,  1868, 1  went  as  Delegate  to  the  Women's  Conven- 
tion in  Berlin,  in  company  with  my  old  friends  Madame  Johanna 
Goldschmidt  and  Madame  Emilie  Wiistenfeld.  There  I  made  the 


548  REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK. 

acquaintance  of  Max  Ring,  Berthold  Auerbauch,  Schultze  Delitsch, 
Louise  Biichner,  Jenny  Hirsch,  Bertha  Meyer,  Lina  Morgenstern, 
Mr.  Nathaniel  Allen  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Doggett  of 
Chicago,  Frau  Doctor  Elise  Lindner  (a  mutual  friend  of  John  Kraus 
and  the  Baroness  Marenholtz,  and  a  prominent  propagator  of  the 
Kindergarten),  Madame  Thielow,  daughter  of  Diesterweg,  Auguste 
Schmid,  Auguste  von  Weyrowitz,  and  others.  I  here  also  met  my 
aunt,  Amely  Boelte,  again  after  many  years. 

During  the  French  war  we  had  in  my  Kindergarten  a  fair  of  kin- 
dergarten work  done  by  fifty-six  children  from  three  to  seven  years 
old;  the  gains,  S100,  were  destined  for  the  benefit  of  the 
wounded  on  both  sides.  The  children  also  were  busy  in  pulling  old 
linen  into  threads  for  the  wounded.  The  Kindergarten  proved  suc- 
cessful, and  the  President  of  the  School  Council  was — before  a  year 
had  passed — one  of  the  first  to  acknowledge  that  he  could  not  do 
otherwise  but  approve  of  the  Kindergarten ;  and  the  clergymen  and 
physicians  also  became  our  best  advocates. 

t  My  entire  work  in  Liibeck  proved  very  successful.  The  people 
of  Liibeck  adhere  strongly  to  their  old  habits  and  customs,  and  are 
mostly  in  all  they  do,  thorough ;  therefore,  without  any  interference 
from  any  of  the  parents,  who  one  and  all  manifested  the  greatest  con- 
fidence in  whatever  I  did,  I  could  go  on  gradually  in  my  work — and 
that  made  my  success !  The  Liibeck  people  are  very  "matter  of 
fact"  people,  and  the  children — as  a  rule — lived  not  in  fairy-land  as 
I  had  done  during  childhood.  I  resolved  to  develop  their  sense  for 
the  beautiful  as  much  as  possible,  to  awaken  their  imagination  and 
inventive  powers  to  a  certain  degree.  They  soon  grew  to  be  them- 
selves the  sweetest  flowers  in  this  little  paradise  I  had  created  for 
them.  When  Madame  Froebel  came  to  visit  me,  she  exclaimed  with 
tears  in  her  eyes  :  "  Oh,  that  Froebel  had  known  you — could  have 
seen  your  work ;  you  are,  in  truth,  his  spiritual  daughter."  I  shall 
never  forget  these  words ;  they  have  strengthened  me  many  tim-  s, 
and  raised  me  above  what  was  sometimes  hard  to  contend  with. 

By  and  by  I  was  obliged  to  start  an  elementary  class — an  inter- 
mediate between  Kindergarten  and  School.  If  the  children  were 
naughty  at  home  there  was  no  greater  punishment  than  to  be  kept  at 
home,  or  to  communicate  it  to  me.  Once  a  little  boy  was  asked  by 
his  mother :  "Why  are  you  not  as  good  at  home  as  you  are  in  the 
Kindergarten?"  He  smiled  and  said  :  "Oh,  but  there  is  Tante  Marie 
(thus  the  children  called  me)  and  I  could  not  be  naughty  with  her!" 
Another  child,  who  once  at  home  did  not  speak  the  truth,  when 
questioned,  said :  "  I  must  say  the  right  thing  to  Tante  Marie,  for 


REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK.  549 

she  looks  so  straight  into  my  eyes  that  I  know  she  sees  my  heart ; 
and  then,"  he  added  in  a  whisper,  "  she  never  scolds  me  !  "  Blessed 
little  heart !  If  there  were  less  scolding  and  more  love  in  the  nurse- 
ries we  would  not  know  such  a  thing  as  an  untruth  in  the  little  ones* 

Excursions —  Cliristmas  Festival. 

Sometimes  I  made  excursions  with  a  certain  number  of  the 
children,  which  not  only  gave  pleasure,  but  without  their  perceiving 
it,  a  great  deal  of  instruction  and  training  was  derived.  At  Christmas 
the  children  invited  their  parents  and  presented  them  with  little  self- 
made  gifts  hung  on  a  Christmas  tree. 

The  first  time  that  I  held  this  festival  T  asked  a  clergyman  who 
seemed  to  have  some  interest  in  our  work  to  say  a  few  words  to  the 
assembled  parents,  and  offer  a  prayer  for  the  children  fitted  for  the 
occasion.  He  replied,  saying  that  "he  did  not  know  enough  as  yet 
of  the  system."  I  taught  the  children  then  to  sing  a  little  "thanks- 
giving," and  put  in  verse  a  few  words,  in  which  they  addressed  their 
parents,  telling  them  of  their  love  and  offering  their  little  gifts.  It 
was  a  touching  scene  that  followed,  each  mother  and  father  kissing 
their  child.  About  this  time  I  received  a  letter  from  Madame 
Froebel  in  which  sjie  said :  u  In  the  winter  when  Froebel  lectured  in 
Hamburg,  and  trained  his  pupils  in  the  different  courses,  he  went  at 
Christmas  to  Liebenstein  where  I  then  was  training  some  kinder- 
gartners  and  also  conducted  a  kindergarten.  Froebel  arrived  the 
evening  before  Christmas  eve,  and  allowed  himself  no  recreation,  but 
was  all  day  busy  in  arranging  some  little  gifts  for  all,  children  and 
adults.  Christmas  eve,  when  the  children  entered,  they  were  received 
with  a  song ;  and  the  room,  otherwise  so  simple,  now  ornamented 
with  garlands  and  lights,  was  surprisingly  beautiful.  After  the  fes- 
tival we  walked  through  the  village  to  partake  of  the  festivity  in 
another  family.  During  the  Holidays  Froebel  was  occupied  daily 
during  the  mornings ;  the  evenings  he  passed  in  the  family  circle* 
On  the  last  evening  of  the  old  year  he  returned  to  Hamburg,  so  that 
he  might  begin  his  instruction  at  once  in  the  new  year.  These  days 
in  Marienthal  are  a  lasting,  beautiful  remembrance.  Froebel  was 
grateful  for  every  little  gift,  and  he  cared  for  each  member  of  the 
family  with  the  greatest  attention.  You  may  easily  imagine  that 
these  seasons  are  very  desolate  for  me,  and  particularly  now,  when  I 
am  alone.  I  am  almost  afraid  of  such  times.  Yet  hitherto  all  has 
been  well,  and  I  will  not  worry  about  it.  I  have  the  knowledge  of 
having  aided  through  my  work  to  increase  the  Christmas  joy  in  some 
families,  and  this  knowledge  should  help  to  make  me  glad." 


550  REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORK. 

Mrs.  Maria  Kraus  Boelte's  Personal  Reminiscences  of  Kinder- 
garten work  closes  with  her  engagement  in  Lubec  in  1871.  Ou  the 
death  of  her  father  in  that  year,  her  thoughts  turned  with  irresist- 
ible bias  to  the  United  States  as  the  most  suitable  field  for  the  new 
education.  To  this  field  Froebel  himself  had  looked  for  an  escape 
from  the  cruel  interdict  of  the  Prussian  government  on  the  Kinder- 
garten in  1851,  and  at  an  earlier  date  in  his  Education  of  Man,  had 
pointed  to  German  emigration  to  America  as  the  means  of  spread- 
ing sound  principles  of  human  culture  over  a  Continent. 

In  1870  Miss  Boelte's  attention  had  been  attracted  to  an  article 
by  Frau  Lindner  of  Berlin,  in  the  "  Cornelia,"  a  magazine  for  home 
education,  on  FroebeFs  Method  of  Education  in  America,  based  on 
the  report  of  Gen.  Eaton,  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation, for  that  year.  In  that  Report  reference  was  made  to  a  volu- 
minous paper  prepared  in  the  office  by  one  of  the  Commissioner's 
assistants,  which  included  "  an  exhaustive  history  of  the  rise  and 
progress  of  Kindergartens."  That  paper  was  prepared  by  Mr. 
John  Kraus,  at  the  request  of  Dr.  Barnard,  the  first  Commissioner 
of  Education,  in  1868,  to  strengthen  the  positions  and  recommenda- 
tions of  his  Special  Report  on  Public  Instruction  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  In  that  report  the  Kindergarten,  the  connecting  link 
between  the  home  and  the  school,  as  continuing  the  work  of  nurture 
and  development,  and  beginning  the  work  of  instruction  on  the  act- 
ual inspection  and  perception  of  real  objects,  was  made  the  basis  of 
a  system  of  public  instruction  for  the  District.  Mr.  Kraus  inquiries 
covered  the  whole  field  of  early  training,  the  Infant  School, 
the  supplementary  agencies  for  orphan  and  neglected  children, 
and  particularly,  all  institutions  based  on  the  views  of  Pea- 
talozai,  Diesterweg,  and  Froebel.  Of  this  disciple  of  the  Diesterweg- 
Pestalozzian  School  we  hope  to  give  an  account  in  a  future  journal 

Out  of  that  article  in  the  'Cornelia*  sprang  a  correspondence  in 
which  the  hearts,  as  well  as  the  heads  of  two  persons  became  so 
deeply  interested,  that  the  upshot  of  the  whole  matter  was  the  estab- 
lishment, in  the  city  of  New  York,  in  1873,  of  the  Normal  Train- 
ing Kindergarten,  and  its  associated  model  classes,  of  which  we 
shall  proceed  to  give  an  account.  In  the  developement  of  this 
veritable  Froebelian  Institute,  Prof.  Kraus,  and  Mrs.  Kraus-Boelte 
have  worked  in  full  accord,  against  difficulties  and  hindrances 
which  would  have  appalled  spirits  less  determined,  and  against  the 
strongest  temptations  to  lower  the  standard  of  qualifications  in  natural 
endowments  and  special  knowledge  for  all  candidates  for  their 
diplomas. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  Model  Kindergarten,  which  constitutes  the  germ  and  the  basis 
of  the  Normal  Seminary  for  the  training  of  Kindergartnere,  conducted 
by  Prof.  John  Kraus  and  Mrs.  Maria  Kraus  Boclte,  at  7  East  Twenty- 
second  Street,  New  York  City,  was  opened  in  October,  1872.  At  thte 
same  time  Mrs.  Kraus  (Maria  Boelte)  invited  the  mothers  of  the  chil- 
dren to  a  conference,  in  which  she  explained  the  principles  and  meth- 
ods of  the  Kindergarten,  and  pointed  out  the  ways  in  which  they  could 
apply  the  same  principles  in  the  nursery,  and  co-operate  with  her  in 
their  own  homes  and  with  each  other,  to  realize  the  best  results  of 
child  culture.  Similar  conferences  were  subsequently  held,  and  con- 
stitute now  a  feature  of  the  institution  known  as  the  Mothers?  Class. 

As  the  children  of  the  Kindergarten  were  of  different  ages  (from 
three  to  seven  years)  and  in  different  stages  of  development,  they  were, 
from  the  first,  grouped  in  several  divisions;  and,  as  the  same  causes 
continue  to  operate,  there  are  now  three  recognized  divisions — groups 
with  material  and  occupation  suitable  to  each.  As  the  older  children 
passed  out  of  the  Kindergarten  age  and  its  appropriate  treatment,  the  in* 
tuition al  instruction  which  belongs  to  the  elementary  school  was  intro- 
duced, and,  by  degrees,  the  two  additional  groups — the  Intermediate 
Class,  and  Elementary  Class — were  formed,  and  now  constitute  inte- 
gral parts  of  the  Seminary,  which  includes  children  from  the  age  of 
three  (and  a  few  even  younger,  the  babies  of  the  house)  to  ten  years.  It 
has  been  the  wish  of  the  founders  to  give  to  these  advanced  classes  the 
special  character  of  the  School  Garden,  as  developed  by  Dr.  Schwab. 

From  the  start,  the  training  of  women  for  Kindergarten  work  as 
teachers,  mothers,  and  nurses,  has  been  the  chief  aim  of  the  founders. 
A  Training  CV<y*»  for  Kindergartners  was  opened  in  1873,  and  has  been 
maintained  in  great  efficiency  through  each  year  since.  In  1880  a  class 
for  Nurses  was  announced;  so  that  at  this  date  we  have  in  New  York 
the  facilities  of  the  best  Kindergarten  work  in  all  stages  of  the  child's 
development,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  preparation  and  demonstration 
of  school  instruction  in  harmony  with  the  same. 

The  Normal  Kindergarten. 

No  Normal  School  can  do  even  moderately  good  work  in  its  legitimate 
sphere,  and  especially  in  training  its  pupils  in  methods  of  primary 
teaching,  unless  it  has  a  well  organized  model  school  of  several  classes 


552  NEW    YORK    NORMAL    KINDERGARTEN. 

in  immediate  connection,  and  entirely  under  control  of  the  normal 
director.  Without  such  model  classes  it  is  difficult  to  see  any  reason 
why  normal  schools  should  exist.  They  should  be  professional  or 
nothing;  and  they  cannot  be  professional  in  any  fair  sense  or  measure 
unless  they  have  such  means  of  giving  the  best  facilities  for  illustra- 
tion and  practice  of  the  principles  taught. 

What  is  said  here  about  Normal  Schools  in  general  with  Model 
Schools,  may  just  as  well  be  applied  to  a  Training  School  for  Kinder- 
gartens in  connection  with  the  Model  Kindergarten.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  broad  difference  between  the  Kindergarten  and  the  School ;  for 
each  has  a  different  aim,  and  is  conducted  according  to  different 
methods.  Thoughtful  parents  are  sufficiently  aware,  how  detrimental 
premature  schooling  is  to  the  sound  development  of  body  and  mind ; 
how  it  destroys  all  the  freshness  and  pleasure  of  learning.  The  health- 
ier the  child  is,  the  more  its  life  manifests  itself  in  untiring  activity. 
Play  is  the  child's  natural,  earnest  existence  ;  in  play  it  develops  best 
fend  most  naturally  all  the  powers  of  body  and  mind.  All  the  positive 
result  that  can  be  expected  from  the  Kindergarten  is  "play."  In  a 
true,  genuine  Kindergarten  we  have  demonstration,  that  children,  in 
their  earliest  plays  can  be  guided  into  order  which  shall  be  cultivating 
to  their  whole  nature,  intellectual  and  moral  as  well  as  physical. 
Thus  the  child  early  learns  and  improves  among  its  companions.  The 
desire  to  imitate,  this  useful  element  in  the  child's  constitution,  finds 
ample  scope  in  the  Kindergarten,  and  is  called  into  exercise  without 
over-straining  or  fatiguing  the  faculties.  The  true  Kindergarten  renders 
helps  at  the  right  time,  and  at  the  light  point  in  the  child's  nurture. 
It  proposes  formation  instead  of  reformation,  prevention  instead  of 
cure.  It  utilizes  human  energies,  instead  of  crushing  them;  it  induces 
activity,  instead  of  restraining  it.  It  develops  order,  instead  of  forc- 
ing it.  It  creates  appetite,  instead  of  cramming  it.  It  works  in  harmony 
with  nature's  laws,  instead  of  antagonizing  them. 

The  Model  Kindergarten  and  Classes. 

The  Kindergarten  proper  comprises  three  divisions,  and  the  elemen- 
tary department  three  classes,  arranged  according  to  the  ages  of  the 
children,  as  follows: — 

Kindergarten,  III.  Division,  for  children  from  three  to  four  years  old. 

Kindergarten,  II.  Division,  for  children  from  four  to  five  years  old. 

Kindergarten,  I.  Division,  for  children  from  five  to  seven  years  old. 

Intermediate  Class,  for  children  from  six  to  seven  years  old. 

Advanced  Class,  for  children  from  seven  to  eight  years  old. 

Elementary  Class,  for  children  from  eight  to  ten  years  old. 

The  children  of  the  intermediate  and  advanced  classes,  almost  with 
out  exception,  have  gone  through  a  regular  course  in  the  Kindergarten. 
There  are,  in  fact,  children  in  the  advanced  and  elementary  classes 
Who  entered  the  Kindergarten  four,  five,  and  six  years  ago. 


NEW    YORK    NORMAL    KINDERGARTEN.  553 

There  is  unity  in  the  plan  upon  which  the  education  during  those 
seven  years  is  conducted  in  this  institute.  At  three,  a  child  enters 
the  lowest  division,  a  few  even  before  that  age.  Here  the  work  of  the 
Kindergarten  i«  more  that  of  a  mother,  with  all  the  freedom  of  the 
nursery.  The  very  best  Kindergarten  is  the  home,  with  the  mother 
at  the  head,  first  properly  trained  for  her  task.  "Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kraus' 
Kindergarten  is,  indeed,  a  glorified  nursery,  introducing  the  children 
into  wider  companionship  and  more  artistic  play  than  the  mother's 
nursery  can  do,  or  should  try  to  do,  even  when  that  is  the  best.  It  is 
the  next  stage  of  the  child's  education,  whose  necessity  is  indicated 
by  its  desire  when  it  is  about  three  years  old,  to  break  out  of  that 
sacred  precinct,  and  find  more  and  varied  objects." 

In  the  room  occupied  by  the  first  and  second  divisions,  stand  a  num- 
ber of  tables,  cane  chairs  and  benches  in  height  befitting  the  little 
people  for  whom  they  are  destined. 

The  smallest  children  are  also  from  time  to  time  happily  engaged  in 
playing  with  heaps  of  sand  on  large  tin  trays — just  as  children  play 
at  the  sea-side,  scooping  it  out,  making  mounds,  with  trenches  round 
them,  etc.  These  sand -heaps  afford  an  immense  amount  of  innocent 
amusement,  not  altogether  unaccompanied  with  instruction.  Altogether 
it  gives  full  swing  to  the  little  ones  to  live  out  the  inborn  instinct  of 
u  digging  in  the  ground."  Sometimes  u  make-believe  gardens  "  are 
laid  out  with  cut  flowers,  leaves,  branches,  the  flower-beds  being 
trimmed  around  with  shells  or  pebbles.  Mountains  and  ponds  are 
made;  the  latter  are  enlivened  with  toy-fishes,  ducks,  and  boats. 
Seeds  are  also  sown  in  boxes  filled  with  earth,  and  tended  until  grow- 
ing into  plants;  birds,  fishes,  and  other  pets  are  taken  care  of.  Pic- 
tures, songs,  conversations  and  games  lead  the  children  to  a  further 
acquaintance  with  nature.  By  means  of  seeds,  straws,  papers,  balls, 
blocks,  and  other  material  they  become  acquainted  with  number,  form, 
color  and  size. 

The  large  hall,  which  serves  also  for  a  play-room,  is  the  work-room 
of  Division  I.  of  the  Kindergarten  and  Division  III.  of  the  Elementary 
Class,  consisting  of  children  between  five  and  seven  years  old.  The 
plants,  as  well  as  the  cabinet  filled  with  natural  objects,  show  that 
here  the  children  are  made  still  more  acquainted  with  nature;  and  the 
occupations  and  gifts  decorating  the  walls,  not  only  indicate  the  pro- 
gress of  each  occupation,  but  give  an  illustration  of  the  entire  method. 
Each  child  has  for  itself  flowers  and  vegetables  to  tend,  growing  in 
flower-pots  or  boxes.  The  children  have  in  common  a  garden-plot. 
In  the  cabinet  are  found  over  eighty  different  kinds  of  wood ;  as  well 
as  a  great  variety  of  seeds,  grains,  bulbs,  stones,  shells,  insects,  eggs, 
feathers,  birds'  nests,  and  other  real  objects. 

The  square  net-work  which  is  found  on  all  the  tables  and  black- 
boards  in  this  department  is  of  particular  importance,  and  necessary 
for  the  more  advanced  and  sometimes  quite  complicated  forms  of  the 


554  NEW    YORK    NORMAL    KINDERGARTEN. 

gifts  which  are  here  carried  out;  here,  also  the  occupations  are  much 
developed,  demanding  at  ihis  stage  greater  exactness.  Among  these 
we  tind  paper-intertwining,  paper-cutting  and  mounting,  as  geometrical 
exercises;  also  free-cutting,  and  pea-work,  which  is  so  important  for 
the  knowledge  of  forms,  and  particularly  instructive  for  the  conditions 
of  the  axis  of  the  geometrical  figures;  and  clay-work,  the  fore-runner 
of  future  modeling;  also  double-weaving  and  paper-folding  of  the 
triangular,  hexagonal,  and  circular  forms. 

The  multiplicity  of  color  in  this  department  strikes  the  eye  at  once. 
The  large  safe  contains  many  specimens  of  the  children's  work,  which, 
as  model-forms,  are  the  ornament  of  every  Kindergarten.  These  serve 
also  to  preserve  some  of  the  early  indications  of  aptitude  for  future 
occupations — the  hatter,  cobler,  potterer,  architect,  sculptor,  etc.  The 
leaves  worked  in  clay  disclose  many  practical  lessons  in  botany. 

It  is  evident  that  in  this  room  the  real  life  of  the  Kindergarten  is 
concentrated ;  here  everything  assists  to  produce  the  best  work.  Here 
all  the  children  assemble  in  the  morning  for  the  opening  exercises, 
which  consist  of  a  childlike  prayer  and  morning  song,  here  the  chil- 
dren listen  to  the  story,  or  join  in  the  conversation,  which  uncon- 
sciously trains  them  to  habits  of  correct  expression  among  themselves. 

Division  III.  of  the  Elementary  Class  separates  from  the  other 
children  for  about  forty  minutes  in  the  morning,  in  order  to  become 
initiated,  according  to  the  natural  method,  in  the  rudiments  of  read- 
ing and  writing.  The  children  of  this  room  take  conjointly  the 
arithmetic  lesson,  given  with  blocks,  sticks,  and  other  objects.  The 
luncheon  is  a  feature  turned  into  a  means  of  training  in  social  and 
personal  habits.  The  birthdays  of  the  children,  as  they  occur,  are 
each  celebrated  by  special  work  and  play;  and  the  children  are  led  to 
please  their  friends  by  the  product  of  their  own  industry. 

Christmas,  Valentine's  day,  Washington's  birthday,  April-fool's  day, 
Easter,  Froebel's  birthday,  and  the  1st  of  May  are  celebrated  each  in  its 
own  characteristic  way.  The  poor  are  specially  remembered  by  various 
gifts,  particularly  on  Christmas.  One  of  the  Christmas  festivals  is 
thus  described  by  a  correspondent  of  The  World: 

"  One  of  the  most  charming  school  reunions  of  the  season  was  the  Christ- 
mas celebration  in  the  Model  Kindergarten  of  Professor  and  Mrs.  Kraus 
in  New  York.  .  .  Throe  large  Christmas  trees  were  filled  with  the 
piesents  made  by  the  children  for  their  parents  and  friends,  whom  they 
rial  invited  themselves.  These  are  two  marked  features  of  the  fine  Kin- 
dergarien  festival  of  Christmas,  viz. :  It  is  a  feast  that  the  children  pre- 
pare for  their  parents,  and  in  which  they  are  reminded  not  to  forget  the 
poor.  One  tree  was  ornamented  with  presents  for  the  children  in  the 
Home  of  the  Friendless.  *  * 

"  One  of  the  Christmas  trees  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  cheerful  room  of 
the  Kindergarten,  which  was  ornamented  for  the  occasion  with  wreaths 
anJ  flowers.  The  children,  from  sixty  to  seventy  in  number,  had  been 
entertained  on  the  second  floor  with  stories  until  the  appointed  hour, 
eleven  o'clock.  They  then  marched  hand  in  hand,  keeping  tune  to  music. 
After  a  short  childlike  prayer,  some  Christmas  and  social  songs  were  sun#> 


NEW    YORK    KORMAL    KINDERGARTEN.  555 

amongst  others  '  0  how  lovely  are  the  ties,'  '  Tender  is  the  meeting,'  etc., 
accompanied  on  the  piano.  Then  followed  gymnastic  exercises  under  the 
guise  of  play.  Several  movement  games  followed,  representing  different 
trades  and  occupations;  the  words  accompanying  these  games  were  sung 
alternately  in  English,  French,  and  German.  A  so-called  'quiet  game' 
followed,  which  teaches  the  children  to  control  themselves,  and  trains  them 
unconsciously  to  politeness,  while  Professor  Kraus  played  very  sweet  chords 
pianissimo  on  the  piano,  and  then  invited  the  children  as  well  as  the  ladies 
of  the  training  class  around  the  piano  for  another  Christmas  song,  viz. : 
'Silent  Night,  Holy  Night.'  Then  the  children  distributed  the  presents 
from  the  Christmas  tree  to  their  parents  and  friends.  Once  more  a  circle 
was  formed,  a  song  followed,  and  the  last  tree  was  given  up  to  the  children. 
The  festival  closed  with  a  hearty  good-by  song." 

It  is  seldom  that  an  institute  will  be  found  where  the  beneficial  in- 
fluence upon  the  children,  of  female  and  male  co-operation,  is  more  felt 
than  in  this  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kraus.  Their  congeniality,  their  perfect 
sympathy  and  harmony  is  felt  everywhere;  and  this  feature  also  char- 
acterizes their  "Kindergarten  Guide."  Everything  is  not  only  seen 
through  female,  but  also  through  male  lenses,  in  an  educational  point 
of  view.  In  this  connection  we  may  cite  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  John 
Kraus  to  Miss  Pcabody  in  the  Kindergarten  Messenger  of  April,  1874: 

"  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  I  think  it  a  great  mistake  that  men  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  early  education  in  this  country.  In  Europe  it  has  become 
an  acknowledged  fact  that  Kindergartens  become  only  a  success,  when 
men  and  women  work  together.  And  why  not?  '  It  is  not  good  for  man 
to  be  alone,'  said  the  Creator,  and  gave  to  man  and  woman  a  joint  domin- 
ion over  the  earth.  Why  should  not  these  natural,  heaven-appointed  allies 
work  together  in  the  Paradise  of  Childhood?  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel  have 
set  an  example  for  all  times  to  come  in  that  direction."  .  . 

Intermediate  and  Elementary  Class. 

The  ornamentation  and  furniture  of  the  room  of  the  first  and  second 
elementary  divisions  show  that  the  method  is  continued  and  extended. 
Desks  and  tables  adapted  to  other  kinds  of  work,  maps,  globes,  cards 
representing  animals,  birds  and  plants,  and  other  natural  objects, 
attract  attention.  The  manner  of  employing  certain  gifts,  and  the 
extension  and  continuation  of  various  occupations,  are  soon  recognized 
by  the  experienced  eye.  The  paper  square,  for  instance,  is  used  in 
folding  for  practical  instruction  in  geometry.  The  forms  of  bodies 
are  represented  in  outline  by  peas  and  sticks,  and  the  bodies  by  clay 
and  wax.  It  gives  pleasure  to  the  children,  after  preliminary  conver- 
sation on  the  single  objects,  to  produce  them  alone  by  the  help  of  the 
various  material,  and  the  usefulness  of  so  doing  is  obvious;  for  not 
only  do  forms  and  parts  impress  themselves  more  distinctly,  but  the 
relations  of  color  become  clearer.  Tims  the  varying  occupations  assist 
and  heighten  the  conception. 

Natural  history— animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral,  is  also  here  con- 
tinued and  extended.  Pictures,  models,  or  living  types  are  presented 
to  the  pupils;  the  forms,  magnified,  are  illustrated  on  the  blackboard, 
and  copied  by  the  pupils  on  slates  and  paper.  The  growth  and  de- 


556  NEW    YORK    NORMAL    KINDERGARTEN. 

velopment  of  shells  give  the  starting-point.  The  attention  is  constantly 
attracted  to  the  gradual  transformations  of  all  that  is  observed  in 
nature,  as  in  the  fly,  the  silk-worm,  wasp,  mosquito,  grasshopper, 
spider,  tadpole,  and  other  living  things.  Attention  is  also  called  to 
domestic  animals,  the  cat  and  the  dog;  to  mushrooms  and  the  fungus; 
to  roots  in  general,  and  in  particular  to  such  as  serve  for  food ;  to 
vegetables  and  fruit,  the  people  and  their  customs,  and  birds  of  various 
plumage  and  habits  in  different  countries. 

The  earth  from  which  the  plant  derives  its  nourishment  becomes 
also  an  object  of  interest;  the  difference  of  the  common  garden- 
ground,  the  clay,  chalk,  and  sand,  is  observed,  and  what  use  is  made 
of  clay  for  earthenware  and  china.  Glass-making  becomes  of  interest. 
Many  things  are  told  of  the  city  they  live  in:  of  the  gas,  calcium,  and 
electric  light — the  substitute  for  daylight;  of  the  furnace,  and  how  it 
warms  the  rooms.  The  dew  and  rain-drop,  hail,  snow-flakes,  frost 
and  ice,  all  become  attractive.  Flowers,  plants  in  general,  and  their 
leaves  in  particular,  are  studied,  stimulating  the  children  to  make  col- 
lections. These  objects  are  not  only  talked  about,  shown,  illustrated, 
drawn  by  the  children,  but,  in  many  cases,  reproduced  in  clay,  winch 
assists  in  making  the  ideas  received  better  understood.  A  certain 
classification,  which  the  children  are  held  to  carry  out  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  simplest  gifts  and  occupations  in  the  Kindergarten,  is 
thus  continued  and  extended. 

The  furniture  of  the  schoolroom  leads  them  to  a  knowledge  of  wood 
and  trees.  They  learn  about  slates  and  their  manufacture,  the  mate- 
rial of  paper  and  paper-making,  about  the  rubber,  and  sponge,  and 
similar  articles  of  daily  use.  The  children  also  are  told  of  great  and 
good  men,  whose  names  are  associated  with  their  work.  Not  a  few 
historical  and  geographical  facts  are  closely  connected  with  the  chil- 
dren's own  experience.  All  the  above-mentioned  subjects  assist  and 
serve  to  initiate  and  perfect  the  children  of  this  class  in  the  rudiments 
of  all  knowledge.  Drawing  is  thus  made  the  first  prerequisite  and 
preparation  for  writing.  The  method  of  the  Kindergarten  is  contin- 
ued here,  leading  the  child  to  mathematical  drawing  in  the  composi- 
tion of  the  straight  lines.  The  connection  of  all  kinds  of  slanting 
lines,  passing  from  the  corners  of  a  square  standing  "corneiwise," 
always  two  and  two  lines  of  the  same  kind,  one  in  the  horizontal  the 
other  in  the  vertical  direction,  from  without  and  within,  give,  in  the 
point  they  traverse  each  other,  a  polygon  which  forms  the  intermedia- 
tion to  the  circle.  By  further  logical  process  a  series  of  drawing  is 
carried  out  in  the  circular  lines.  This  kind  of  drawing  is  alternated 
with  so-called  "  inventive  drawing,"  consisting  of  a  certain  combina- 
tion of  straight  or  circular  lines,  either  symmetrical  or  representing 
objects,  carried  out  according  to  the  child's  own  idea. 

Of  course,  the  members  of  the  intermediate  &nd  elementary  classes, 
have  gone,  almost  without  exception,  through  the  regular  course  in 


NEW    YORK    NORMAL    KINDERGARTEN.  557 

the  Kindergarten.  Thus,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kraus  are  able  to  show  how 
Froebel  intended  to  continue  the  system  of  educational  development 
after  the  Kindergarten, — whose  aim  is  to  enlarge  the  home-education 
of  children  between  three  and  seven  years  of  age,  before  the  time 
when  they  are  due  at  the  school,— with  the  same  material  and  the 
same  unsthod  in  extension.* 

Ti  a  ining  Glass. 

The  instruction  given  to  the  Training  Class  begins  in  October, 
and  ends  in  June  following — embracing  at  least  five  lessons  per  week, 
besides  the  actual  practice  in  the  Kindergarten,  for  all  the  working 
portions  of  one  year. 

The  qualities  and  qualifications  looked  for  in  candidates  for  the 
diploma  of  this  class  are  : 

1.  A  quick  and  responsive  sympathy  with  children— a  real,  genuine 
sympathy,  and  not  simulated. 

2.  A   child   and   motherly  heart— something   which  inspires  the 
feeling  of  sister  and  mother  for  children,   and  makes  them  happy  in 
their  company,  and  gives  a  clear  insight  into  child  nature  and  life  up 
to  the  seventh  year. 

3.  An  exact  knowledge  and  spiritual  comprehension  united  with 
dextrous  handling  of  the  Kindergarten  material. 

4.  Sufficient  musical  knowledge  and  vocal  ability  to  sing  well  the 
little  songs  and  guide  the  plays. 

'5.  A    cheerful  humor,     that    can    easily   enter    into    the     child's 

*  Mr.  J.  Krans  has  already  shown,  some  years  ago,  how  uie  Kindergarten  is  to  be  finally 
developed  in  the  school-garden,  in  accordance  with  the  ideas  of  Dr.  Erasmus  Schwab,  at 
Vienna,  who  says  in  regard  to  this  subject  :  "  For  more  than  a  century,  thinking  ped- 
agogues have  l>een  seeking  to  embody  the  thought  of  the  school-garden  in  some  practica- 
ble method.  It  was  lying  near,  and  is  simple  in  itself  ;  but  they  did  not  succeed  in  find- 
ing a  practical  form  for  it.  ...  A  hundred  years  hence  it  will  seem  inexplicable  that 
for  centuries  there  could  exist  among  cultured  nations  public  schools  without  school-gar- 
dens, and  that  in  the  nineteenth  century,  communities  and  nations  in  generous  emulation 
could  furnish  the  schools  with  all  things  dictated  by  common-sense,  and  profit,  and  care, 
except,  in  thousands  of  cases,  an  educational  medium  that  should  suggest  itsejf  to  the 
mind  of  even  the  common  man.  Surely,  before  fifty  years  shall  have  passed,  the  school- 
garden  will  receive  the  consideration  it  deserves,  as  surely  as  drawing,  gymnastics  and  tech- 
nical instruction  for  girls— whose  obligatory  introduction  was  deemed  impossible  forty 
years  ago — have  found  a  place  in  our  schools.  The  school-garden  will  exert  a  powerful 
influence  upon  the  heart  of  the  child,  <md  upon  his  character  ;  it  will  plant  in  the  children 
the  love  of  nature,  inculcate  the  love  of  work,  a  generous  regard  for  others,  and  a  whole- 
some aesthetic  sense.1' 

In  regard  to  the  Organic  Link  between,  Kindergarten  and  School,  Mr  Kraus  said,  in  the 
discussion  on  the  report  of  the  committee  appointed  at  the  meeting  in  Boston,  in  1872,  to 
inquire  into  the  form  in  which  Froebel's  principles  maybe  most  efficiently  applied  to  the 
educational  wants  of  the  country  pp.  5;37-41  of  the  Addresses  and  Journal  of  Proceed- 
ings of  the  National  Educational  Association  Session,  of  the  year  1873,  at  Elmira,  New 
York]  :  "  Kindergarten  education  w.ll  have  its  fine  success  only  then,  when  the  organic 
jink  between  it  and  the  school  is  ere  ited  ;  such  a  link  will  bring  great  advantage  to  the 
school,  because  the  Kindergarten  itself  gives  security  for  an  all-sided,  natural  training. 
The  school  must  not  be  a  Kindergarten,  and  the  Kindergarten  not  a  school." 


553  NEW    YORK    NORMAL    KINDERGARTEN. 

plays,  and   is  not  easily  disturbed   by  occasional  frowardness,  or  real 
shyness. 

The  object  of  the  course  is  to  give  the  members  of  the  class  a  clear 
conception  of  Froebel's  pedagogic  aim  in  his  several  gifts  and  occupa- 
tions, and  to  show  the  deep  significance  of  the  child's  natural  play, 
and  breathe  a  true  spirit  into  employments  which  become  otherwise 
incomprehensible  mechanism.  The  characteristic  of  Froebel's  method 
of  occupying  children  to  their  own  development,  lies  in  permitting 
them  unconsciously  to  bring  forth  a  product  by  their  own  feeble  efforts, 
and  thus  awaken  and  develop  the  germs  of  the  creative  spirit  to 
produce  individual  work,  and  not  mere  imitation. 

To  secure  a  real  fusion  of  learning,  work,  and  play,  the  objects 
are  not  all  ready  made,  and  enough  only  is  said  or  done,  so  as  to  invitf 
some  independent  mental  or  muscular  energy  upon  the  material.  Chil- 
dren's activity  must  be  encouraged,  and  only  so  far  directed,  so  as  to  be 
saved  from  destructiveness,  and  prevented  from  exhausting  itself  into 
languor  and  thoughtlessness.  The  danger  of  the  occupations  of  chil- 
dren degenerating  into  mere  imitation  and  mechanical  routine,  must 
be  obviated,  by  leaving  ample  scope  for  exciting  and  employing  the 
imagination  and  invention,  in  their  own  combination  of  the  mate- 
rial. 

Too  much  is  done  in  our  American  Kindergartens,  and  the  same 
defect  is  noticed  in  most  European  institutions,  with  perfected  pat- 
terns and  elaborated  materials  ;  and  great  efforts  are  made  in  this 
Training  Class  to  teach  its  members  how  to  vary  the  exercises,  encour- 
age children  to  devise  patterns,  and  use,  modify,  and  make  up  the 
material  for  themselves,  each  in  his  own  way.  In  their  published 
circular  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kraus  say  : 

"  It  cannot  too  often  be  repeated  that  the  significance  of  Froebel's  system 
consists  in  so  arranging  the  gifts  and  occupations  as  to  encourage  and 
enable  the  child  to  transform  and  recombine  the  material,  and  thus 
strengthen  by  exercise  his  bodily  and  mental  faculties.  Individuality  is 
thus  developed.  Froebel  gives  explanations  how  to  conduct  their  games  : 
to  know  them  all  is  quite  a  study  ;  to  apply  them  wel],  an  art  ;  to  under- 
stand their  full  significance,  a  science.  No  one  can  master  all  these  details 
without  deep  study,  much  observation,  and  thoughtful  practice.  And 
when  mastered,  the  Kindergartner  deserves  a  rank  and  remuneration  not 
now  accorded  to  her." 

Nearly  two  hundred  ladies  have  availed  themselves  of  the  oppor- 
tunities in  training  which  this  Seminary  has  offered,  and  hold  its 
diploma.  Many  of  them  are  now  teachers  of  the  Kindergarten  method 
in  several  Normal  Schools,  Principals  of  Ladies  High  Schools,  con- 
ductors of  independent  Kindergartens  in  some  of  our  chief  cities, 
ladies  of  education  from  different  parts  of  the  country,  with  their 
daughters  for  their  own  personal  culture,  sisters  of  charity  and  other 
devoted  women,  to  qualify  themselves  to  conduct  asylums,  and  infant 
schools  for  neglected  children. 


BOSTON  KINDERGAKTEN  TRAINING  CLASS. 


HISTORICAL    NOTES. 

The  Boston  Kindergarten  Training  Class  at  52  Chestnut  street, 
wa<  opened  in  1868  by  Madame  Kriege  and  her  daughter.  Miss 
Kriege  was  prepared  for  her  work  in  Germany  by  the  Baroness 
Marenholz-Biilow,  and  taught  succes>fully  in  New  Yo-k  on  her  first 
arrival  in  America.  For  four  years  these  ladies  worked  faithfully 
in  Kindergarten  and  Normal  Class,  meeting  many  discouragements, 
and  overcoming  many  obstacles ;  they  sowed  good  seed  that  is  bear- 
ing fruit  now. 

On  their  return  to  Germany  in  1872  a  gradmte  of  theirs  took  up 
the  work  in  Boston.  Miss  Garland  had  had  long  experience  in 
teaching,  and  found  in  this  new  way  of  educating  young  children  an 
embodiment  of  many  of  her  own  conceptions,  and  the  perfecting  of 
me  hods  she  had  been  groping  for.  Her  work  began  with  two  chil: 
dren,  and  the  number  during  the  first  year  was  but  eight. 

It  became  necessary  to  form  a  Normal  Class,  and  among  the 
pupils  was  Miss  R.  J.  Weston,  who  had  taught  very  successfully  for 
many  years  in  the  Primary  Schools  of  Boston,  and  had  always 
leavened  the  public  school  methods  with  the  Kindergarten  spirit. 
After  her  graduation,  in  the  autumn  of  1873,  Mis*  Weston  as^ocia- 
ted  herself  with  Miss  Garland  in  the  charge  of  the  Kindergarten 
and  Normal  Classes,  taking  also  the  special  care  of  the  Advanced 
Kindergarten  class  formed  that  year.  Since  then  the  work  has 
made  steady  progress,  and  the  whole  number  of  pupils  for  the  last 
three  years  has  been  abcut  fifty. 

The  Kindergarten. 

The  Kindergarten  proper  includes  two  divisions;  the  youngest 
children,  usually  three  and  four  years  of  ag^,  chiefly  under  Miss 
Garland's  care ;  the  next  division,  including  children  in  their  second 
Kindergarten  year,  and  from  five  to  a  little  over  six  years  of  age, 
under  the  care  of  an  assistant.  The  Intermediate  or  "  Connecting 
Class,"  in  which  writing,  reading,  and  written  arithmetic  are  begun 
while  one  period  is  still  devoted  to  Kindergarten  work,  is  mainly 
under  Miss  Weston's  direction.  The  children  in  this  class  are  over 
six  years  of  age. 


560  BOSTON  KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING  CLASS. 

Advanced  Class. 

In  the  advanced  class  the  elementary  studies  are  carried  on,  and 
here  the  children's  powers  of  observation,  thought,  and  expression 
developed  in  the  Kindergarten  are  further  strengthened  and  exer- 
cised by  lessons  in  natural  science;  knowing  through  doing  not 
being  laid  aside  in  any  of  the  classes.  Children  thus  far  have  been 
members  of  this  class  to  the  age  of  twelve.  An  effort  is  made  to 
preserve  unity  throughout  the  work,  and  in  all  grades  to  work  for 
the  development  of  the  three-fold  nature.  In  some  general  exer- 
cises, as  in  the  daily  gymnastics,  and  occasionally  in  games,  all  the 
children  in  the  building  are  brought  together. 

Normal  Class. 

The  normal  class  is  usually  limited  to  twenty  ladies ;  these  are 
chosen  from  among  all  applicants,  according  to  natural  ability  and 
educational  fitness,  determined  by  certain  informal  examinations  or 
tests.  The  pupils  are  required  to  devote  seven  months  to  the  study, 
spending  four  afternoons  each  week  in  class  work  and  an  average 
of  two  forenoons  in  thp  Kindergarten  department,  as  well  as  a  num- 
ber of  weeks  in  the  free  Kindergartens  of  the  city.  The  course  of 
study  includes,  besides  the  distinctive  theory  and  practice  of  the 
Kindergai ten,  lectures  on  moral  and  religious  culture;  on  hygiene 
and  the  phy.-ical  needs  of  children ;  on  music  in  its  application  to 
the  Kindergarten ;  and  lessons  in  modelling  and  free  hand  drawing* 

At  the  end  of  their  course  the  students  receive  certificates,  if 
their  course  has  been  satisfactory,  signifying  approval  of  their  work 
during  the  time ;  a  blank  is  left  to  be  filled  in  after  a  year  or  more 
of  service  if  they  prove  themselves  competent  as  Kindergartners. 

Conferences  of  Kinderyartners. 

Once  a  month  a  meeting  of  all  the  Kindergartners  of  Boston  and 
its  vicinity  is  held.  It  has  grown  from  a  very  small  beginning  to 
quite  large  proportions,  its  list  numbering  more  than  eighty  names. 

The  subjects  discussed  are  those  that  have  practical  value  in  the 
work  of  the  teachers,  as :  "  How  can  we  best  cultivate  moral  inde- 
pendence in  children?"  "  How  preserve  the  balance  between  spon- 
taneous self-activity  and  due  regard  for  the  rights  of  others?" 

Difficulties  encountered  during  the  month  in  the  guidance  of  the 
children  or  in  the  application  of  Kindergarten  principles  to  work  or 
play,  are  brought  before  these  meetings,  and  the  reflex  influence  of 
the  discussion  has  been  found  of  great  value. 


FROEL'S  PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  LN  THE  NURSERY. 

A  LECTURE  TO  YOUNG  KINDERGARTKERS. 

BY  ELIZABETH  P.   PEABODY. 


HELPLESSNESS  OF    INFANCY. 

By  the  primal  miracle  (i.  e.,  wonder  working)  of  nature,  the  mother 
finds  in  her  arms  a  fellow-being,  who  has  an  immeasurable  susceptibility 
of  suffering,  and  an  immeasurable  desire  of  enjoyment,  and  an  equally 
immeasurable  force  intent  on  compassing  this  desire  already  in  activity, 
but  with  no  knowledge  at  all  of  the  material  conditions  in  which  he  is 
placed,  to  which  he  is  subject,  and  by  which  he  is  limited  in  the  exercise 
of  this  immense  nature. 

Every  form  of  animal  existence  but  the  human  is  endowed  with  some 
absolute  knowledge,  enabling  it  to  fulfill  its  limited  sphere  of  relation- 
ship as  unerringly  as  the  magnetized  needle  turns  to  the  pole,  and  even 
with  more  or  less  enjoyment;  yet  with  no  forethought.  But  the  knowl- 
edge which  is  to  guide  the  blind  will  of  the  human  being,  even  to  escape 
death  in  the  first  hour  of  its  bodily  life,  exists  substantially  outside  of  itself 
in  the  mother,  or  whoever  supplies  the  mother's  place. 

And  throughout  the  existence  of  the  human  being,  the  forethought  that 
is  to  enable  him  to  appreciate  his  ever-multiplying  relations  with  his  own 
kind,  and  which  grows  wider  and  sweeter  as  he  fulfills  the  duties  they 
involve,  is  essentially  outside  of  himself  as  a  mere  individual ;  being  found 
first  in  those  who  are  in  relation  with  him  in  the  family,  afterwards  in 
social,  national,  cosmopolitan  relationship;  till  at  last  he  realizes  himself  to 
be  in  sonship  with  God,  in  whom  all  humanity,  nations,  families,  individ- 
uals, "live  and  move  and  have  their  being."  There  is  no  absolute  isola- 
tion or  independency  possible  for  a  spiritual  being.  This  is  a  truth 
involved  in  the  very  meaning  of  the  word  spirit,  and  revealed  to  every 
family  on  earth,  by  the  ever-recurring  fact  of  the  child  born  into  the  arms 
of  a  love  that  emparadises  both  parties,  on  which  he  lives  more  or  less  a 
pensioner  throughout  his  whole  existence,  so  far  as  he  lives  humanly, 
finding  fullness  of  life  at  last  in  the  clear  vision  and  conscious  communion 
of  an  Infinite  Father,  who  has  been  revealing  Himself  all  along,  in  the 
love  of  parent  and  child,  brother  and  sister,  husband  and  wife,  friend, 
fellow-citizen,  and  fellow-man.  Christ  said,  that  little  children  see  the 
Father  face  to  face,  but  surely  not  with  the  eyes  of  the  body  or  of  the 
understanding!  They  see  Him  with  the  heart.  And  is  it  not  true,  that 
we  never  quite  forget  the  child's  vision  in  turning  our  eyes  on  lower 
things?  for  what  but  remembrance  of  our  Heavenly  Father's  face  is  hope, 
"that  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast"?  What  but  this  remem- 
brance are  the  ideals  of  beauty  that  haunt  the  savage  and  the  sage?  the 
sense  of  law  that  gives  us  our  moral  dignity,  and,  in  the  saddest  case,  what 
but  this  are  the  pangs  of  remorse,  in  which,  as  Emerson  has  sung  in  his 
wonderful  sphinx  song,  "lurks  the  joy  that  is  sweetest"? 

36  (561) 


562 


FRCEBEL  IN  TIIE  NURSERY 


REASONS   FOR  FRO3BEL,'S  AUTHORITY. 

Froebel  has  authority  with  me,  because,  in  this  great  faith,  making 
himself  a  little  child,  he  received  little  children  in  the  name  (that  is,  as 
germinating  forms)  of  the  Divine  humanity,  with  a  simple  sincerity,  such 
as  few  seem  to  have  done  since  Jesus  claimed  little  children  as  the  pure 
elements  of  the  kingdom  he  came  to  establish  on  earth,  and  exhorted 
that,  as  they  were  such,  they  should  be  brought  to  Him  as  the  motherly 
instinct  prompted,  and  declared  that  they  were  not  to  be  forbidden  (that 
is,  hindered  as  all  false  education  hinders). 

Let  us  begin,  then,  with  reverently  considering  the  new-born  child,  as 
Froebel  did;  for  that  is  to  be  "  the  light  of  all  our  seeing." 

A  child  is  a  living  soul,  from  the  very  first ;  not  a  mere  animal  force, 
but  a  person,  open  to  God  on  one  side  by  his  heart,  which  appreciates 
love,  and  on  the  other  side  to  be  opened  to  nature,  by  the  reaction  upon 
his  sensibility  of  those  beauteous  forms  of  things  that  are  the  analysis  of 
God's  creative  wisdom ;  and  which,  therefore,  gives  him  a  growing  under- 
standing, whereby  his  mere  active  force  shall  be  elevated  into  a  rational, 
productive  will.  For  heart  and  will  are,  at  first,  blind  to  outward  things 
and  therefore  inefficient,  until  the  understanding  shall  be  developed 
according  to  the  order  of  nature. 

But  during  this  process  of  its  development,  adult  wisdom  must  supply 
the  place  of  the  child's  wisdom,  which  is  not,  as  yet,  grown;  that  is — an 
educator  must  point  out  the  way,  genially,  not  peremptorily;  for  in 
following  the  educator's  indications,  the  child  must  still  act  in  a  measure 
from  himself.  As  he  is  irrefragably  free,  he  will  not  always  obey ;  he 
will  try  other  paths  —  perhaps  the  contrary  one  —  by  way  of  testing 
whether  he  has  life  in  himself.  But  unless  he  shall  go  a  right  way,  he 
will  accomplish  nothing  satisfactory  and  reproductive;  and  it  is  Frcebel's 
idea  to  give  him  something  to  do,  within  the  possible  sphere  of  his 
affection  and  fancy,  which  shall  be  an  opportunity  of  his  making  an  expe- 
rience of  success,  that  shall  stimulate  him  to  desire,  and  thereby  make 
him  receptive  of  the  guidance  of  creative  law,  which  is  the  only  true- 
object  for  the  obedience  of  a  spiritual  being. 

SENSE   OF   TASTE  AND  HEARING. 

To  the  new-born  child,  his  own  body  is  the  whole  universe ;  and  the 
first  impression  he  gets  of  it  seems  to  come  from  his  need  of  nutriment. 
But  it  is  the  mother,  not  the  child,  that  responds  to  this  want,  by  pre- 
senting food  to  the  organ  of  taste,  and  producing  a  pleasurable  impression 
which  arouses  the  soul  to  intend  itself  into  the  organ,  which  is  developed 
to  receive  impression  more  and  more  perfectly,  by  the  child's  seeking  for 
a  repetition  of  the  pleasure.  For  a  time,  whatever  uneasiness  a  child 
feels,  he  attempts  to  remove  by  the  exercise  of  this  organ,  through  which 
he  has  gained  his  first  pleasant  impression  of  objective  nature.  There- 
fore is  it,  that  his  lips  and  tongue  become  his  first  means  of  examining 
the  outward  world  into  which  he  has  been  projected  by  his  Creator. 

The  ear  seems  to  be  the  next  organ  of  which  the  child  becomes  con- 
scious, or  through  which  he  receives  impressions  of  personal  pleasure  and 
pain;  and  here  it  is  noticeable,  that  rythmical  sound  seems,  from  the  very 
first,  to  give  most  pleasure;  and  is  wonderfully  effective  to  sooth  the 


FRCEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY.  563 

nerves,  and  remove  uneasiness.  All  mothers  and  nurses  sing  to  babies, 
as  well  as  rock  them  (which  is  a  rythmical  motion),  and  this  pleasant 
impression  on  the  ear  diverts  the  child  from  intending  himself  exclu- 
sively into  the  organ  of  tasting.  He  now  stretches  himself  into  his  ears, 
whose  powers  are  developed  by  gently  exercising  their  functions. 

The  child  seems  to  taste  and  hear  before  he  begins  to  see  anything 
more  definite  than  the  difference  between  light  and  darkness.  By  and  by 
a  salient  point  of  light,  it  may  be  the  light  of  a  candle,  catches  and  fixes 
his  eye,  and  gives  a  distinct  visual  impression,  which  is  evidently  pleas- 
urable, for  the  child's  eye  follows  the  light,  showing  that  the  soul  intends 
itself  into  the  organ  of  sight.  Soon  after,  gay  colors  fix  its  gaze  and 
evidently  give  pleasure.  The  eye  for  color  is  developed  gradually,  like 
the  ear  for  music,  by  exercise,  which  being  pleasurable  becomes  spon- 
taneous. 

The  whole  body  is  the  organ  of  touch;  but  as  the  hands  are  made  con- 
venient for  grasping,  to  which  the  infant  has  an  instinctive  tendency,  and 
the  tips  of  the  fingers  are  especially  handy  for  touching,  they  become,  by 
the  intension  of  the  mind  .into  them,  the  special  organ  for  examining 
things  by  touch,  and  getting  impressions  of  qualities  obvious  to  no  other 
sense.  When,  as  it  sometimes  happens,  by  malformation  or  maltreat- 
ment of  them,  the  eyes  fail  to  perform  their  functions,  it  is  wonderful 
how  much  more  the  soul  intends  itself  into  the  special  organs  of  touch, 
developing  them  to  such  a  degree,  that  a  cultivated  blind  person  seems 
almost  to  see  with  the  tips  of  the  fingers.  This  fact  proves  what  I  have 
been  trying  to  impress  on  your  minds,  that  the  soul  which  spontane- 
ously desires  and  wills  enjoyment,  takes  possession  and  becomes  con- 
scious of  its  organs  of  sensuous  perception,  partly  by  an  original  impulse 
given  to  it  by  the  Creator,  and  partly  (which  I  want  you  especially  to 
observe),  by  the  genial,  sympathetic,  intelligent,  careful  co-working  of 
the  mother  and  nurse ;  who,  by  what  we  call  nursery  play,  gives  a  needed 
help  to  the  child  to  accomplish  this  feat  in  a  healthy  and  pleasurable 
manner.  And  we  shall  be  better  convinced  of  the  virtue  of  this  nursery 
play,  if  we  consider  the  case  of  the  neglected  children  of  the  very  poor, 
so  pathetically  described  by  Charles  Lamb. — Popular  Fallacies,  No.  12. 

Madame  Marenholtz-Bulow  has  happily  remarked,  in  her  preface  to 
Jacob's  Manual,  Le  jarden  des  Enfans,  that  "to  develop  and  train  the 
senses  is  not  to  pamper  them."  The  organs  of  tasting  and  smelling  do 
not  require  so  much  exercise  by  the  duplicate  action  of  the  mother  as 
those  of  seeing  and  hearing.  The  former  have  for  their  end  to  build  up 
the  body ;  the  latter  to  lead  the  child's  mind  out  of  the  body  to  that  part 
of  nature  which  connects  him  with  other  persons.  The  functions  of  both 
are  equally  worthy;  but  those  of  the  latter  belong  to  the  child  as  a  social 
and  intellectual  being.  It  is  the  mother's  office  to  temper  the  exercises  of 
each  sense,  so  that  they  may  limit  and  balance  each  other.  And  in  order 
to  limit  those  which  are  building  up  the  body,  so  that  they  shall  not 
absorb  the  child,  the  action  of  the  others  must  be  helped  out.  "Our 
bodies  feel — where'er  they  be — against  or  with  our  will " ;  but  to  see  and 
hear  all  that  children  can,  requires  exertion  of  will  and  this  is  coaxed  out 
by  the  sympathetic  action  of  others.  Yet  the  functions  of  tasting  or 
smelling  are  not  to  be  banned.  The  Creator  has  made  them  delightful: 


564  FR(EBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY. 

and  if  others  do  their  proper  part,  their  exercise  will  never  become  harm- 
ful. To  enjoy  tasting  and  smelling  is  no  less  innocent  than  to  enjoy  see- 
ing and  hearing.  There  is  no  function  of  mind  or  body  but  may  be 
performed  divinely.  Milton  shows  insight  into  this  truth  by  making 
Raphael  sit  and  eat  at  table  with  man  in  Paradise;  and  he  says  some  won- 
derful things  upon  the  point,  which  will  bear  much  study.  And  have  we 
not  in  sacred  tradition  a  symbol,  still  more  venerable,  of  the  truth,  that 
the  fire  of  spirit  burns  without  consuming,  and  may  transform  the  body 
without  leaving  visible  residue?  There  are  in  Brown's  philosophy  (which 
does  not  penetrate  into  all  the  mysteries  of  the  rational  soul  and  immortal 
spirit)  some  very  instructive  chapters  on  the  social  and  moral  relations  of 
the  grosser  senses  (as  taste,  smell,  and  touch  are  sometimes  called).  It  is 
the  part  gf  rational  education  to  understand  all  these  things  thoroughly, 
and  adjust  the  spontaneous  activities  by  subordinating  them  to  the  end  of 
a  harmonious  and  beneficent  social  life.  The  Lord's  Supper  may  be  made 
to  illustrate  this  general  human  duty. 

There  is  doubtless  marked  difference  in  the  original  energy  of  life  in 
different  children.  Young — but  not  too  young,  happy,  healthy,  loving 
parents  have  the  most  vigorous,  lively,  and  harmoniously  organized 
children;  but  in  all  cases  the  impulse  of  life  must  be  met  and  cherished 
by  the  tender,  attractive,  inspiring  force  of  motherly  love ;  which,  with 
caressing  tone  and  invoking  smile,  peers  into  the  infant's  eyes,  and  impor- 
tunately calls  forth  the  new  person,  who,  as  her  instinctive  motherly  faith 
and  love  assure  her,  is  there ;  and  whom  she  yearns  to  make  conscious  of 
himself  in  self-enjoyment.  The  time  comes  when  the  little  body  has 
become  so  far  subject  to  the  new  soul,  that  an  answering  smile  of  recog- 
nition signalizes  the  arrival  upon  the  shores  of  mortal  being  of  "  that 
light  which  never  was  on  sea  or  land,"  another  immortal  intelligence!  It 
is  only  the  smile  of  the  intelligent  human  face  that  can  call  forth  this 
smile  of  the  child  in  the  first  instance ;  but  let  this  glad  mutual  recogni- 
tion of  souls  take  place  once,  and  both  parties  will  seek  to  repeat  the 
delight  again  and  again.  Few  persons,  indeed,  get  so  chilled  by  the  suf- 
ferings and  disappointments,  and  so  hardened  by  the  crimes  of  human 
life,  but  on  the  sight  of  a  little  child,  they  are  impelled  to  invoke  this 
answering  smile  by  making  themselves,  for  the  moment,  little  children 
again;  seeking  and  finding  that  communion  with  our  kind  which  is  the 
Alpha  and  Omega  of  life.  • 

Do  not  say  that  I  am  wandering,  fancifully,  from  the  serious  work 
which  we  are  upon;  I  am  only  beginning  at  the  beginning.  "We  can  only 
understand  the  child  and  what  we  are  to  do  for  it  in  the  Kindergarten,  by 
understanding  the  first  stage  of  its  being — the  pre-intellectual  one  in  the 
nursery.  The  body  is  the  first  garden  in  which  God  plants  the  human 
soul,  "  to  dress  and  to  keep  it."  The  loving  mother  is  the  first  gardener 
of  the  human  flower.  Good  nursing  is  the  first  word  of  Froebel's  gospel 
of  child-culture. 

The  process  of  taking  possession  of  the  organs,  that  I  have  just  de- 
scribed, is  never  performed  perfectly  unless  children  are  nursed  genially. 
If  bitter  and  disagreeable  things  are  presented  to  the  organ  of  the  taste, 
they  are  rejected  with  the  whole  force  of  a  will  which  is  too  blind  in  its 
ignorance  to  find  the  thing  it  wants,  but  vindicates  its  irrefragible  freedom 


FRCEBEL  IN  THE  NURSREY.  565 

of  choice  by  uttering  cries  of  fright,  pain,  and  anger,  as  it  shrinks  back, 
instead  of  throwing  itself  forward  into  nature.  If  the  cruel  thing  is 
repeated,  the  nerves  are  paralyzed,  or  at  least  rendered  morbid,  especially 
when  rude,  untender  handling  outrages  the  sense  of  touch.  When  rough 
and  discordant  sounds  assail  the  ear,  or  too  sharply  salient  a  light  the  eye, 
these  organs  wiH  be  injured,  and  may  be  rendered  useless  for  life.  The 
neglected  and  maltreated  child  is  dull  of  sense  and  lifeless,  or  morbidly 
impulsive,  possibly  savagely  cruel  and  cunning,  in  sheer  self-defense. 
The  pure  element  and  first  condition  of  perfect  growth  is  the  joy  that 
responds  to  the  electric  touch  of  love. 

INSTINCT    OF    MOTION — PLAYING. 

Underlying  and  outmeasuring  all  this  delicate  development  of  the 
organs  of  the  five  senses,  is  the  whole  body's  instinct  of  motion,  which  is 
the  primal  action  of  will.  The  perfectly  healthy  body  of  a  little  child, 
when  it  is  awake,  is  always  in  motion — more  or  less  intentionally.  When 
asleep,  there  is  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  and  pulsation  of  the  solids  of 
the  body,  corresponding  to  the  act  of  breathing,  which  is  involuntary; 
and  any  interruption  of  these  produces  disease — their  suspension,  death. 
But  the  motion  wrhich  makes  the  limbs  agile,  and  the  whole  body  elastic, 
and  gradually  to  become  an  obedient  servant,  is  voluntary,  intentional, 
and  can  be  helped  by  that  sympathetic  action  of  others,  which  we  call 
playing  with  the  child.  Froebel's  rich  suggestions  on  this  play  are  con- 
tained in  his  mother's  cossetting  songs;  and  I  am  glad  to  tell  you  that  two 
English  ladies,  a  poet  and  a  musician,  have  translated  and  set  to  music 
this  unique  book;  and  that  just  now  it  has  been  published  by  Wilkie, 
Wood  &  Co.,  in  London.  It  suggests  all  kinds  of  little  gymnastics  of 
the  hands,  fingers,  feet,  toes,  and  legs,  for  these  are  the  child's  first  play- 
things; and  also  the  first  symbols  of  intelligent  communication,  giving 
the  core  and  significance  to  all  languages. 

I  think  that  a  baby  never  begins  to  play,  in  the  first  instance,  but 
responds  to  the  mother  and  nurse's  play,  and  learns  thereby  its  various 
members  and  their  powers  and  uses;  and  when  at  last  it  jumps,  runs, 
walks,  by  itself,  which  it  cannot  begin  to  do  without  the  help  of  others, 
it  is  prepared  to  say  /,  with  a  clear  sense  of  individuality. 

In  analyzing  the  process  of  a  child's  learning  to  walk,  we  see  most 
clearly  the  characteristic  difference  between  the  human  person  and  the 
animals  below  man  in  the  scale  of  relation.  The  little  chicken  runs  about 
of  itself  as  soon  as  it  is  out  of  the  shell;  but  the  human  child,  even  after 
all  its  limbs  are  grown,  and  though  he  has  been  moving  himself  on  all 
fours  by  means  of  the  floor,  and  supporting  himself  by  means  of  the  fur- 
niture to  which  he  clings,  does  not  walk.  He  will  only  stand  alone,  unsup- 
ported, when  he  sees  that  there  are  guarding  arms  round  about  him,  all 
ready  to  catch  him  if  he  should  fall.  He  seems  to  know  instinctively, 
that  all  the  force  of  the  earth's  gravitation  is  against  him.  He  does  not 
know  that  he  may  balance  it  by  his  personal  power.  His  body  weighs 
upon  his  soul  like  a  mountain,  precisely  because  he  is  intelligent  of  it  as  an 
object,  loves  it  as  a  means  of  pleasure,  and  dreads  its  power  of  giving 
pain  to  him.  The  little  darling  stands,  perhaps  between  the  knees  of  his 
father,  whose  arms  are  round  about  him;  the  mother  opens  her  loving 


56(5  FRCEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY. 

arms  to  receive  him.  and  calls  him  to  her  embrace;  the  way  is  short 
between,  and  three  steps  will  be  sufficient,  but  where  is  the  courageous 
faith  to  say  to  this  mountain  of  a  body,  "  be  removed  to  another  place"? 
It  is  not  in  himself;  he  cannot  produce  it  any  more  than  he  can  take  him- 
self up  by  his  own  ears.  It  is  in  the  mother;  for  it  is  she,  not  he,  who 
has  the  knowledge  of  the  yet  unexerted  power  which  is  flowing  into  the 
child  from  the  Creator.  Only  by  the  electric  touch  of  her  faith  in  him 
does  his  faith  in  himself  flash  out  in  answer  to  her  look  and  voice  of 
cheer,  and  he  rushes  to  her  arms.  It  is  the  doing  of  the  deed  which  gires 
to  himself  the  knowledge  of  the  power  that  is  in  him.  He  repeats  it 
again  and  again,  seeming  to  wish  to  be  more  and  more  certain  of  his 
being  the  cause  of  so  great  effect.  Thus  cause  and  effect  are  discrim- 
inated, and  "to  him  that  hath  "  a  sense  of  individuality  "  shall  be  given," 
for  evermore,  a  growing  power  over  the  body,  to  which  no  measure  can 
be  stated.  Even  on  the  vulgar  plane  of  the  professional  tumbler,  a  man's 
power  over  his  body  seems  sometimes  to  be  absolute  and  miraculous. 
But  the  annals  of  heroism  and  martyrdom  are  full  of  facts  that  go  to 
prove  to  all  who  consider  them  profoundly,  that  the  immaterial  soul  is 
sovereign,  when,  by  recognizing  all  its  relations,  it  subjects  the  individual 
to  the  universal,  and  becomes  thereby  entirely  spiritual  (which  is  man 
reciprocating  with  God;  becoming  more  and  more  conscious  for  ever). 

From  what  has  been  said  of  the  soul's  taking  possession  of  the  body 
and  its  several  organs,  by  exercising  the  functions  of  tasting,  -hearing,  see- 
ing, smelling,  touching,  grasping,  moving  the  limbs,  and  at  last  taking 
up  the  whole  body  into  itself  in  the  act  of  walking,  we  see  that  it  is  all 
done,  even  the  last,  by  virtue  of  the  social  nature. 

Froebel  took  his  clue  from  this  fact,  a  primal  one,  and  never  let  it  go, 
and  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  it  be  understood  clearly,  that 
conscious  individuality,  which  gives  the  sense  of  free  personality,  the 
starting  point,  as  it  were,  of  intelligent  will,  is  perfectly  consistent  with 
and  even  dependent  on  the  simultaneous  development  of  the  social  prin- 
ciple in  all  its  purity  and  power. 

We  see  a  sad  negative  proof  of  this  in  asylums  for  infants  abandoned 
by  their  mothers,  or  given  up  by  them  through  stress  of  poverty.  There 
is  one  of  these  in  New  York  city,  into  which  are  received  poor  little 
things  in  the  first  weeks  of  their  existence.  Everything  is  done  for  their 
bodily  comfort  which  the  general  human  kindness  can  devise.  They 
have  clean,  warm  cradles  and  clothes,  good  milk,  in  short  everything  but 
that  caressing  motherly  play,  which  goes  from  the  personal  heart  to  the 
personal  heart.  That  is  the  one  thing  general  charity  cannot  supply;  it 
is  the  personal  gift  of  God  to  the  mother  for  her  child,  and  none  but  she 
can  be  the  sufficient  medium  of  it,  and  therefore,  undoubtedly  it  is,  that 
almost  all  new-born  children  in  foundling  hospitals  die;  or,  if  they  sur- 
vive, are  found  to  be  feeble-minded  or  idiotic.  They  seem  to  sink  into 
their  animal  natures,  and  belie  the  legend,  man,  written  on  their  brows, 
showing  none  of  that  beautiful  fearlessness  and  courageous  affectionate 
ness  that  characterize  the  heartily  welcomed,  healthy,  well-cared-for 
human  infant.  On  the  contrary,  they  show  a  dreary  apathy,  morbid 
fearfulness,  or  a  belligerent  self-defense,  anticipative  of  other  forms  of 
the  cruel  neglect  which  has  been  their  dreary  experience. 


FRGEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY.  567 

PLAYTHINGS — FltCEBEL'S  FIRST   GIFT. 

Taking  a  hint  from  observations  of  this  kind,  together  with  the  bitter 
experiences  of  his  own  childhood,  Frcebel  supplied  to  the  mother  or  nurse 
some  playthings  for  the  baby,  which  might  continue  to  improve  the  vari- 
ous organs  of  its  body  by  making  the  exercise  of  their  functions  a  social 
delight.  What  is  called  the  first  gift  he  proposes  should  be  used  in  the 
nursery  first.  It  consists  of  six  soft  balls,  not  too  large  to  be  grasped  by 
a  little  hand,  and  the  use  of  which  in  the  nursery  is  suggested  by  a  little 
first  book  for  mothers,  that  has  been  translated  from  Jacob's  Le  jardin  des 
Enfans.  I  think  it  is  important  for  the  Kindergartner  to  know  what 
Froebel  thought  could  be  done  for  the  development  of  the  infant  in  the 
nursery,  since  if  it  has  not  been  done  there,  she  must  contrive  to  remedy 
the  evil  in  the  Kindergartner.  You  will  bear  with  me,  therefore,  if  I  go 
quite  into  the  minutiaB  of  this  matter.  It  will  open  your  eyes  to  observe 
delicately,  as  Frcebel  did. 

He  proposed  that  the  red  ball  should  be  first  presented.  He  had 
observed  that  a  bright  light  concentrated,  as  in  a  candle,  first  excited  the 
organ  of  sight  and  stimulated  its  action.  Henre  he  inferred  that  a  bright 
color  would  do  the  same,  a  neutral  tint  would  not  be  seen  at  all  probably. 
The  red  ball  is  not  quite  so  salient  and  exciting  as  the  light  of  a  candle, 
but  on  that  account  it  can  be  gazed  at  longer  without  producing  a  painful 
reaction.  The  child  will  have  a  pleasure  in  grasping  it,  and  will  prob- 
ably carry  it  to  its  lips;  but,  as  it  is  woolen,  it  will  not  be  especially  agree- 
able to  the  delicate  organ  of  taste.  It  will  all  the  more  be  looked  at, 
therefore,  and  give  the  impression  of  red.  Froebel  proposes  that  it  shall 
be  called  the  red  ball,  in  order  that  the  impression  of  the  word  red  on  the 
ear  shall  blend  in  memory  with  the  impression  of  the  color  on  the  eye. 
As  long  as  the  child  seems  amused  with  the  red  ball,  he  would  not  have 
another  color  introduced,  because  he  thought  it  took  time  for  the  eye  to 
get  a  clear  and  strong  impression  of  one  color,  and  this  should  be  done 
before  it  was  tried  with  a  contrasted  impression.  But  by  and  by  the  blue 
ball,  as  the  greatest  contrast,  may  be  given  and  named,  and  all  the  little 
plays  suggested  in  the  mother's  book  be  repeated  with  the  blue  ball ;  and 
then  the  yellow  ball  should  be  given  with  its  name ;  and  then  the  three  be 
given  together,  and  the  baby  be  asked  to  choose  the  blue,  or  red,  or  yel- 
low one.  By  attaching  a  string  to  them  and  whirling  them,  or  letting  the 
infant  do  so,  it  is  surprising  how  long  the  child  will  amuse  itself  with 
these  balls,  and  what  pleasure  colors  alone  give,  especially  when  combined 
with  motion. 

The  secondary  colors  may  afterwards  be  added  to  the  treasury  for  the 
eye,  with  the  same  carefulness  to  secure  completeness  and  distinctness  of 
impression,  and  to  associate  the  color  with  the  word  that  names  it;  for 
language,  the  special  organ  of  social  communion,  should  be  addressed  to 
the  child  from  the  first,  though  its  complete  attainment  and  use  is  the 
crown  of  all  education. 

Smiles  and  sounds,  proceeding  out  of  the  mouth,  are  the  first  languages, 
and  begin  to  fix  the  little  child's  eyes  and  attention  upon  the  mouth  of 
the  mother,  from  which  issue  the  tones  that  are  sweetest  to  hear,  and 
especially  when  in  musical  cadence.  But  the  child  understands  the  words 


568  FRCEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY. 

addressed  to  him  long  before  he  himself  begins  to  articulate ;  for  language 
is  no  function  of  the  individual,  but  only  of  the  consciously  social  being, 
yearning  to  find  himself  in  another. 

There  is  a  reciprocal  communication  between  infants  and  adults  that 
precedes  the  difficult  art  of  articulation.  This  we  call  the  natural  lan- 
guage, and  it  is  common  to  all  nations,  being  mutually  intelligible,  as  is 
proved  by  deaf  mutes  from  remote  countries  who  understand  each  other 
at  once.  But  this  natural  language  has  a  very  narrow  scope.  It  serves 
to  communicate  instinctive  wants  of  body  and  heart,  but  does  not  serve 
the  fine  purposes  of  intellectual  communication,  nor  minister  any  consid- 
erable intellectual  development.  These  signs  are  very  general,  while 
every  word  in  its  origin  has  represented  a  particular  object  in  nature.  In 
analyzing  any  language  we  find  that  the  names  given  to  the  body  and  its 
members,  and  to  the  actions  and  facts  of  life,  without  which  no  human 
society  can  exist,  are  the  nucleus  or  central  words  which  characterize  it, 
and  from  which  the  whole  national  rhetoric  is  derived.  Hence  there  is  a 
value  for  the  mind  in  associating  the  words  and  action  of  even  such  a 
little  play  as  "here  we  go  up,  up,  up,  and  here  we  go  down,  down,  down, 
and  here  we  go  backwards  and  forwards,  and  here  we  go  round,  round, 
round,"  with  other  rhymes  and  plays  of  an  analogous  character  that  are 
found  wherever  there  are  mothers  and  children. 

MOVEMENT   PLAYS. 

"We  have  observed  that  the  moment  of  first  accomplishing  the  feat  of 
running  alone,  seemed  to  be  that  of  the  child's  beginning  to  realize  him- 
self to  be  a  person,  but  that,  even  in  this  act,  he  was  dependent  upon  his 
mother;  that  his  bodily  independence  was  the  gift  of  her  faith  in  that 
within  him,  which  is  essentially  superior  to  the  body  and  can  command 
it  as  instrumentality.  To  make  it  instrumentality  is,  more  and  more,  a 
delight  to  the  child,  in  which  his  mother  sympathizes;  and  by  this  sym- 
pathy aids  him.  All  his  plays  involve  exercise  of  the  power  of  command 
ing  his  body.  As  soon  as  a  child  can  move  it  from  place  to  place,  his 
desire  to  exercise  his  power  on  nature  outside  of  himself  increases,  and  he 
is  prompted  to  measure  strength  with  other  children.  If  children  were 
mere  individuals  they  would  merely  quarrel,  as  Hobbes  says;  but  being 
social  beings  also,  they  tend  to  unite  forces  and  aid  one  another  to  com- 
pass desired  ends.  By  so  doing  they  rise  to  a  greater  sense  of  life,  and 
brotherly  love  is  evolved.  But  in  the  development  of  the  social  life,  the 
more  developed  and  cultivated  elder  must  come  in,  to  keep  both  parties 
steady  to  some  object  outside  of  themselves,  which  it  takes  their  union  to 
reach.  Children  can  be  taught  to  play  together  by  engaging  their  powers 
of  imitation  and  addressing  their  fancy.  Every  mother  knows  that  in  the 
first  opening  of  children's  social  life  their  bodily  energies  are  stimulated 
to  such  a  degree  that  it  is  quite  as  much  as  she  or  one  nurse  can  do  to 
tend  two  or  three  children  together;  and  by  the  time  they  are  three  years 
old,  the  family  nursery  becomes  too  narrow  a  sphere  for  them.  It  is  then 
that  they  are  to  be  received  into  a  Kindergarten,  whose  very  numbers  will 
check  the  energy  of  activity  a  little,  by  presenting  a  greater  variety  of 
objects  to  be  contemplated ;  and  because  social  action  must  be  orderly 
and  rythmical,  in  order  to  be  agreeable.  This  a  properly  prepared  Kin- 


FRCEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY  569 

dergurtner  knows,  and  by  her  sympathetic  influence  and  power  over  the 
childish  imagination,  she  will  bring  gradually  all  the  laws  of  the  child's 
being  to  the  conscious  understanding,  beginning  with  this  rythmical  one 
at  the  center. 

The  movement  plays  which  Frcebel  invented,  express,  in  dramatic  form, 
some  simple  fact  of  nature  or  some  childish  fancy,  for  which  he  gives,  as 
accompaniment,  a  descriptive  song  set  to  a  simple  melody.  The  children 
learn  both  to  recite  and  to  sing  the  words  of  the  song,  and  then  the  move- 
ments of  the  play.  To  them  the  whole  reuson  for  the  play  seems  to  be 
the  delight  it  gives,  the  exhilaration  of  body,  the  amusement  of  mind. 
But  the  Kindergartner  knows  that  it  serves  higher  ends,  and  that  it  is  at 
least  always  a  lesson  in  order,  enabling  them  to  begin  to  enact  upon  earth 
"  Heaven's  first  law." 

Do  not  say  I  am  making  too  solemn  a  matter  of  these  movement  plays 
to  the  Kindergartner.  Unless  she  remembers  that  this  very  serious  aim 
underlies  every  play  which  she  conducts,  she  will  not  do  justice  to  the 
children.  Law  or  order  is  one  and  the  same  thing  with  beauty;  and  play 
is  nothing  if  it  is  not  beautiful.  When  she  insists  upon  the  children  gov- 
erning themselves,  so  far  as  to  keep  their  proper  places  in  relation  to  each 
other;  to  forbear  exerting  undue  force,  and  to  seek  to  give  the  necessary 
aid  to  others  by  exerting  sufficient  force,  the  beautiful  result  justifies  her 
will  to  the  minds  of  the  children,  and  commands  their  ready  obedience. 
She  must  call  forth  by  addressing  it  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  in 
each  child;  and  this,  if  done  tenderly  and  with  faith,  it  is  by  no  means 
difficult  to  do.  The  reward  to  the  children  is  instant  in  the  success  of  the 
play,  and  therefore  not  thought  of  as  reward  of  merit.  It  is  a  form  of 
obedience  that  really  elevates  the  little  one  higher  in  the  scale  of  being  as 
an  individual,  without  endangering  the  reaction  of  pride  and  self-conceit; 
for  self  is  swallowed  up  in  social  joy. 

When  I  was  in  Germany  I  went  to  those  Kindergartens  taught  by  Frce- 
bel's  own  pupils,  and  I  found  that  in  these  the  movement  plays  were  the 
most  prominent  feature  of  the  practice.  More  than  one  was  played  in  the 
course  of  the  three  or  four  hours,  and  especially  when  the  session  was  as 
much  as  four  hours.  It  was  done  in  a  very  exact  though  not  constrained 
manner,  and  much  stress  seemed  to  be  laid  upon  every  part.  The  singing 
was  not  done  by  three  or  four,  but  all  the  children  were  encouraged  to 
sing.  Often  the  little  timider  ones  were  called  on  to  repeat  the  rhyme 
alone,  without  singing  it,  and  then  to  sing  it  alone  with  the  teacher. 
Thus  the  stronger  and  abler  were  exercised  (as  they  must  be  so  much  in 
real  life)  in  waiting,  sympathetically,  for  the  weaker.  A  great  deal  of 
care  was  also  exercised  in  regard  to  the  form  and  character  of  the  play 
itself.  Those  of  Frcebel's  own  suggestion  and  invention  were  the  pre- 
ferred ones.  They  consisted  in  imitating,  in  rather  a  free  and  fanciful 
manner,  the  actions  of  the  gentler  animals,  hares  and  rabbits,  fishes,  bees, 
and  birds.  There  were  plays  in  which  children  impersonated  animals, 
evidently  for  the  purpose  of  awakening  their  sympathies  and  eliciting 
their  kindness  towards  them.  Many  of  the  labors  of  human  beings,  com- 
mon mechanics,  such  as  cooperage,  the  work  of  the  farmer,  that  of  the 
miller,  trundling  the  wheelbarrow,  sawing  wood,  &c.,  were  put  into  form 


FRGEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY. 

by  simple  rhymes.  The  children  sometimes  personated  machinery,  some- 
times great  natural  movements.  In  one  instance  I  saw  the  solar  system 
performed  by  a  company  of  children  that  had  been  in  the  Kindergarten 
four  years,  but  none  of  them  were  over  seven  years  old.  Mere  move- 
ment is  in  itself  so  delightful  and  salutary  for  children  that  a  very  little 
action  of  the  imitative  or  fanciful  power  is  necessary,  just  to  take  the 
rudeness  out  of  bodily  exercise  without  destroying  its  exhilaration. 

But  it  is  by  no  means  merely  a  moral  discipline  that  is  aimed  at  in  the 
Kindergarten,  as  you  will  see  when  the  bearings  upon  their  habits  of 
thought,  of  all  that  the  children  do,  are  pointed  out  to  you,  in  the  various 
occupations,  which  are  sedentary  sports,  though  the  moral  discipline  is 
the  paramount  idea,  and  never  must  be  lost  sight  of  one  moment  by  the 
Kindergartner.  We  mean  by  moral  discipline,  exercising  the  children  to 
act  to  the  end  of  making  others  happy,  rather  than  of  merely  enjoying 
themselves.  If  the  individual  enjoyment  is  not  a  social  enjoyment,  it  is 
disorderly  and  vitiating.  But  the  individual  is  lifted  into  the  higher 
order  for  which  he  is  created,  by  merely  enjoying,  whenever  his  enjoy- 
ment is  social.  I  am  of  course  speaking  of  that  season  of  life  under  seven 
years  of  age,  when  the  mind  is  yet  undeveloped  to  the  comprehension  of 
humanity  as  a  whole;  when  the  good,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful  are 
nothing  as  abstractions,  and  can  only  be  realized  to  their  experience  and 
brought  within  the  sphere  of  their  senses  by  being  embodied  in  persons 
whom  they  love,  reverence  or  trust.  The  words  good,  beautiful,  -kind,  true, 
get  their  meaning  for  children  by  their  intercourse  with  such  persons. 
Specific  knowledge  of  God  cannot  be  opened  up  in  them  by  any  words, 
unless  these  words  have  first  got  their  meaning  by  being  associated  with 
human  beings  who  bear  traces  that  they  can  appreciate  of  His  ineffable 
perfections.  To  liken  God's  love  to  the  mother's  love,  brings  home  a  con- 
ception of  it  to  children,  for  Jiers  they  realize  every  day. 

COLORED    CALLS. 

The  connecting  link  between  the  nursery  and  Kindergarten  is  the  First 
Gift  of  Frccbel's  series,  being  used  in  both.  The  nursery  use  will  have 
taught  the  names  of  the  six  colors,  red,  orange,  yellow,  green,  blue,  and 
purple,  and  made  it  a  favorite  plaything.  It  is  all  the  better  if  the  child 
has  had  no  other  playthings  prepared  for  him.  He  has  doubtless  used 
the  chairs,  footstools,  and  whatever  else  he  could  lay  his  hands  on,  to 
embody  his  childish  fancies;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  he  has  been  allowed  to 
play  out  of  doors  with  the  earth,  and  has  made  mud  pies  to  his  heart's 
content — not  tormented  with  any  sense  of  the — at  his  age — artificial  duty 
of  keeping  his  clothes  clean.  That  duty  is  to  be  reserved  for  the  Kin- 
dergarten age,  and  will  come  duly,  by  proper  development  of  the  mental 
powers. 

In  the  Kindergarten,  the  ball-plays  are  to  become  more  skillful,  and 
the  teacher  must  see  that  the  child  learns  to  throw  the  ball  so  that  it  may 
bound  back  into  his  own  hands;  so  that  it  may  bound  into  the  hands  of 
another  who  is  in  such  position  as  to  catch  its  reflex  motion.  The  chil- 
dren must  learn  to  toss  it  up  and  catch  it  again  themselves.  When  stand- 
ing in  two  rows  they  can  throw  it  back  and  forwards  to  each  other. 
When  standing  in  a  circle,  the  balls  may  be  made  to  circulate  with 


FI«EBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY.  5*7^ 

rapidity,  passing  from  hand  to  hand,  the  children  singing  the  accompany- 
ing song. 

"  Who'll  buy  my  eggs?  "  is  a  good  play  to  exercise  them  in  counting. 
And  all  these  movement  plays  with  the  ball  are  admirable  for  exercising 
the  body,  giving  it  agility,  grace  of  movement,  precision  of  eye  and 
touch.  These  things  will  accrue  all  the  more  surely  if  it  is  kept  play, 
and  no  constraining  sense  of  duty  is  called  on.  As  most  of  these  plays 
are  not  solitary,  they  become  the  occasion  for  children's  learning  to  adjust 
themselves  to  each  other,  and  the  teacher  must  watch  that  hilarity  does 
not  become  violence  or  rudeness  to  each  other,  but  furtherance  of  one 
another's  fun;  and  occasionally,  in  enforcing  this  harmony,  a  child  must 
be  removed  from  the  play  and  made  to  stand  in  a  corner  alone,  or  even 
outside  of  the  room,  till  the  desire  of  rejoining  his  companions  shall 
quicken  him  to  be  sufficiently  considerate  of  them  to  make  pleasant  play 
possible.  All  children  in  playing  together  learn  justice  and  social  graces, 
more  or  less,  because  they  find  that  without  fair  play  their  sport  is 
spoiled;  but  this  play  must  be  supervised  by  the  Kindergartner,  in  order 
that  there  may  not  be  injustice,  selfishness,  and  quarreling.  A  Kinder- 
gartner, who  is  not  a  martinet,  and  who  is  herself  a  good  play-fellow, 
will  magnetize  the  children,  and  inspire  such  general  good-will  that 
unpleasantness  will  be  foreclosed  in  a  great  measure;  but  a  company 
of  children  are  generally  of  such  variety  of  temperament  and  different 
degrees  of  bodily  strength,  have  so  often  come  from  such  inadequate 
nursery  life  that  the  regulating  kindergartner  has  a  good  deal  to  do  to 
prevent  discords  and  secure  their  kindness  to  each  other  and  the  reason- 
able little  self-sacrifices  of  common  courtesy.  But  she  will  find  a  word 
is  often  enough;  the  question,  Is  that  right?  Would  you  like  to  have  any 
one  else  do  so?  It  is  sometimes  necessary  to  bring  all  the  play  to  a  full 
stop,  in  order  to  bring  the  common  conscience  to  pronounce  upon  the 
fairness  of  what  some  one  is  doing.  I  would  suggest  that  the  question  be 
asked  not  of  the  class,  but  of  the  individual  culprit,  whether  what  is 
being  done  wrong  is  right  or  wrong?  The  child,  with  the  eyes  of  the 
class  upon  him,  wrill  generally  be  eager  to  confess  and  reform,  because 
the  moral  sense  is  quite  as  strong  as  self-love,  and  especially  when  re-in- 
forced  by  the  presence  of  others.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  make  much  of 
little  faults,  and  the  first  indication  of  turning  to  the  right  must  be 
accepted;  the  child  is  grateful  for  being  believed  in  and  trusted,  and  the 
wrong-doing  is  a  superficial  thing;  the  moral  sentiment  is  the  substantial 
being  of  the  child. 

Of  all  the  materials  used  in  Kindergarten  the  colored  balls  are  most 
purely  playthings;  and  there  are  none  of  the  plays  so  liable  to  be  riotous 
as  the  ball  plays.  There  is  the  greatest  difficulty  in  keeping  children 
from  being  too  noisy,  and  it  is  not  wise  to  make  too  much  of  a  point  of  it. 
The  ball  seems  a  thing  of  life.  It  is  very  difficult  for  them  to  get  good 
command  of  it.  It  excites  them  to  run  after  it;  and  shouts  and  laughter 
are  irrepressible.  But  there  are  reasonable  limits.  The  Kindergartner, 
in  conversation  beforehand,  should  make  them  see  that  they  may  get  too 
noisy,  and  tire  each  other,  and  she  will  easily  induce  them  to  agree  to 
stop  short  when  she  shall  ring  the  bell,  and  be  willing  to  stand  still  while 


572 


FRCEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY 


she  counts  twenty  five,  or  watches  the  second  hand  of  her  watch  go 
around  a  quarter,  a  half,  or  a  whole  minute,  as  may  be  agreed  upon. 
This  can  be  made  a  part  of  the  play,  and  to  pause  and  be  perfectly  still 
in  this  way,  will  give  them  some  conception  of  the  length  of  a  minute, 
and  teach  self-command,  as  well  as  make  a  pleasant  variety. 

The  ball  plays  should  always  be  accompanied  and  alternated,  in  the 
Kindergarten,  with  conversations  upon  the  ball,  naming  the  colors,  tell- 
ing which  are  primary,  which  are  secondary,  and  illustrating  the  differ- 
ence by  giving  them  pieces  of  glass  of  pure  carmine,  blue,  and  yellow, 
and  letting  them  put  two  upon  each  other,  and  hold  them  towards  the 
window,  and  so  realize  the  combinations  of  the  secondary  colors.  Ask 
them,  afterwards,  to  tell  what  colors  make  orange,  or  purple,  or  green, 
and  what  color  connects  the  orange  and  green ;  or  the  purple  and  orange, 
or  the  green  and  purple.  . 

One  of  the  other  exercises  on  the  day  of  using  the  First  Gift  may  be 
sewing  with  the  colored  threads  on  the  cards;  and  the  colors  maybe 
arranged  so  as  to  illustrate  the  connections,  etc. ,  just  learned.  The  use  of 
the  First  Gift  need  only  be  once  a  week.  It  will  then  be  a  fresh  pleasure 
every  time  during  the  whole  of  the  Kindergarten  course,  even  if  it  should 
last  three  years.  After  the  children  have  become  perfectly  familiar  with 
the  primary  and  secondary  colors,  their  combinations  and  connections,  the 
lessons  on  colors  may  be  varied  by  telling  them  that  tints  of  the  primary 
colors  and  of  the  secondary  colors  are  made  by  adding  white  to  them; 
and  shades  of  them  (which  will,  of  course,  be  darker)  by  adding  black  to 
them.  This  may  be  illustrated  by  flowers,  as  may  various  combinations 
of  colors.  A  very  little  child,  whom  it  was  hard  to  train  even  to  the 
hilarious  and  gay  plays,  and  whose  attention  could  not  easily  be  fixed, 
surprised  a  teacher  one  day  by  his  aptitude  in  detecting  what  color  had 
been  mixed  with  red  to  make  a  very  glorious  pink  in  a  phlox.  This  child 
liked  to  sew,  but  was  very  impatient  of  putting  his  needle  into  any  special 
holes.  It  proved  to  be  the  pleasure  of  handling  the  colored  yarns,  and  he 
was  always  eager  to  change  them  and  to  form  new  combinations.  It 
may  not  be  irrelevant  to  say  here,  in  regard  to  ball-playing,  from  which  I 
have  digressed  to  colors,  that  the  ball  is  the  last  plaything  of  men  as  well 
as  the  first  with  children. 

The  object  teaching  upon  the  ball  is  strictly  inexhaustible.  Children 
learn  practically,  by  means  of  it,  the  laws  of  motion.  Beware  of  any 
strictly  scientific  teaching  of  these  laws  in  terms.  You  may  make  chil- 
dren familiar  with  the  phenomena  of  the  laws  of  incidence  and  reflection, 
by  simply  telling  them  that  if  they  strike  the  ball  straight  against  the  wall 
opposite,  it  will  bound  straight  back  to  them,  and  then  ask  them  whether 
it  returns  to  them  when  they  strike  it  in  a  slanting  direction.  By  and  by 
this  knowledge  can  be  used  to  give  meaning  to  a  scientific  expression. 
It  is  a  first  principle  that  the  object,  motion,  or  action  should  precede  the 
word  that  names  them.  This  is  Froebel's  uniform  method,  and  the  reason 
is,  that  when  the  scientific  study  does  come,  it  shall  be  substantial,  mental 
life,  and  not  mere  superficial  talk.  It  is  the  laws  of  things  that  are  the 
laws  of  thought;  and  thought  must  precede  all  attempt  at  logic,  or  logic 
will  be  deceptive,  not  reasonable.  Most  erroneous  speculation  has  its 


FUCEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY.  573 

roots  in  mistakes  about  words,  which  it  is  fatal  to  divorce  from  what  they 
express  of  nature,  or  to  use  without  taking  in  their  full  meaning. 

In  the  easy  mood  of  mind  that  attends  the  lively  play  of  childhood, 
impressions  are  made  clearly ;  and  it  should  be  the  care  of  the  educator  to 
have  all  the  child's  notions  associated  with  significant  words,  as  can  only 
be  done  by  his  becoming  their  companion  in  the  play  and  talking  about 
it,  as  children  always  incline  to  do.  It  is  half  the  pleasure  of  their  play 
to  represent  it  in  words  as  they  are  playing.  In  the  nursery  the  mothers 
play  with  the  child,  and  all  her  dealings  with  it  are  expressed  in  words 
that  are  important  lessons  in  language;  and,  together  with  language,  we 
give  a  lesson  in  manners,  by  first  trotting  a  child  gently  and  then  jounc- 
ingly  to  the  words,  "  This  is  the  way  the  gentle  folks  go,  this  is  the  way 
the  gentle  folks  go;  and  this  is  the  way  the  country  folks  go,  this  is  the 
way  the  country  folks  go — bouncing  and  jouncing  and  jumping  so."  To 
describe  what  they  are  doing  in  little  rhymes  when  playing  ball,  makes  it 
a  mental  as  well  as  physical  play  of  faculty,  and  Frcebel  published  a 
hundred  little  rhymes,  and  the  music  for  as  many  ball  plays. 

It  is  not  an  unimportant  lesson  for  children  to  learn,  that  the  same 
things  seem  different  in  different  circumstances.  The  fact  that  wrhite 
light  is  composed  of  different-colored  rays  can  be  illustrated  by  giving 
the  children  prisms  to  hold  up  in  the  sunshine;  and  by  calling  their  atten- 
tion to  the  splendid  colors  of  the  sky  at  sunset  and  sunrise,  when  the 
clouds  act  as  prisms,  and  to  the  rainbow.  Children  of  the  Kindergarten 
age  will  be  so  much  engaged  with  the  beautiful  phenomenon  they  will 
not  be  likely  to  ask  questions  as  to  how  the  light  is  separated  by  the 
prism  and  clouds;  they  will  rest  in  the  fact.  But  if,  by  chance,  analytic 
reflection  has  supervened,  and  they  do,  then  a  large  ball  on  which  all  the 
six  colors  are  arranged  in  lines  meridian-wise,  to  which  a  string  is  attached 
at  one  pole,  or  both  poles,  can  be  given  them,  and  they  be  told  to  whirl  it 
very  swiftly.  This  will  present  the  phenomenon  of  the  merging  of  the 
colors  to  the  eye  by  motion,  so  that  the  ball  looks  whitish,  from  which 
you  can  proced  to  speak  of  light  as  being  composed  of  multitudinous 
little  balls,  of  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  in  motion,  and  so  looking  white. 

If  some  uncommon  little  investigator  should  persist  to  ask  why  things 
seem  to  be  other  than  they  are,  he  must  be  plainly  told  that  the  reason  is 
in  something  about  his  eyes  which  he  cannot  understand  now,  but  will 
learn  by  and  by  when  he  goes  to  school  and  learns  optics. 

Children  are  only  to  be  entertained  in  the  Kindergarten  with  the  facts 
of  nature  that  develop  the  organs  of  perception,  but  a  skillful  teacher  who 
•reads  Tyndall's  charming  books  and  the  photographic  journals  may  bring 
into  the  later  years  of  the  Kindergarten  period  many  pretty  phenomena 
of  light  and  colors,  which  shall  increase  the  stock  of  facts  on  which  the 
scientific  mind,  when  it  shall  be  developed,  may  work,  or  which  the  future 
painter  may  make  use  of  in  his  art. 

When  Allston  painted  his  great  picture  of  Uriel,  whose  background 
was  the  sun,  he  thought  out  carefully  the  means  of  producing  the  daz- 
zling effect,  and  drew  lines  of  all  the  rainbow  colors  in  their  order,  side 
by  side,  after  having  put  on  his  canvas  a  ground  of  the  three  primary 
colors  mixed.  When  the  picture  was  first  exhibited  at  Somerset  House 


574  FRCEBEL  IN  THE  NURSERY. 

the  effect  was  dazzling,  and  it  was  bought  at  once  by  Lord  Egremont,  in 
a  transport  of  delight;  and  for  twice  the  sum  the  artist  put  upon  it,  that 
is,  six  hundred  guineas.  I  do  not  know  whether  time  may  not  have 
dimmed  its  brilliancy,  since  paint  is  of  the  earth,  earthy ;  but  to  paint  the 
sun  at  high  noon,  and  have  it  a  success,  even  for  a  short  time,  is  a  great 
feat;  and  art,  in  this  instance,  took  counsel  of  science  deliberately,  accord- 
ing to  the  artist's  confession.  But  perfect  sensuous  impressions  of  color 
and  its  combinations  were  the  basis  of  both  the  science  and  the  art. 

This  lecture  is  getting  too  long,  and  I  will  close  by  saying  that  the  First 
Gift  has,  for  its  most  important  office,  to  develop  the  organ  of  sight,  which 
grows  by  seeing.  Colors  arouse  intentional  seeing  by  the  delightful  im- 
pression they  make.  I  believe  that  color-blindness  (which  our  army  exam- 
inations have  proved  to  be  as  common  as  want  of  ear  for  mime)  may  be 
cured  by  intentional  exercise  of  the  organ  of  sight  in  a  systematic  way; 
just  as  ear  for  music  may  be  developed  in  those  who  are  not  born  with  it. 
Lowell  Mason  proved,  by  years  of  experiment  in  the  public  schools,  that 
the  musical  ear  may  be  formed,  in  all  cases,  by  beginning  gently  with 
little  children,  giving  graduated  exercises  so  agreeable  to  them  as  to 
arouse  their  will  to  try  to  hear,  in  order  to  reproduce. 

That  you  may  receive  a  sufficiently  strong  impression  of  the  fact  that 
the  organs  of  perception  actually  grow  by  exercise  with  intention,  I  will 
relate  to  you  a  fact  that  came  under  my  own  observation. 

A  young  friend  of  mine  became  a  pupil  of  Mr.  Agassiz,  who  gave  him, 
among  his  first  exercises,  two  fish  scales  to  look  at  through  a  very  power- 
ful microscope,  asking  him  to  find  out  and  tell  all  their  differences.  At 
first  they  appeared  exactly  alike,  but  on  peering  through  the  microscope 
all  the  time  that  he  dared  to  use  his  eyes  for  a  month,  he  found  them  full 
of  differences;  and  he  afterwards  said  that  "it  was  the  best  month's  work 
he  ever  did,  to  form  the  scientific  eye  which  could  detect  differences  ever 
after,  at  a  glance,"  and  proved  to  him  an  invaluable  talent  and  gave  him 
exceptional  authority  with  scientists. 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

BY    MISS    SUSAN   E.  BLOW,    ST.  LOUIS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

"  THE  child  does  not  become  man  but  he  is  born  man."  In  the  unity 
of  human  life  lies  the  explanation  of  its  different  phases.  All  the  essen- 
tial elements  of  human  nature  exist  in  the  newborn  child ;  for  "  What 
is  not  in  man  can  never  be  evolved  from  man,"  and  infancy,  child- 
hood, youth,  manhood,  and  old  age  are  but  the  successive  stages  of  one 
organic  process  of  development. 

Obviously,  therefore,  human  life  must  be  read  backwards  if  we  would 
grasp  its  significance.  We  do  not  understand  the  oak  from  the  acorn, 
but  the  acorn  from  the  oak.  The  noonday  explains  to  us  the  sunrise, 
and  the  prophecies  of  the  spring-time  are  interpreted  by  their  fulfillment 
in  the  harvest.  So  maturity  reveals  to  us  the  holy  mystery  of  child- 
hood, and  it  was  He  "  who  knew  all  that  was  in  man,"  who  set  a  little 
child  in  the  midst  of  his  disciples  and  bade  them  learn  from  him  how 
to  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

Equally  clear  is  it  that  we  learn  the  true  meaning  and  value  of  our 
individual  lives  through  society  and  history.  They  paint  life  for  us  on 
a  wide  canvas,  and  in  a  true  perspective.  Through  them  we  separate 
what  in  ourselves  is  essential  and  permanent  from  what  is  accidental 
and  transitory ;  from  them  we  learn  the  direction  in  which  we  are  tend- 
ing and  the  ends  we  blindly  seek  ;  in  them  we  find  the  solution  of  our 
contradictions,  the  answers  to  our  enigmas  and  the  vindication  of  our 
hopes. 

The  practical  outcome  of  these  thoughts  is,  that  the  child  is  potentially 
a  man,  and  the  individual  man  is  potentially  mankind. 

As  all  force  must  exert  itself,  and  as  its  activity  is  always  expression 
of  its  essential  nature,  the  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  forces  in  the 
child  may  be  clearly  traced  in  his  manifestations.  Our  tendency  to  trace 
these  manifestations  to  a  purely  physical  source  is  a  great  error,  because 
the  child  is  never  a  purely  physical  being.  If  the  man  Columbus  is 
to  be  driven  by  the  spirit  within  him  to  venture  on  the  pathless  ocean 
in  search  of  a  new  world,  may  not  the  first  faint  stirrings  of  this  spirit 
cause  the  joy  of  baby  Columbus  in  the  great  unknown  "  out-of-doors?" 
Must  not  Mozart  as  a  baby  have  loved  sweet  sounds,  and  Titian  have 
rejoiced  in  rich  colors,  and  Phidias  have  felt  a  pleasure  in  harmonious 
forms  ?  "  Can  you  tell,  oh  mother,"  writes  Frobel,  "  when  the  spirit- 
ual development  of  your  child  begins?  Can  you  trace  the  boundary-line 
which  separates  the  conscious  from  the  unconscious  soul?  In  God's 
world,  just  because  it  is  God's  world,  the  law  of  all  things  is  continuity, 

575 


*>76  THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

— there  are  and  can  be  no  abrupt  beginnings, — no.  rude  transitions,  no 
to-day  which  is  not  based  upon  yesterday.  The  distant  stars  were 
shining  long  before  their  rays  reached  our  earth ;  the  seed  germinates  in 
darkness,  and  is  growing  long  before  we  can  see  its  growth ;  so  in  the 
depths  of  the  infant  soul  a  process  goes  on  which  is  hidden  from  our 
ken,  yet  upon  which  hangs  more  than  we  can  dream  of  good  or  evil, 
happiness  or  misery." 

We  are  told  of  the  one  ideal  mother  that  she  kept  all  her  child's  say- 
ings in  her  heart,  and  we  cannot  but  connect  this  with  the  fact  that  she 
alone  of  all  the  mothers  of  men  knew  the  end  of  her  son's  life  from  the 
beginning.  The  more  clearly  we  realize  in  our  souls  the  ideal  of  man- 
hood, the  more  reverently  will  we  study  the  instructive  utterances  and 
actions  of  the  child. 

It  is  no  argument  against  the  significance  of  the  child's  manifestations 
that  he  himself  does  not  know  what  he  is  doing,  or  why  he  is  doing  it. 
On  the  contrary  we  know  him  all  the  better  because  he  does  not  know 
himself.  Self-knowledge  brings  self-control,  and  consciousness  hides 
what  instinct  reveals.  The  special  value  of  the  first  period  of  life  lies 
in  the  spontaneous  expression  of  its  uncomprehended  powers,  and,  in 
the  blind  directness  of  the  child's  impulses,  we  clearly  read  their 
nature  and  their  end. 

In  studying  children  we  must,  however,  carefully  distinguish  between 
childhood  and  the  individual  child.  The  demands  of  the  latter  may  be 
selfish  exactions,  and  to  yield  to  them  is  only  to  stimulate  caprice, — the 
demands  of  the  former  must  indicate  universal  and  necessary  conditions 
of  development.  The  one  may  have  their  source  in  a  perverted  indi- 
viduality,— the  other  can  be  rooted  only  in  the  essential  nature  of  man. 
Only  very  shallow  thought  ever  sets  up  as  a  standard  the  individual 
consciousness,  while  true  insight  into  the  universal  is  the  kernel  of  all 
philosophy,  and  the  practical  application  of  this  insight  the  kernel  of 
all  education. 

It  is  FrobeFs  distinctive  merit  to  have  turned  the  light  of  these 
truths  full  upon  the  first  period  of  life.  Realizing  profoundly  the  con- 
tinuity of  individual  life,  he  traced  the  conscious  powers  of  the  man 
back  to  their  instinctive  beginnings,  and,  deeply  imbued  with  a  sense  of 
the  organic  unity  of  mankind,  he  found  in  the  parallel  between  the  life 
of  the  race  and  the  individual  not  merely  a  scientific  generalization,  but 
a  clew  to  the  manifestations  of  the  child  and  a  guide  for  his  develop- 
ment. He  has  shown  that  human  culture  in  all  its  branches  is  reflected 
in  the  instinctive  activity  of  the  child,  and  dimly  responded  to  by  the 
instinctive  sympathy  of  the  mother, — has  analyzed  the  games  and  songs 
which  have  delighted  the  children  of  all  races  and  of  all  ages,  and 
brought  to  light  their  hidden  meaning;  has  reproduced  them  in  his 
"  Mother  Play  and  Nursery  Songs  "  in  a  form  adequate  to  this  attained 
insight ;  and  through  this  very  remarkable  book  has  bridged  the  gulf 
between  the  conscious  and  the  unconscious  periods  of  life,  taught  to 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS.  577 

mothers  the  hitherto  unrecognized  aim  of  their  own  acts,  and  enabled 
them  to  exert  upon  their  children,  from  the  very  beginning  of  life,  a 
continuous  influence  tending  towards  a  clearly  perceived  end. 

The  highest  form  of  the  child's  self-expression  is  play,  and  if  we  ob- 
serve this  play  carefully  we  shall  find  that  it  has  three  very  interesting 
aspects.  It  is,  first,  the  reproduction  of  experiences ;  second,  a  manifes- 
tation of  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  the  particular  child  ;  third,  a 
revelation  on  the  instinctive  plane  of  the  essential  nature  of  man,  and  a 
reflection  of  the  course  of  human  development.  Let  us  consider  these 
different  aspects  in  detail. 

1.  It  is  a  truth,  which  we  must  never  forget,  that  no  one  ever  has, 
ever  will  or  ever  can  really  know  anything  except  that  which  he  has  lived 
through.  We  comprehend  what  is  around  us  only  as  we  reproduce  it  in 
ourselves,  and  detect  the  outward  signs  of  that  only  which  we  have  in- 
wardly experienced.  The  proverbial  wisdom  of  all  nations  *•'  sets  the 
thief  to  catch  the  thief."  The  sin  hidden  deep  in  our  hearts  starts  with 
a  guilty  blush  to  our  cheeks  when  confronted  with  its  own  image.  To 
the  eyes  of  love  the  world  is  full  of  lovers.  The  heart  that  has  bled 
knows  how  to  pity  the  bleeding  heart.  The  soul  that  has  been  tempted 
grows  strong  to  help.  The  great  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  grows 
clear  to  our  minds  as  we  realize  that  only  by  becoming  man  could  God 
lift  men  to  himself. 

Deepest  truths  have  widest  reach,  and  we  need  have  no  hesitation  in 
applying  this  insight  to  the  child's  delight  in  reproducing  in  his  plays 
the  life  around  him.  The  fact  is  so  general  that  it  scarcely  needs  illus- 
tration. A  mother  of  my  acquaintance  was  invited,  in  due  form,  by  her 
little  daughter  to  be  present  at  the  marriage  ceremony  of  two  of  her 
dolls,  and  looking  into  the  doll-house  was  amused  to  see  a  complete 
mimic  representation  of  a  wedding  party.  But  what  was  her  horror  on 
the  next  day  to  find  the  wedding  succeeded  by  a  funeral,  and  twenty 
jointed  dolls  dressed  in  deep  mourning  and  holding  tiny  handkerchiefs 
to  their  eyes,  sitting  round  a  coffin  in  which  lay  the  same  doll  who  had 
played  the  part  of  bride.  I  have  seen  a  child  not  four  years  old  repeat 
with  her  paper-dolls  all  the  experiences  of  her  own  little  life.  A  basin 
of  water  represented,  the  ocean,  a  paper  boat  the  steamer  in  which  she 
had  crossed  the  Atlantic,  blocks  arranged  in  different  ways  stood  for 
different  cities,  and  the  little  one's  memories  gathered  themselves  into 
a  connected  whole  in  her  dramatic  reproductions.  I  recall  a  little  boy 
whose  favorite  amusement  was  to  fasten  himself  to  the  hitching-post  in 
front  of  his  house,  and  there  prance  and  rear  and  struggle  to  break 
loose, — another  who,  to  the  serious  detriment  of  his  clothes,  would  pin 
all  the  feathers  he  could  find  to  his  back,  and  then  dig  with  hands  and 
nails,  imitating  chickens  in  their  search  for  food, — and  a  little  girl,  who, 
with  wild  desire  to  fly,  spread  her  arms  and  jumped  from  the  roof  of  a 
back  building  twelve  feet  high  into  the  yard  below.  u  What  the  child 
imitates,"  says  Frb'bel,  "he  is  trying  to  understand." 

37 


578  THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

2.  This  phase  of  play  is,   however,   the  least  important  one.     A 
deeper  value  lies    in  the  fact  that  through  it  the  child  stamps  him- 
self upon  his  experiences,  and  shows  the  form  of  his  re-action  against 
the  external  world.     Deep  in  the  heart  of  every  man  is  hidden  a  some- 
thing which  distinguishes  him  from  all  other  men,  a  power  of  realizing 
universal  truths  in  a  particular  form,  a  capacity  for  adding  himself  to 
all  that  he  receives,  and  organizing  varied  and  conflicting  experiences 
in  the  unity  of  his  personality.     This  individual  element  is  the  one 
unchangeable  fact  about  each  one  of  us.     Feelings  may  modify,  opin- 
ions alter,  bad  tendencies  be   overcome  and  virtues  conquered,  but 
through  all  the  undefinable  something  which  makes  a  man  himself 
remains.     It  determines  the  effect  of  external  influences,  makes  the 
meat  of  one  man  the  poison  of  another,  teaches  one  man  to  love  what 
another  man  hates,  shows  to  one  man  beauties  to  which  another  is 
blind,  and  thrills  one  man  with  melodies  to  which  another  is  deaf.     It 
rushes  into  expression  in  the  play  of  the  child,  in  the  song  of  the  poet, 
in  the  system  of  the  philosopher,  and  in  the  prayer  of  the  saint.     It 
wraps  each  man  in  mystery  as  in  a  garment,  yet  gives  each  man  valid- 
ity among  his  fellow-men.     In  one  word  it  is  the  divine  spark  we  bring 
with  us  into  the  world ;  its  burning  is  our  being ;  its  shining  is  our  life. 
How  reverently  then  should  we  watch  its  first  feeble  glimmerings  I 
How  jealously  should  we  guard  the  child's  play  from  any  influences 
which  might  defeat  its  end. 

3.  The  third  aspect  of  play  had,  however,  the  greatest  charm  for 
Frobel,  and  he  loved  chiefly  to  trace  in  the  games  of  children  a  reflec- 
tion of  the  progressive  life  of  humanity.     He  draws  a  parallel  between 
the  child's  love  for  running  and  wrestling,  and  for  all  games  of  physical 
prowess,  and  that  first  stage  of  human  society  when  all  men  were  hunt- 
ers, warriors  and  athletes.     He  connects  the  child's  love  for  digging  in 
the  ground  with  that  agricultural  instinct  which  transformed  nomadic 
tribes  into  nations  of  husbandmen.     He  shows  us  the  germ  of  "  rights 
and  property  "  in  the  boy's  love  of  ownership,  opens  our  eyes  to  see  in 
mud  pies  a  faint  struggle  of  the  plastic  instinct,  persuades  us  to  hear 
in  the  rhythmic  cooing  of  the  baby  a  prophecy  of  music,  and  bids  us 
reverence  the  dawn  of  science  in  the  eager  habit  of  investigation.    But 
he  lingers  most  lovingly  of  all  over  those  manifestations  which  reveal 
essential  human  nature  and  essential  human  connections,  and  never 
tires  of  following  the  soul  as  it  struggles  from  darkness  into  light  and 
comes  to  know  its  relations  to  nature,  to  man  and  to  God. 

I  have  given  this  general  outline  of  Frb'bel's  thought  merely  as  a 
clew  to  his  interpretations  of  infancy  and  childhood.  He  himself  rarely 
stated  his  ruling  ideas  but  always  presupposed  them.  They  were  the 
air  he  breathed,  the  light  he  saw  by.  The  real  interest  of  his  system 
is  in  its  detail.  The  idea  of  organic  connection  was  not  new  with  him, 
neither  can  he  be  dismissed  when  we  have  traced  his  thought  to  this 
root.  He  has  seen  as  no  man  ever  saw  into  the  heart  of  the  child,  and 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS.  579 

he  has  traced,  as  no  man  before  him  had  done,  the  subtle  connections 
between  what  seems  most  trivial  and  what  we  all  acknowledge  to  be 
most  true.  To  give  a  few  of  these  connections  is  the  object  of  this 
chapter, — that  some  one  may  be  led  through  what  I  write  to  read  what 
Frbbel  himself  has  written, — the  hope  that  guides  my  pen. 

It  is  a  rather  striking  fact  that  while  the  most  obvious  characteristic 
of  every  healthy  child  is  its  love  of  movement,,  it  took  all  the  scornful 
eloquence  of  Rousseau  to  tear  off  the  bandages  which  for  generations 
mothers  had  wrapped  tightly  around  the  legs  of  their  babies.  It  shows 
us  that  maternal  instinct  is  not  always  to  be  trusted,  and  that  in  one 
case  at  least  babyhood  has  profited  by  the  generalizations  of  science. 
In  all  nature  nothing  develops  without  activity, — movement  and  life 
are  almost  synonymous  terms.  The  visible  world  on  which  we  gaze  is 
only  an  expression  of  the  activity  of  invisible  forces,  and  "  everything 
that  is  does  not  exist  a  single  moment  by  itself,  but  only  through  a  con- 
stant reciprocal  action  with  all  that  surrounds  it."  Tirelessly  the  plan- 
ets circle  in  their  course  around  the  sun, — tirelessly  the  moving  sap 
builds  up  the  plant,  and  the  blood  in  its  circulation  renews  the  life  of 
the  animal.  Man  cannot  escape  the  universal  law.  To  be  strong  and 
grow  he  must  be  active,  and  so  nature  who  makes  of  every  necessity  an 
instinct  sends  her  children  stretching  and  kicking  into  the  world. 

Parallel  with  the  child's  joy  in  movement  is  his  delight  in  moving 
objects.  Keenly  alive  himself,  he  rejoices  in  the  external  sign  of  life. 
The  life  within  him  recognizes  the  life  without,  and  as  he  watches  the 
galloping  horse,  sees  the  bird  flying  through  the  air,  or  tries  to  catch 
the  little  fish  that  darts  under  the  water,  he  feels  in  each  a  something 
akin  to  himself.  His  pleasure  is  great  in  proportion  as  the  activity  he 
sees  is  strong  and  free  ;  impeded  movement  wakes  in  him  always  some 
measure  of  discontent. 

But  life  not  only  recognizes  life,  it  tends  also  to  project  itself,  and 
the  child  communicates  his  own  vitality  even  to  inanimate  objects.  He 
whips  the  naughty  stool  over  which  he  stumbles,  pats  the  stick  which 
he  bestrides,  and  chatters  incessantly  to  his  unresponsive  playthings. 
Whatever  he  feels  within  him  he  imputes  to  the  objects  around  him, 
and  for  him  there  exists  nothing  that  is  not  alive. 

It  is  interesting,  as  throwing  light  upon  this  vitalizing  tendency  of 
childhood,,  to  remember  that  the  earliest  form  of  religion  is  always 
fetichism,  and  that  the  essence  of  f etichism  is  worship  of  the  principle 
of  life  in  the  individual  forms.  It  is  interesting  also  to  notice  that  sci- 
ence in  its  first  crude  form  ascribes  validity  to  isolated  objects,  and  very 
slowly  grows  into  the  knowledge  that  things  are  only  vanishing  phases 
of  forces.  But  most  significant  of  all  is  the  realization  that  the  deepest 
truth  is  dimly  shadowed  in  these  imperfect  forms,  aud  that  when  Phi- 
losophy has  read  the  "  open  secret  of  the  Universe,"  she  confirms  the 
instinct  of  the  child  and  the  savage  and  declares  again  the  Universal 
Life.  Frbbel  believed  that  the  painful  struggle  which  in  history  has 


580  THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

marked  the  transition  from  the  cruder  to  the  more  perfect  insight  might 
be  spared  the  individual  if  the  child's  presentiments  of  the  real  truth 
of  things  were  rightly  understood  and  fostered.  Who  can  say  that  he 
may  not  be  right  ? 

If  I  have  made  my  meaning  thus  far  clear,  it  will  be  seen  that  these 
three  manifestations  of  the  child, — love  of  movement,  delight  in  mov- 
ing objects,  and  the  imputing  of  life  to  inanimate  things, — all  have  one 
source,  viz. :  the  life  of  the  child ;  and  that  the  end,  of  which  they 
are  the  beginning,  is  reached  when  life  culminates  in  consciousness 
and  creation,  and  when  the  world  is  recognized  as  a  reflection  of  the  life 
of  God.  The  connection  is  real  though  remote,  and  gives  significance 
to  the  simplest  efforts  to  meet  the  indicated  needs.  Hence  Frobel's 
followers  study  with  reverence  the  little  games  in  which  the  child  rep- 
resents by  the  movement  of  his  hands,  arms  or  fingers,  the  swimming 
of  fishes,  the  flying  of  birds,  the  trotting  of  horses,  the  circular  motion 
of  the  mill  wheel  or  the  swift  turning  of  the  weathercock.  In  each 
game  a  particular  movement  is  emphasized,  and  from  this  standpoint 
we  see  in  these  simple  exercises  the  germ  of  gymnastics  and  the  begin- 
ning of  definite  physical  training,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  through  the 
representation  of  the  life  around  him,  the  child's  sympathies  are  quick- 
ened and  his  observation  roused.  The  baby  who  has  played  that  he  is 
a  little  bird  will  notice  the  next  bird  he  sees  with  keener  interest ;  he 
has  made  the  life  of  the  bird  his  own,  transubstantiated  it  as  it  were 
into  his  own  flesh  and  blood.  Frb'bel  thinks  too,  that  the  representa- 
tion of  movement  stirs  a  presentiment  of  its  cause,  and  that  thus  the 
mind  is  prepared  for  transition  from  the  seen  to  the  unseen,  from 
objects  to  forces  and  from  form  to  life.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add 
that  all  these  games  are  accompanied  by  simple  words,  which,  reacting 
on  the  child's  thought,  interpret  to  him  his  action,  and  that  these  words 
are  set  to  simple  tunes  intended  to  stir  a  feeling  corresponding  to  act 
and  thought. 

I  translate  Frobel's  comments  on  the  game  of  the  weathercock  and 
the  game  of  the  fishes  as  an  illustration  of  his  manner  of  treating  them 
all. 

In  the  game  of  the  weathercock  the  forearm  of  the  child  is  held  as 
nearly  as  possible  in  an  upright  position,  and  the  hand  extended  so  that 
the  four  fingers  represent  the  tail  of  the  weathercock,  the  palm  his 
body  and  the  thumb  his  neck  and  head.  In  this  position  the  hand  is 
slowly  moved  to  and  fro,  while  the  mother  sings : 

As  the  cock  upon  the  tower 
Turns  himself  in  wind  and  shower, 
So  you  can  turn  your  little  hand 
While  like  the  tower  you  steady  stand. 

"  This  play,"  you  say,  "  is  so  very  simple."  True,  yet  it  always  de- 
lights your  child.  See,  not  with  what  pleasure  only,  but  with  what 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS.  581 

earnestness  he  moves  his  little  hand  when  you  bid  him  show  how  the 
weathercock  turns.  Why  is  he  so  pleased  and  yet  so  serious  ?  Have 
you  not  noticed  that  when  you  hold  a  moving  object  before  your  child 
in  such  a  way  that  the  moving  cause  is  not  apparent,  that  to  search 
for  this  moving  cause  gives  the  child  more  pleasure  than  the  moving 
object  itself?  His  pleasure  in  moving  his  hand  has  the  same  basis.  He 
feels  and  controls  the  source  of  a  movement,  the  cause  of  an  effect ;  it 
is  this  which  fills  him  with  such  serious  joy.  He  is  experiencing  the 
fact  that  a  moving  object  has  its  ground  in  a  moving  force,  soon  he  will 
conclude  that  living  objects  have  their  ground  in  living  forces. 

So  far  Frobel  in  explanation  of  the  baby.  The  rest  of  the  commen- 
tary traces  in  an  older  child  the  development  of  feeling  into  partial 
insight. 

On  a  windy,  almost  stormy  day,  the  children  follow  their  busy 
mother  as  she  goes  out  of  doors  and  hangs  up  the  clothes  she  has 
been  washing  that  they  may  dry.  Where  will  not  children  love  to 
follow  when  the  busy  mother  leads  ! 

Hark  how  the  weathercock  creaks  on  the  tower ;  the  wind  moves  it 
now  here,  now  there.  Here  comes  a  hen  and  cock ;  they  are  not  turned 
around  like  the  weathercock,  but  the  wind  blows  the  feathers  in  their 
tails  from  side  to  side.  Hear  how  the  clothes  rustle  on  the  line  ;  they 
rustle  loudly  as  though  telling  a  story  of  the  strong  wind.  The  rust- 
ling delights  the  children.  Quickly  the  boy  fastens  a  cloth  to  his  stick 
and  high  in  the  air  it  waves  and  chatters  of  the  wind ;  so  too  waves 
the  handkerchief  in  the  little  girl's  outstretched  hand.  But  higher  and 
freer  than  cloth  or  handkerchief  the  kite  sails  through  the  air.  See 
its  proud  owner  as  with  face  aglow  he  watches  it  rise  towards  the  sky  ! 
Clap,  clap,  clap,  how  the  wind  drives  the  windmill  round  and  round, 
and  behold,  hearing  the  sound  out  runs  a  little  boy  with  his  paper  wind- 
mill which  turns  more  and  more  swiftly  as  he  runs  fast  and  ever  faster. 
The  mother  yonder  can  scarcely  guard  her  baby  daughter  from  the 
force  of  the  storm,  and  the  man  has  hard  work  to  keep  his  balance  and 
not  stagger  in  the  raging  wind  ! 

"  Mother  this  is  a  very  fierce  wind  ;  it  makes  everything  bend  and 
shake.  See  how  little  sister's  hair  is  flying,  and  how  the  clothes  dance 
on  the  line.  Where  does  the  wind  come  from,  mother,  and  how  does  it 
make  things  rustle  and  flutter  ?  "  "  If  I  were  to  try  to  tell  you,  my  child, 
how  the  wind  comes  you  would  not  understand  me ;  but  this  much  you 
can  understand  even  now.  A  strong  power  like  this  wind  can  do  many 
things  great  and  small,  and  you  see  these  though  you  cannot  see  the 
wind  itself.  There  are  many  great  powers  which  we  know  of  though 
we  cannot  see  them.  See,  your  little  hand  moves  but  you  cannot 
see  the  power  that  moves  it.  Begin  by  believing  in  power;  later 
you  will  understand  better  whence  it  comes  ;  but  you  will  never,  never 
see  it." 

In  the  fish  game  which  is  a  great  favorite,  the  child  represents  the 


582  THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

swimming  of  the  fishes  by  a  very  rapid  movement  of  the  fingers.     The 
words  sung  are : 

See  how  within  the  shallow  stream 
The  silvery  little  fishes  gleam  ; 
See  how  they  dart  along  the  ground 
Chasing  each  other  round  and  round. 

FrobeFs  explanation  refers  to  the  pleasure  of  children  in  watching 
the  real  fish  dart  through  the  water,  with  which  experience  the  game  is 
obviously  connected. 

"  Birds  and  fishes,  fishes  and  birds,  these  give  the  child  a  pleasure 
which  is  always  fresh.  Why  ? — Is  it  not  because  they  seem  so  independ- 
ent in  their  movement,  and  the  water  and  air  in  which  they  move  are  so 
clear  and  pure  ?  Purity,  freedom  and  unimpeded  activity, — these  are 
the  sources  of  the  child's  joy  and  the  needs  of  his  soul.  And  yet  there 
is  nothing  the  child  likes  better  than  to  chase  the  bird  and  catch  the 
fish.  Is  not  that  a  contradiction  ?  Nay,  mother,  to  me  it  seems  not  so. 
In  the  bird  your  child  is  trying  to  catch  the  bird's  free  flight,  in  the 
fish  his  quick  and  joyous  motion.  But  the  fish  and  bird  when  caught 
give  no  gladness.  Within  must  freedom  be  won,  within  must  activity 
be  developed,  within  must  purity  be  felt  as  the  atmosphere  of  life.  Try, 
mother,  to  bring  these  truths  in  faintest  forebodings  near  to  your  child, 
and  they  shall  be  in  him  a  well-spring  of  peace  and  joy." 

It  was  FrobeFs  recognition  of  the  child's  love  of  movement  and  mov- 
ing objects  which  led  him  to  choose  the  ball  as  his  first  plaything.  As 
the  separate  faculties  of  the  child  sleep  in  the  unity  of  his  unconscious 
life,  and  this  life  shows  itself  in  a  general  and  indefinite  activity,  so  the 
qualities  of  all  material  things  are  embodied  in  the  ball  and  express 
their  harmonious  union  in  its  extreme  moveableness.  The  ball  is  thus 
the  external  counterpart  of  the  child,  its  unity  corresponding  to  his  be- 
ing, its  ready  moveableness  to  his  intense  life,  and  its  indefiniteness  mak- 
ing it  the  fit  medium  for  the  expression  of  his  indefinite  thought.  He 
rolls  it,  he  tosses  it,  he  bounces  it ;  fastened  to  a  string  he  moves  it  up 
and  down,  right  and  left,  round  and  round.  He  makes  it  creep  like 
the  mouse,  fly  like  the  bird,  swim  like  the  fish,  climb  like  the  squirrel. 
Soon  he  begins  to  notice  form ;  apples,  peaches,  cherries,  marbles,  are 
round  like  his  ball,  and  gradually  by  instinctive  comparison  of  balls  of 
different  colors  he  recognizes  color  and  abstracts  it  from  form.  His 
ball  is  thus,  as  Frobel  says,  a  key  to  the  outward  world  and  an  awakener 
of  the  mind.  He  both  sees  himself  in  it  and  expresses  himself  through 
it,  and  through  this  reflection  and  expression  learns  to  know  himself 
and  the  world  around  him.  Herein  lies  its  charm  for  the  children  of 
all  races  and  ages,  and  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  balls  even  among 
the  remains  of  such  a  primitive  people  as  the  lake  dwellers  of  Switzer- 
land. Instinctive  choices  show  universal  needs  and  adaptations. 

I  am  almost  ashamed  to  add  that  Frobel  did  not  mean  that  babies 
should  have  object  lessons  on  form,  color  and  movement  given  through 
the  ball,  yet  it  seems  necessary  to  do  so  when  he  is  gravely  accused  of 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS.  583 

this  intention,  and  when  some  who  call  themselves  his  followers  have 
perverted  the  ball  to  this  use.  Frbbel  meant  the  child  to  play  with 
the  ball  just  as  freely  and  instinctively  as  the  kitten  does,  but  he  wished 
the  mother  to  know  and  point  the  meaning  of  this  play,  helping  the 
young  mind  thus  to  accumulate  experiences  and  develop  energies. 

Another  peculiarity  of  childhood,  upon  which  Frbbel  lays  great 
stress,  is  the  feeling  of  nearness  to  distant  objects.  "  Heaven,"  says 
Wordsworth,  "  lies  around  us  in  our  infancy."  "  We  know  not  of  changes, 
we  dream  not  of  spaces,"  writes  Mrs.  Browning,  describing  babyhood, 
and  she  adds  a  few  lines  farther  on,  "  We  dream  we  can  touch  all  the 
stars  that  we  see."  Frobel  tells  with  great  sympathy  the  story  of  a 
little  boy  who  tried  to  climb  to  the  moon,  and  we  can  all  recall  illustra- 
tions of  the  childish  insensibility  to  distance,  the  instinctive  feeling  of 
connection  with  what  is  most  remote.  This  is  the  germ  from  which 
Frobel  would  develop  gradually  a  deep  intuition  of  the  oneness  of 
life, — leading  from  the  form  in  which  the  feeling  is  false  to  the  form  in 
which  it  embodies  the  highest  truth.  Science  tells  us  that  "  if  a  single 
grain  of  sand  were  destroyed  the  universe  would  collapse,"  and  the 
deepest  utterance  of  spiritual  insight  is  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one." 
If  unity  and  connection  are  truths  of  nature  and  of  man  must  not 
forebodings  of  them  haunt  the  mind  from  birth  ?  And,  again  referring 
to  history  for  a  parallel,  is  it  not  fraught  with  meaning  that  man's  first 
monument  should  be  a  tower  which  he  vainly  hoped  might  connect  the 
earth  and  sky  ? 

The  most  obvious  and  significant  parallel  between  the  development 
of  the  race  and  the  individual  lies  in  the  gradual  expansion  of  human 
relations.  History  shows  us  families  growing  into  tribes, — tribes  ex- 
panding and  combining  into  nations, — nations  waking  to  the  recogni- 
tion of  mutual  dependence, — the  idea  of  the  organic  unity  of  mankind 
dawning  slowly  in  the  consciousness  of  man, — the  brotherhood  of 
man  finding  its  cause  and  explanation  in  the  fatherhood  of  God.  So 
the  physical  union  with  the  mother,  in  which  individual  life  begins, 
vanishes  in  a  deeper  union  of  sympathy  and  love,  and  love  thus  awak- 
ened extends  itself  to  father,  sister,  brother,  companions,  friends,  home, 
country,  humanity  and  God.  Each  phase  of  this  progressive  develop- 
ment rests  upon  that  which  went  before,  and  determines  that  which 
shall  come  after;  and  Frbbel  had  no  hesitation  in  connecting  the  first 
smile  with  which  the  baby  responds  to  his  mother's  tenderness  with 
that  devout  assurance  of  union  with  God  which  fears  neither  height 
nor  depth,  neither  life  nor  death,  neither  things  present  nor  things  to 
come.  No  wonder  that  He  whose  life  was  the  revelation  of  life's  deep- 
est truth,  and  with  whom  the  beginning  and  the  end  were  one,  should 
exclaim  with  terrible  emphasis,  "  It  were  better  for  thee  that  a  millstone 
were  hanged  about  thy  neck,  and  thou  wert  cast  into  the  depths  of  the 
sea,  than  that  thou  shouldst  offend  one  of  these  little  ones." 

No  person  can  visit  a  foundling  asylum  without  being  struck  with 


584  THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

the  listless  and  indifferent  expression  of  the  baby  faces.  During  a 
visit  of  more  than  an  hour  to  the  celebrated  asylum  in  St.  Petersburg, 
where  a  thousand  babies  are  cared  for,  I  neither  saw  a  single  smile  nor 
heard  a  single  cry.  Jt  seemed  as  though  the  babies  were  hopelessly  bewil- 
dered by  the  number  and  variety  of  the  faces  around  the^m.  We  have  all 
noticed  how  a  strange  face  will  make  a  baby  cry,  and  how  restless  and 
irritable  even  older  children  are  in  the  midst  of  strange  surroundings. 
Yet  how  many,  especially  among  the  rich,  drag  their  little  children 
from  place  to  place,  confusing  the  tender  minds  with  rapidly  succeeding 
impressions,  and  dissipating  feeling  in  a  thousand  frivolous  channels, 
instead  of  concentrating  it  within  the  narrow  limits  of  a  happy  home. 

According  to  Frobel,  when  the  child  has  learned  to  stand  and  walk 
alone  he  comes  to  the  first  crisis  in  his  history.  From  a  state  of  com- 
plete physical  union  with  his  mother  he  has  passed  into  a  state  of  rela- 
tive independence.  If  his  affections  have  been  roused  as  his  sense  of 
personality  has  developed, — if  he  has  learned  to  love  his  mother  while 
learning  to  separate  himself  from  her, — then  the  best  foundation  for 
moral  and  social  relationships  has  been  securely  laid.  Separation 
should  tend  always  to  a  deeper  union.  The  baby's  first  tottering  steps 
should  be  always  towards  his  mother's  outstretched  arms  and  loving 
heart. 

Who  that  has  ever  tried  to  amuse  a  baby  has  not  played  the  Hiding 
Game  ?  How  many  of  us  have  ever  analyzed  the  secret  of  its  fascina- 
tion? You  throw  a  handkerchief  over  your  own  face,  or  over  the 
baby's,  only  to  snatch  it  away  the  next  minute,  and  the  child  seems 
never  to  tire  of  this  simple  alternation  of  hiding  and  finding.  What- 
ever gives  constant  pleasure  is  in  some  way  connected  with  develop- 
ment, and  this  simple  game  illustrates  the  universal  law  which  lifts 
feelings  into  consciousness  by  contrasting  them  with  their  opposites. 
"  Why  is  it,"  Frobel  asks  the  mother,  "  that  your  baby  loves  to  hide  ? 
He  might  lie  unhidden  in  your  arms,  on  your  knee,  close  to  your  heart, 
and,  lying  thus,  see  ever  your  eyes  looking  back  into  his  own.  Does 
he  want  to  conceal  himself  from  you — to  be  separated  from  you  ?  God 
forbid  !  He  hides  himself  for  the  happiness  of  being  found,  and  seeks 
instinctively,  through  momentary  alienation,  to  quicken  and  intensify 
his  feeling  of  union  with  you."  For  the  same  reason,  the  older  child 
loves  the  fairy-tales  which  lift  him  out  of  his  own  life.  The  youth 
needs  travel  in  strange  lands  in  order  to  understand  his  own.  Educa- 
tion immerses  the  student  in  the  past  that  he  may  truly  read  the  secret 
of  the  present,  and  God  teaches  his  children  the  deepest  mysteries  of 
love  and  life  through  sorrow  and  death.  In  all  attempts  to  apply  this 
law,  the  important  thing  is  to  remember  that  alienation  is  always 
means  to  an  end.  The  child  may  dwell  on  wonders  until  his  own  life 
seems  vapid  to  him;  the  youth,  by  too  long  absence  from  his  country, 
may  wreck  his  patriotism  ;  the  student  may  lose  himself  so  completely 
in  the  past  that  he  can  never  find  himself  in  the  present ;  and  selfish- 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS.  585 

ness  too  often  perverts  the  lessons  of  grief.  The  truth  lies  not  in  con- 
trasts, but  in  their  mediation,  and  Frobel  is  careful  to  point  out  to  the 
mother  the  injury  she  may  do  her  child  if  she  fails  to  respond  to  the  joy 
he  feels  in  his  renewed  and  intensified  union  with  her.  "  You  must  keep 
on  saying,  '  Darling,  I'm  so  glad,  so  glad  to  see  you,' "  said  a  dear  little 
girl  to  me,  one  day,  when,  after  playing  hide-and-seek  for  a  long  time, 
my  attention  began  to  wander.  Her  disappointed  face  showed  what 
the  recognition  meant  to  her,  and  I  learned  a  lesson  I  can  never  forget. 

To  my  mind,  one  of  the  most  suggestive  connections  which  Frobel 
has  traced  is  that  between  the  cuckoo  game  and  conscience.  The  game 
itself  is  very  simple.  The  child  hides,  and,  while  hidden,  calls 
"  Cuckoo  !  cuckoo !  "  to  the  mother  who  hunts  for  him.  When  she 
has  found  him,  she  must  hide,  and  her  voice,  calling  "Cuckoo!"  to 
him,  gives  him  a  hint  in  what  direction  to  look  for  her.  "  Do  you 
say/'  asks  Frobel,  "  that  there  is  no  difference  between  this  and  the 
simple  hiding-game  ?  In  its  essence  it  is  very  different  from  the  hiding- 
game,  though  nearly  related  to  it.  It  is  its  expansion  and  develop- 
ment, and,  practically,  appears  later  among  the  favorite  plays  of  the 
child.  What,  then,  is  the  difference  between  the  two,  and  wherein  lies 
the  essence  of  progressive  development  in  the  latter?  Observe  the 
plays  of  your  child  carefully,  wise  mother,  and  you  will  see  the  differ- 
ence clearly.  In  the  first  game,  separation  and  union  appear  as  oppo- 
sites,  that  each  may  be  more  consciously  felt ;  in  the  second,  through 
the  cuckoo  call,  these  opposites  are  mediated.  The  characteristic  of 
the  cuckoo  play  is,  union  in  separation,  and  separation  in  union — and 
in  this  peculiarity  lies  its  abiding  charm.  But  the  consciousness  of  union 
in  separation,  and  of  separation  (i.  e.,  personality}  in  union,  is  the  essence 
and  basis  of  conscience.  In  other  words,  the  voice  of  conscience  is  the 
eternal  proclamation  of  man's  relationship  to  God. 

"  Deep  meaning  oft  lies  hid  in  childish  play."  The  microscope,  re- 
vealing an  unseen  world,  has  led  to  some  of  the  most  important  dis- 
coveries of  science,  and,  if  we  rightly  read  the  instinctive  life  of  the 
child,  we  cannot  fail  to  find  in  it  prophecies  of  the  conscious  life  of  the 
man.  In  the  case  just  cited,  the  course  of  development  is  clear. 
Through  play  the  mother  teaches  her  child  to  listen  for  and  love  her 
voice.  By  sharing  his  small  pleasures  she  lifts  him  into  sympathy  with 
her.  The  sympathy  thus  awakened  inclines  him  to  obedience  when 
the  same  voice  which  delighted  him  in  calling  "  Cuckoo !  "  bids  him 
do  this  or  that.  The  mother  thus  becomes  her  child's  external  con- 
science, and  loving  obedience  to  her  wise  commands  prepares  him,  as 
he  grows  older,  to  hearken  reverently  to  the  voice  within.  Finally,  as 
he  listens  to  his  conscience,  he  learns  to  know  his  God  ;  through  doing 
the  right,  is  led  infallibly  to  recognize  the  true.  For,  as  goodness  is  the 
active  phase  of  truth,  and  truth  the  intellectual  phase  of  goodness, 
right  action  must  culminate  in  clear  vision,  and  the  pure  in  heart  will 
always  see  God. 


586  THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

Having  traced  spiritual  insight  back  into  its  unseen  beginnings,  let 
us  honestly  face  the  question  whether  a  soul  may  not  fail  to  find  its 
God  because  a  baby's  heart  has  failed  to  find  its  mother.  Frobel  has 
no  doubt  about  the  answer.  "  The  feeling  of  oneness  with  a  loving 
mother,"  he  says,  "  is  the  germ  from  which  springs  the  feeling  of  union 
with  God,"  and  adds,  "  If  the  infant  be  not  religious,  hardly  will  the 
man  become  so."  Obviously,  the  question  is  not  one  of  religious  teach- 
ing, which  the  young  child  cannot  understand,  but  of  a  religious  life, 
which,  according  to  his  powers,  he  can  and  ought  to  lead.  "  Do  the 
works,"  said  the  Savior  of  men,  "  and  thou  shalt  know  the  doctrine, 
whether  it  be  of  God."  "  If  a  man,"  wrote  the  beloved  disciple,  "  love 
not  his  brother,  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God,  whom  he 
hath  not  seen  ?  " 

These  two  verses  state  the  double  condition  of  religious  insight — 
divine  love  symbolized  in  human  relations,  and  practical  personal  ac- 
tion and  experience  as  the  basis  of  a  living  creed.  The  infant  brings 
his  religious  nature  with  him  into  the  world.  The  soul  which  came 
forth  from  God  hears  within  it  the  yearning  after  God.  If  this  were 
not  so,  religion,  at  any  period  of  life,  would  be  an  impossibility ;  as  it 
is  so,  religious  training  should  begin  with  the  beginning  of  life,  and  a 
connected  sequence  of  religious  experiences  culminates  gradually  in  re- 
ligious insight.  Small  chance,  therefore,  of  true  and  happy  religion 
for  the  man  whose  childish  hands  were  never  folded  in  prayer,  whose 
slumbers  were  never  soothed  by  sweet  hymns,  and  the  echoes  of  whose 
soul  were  never  wakened  by  the  upward  glance,  the  kneeling  attitude, 
and  the  devout  tones  of  faith.  Smaller  chance  still  for  him  who  can 
remember  no  love  and  care  which  typified,  however  imperfectly,  the 
love  of  the  universal  Father.  One  law  applies  to  every  phase  of  human 
development,  and  as  we  learn  to  stand  by  standing,  to  work  by  work- 
ing, and  to  love  by  loving,  so  we  learn  religion  by  being  religious. 

Probably  all  who  remember  their  childhood  remember  the  game  of 
The  Three  Knights.  In  it  one  child  personates  the  mother,  three  chil- 
dren represent  knights,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  players  are  children 
whom  the  knights  want  to  carry  away  and  the  mother  is  unwilling  to 
give  up.  The  charm  of  the  game  is  in  the  struggle  of  the  knights  and 
the  mother  over  each  particular  child.  Who  does  not  see  at  once  the 
instinct  in  which  this  game  has  its  root  ? 

With  the  gradually-dawning  sense  of  personality  there  dawns  also  in 
the  child's  mind  the  desire  to  be  loved.  Recognizing  himself,  he  wants 
recognition ;  feeling  his  distinctness,  he  feels  also  his  dependence. 
This  is  a  most  important  moment  in  life.  When  a  child  begins  to 
want  love,  he  will  value  that  in  himself  which  attracts  love.  In  large 
measure,  therefore,  his  standard  will  be  fixed  by  the  praise  and  blame, 
the  sympathies  and  aversions,  of  those  around  him. 

The  game  of  the  knights  expresses  the  child's  felt  need  of  love,  but 
does  not  show  how  he  may  be  lovable.  Like  all  the  blind  gropings  of 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NTRSKKY  SONGS.  587 

instinct  it  indicates  an  end  it  cannot  attain.  Frobel  lifts  it  into  com- 
pleteness, and  makes  it  an  efficient  means  of  developing  the  good  in  the 
child  by  changes  which  deepen  its  fascination  while  revealing  the  con- 
nection between  goodness  and  love, — between  what  the  child  is  and  the 
feeling  others  will  have  for  him. 

In  his  commentary  on  the  game,  Frobel  shows  how  much  harm  is 
done  little' children  by  the  undue  emphasis  placed  on  externals.  What 
a  beautiful  child !  Let  me  kiss  his  rosy  cheeks  !  What  pretty,  curly 
hair!  What  a  lovely  dress  !  What  will  people  think  of  you  with  your 
torn  dress  and  dirty  face  ?  Are  not  these  fair  samples  of  the  praise 
and  blame  given  little  children  ?  Then  what  should  we  expect  of  them 
but  that  they  would  value  these  things  supremely  ? 

Love  of  approbation  is  a  root  which  may  bear  either  a  healthful  or  a 
poisonous  fruit.  It  has  its  deep  source  in  the  relationships  of  human 
souls  to  each  other  and  to  God.  Consequently,  it  is  perverted  with  the 
perversion  of  these  relationships,  and  in  the  hearts  of  sinful  men  in  a 
wicked  world,  is  more  often  a  power  of  evil  than  of  good.  We  call  the 
man  who  rises  above  the  moral  ideal  of  his  age,  a  saint,  and  the  ex- 
treme rarity  of  his  appearance  shows  how  largely  the  universal  con- 
science determines  the  particular,  how  the  tainted  life-blood  of  humanity 
infects  the  life  of  each  individual  man. 

This,  of  course,  just  means  that  we  can  only  help  others  by  being 
what  we  ought,  ourselves.  Our  partial  insights  are  the  result  of  our 
partial  being.  Our  feeble  lives  are  the  projection  of  our  own  feeble- 
ness. Our  failure  to  influence  comes  from  our  failure  to  be.  The 
mother  who  plants  vanity,  instead  of  aspiration,  in  her  child's  heart,  by 
praising  his  looks  more  than  his  moral  effort,  and  noticing  his  clothes 
more  than  his  character,  does  so  because  in  her  own  heart  that  which 
is  seen  and  temporal  has  greater  control  than  that  which  is  unseen  and 
eternal.  Ask  her  what  she  most  desires  for  her  child  and  she  will  tell 
you  that  he  may  be  good.  Question  her  life  and  you  will  find  that 
goodness,  to  her,  means  conformity  to  the  external  standard  set  up  by 
the  society  in  which  she  moves.  Watch  her  daily  actions  and  you  will 
see  her  putting  appearance  before  reality,  striving  rather  to  seem  than 
to  be,  valuing  reputation  rather  than  character,  prizing  in  all  things  the 
effect  instead  of  the  essence.  Our  praise  and  blame,  our  love  and  hate, 
cannot  rise  higher  than  ourselves,  and  it  is  because  we  must  speak  as 
we  are  that  our  idle  words  tell  against  us  in  the  judgment.  To  play 
the  simplest  of  Frb'bel's  games,  in  the  right  spirit,  demands  a  soul  pure 
in  its  purpose  and  constant  in  its  struggle,  and  a  rooted  conviction  that 
the  life  is  more  than  meat,  and  the  body  greater  than  raiment. 

To  the  need  of  being  loved,  corresponds  the  need  of  loving.  The 
loving  heart  shows  itself  in  loving  actions.  If  we  want  to  strengthen 
love  we  must  do  the  acts  which  love  commands.  The  feeling  which 
does  not  express  itself  in  action,  dies.  Frobel  lays  great  stress  upon 
these  simple  thoughts.  The  basket  game  is  one  of  many,  in  which  he 


588  THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

shows  how  even  a  baby  may  do  something  for  others.  "  Make  a  basket 
for  papa,"  says  the  mother,  and  while  the  baby  twines  his  little  fingers 
in  and  out  in  imitation  of  weaving,  she  sings  : 

We  the  slender  twigs  are  taking, 

And  nice  little  baskets  making. 

From  the  lovely  rosy  bowers, 

"We  will  fill  it  with  sweet  flowers. 

La,  la,  la,  la.    La,  la,  la,  la.    Give  it  to  papa. 

Even  the  very  young  child  can  share  his  food,  can  water  flowers,  can 
give  milk  to  his  cat,  can  throw  crumbs  to  his  chickens,  can  pick  up  his 
mamma's  handkerchief,  can  meet  his  papa  at  the  door  when  he  comes 
home  from  work.  Who  does  not  feel  that  if  we  would  train  the  little 
children  to  do  these  little  things  we  should  strengthen  them  for  the 
heavier  duties  of  later  life  ? 

The  instinct  of  children  is  to  share  the  life  around  them.  Little 
girls  are  eager  to  help  in  the  work  of  the  house,  to  sweep,  dust,  cook, 
sew,  or  do  anything  that  older  people  are  doing.  The  boy  will  follow 
his  father  to  the  farm,  to  the  forge,  to  the  shop,  and  is  proud  and  happy 
to  be  of  the  least  use.  How  often  do  father  and  mother  reject  the  weak 
but  willing  help  of  the  little  child !  How  often  do  they  complain  bitterly 
of  the  laziness,  selfishness  and  indifference  of  the  older  son  or  daughter  I 

As  the  child's  interests  and  sympathies  expand,  he  comes  to  notice 
the  different  activities  of  men.  With  the  presentiment  that  he,  too,  is 
born  to  be  a  worker  in  the  world,  he  eagerly  watches  the  world's  work. 
And  not  content  with  watching,  he  tries  to  imitate.  The  baby  will  try 
to  follow  the  motions  of  those  he  sees  working.  The  older  child  digs 
and  plants,  makes  houses  in  the  sand,  floats  his  tiny  boat  on  the  water, 
and  dams  the  stream  to  turn  his  toy  mill.  Frobel  responds  to  the  effort 
of  the  baby  by  a  series  of  dramatic  games,  representing  the  movements 
peculiar  to  different  kinds  of  work,  and  to  the  need  of  the  older  child, 
by  the  gifts  and  occupations  of  the  kindergarten,  through  which  he  is 
enabled  to  imitate  all  kinds  of  technical  and  artistic  processes. 

The  importance  of  industrial  education  is  every  day  more  widely 
admitted.  That  Frobel  has  found  the  true  beginning  of  technical 
training,  is  also  quite  generally  recognized.  It  is  one  of  the  important 
features  of  his  system  that  a  definite  training  of  the  hand  is  begun  in 
babyhood.  There  are  games  to  strengthen  and  give  freedom  to  the 
wrist,  there  are  games  to  discipline  the  muscles  of  the  arm,  there  are 
games  to  teach  force  and  flexibility  to  the  fingers.  The  hand  is  man's 
first  and  most  important  tool.  It  cannot  be  too  early  taught  to  obey 
his  thought  and  execute  his  will.  We  shall  have  no  large  class  of 
skilled  workmen  until  we  learn  from  Frobel  how  to  keep  hands  from 
growing  clumsy,  and  fingers  from  getting  stiff. 

The  most  fascinating  feature  of  Frobel's  games  to  a  thoughtful  per- 
son is,  however,  their  reaction  on  thought.  They  are  rooted,  every  one 
of  them,  in  the  relationship  of  feeling,  action,  and  thought ;  they  obey, 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NCK.SERY   SONGS.  589 

without  exception,  that  deep  law  which  connects  instinct,  expression 
and  insight.  How  through  their  contrasts  the  activity  of  comparison  is 
roused ;  how  they  quicken  and  intensify  perception,  what  presentiments 
they  create  of  the  subtle  relationships  of  sound  and  movement ; — how 
they  stir  in  the  child  the  sense  of  proportion, — how  they  show  the  soul 
of  harmony  in  the  relation  of  numbers, — how  they  foreshadow  even 
the  mysterious  correspondence  of  space  and  time; — all  these  things  and 
many,  many  others  can  only  be  realized  by  those  who,  believing  that  in 
the  night  of  unconsciousness  slumber  all  the  possibilities  of  the  poet 
and  the  philosopher,  will  have  patience  to  watch  with  Frobel  for  the 
dawning  of  the  soul's  light. 

The  opponents  of  the  Kindergarten  have  indulged  in  a  great  deal  of 
scornful  mirth  over  what  they  have  been  pleased  to  call  its  false  and 
pernicious  symbolism.  Can  that  be  seriously  called  an  educational 
system,  they  ask,  which  allows  balls  to  be  called  fishes,  and  frogs,  cats 
and  squirrels. — which  sees  in  little  match-like  sticks  trees  and  lamp- 
posts and  soldiers, — which  makes  the  same  block  stand  for  a  house,  a 
chair  and  a  sheep,  and  even  uses  the  child's  fingers  to  represent  his 
grandmother,  his  parents  and  his  brothers  and  sisters  V 

Again  Frobel  appeals  from  the  scorn  of  his  critics  to  the  history  of 
the  race,  and  the  instinctive  manifestations  of  the  child.  He  hears 
untutored  men  call  the  brave  man,  a  lion, — the  meek  man,  a  lamb, — 
the  cunning  man,  a  fox.  He  hears  the  savage  describe  his  face  not  as 
round  but  as  moon,  and  say  of  his  fruit  that  it  is  sugar-cane  instead  of 
saying  that  it  is  sweet.  He  finds  among  the  monuments  of  ancient 
art  three  cubes  standing  side  by  side,  inscribed  with  the  names  of  the 
three  Graces.  He  studies  reverently  Egypt's  great  unsolved  problems 
as  they  are  imaged  in  the  pyramids  and  the  sphinx.  He  reads  the 
spirit's  faint  intuition  of  immortality  in  the  mysterious  phoenix. 
Finding  everywhere  that  man  has  sought  to  express  in  symbols  the 
truths  he  feels,  but  does  not  understand,  he  turns  his  eyes  upon  the 
child  to  seek  in  his  instinctive  life  another  parallel  with  the  develop- 
ment of  mankind. 

At  once  he  notices  the  tendency  of  childhood  to  detect  and  delight 
in  the  most  remote  resemblances.  "  Father  and  mother  stars,"  calls 
out  a  two-year-old  baby  on  seeing  in  the  sky  two  large,  bright  stars  in 
the  midst  of  a  number  of  small  ones.  "  Dust  on  the  water,"  exclaims 
a  boy  of  four,  as  standing  on  the  sea-shore  he  is  blinded  by  the  mist 
and  spray.  "  Let  me  catch  the  bird,"  cries  the  little  girl,  as  she  watches 
with  delight  the  flickering  reflection  of  the  sunlight  on  the  wall.  Illus- 
trations might  be  multiplied,  but  we  6:0  not  need  them.  We  have  all 
seen  the  boy  ride  his  father's  cane  and  call  it  a  horse ;  we  have  watched 
many  a  little  girl  caress  the  towel  she  has  rolled  and  wrapped  for  her 
baby ;  we  know  how  to  the  imagination  of  the  child  "  the  rose  leans 
over  to  kiss  baby  rose-bud,"  and  "  God  sends  the  little  star  baby,  'cause 
the  moon  was  so  lonely  in  the  sky." 


590  T;II;  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

The  symbolic  stage  of  thought  is  characterized  by  the  perception  of 
resemblances,  without  abstraction  of  the  qualities  in  which  the  resem- 
blance lies.  When  the  child  calls  the  quivering  reflection  of  the  sun- 
light a  bird  he  shows  us  that  he  has  been  struck  chiefly  with  the  bird's 
swift  motion,  but  at  the  same  time  has  not  learned  to  consider  motion 
as  an  abstraction.  He  has  seized  the  bird  in  the  quality  motion,  but 
holds  this  motion  in  identity  with  the  bird. 

So,  too,  it  is  through  the  creeping,  swimming  and  climbing  motions 
that  he  identifies  the  cat,  the  fish  and  the  squirrel  with  his  ball.  His 
sticks  stand  for  trees,  lamp-posts  and  soldiers  through  the  quality  of 
straightness,  and  his  many  fingers  on  one  hand  suggest  the  merging  of 
father,  mother  and  children  in  the  unity  of  the  family. 

It  is  a  fact  full  of  deep  meaning  that  the  obscure  thought  or  feeling 
recognizes  itself  in  a  symbol,  and  cannot  recognize  itself  in  a  definite 
and  exact  reflection.  We  need  a  mirror,  not  of  what  we  are,  but  of 
what  we  already  dimly  see  ourselves  to  be.  This  is  the  reason  that 
the  child's  life  grows  clearer  to  him  through  the  life  of  birds  and 
animals  than  through  the  human  life  around  him.  He  is  drawn  closer 
to  his  mother  by  watching  the  cat  with  her  kittens,  or  the  mother-bird 
with  her  young,  than  he  is  by  seeing  other  children  with  their  mothers. 
It  is  no  idle  curiosity  which  bids  him  peer  into  the  bird's  nest  and 
watch  so  intently  while  the  mother-bird  feeds  her  young  or  covers  them 
with  her  sheltering  wings.  He  is  fascinated  because  thus  his  own  life 
is  made  objective  to  him,  his  own  relationships  are  shown  to  him  in 
symbol.  Let  us  be  glad  then  that  Frobel  shows  the  baby  how  to  make 
nests  with  his  little  hands,  how  to  represent  the  fluttering  young  birds 
with  his  fat  thumbs,  and  how  to  love  his  own  mother  more  as  she  sings 
to  him  of  the  mother-bird. 

The  child  not  only  expresses  himself  symbolically,  but  is  quick  to  in- 
terpret the  symbolism  of  nature.  If  on  the  one  hand  we  recognize  that  he 
must  represent  before  he  can  understand,  and  know  that  the  analogies 
which  underlie  his  action  will  in  due  course  develop  comparison  and 
abstraction,  can  we  doubt  on  the  other  that  the  types  of  nature  will 
reveal  their  archetypes,  and  the  material  symbol  vanish  in  the  spiritual 
reality.  Looking  into  the  past  we  find  that  all  the  phenomena  of 
nature  have  been  worshiped  by  men ;  that  the  human  heart  has  bowed 
itself  to  sun  and  moon,  to  mountains  and  rivers,  to  beasts,  and  even  to 
the  most  disgusting  reptiles.  We  remember  the  thunders  and  lightning 
of  Sinai ;  the  mystery  of  the  burning  bush  and  the  pillar  of  cloud  and 
of  fire.  We  know  that  to-day  the  oldest  of  Christian  churches  cele- 
brates her  mysteries  in  symbolic  forms  and  services,  and  the  universal 
heart  of  Christendom  concentrates  its  deepest  feelings  and  intuitions 
in  the  symbol  of  the  cross.  From  all  these  things  may  we  not  infer 
deep  analogies  between  the  outer  and  the  inner  world ;  between  the 
truths  God  writes  in  human  hearts,  and  those  he  proclaims  through  the 
thousand  voices  of  earth,  and  believe  that  by  a  process  we  cannot  trace, 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS.  591 

the  mind  may  move  from  the  perception  of  the  symbol  to  the  conscious 
realization  of  the  truth  symbolized  ?  Such,  at  least,  was  Frobel's  firm 
conviction  ;  and  we  find  him  consequently  in  many  of  his  little  plays 
directing  attention  to  the  natural  symbols  of  great  truths,  leading  the 
child  to  love  the  light,  teaching  him  reverence  for  unseen  forces,  mak- 
ing him  feel  the  unity  that  underlies  variety,  and  stirring  within  him  a 
prophetic  certainty  of  complete  self -recognition. 

A  single  illustration  must  suffice  to  indicate  this  phase  of  Frobel's 
thought.  To  many,  I  fear,  it  will  prove  a  stumbling-block;  to  many 
others,  foolishness.  To  those  only  will  it  commend  itself,  who,  realiz- 
ing that  all  things  are  connected,  know  that  nothing  is  insignificant. 

"  It  is  my  firm  conviction,"  writes  he,  "  that  whatever  gives  the 
child  pure  and  persistent  pleasure  is,  however,  remotely  connected  with 
some  deep  truth  of  his  nature,  and  has  in  it  a  germ  of  highest  possi- 
bilities." In  the  light  of  this  faith  look  at  the  shadow  pictures  on  the 
walll 

"  Between  the  bright  light  which  shines  on  the  smooth,  white  wall,  is 
thrust  a  dark  object,  and  straightway  appears  the  form  which  so  de- 
lights the  child.  This  is  the  outward  fact ;  what  is  the  truth  which 
through  this  fact  is  dimly  hinted  to  the  prophetic  mind  ?  Is  it  not  the 
creative  and  transforming  power  of  light,  that  power  which  brings  form 
and  color  out  of  dark  chaos  and  makes  the  beauty  which  gladdens  our 
hearts  ?  Is  it  not  more  than  this,  a  foreshadowing,  perhaps,  of  the  spirit- 
ual fact  that  our  darkest  experiences  may  project  themselves  in  forms 
that  will  delight  and  bless,  if  back  of  them  in  our  hearts  shines  the 
light  of  God.  Stern  bare  rocks  and  forbidding  clefts  grow  beautiful  in 
the  sunlight,  and  the  fairest  landscape  loses  life,  beauty  and  expression 
in  the  darkness.  Is  it  not  thus  also  with  our  lives  ?  Yesterday  they 
seemed  to  us  full  of  beauty  and  of  hope  ;  to-day  we  see  nothing  but 
struggle  and  pain  ;  yesterday  we  felt  within  us  great  possibilities ;  to- 
day we  stagger  under  doubts,  and  groan  in  the  darkness  of  our  souls. 
Only  clear  conviction  that  it  is  the  darkness  within  us  which  makes  the 
darkness  without,  and  that  all  lives  are  beautiful  when  lived  in  the  light 
of  God's  idea  of  them,  can  restore  the  lost  peace  of  our  souls.  Be  it 
therefore,  oh  mother,  your  sacred  duty  to  make  your  child  feel  early  the 
working  both  of  the  outer  and  the  inner  light.  Let  him  see  in  one  the 
symbol  of  the  other,  and  tracing  form  and  color  to  their  source  in  the 
sun,  may  he  learn  to  trace  the  beauty  and  meaning  of  his  life  to  their 
source  in  God." 

The  analogy  between  light  and  truth  has  always  been  most  deeply 
felt  by  the  most  spiritual  minds.  The  Magi  said  of  God  that  "  He  had 
light  for  his  body  and  truth  for  his  soul."  The  Psalmist  exclaims, 
"  Thou  hast  covered  thyself  with  light  as  with  a  garment.  Christ  tells 
us  that  "  God  is  light  and  in  Him  is  no  darknesss  at  all ;  "  and  St.  John 
writing  of  that  state  where  we  shall  have  done  with  all  symbols  because 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  ANT)  NURSERY  SONGS. 

completely  penetrated  with  the  realities  they  represent,  declares  that 
"  The  city  hath  no  need  of  the  sun,  neither  of  the  moon  to  lighten  it." 

If  the  connection  is  thus  real  will  it  not  make  itself  felt  ?  May  not 
the  heart  of  the  child  thrill,  as  the  heart  of  mankind  has  done,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  objective  expression  of  its  inward  need  ?  May  not  a  child- 
hood of  spiritual  presentiments  best  prepare  for  a  manhood  of  spiritual 
insights  ? 

As  has  been  already  repeatedly  stated,  Frobel's  life  and  thought  were 
ruled  by  the  idea  of  organic  unity.  That  all-pervading  law  of  organ- 
ism by  which  they  progress  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous, 
and  realize  the  highest  unity  through  the  extreme  of  variety,  was  ever 
present  in  his  mind,  and  his  ideal  consequently  was  the  complete  devel- 
opment of  the  individual  man  for  the  sake  of  all  men.  Therefore  he 
aimed  through  self-activity  to  develop  powers  ;  through  love  to  conse- 
crate them  to  service ;  through  service  to  lift  them  into  consciousness. 
To  know  himself  man  must  feel  and  know  all  his  relationships,  and 
he  learns  the  sweetness  and  solemnity  of  his  life  only  by  realizing  its 
connections  with  nature,  with  man,  and  with  God. 

In  view  of  this  vital  truth  Frobel  insists  that  from  the  beginning  of 
life  the  child  shall  be  led  to  see  and  feel  connections  and  dependences. 
As  these  connections  exist  in  the  least  things  they  can  be  shown  in  the 
least  things,  and  the  habit  of  mind  thus  formed  will  extend  itself  to 
greater  things  as  the  child's  powers  strengthen  and  his  experiences  en- 
large. An  instinct  of  this  connection  underlies  the  favorite  game  of  all 
nurseries,  "  Pat-a-cake,"  in  which  the  mother  shows  the  child  that  with- 
out the  baker  he  could  not  have  his  cake ;  Frobel  seizes  this  hint  and 
develops  it.  For  the  cake  the  child  depends  on  the  baker,  the  baker  on 
the  miller,  the  miller  on  the  farmer,  the  farmer  on  the  sunshine  and  the 
rain.  In  another  game  called  "  Grass-mowing,"  the  same  general  idea 
is  carried  out.  The  motion  of  the  game  represents  the  mowing  of  the 
grass.  The  words  tell  how  the  baby  loves  milk,  how  the  milk  comes 
from  the  cow,  the  cow  must  be  fed  with  the  grass  the  mower  reaps. 
God  serids  the  sunlight  and  the  rain  to  make  the  grass  grow.  In  still 
another  play  Frobel  unites  in  one  all  the  little  games  the  child  has 
learned.  I  give  the  words  which  accompany  this  game  only  adding 
that  the  particular  motion  associated  with  each  separate  game,  is  re- 
peated when  that  game  is  referred  to.  Thus  the  child  connects  his  iso- 
lated experiences  into  a  whole,  and  begins  to  organize  his  memories. 

MOTTO  FOR  THE  MOTHER. 
"  Whatever  singly  them  hast  played, 
May  in  one  charming  whole  be  made. 
The  child  alone  delights  to  play, 
But  better  still  with  comrades  gay. 
The  single  flower  we  love  to  view, 
Still  more  the  wreath  of  varied  hue. 
In  this  and  all  the  child  may  find 
The  least  within  the  whole  combined." 


THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS.  593 

SONG. 

Two  hands!  thereon  eight  fingers  are  ; 
Two  thumbs  the  two  grandmothers  are. 
They've  come  to  make  each  other  a  call. 
'Tis  long  since  they  have  met  at  all. 
They  bid  each  other  welcome. 
Oh  welcome  !   Oh,  welcome  ! 
Such  bowings  and  such  greetings  ! 
Such  glad  and  tender  meetings  ! 
They  talk  as  if  they  would  never  rest ; 
They  tell  of  the  basket,  the  eggs  in  the  nest ; 
They  tell  of  the  doves  and  the  pigeon  house, 
How  they  fly  in  and  out  in  gay  carouse. 
They  tell  of  the  little  fishes  gay, 
In  the  sparkling  water  floating  away. 
The  baker  and  little  patty-cakes ; 
The  target  the  good  brother  makes. 
Now,  when  they've  reviewed  their  plays  all  through, 
They  ask  each  other  what  next  they  shall  do— 
The  fingers  say  "  To  the  steeple  we'll  go !  " 
But  the  little  grandmothers  they  say  no ! 
In  the  church  door  the  grandmothers  go. 

We  build  up  the  future  on  the  past ;  we  look  back  that  we  may 
move  forward,  we  grow  strong  for  what  is  to  be  by  seeing  clearly  what 
has  been.  Hence  the  great  value  of  history.  Hence,  too,  the  strength 
of  those,  who,  from  time  to  time,  pause  in  life  to  collect  the  results  of 
living ! 

To  most  of  us,  however,  perhaps  to  all  of  us,  the  first  few  years  of 
life  are  a  blank  in  memory.  We  wake  to  consciousness  with  definite 
feelings,  thoughts  and  tendencies.  Whence  sprang  the  feelings  ?  how 
grew  the  thoughts?  what  fixed  the  tendencies?  we  ask  in  vain.  Over 
the  sources  of  life  roll  the  silent  waves  of  unconsciousness,  and  memory 
loses  itself  in  a  beginning  when  "  all  was  without  form  and  void,  and 
darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep." 

How  much  it  would  add  to  the  power  and  beauty  of  our  lives  if  this 
lost  connection  could  at  least  be  partially  restored?  Would  we  not 
better  understand  what  we  are,  by  knowing  how  we  came  to  bef 
Might  not  a  wise  and  tender  mother,  by  watching  her  child,  trace  the 
dawning  of  his  conscious  life  ?  might  she  not,  by  sacredly  guarding  in 
her  heart  and  mind  his  small  experiences,  reconstruct  for  him  the  past 
he  cannot  remember  ?  Ought  not  the  first  history  a  child  learns  be  his 
own? 

The  final  purpose  of  the  "  Mother-Play  and  Nursery  Songs  "  is  to  give 
the  child  this  history  of  his  life.  The  baby  trained  in  obedience  to  its 
wise  suggestions,  now  grown  to  a  child  six  years  old,  sees  himself  and 
his  past  in  its  pictures,  and  understands  himself  through  his  mother's 
explanation  of  them.  On  one  page  he  is  making  a  basket  for  his  papa, 
on  another  he  is  calling  the  chickens,  on  still  another  he  is  watching 
and  stretching  out  his  hands  to  the  moon.  Into  the  general  experi- 
ences it  treasures  up,  the  mother  weaves  particular  facts  out  of  his  own 

38 


594         THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS. 

little  life.     Frb'bel  has  mirrored  the  life  of  childhood ;  the  mother  learna 
from  him  how  to  mirror  the  life  of  her  child. 

The  human  mind  has  two  ruling  passions :  to  know  itself  and  to 
express  its  knowing  ;  being  and  doing,  seeing  and  telling,  insight  and 
creation,  are  inseparable  necessities  of  the  soul.  Feeling  acts  on 
thought,  thought  reacts  on  feeling,  both  complete  themselves  in  action, 
which  again  reacts  on  them.  Obedience  to  the  truth  we  know  is  a  key 
to  the  truth  yet  hidden,  embodiment  of  the  beauty  we  inwardly  see,  a 
revelation  of  the  beauty  yet  unseen,  expression  of  our  total  being 
the  one  way  of  learning  what  we  are.  This  mutual  dependence  of  the 
inward  and  outward  is  constantly  before  the  mind  of  Frobel,  and  I  find 
it  significant  that  in  the  last  two  songs  of  the  Mother-Play  he  indicates 
on  the  one  hand  the  culmination  of  insight  in  the  vision  of  God,  and 
on  the  other  the  culmination  of  expression  in  artistic  creation.  The 
one  calls  the  attention  of  the  little  child  to  the  sound  of  the  church 
bell,  and  bids  him  watch  the  people  who  go  to  thank  Him  who  made 
the  flowers  and  birds,  who  taught  sun,  moon  and  stars  to  shine,  who 
gave  the  baby  to  his  mamma,  and  his  mamma  to  him,  and  who  loves 
all  the  little  children  in  the  world  more,  even,  than  their  mammas  love 
them.  The  other,  detecting  the  child's  need  to  collect  and  embody 
what  he  has  observed  and  felt,  bids  the  mother  guide  his  feeble  fingers 
to  draw,  however  roughly,  in  sand  or  on  a  slate,  the  objects  with  which 
he  is  familiar.  The  former  connects  with  all  the  reverent  foreshadow- 
ing of  his  young  heart,  with  the  awe  which  silently  stole  over  him 
when  first  he  saw  his  mother  kneeling,  with  uplifted  gaze,  beside  his 
bed,  with  the  devotion,  which,  responding  to  its  outward  sign,  sprang 
up  within  him  as  she  clasped  his  hands  in  prayer ;  with  the  intuitions 
stirred  by  the  singing  of  sweet  hymns,  with  the  spiritual  presentiments 
wakened  by  the  symbolic  light,  with  the  solemn  terror  which  crept  over 
him  in  the  darkness  and  the  storm.  The  latter  completes  and  satisfies 
the  activity  which  led  him  to  imitate  the  life  around  him,  helps  him  to 
seize  objects  in  their  totality  instead  of  in  a  single  quality,  and  makes 
his  representations  organic  by  giving  them  permanence.  This  step 
once  taken,  the  child  enters  a  new  phase  of  development.  He  has  ad- 
vanced from  the  fact  to  the  picture !  Here  the  "  Mother-Play  and  Nur- 
sery Songs  "  leave  him.  Here  the  kindergarten  takes  him  up ! 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

BY  MISS   SUSAN  E.   BLOW.   ST.   LOUIS. 


THE  Kindergarten  is  many-sided.  Herein  lies  its  greatest  merit  and 
its  greatest  danger.  To  every  different  point  of  view  it  presents  a  dif- 
ferent face.  To  some  it  is  a  play-school,  to  others  a  workshop,  to 
others  an  improved  system  of  object  lessons.  Its  sole  aim  is  declared 
successively  to  be  physical  development,  technical  training,  the  for- 
mation of  habits  of  cleanliness,  order  and  courtesy,  the  strengthening 
of  observation  and  the  pleasant  teaching  of  useful  facts.  All  are  right 
and  all  are  wrong.  The  Kindergarten  is  all  of  these  things,  and  yet 
no  one  of  them,  nor  even  a  combination  of  them.  Every  part  is  nec- 
essary to  the  whole,  and  yet  the  whole  is  something  more  than  the  sum 
of  its  parts. 

"Who  offers  much,"  says  Goethe,  "brings  something  unto  many." 
Every  man  is  able  to  illustrate  from  his  own  experience  some  phase  of 
a  widely-reaching  truth.  The  meanest  man  finds  himself  best  inter- 
preted by  the  deepest  thinker.  The  partial  views  of  narrow  teachers 
are  reconciled  in  the  inclusive  thought  of  the  philosophic  educator. 
The  perfect  curve  of  the  circle  demands  the  infinite  number  of  its  sides. 

The  Kindergarten  is  organic,  therefore  a  variety  in  unity.  It  rec- 
ognizes that  life  is  essentially  activity,  therefore  aims  mainly  to  de- 
velop power ;  it  knows  that  objective  truth  is  the  mind's  air  and  food, 
therefore  values  knowledge ;  it  sees  that  the  prizes  of  life  fall  to  the 
capable  and  industrious,  therefore  trains  the  child  to  work ;  it  takes 
note  of  the  increasing  complexity  of  social  relationships,  therefore 
strives  to  initiate  him  into  all  the  amenities  of  life ;  it  conceives  the 
child  in  his  threefold  nature — as  a  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
being, — therefore  emphasizes  equally  the  training  of  the  body,  of  the 
mind,  and  of  the  affections  and  will.  Finally  it  grasps  all  these  differ- 
ent phases  of  education  in  the  unity  of  a  single  thought,and  in  the  nature 
and  laws  of  self-conciousness  finds  its  method  and  its  aim.  It  beholds 
the  child  through  expression  struggling  towards  self-knowledge,  and  it 
comes  to  his  aid  with  material  which  appealing  to  his  total  nature  calls 
forth  his  total  activity.  It  helps  him  to  complete  expression  that  it 
may  lead  him  to  clear  insight,  and  holds  up  before  him  all  his  relation- 
ships, that  he  may  realize  all  his  possibilities.  Such  at  least  was  the 
Kindergarten  in  the  idea  of  its  founder.  It  exists  as  yet  nowhere,  and 
for  a  very  simple  reason.  The  ideal  Kindergarten  demands  the  ideal 
Kindergartner. 

The  program  of  the  theoretical  Kindergarten  includes  garden  work, 


596  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

songs,  games,  stories,  talks,  lunch  and  exercises,  in  the  Frb'bel  gifts  and 
occupations. 

The  life  of  man  began  in  a  garden ;  his  first  occupations  were  to  "  dress 
it  and  keep  it  "  and  to  name  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  the  fowls  of  the 
air.  So  the  little  child  should  dig  and  plant  his  own  garden,  and  feed 
and  care  for  his  dog,  his  cat  or  his  bird.  Practical  doing  awakens  love 
and  thought.  Sympathy  with  nature  is  intensified  by  digging  in  the 
ground.  Dependence  is  realized  through  waiting  for  the  results  of  work. 
Curiosity  is  excited  by  the  miracle  of  growth.  The  beauty  of  law  is 
seen  in  the  life  of  trees  and  flowers,  and  the  unconscious  lawfulness  of 
nature  inclines  the  heart  to  free  obedience.  God  is  revealed  to  the  child 
as  He  first  revealed  himself  to  the  human  race — as  creator,  and  the  reve- 
lation of  His  being  in  nature  prepares  for  His  recognition  in  the  soul. 

I  translate  from  the  Baroness  Marenholz-Bulow,  the  most  devoted  of 
Frobel's  co-workers,  an  incident  which  illustrates  these  truths. 

"  Two  little  girls,  four  and  five  years  old,  had  in  the  Kindergarten  a 
garden,  where,  like  the  other  children,  they  had  planted  a  few  peas  and 
beans.  Every  day  they  dug  them  up  with  their  little  hands  to  see 
why  they  didn't  sprout.  The  beds  of  some  of  their  companions 
showed  already  green  shoots  and  tender  leaves  and  this  increased  their 
disappointment  and  impatience.  They  were  told  they  must  stop  dig- 
ging up  their  seeds  and  must  wait  patiently  if  they  wanted  to  have 
plants.  After  this  they  kept  their  hands  out  of  the  dirt,  and  it  was 
touching  to  watch  their  eager  eyes  turned  every  day  on  their  garden, 
and  to  mark  their  growing  patience  and  self-control.  At  last,  one 
morning,  we  saw  them  on  their  knees  gazing  with  wondering,  delighted 
eyes  on  a  number  of  small  green  shoots  which  had  pushed  up  into  the 
light.  Often  before  had  seeds  sprouted  before  their  eyes,  but  they  had 
never  noticed  it.  They  were  indifferent  because  they  had  not  been 
active, — incurious  because  they  themselves  had  not  dug  and  planted 
and  waited.  It  can  never  be  too  often  repeated  that  only  that  impresses 
itself  on  the  child  which  is  in  some  way  connected  with  his  doing. 
Where  the  hands  work  the  eyes  see. 

Our  wondering  little  children  were  in  the  presence  of  a  miracle. 
Yesterday  their  garden  was  brown  and  bare, — to-day  it  was  green  with 
little  shoots.  "  See,"  I  said,  "  you  have  learned  to  wait  and  your  seeds 
have  come  up, — but  did  your  waiting  make  them  grow  ?  "  "  No,"  came 
quickly  from  the  children,  "  it  was  God  that  made  them  grow."  "  Yes," 
I  said,  "  God  sent  the  sunshine  to  warm  the  earth  and  the  seed,  then 
He  sent  dew  and  rain,  and  the  hard  peas  and  beans  softened  in  the 
damp  ground,  then  the  germ  sprouted  as  you  have  seen  it  do  in  peas 
which  were  taken  out  of  the  earth.  God  has  made  you  very  happy, 
wouldn't  you  like  to  do  something  to  make  Him  happy?  What  can  you 
do  ?  "  "  We  can  work  and  be  good,"  said  the  children,  and  the  younger 
cried  out  joyfully  and  in  accents  of  the  deepest  conviction,  "  I  can  do 
something  to  make  God  happy." 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  597 

The  Kindergarten  songs  are  either  taken  from  the  "  Mother  Play  and 
Nursery  Songs,"  or  inspired  by  its  spirit.  The  one  essential  require- 
ment is  that  they  shall  present  the  same  idea  to  thought,  feeling  and 
will.  The  music  must  correspond  to  the  words,  and  both  must  be  illus- 
trated by  gestures. 

Gestures  are  to  spoken  what  pictures  are  to  written  language. 
Words  are  formal  signs,  pictures  and  gestures  universally  recognizable 
representations.  The  word  which  stands  for  tree,  for  instance,  differs 
in  every  different  language ;  the  picture  of  a  tree  is  always  essentially 
the  same.  So  the  words  which  express  love  are  as  various  as  the 
phases  of  the  feeling,  but  the  savage  and  civilized  man  alike  know  the 
meaning  of  the  hand  pressure  and  the  kiss.  What  a  wide  range  of 
ideas  may  be  expressed  by  gestures  is  shown  in  the  pantomime  of  deaf 
mutes,  while  the  natural  tendency  to  employ  gestures  has  been  remarked 
by  every  student  of  primitive  tribes  and  by  every  observer  of  young 
children.  It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  note  that  languages  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  their  development  are  characterized  by  numerous 
homonyms  and  synonyms,  i.  e.,  by  the  use  of  the  same  word  to  express 
many  different  meanings,  and  by  the  use  of  many  different  words  to  ex- 
press the  same  meaning.  To  a  people  whose  speech  is  thus  confused 
the  gesture  which  points  the  meaning  of  a  word  is  about  as  important 
as  the  word  itself.  The  thought  of  the  child  also  begins  in  the  indefi- 
nite and  obscure.  The  words  he  hears  convey  to  him  at  first  very  vague 
and  general  impressions,  and  crystallize  into  clearness  and  precision 
only  by  repeated  association  with  the  acts,  objects,  qualities,  relations 
and  emotions  to  which  they  refer.  To  him,  as  to  the  primitive  man, 
gesture  is  an  important  means  of  indicating  this  connection,  and  his 
conceptions  are  at  once  tested  and  strengthened  by  his  representations. 

He  was  a  wise  man  who  said,  "  Let  me  make  the  songs  of  a  nation 
and  I  care  not  who  may  make  its  laws."  He  is  a  wiser  man  who  aims 
not  only  to  write  a  nation's  songs  but  to  influence  its  games.*  The  activ- 
ities of  men  are  as  important  as  their  feelings,  and  the  character  of  a 
people  is  both  expressed  in  and  intensified  by  national  amusements. 
Would  Greece  have  been  Greece  without  the  Olympian  Games  ?  Can 
we  conceive  the  typical  Englishman  without  his  cricket,  his  foot-ball 
and  his  boat  races  ? 

If  we  watch  the  games  of  children  we  shall  notice  that  they  fall, 
broadly  speaking,  into  three  classes.  In  the  first  class  are  included 
games  of  running,  wrestling,  throwing,  and  all  other  plays  whose  charm 
lies  mainly  in  the  exertion  of  physical  strength  and  skill ;  the  second 
class  of  which  the  "  King  William,"  we  all  so  well  remember,  is  a  type, 
reproduces  the  child's  observations  and  experiences, — and  the  third 
which  may  be  illustrated  by  "  hide  the  handkerchief  "  and  "  turn  the 
platter  "  is  characterized  by  its  appeal  to  the  activities  of  the  mind.  In 
the  Kindergarten  these  different  types  reappear  transfigured.  Frb'bel 
has  studied  instinctive  play — grasped  its  underlying  idea,  and  perfected 


598  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

its  form.  He  has  arranged  a  variety  of  pure  movement  games,  each 
one  of  which  calls  into  play  important  muscles, — he  has  reproduced  life 
in  a  series  of  dramatic  games  representing  the  flowing  of  streams,  the 
sailing  of  boats,  the  flying  of  birds,  the  swimming  of  fishes,  the  activities 
of  the  farmer,  the  miller,  the  baker,  the  carpenter,  the  cobbler, — in  short, 
all  the  activities  of  nature  and  of  man  ;  he  disciplines  the  senses  through 
games  appealing  to  sight,  touch,  hearing,  smell  and  taste,  and  rouses 
pure  mental  activity  through  games  which  stimulate  curiosity  by  sug- 
gesting puzzles. 

A  comparison  of  FrbbePs  plays  with  the  traditional  games  of  differ- 
ent nations  would  do  much  to  show  the  purifying  and  elevating  ten- 
dency of  the  Kindergarten.  The  limits  I  have  set  myself  permit, 
however,  only  one  or  two  suggestive  illustrations. 

The  Kindergarten  games,  like  the  songs,  express  the  same  thought 
in  melody,  in  movement  and  in  words.  They  differ  from  the  songs 
in  that  their  representations  require  the  combined  action  of  many  differ- 
ent children.  In  the  play  of  the  birds'  nest,  for  instance,  a  given  num- 
ber of  children  represent  trees,  imitating,  with  arms  and  fingers,  the 
branches  and  leaves,  while  others,  like  birds,  fly  in  and  out,  build  nests, 
and  finally  drop  their  little  heads  in  sleep.  So  in  the  ship  game,  the  chil- 
dren standing  around  the  circle,  by  a  rhythmical  undulating  movement, 
represent  waves,  while  a  half-dozen  little  children,  with  intertwined 
arms,  form  the  ship,  and  with  a  movement  corresponding  to  that  of  the 
waves,  imitate  its  sailing.  Each  child  has  something  to  do,  and  if  a 
single  child  fails  to  perform  his  part,  the  harmony  of  the  representation 
is  destroyed.  The  games,  therefore,  tend  strongly  to  develop  in  the 
children  mutual  dependence  and  sympathy,  as  in  all  life  nothing  draws 
us  nearer  to  each  other  than  united  action  for  a  common  end. 

History  teaches  us  that  music,  poetry  and  dancing  were  one  in  their 
origin,  and  observation  shows  us  that  they  are  one  to  the  child.  This 
suggests  another  important  aspect  of  the  Kindergarten  games.  We 
must  see  in  them  the  crude  beginnings  of  the  three  arts,  and  from  this 
common  center,  lead  the  child  slowly  to  perception  of  the  harmonies  of 
movement,  the  harmonies  of  sound,  and  the  harmonies  of  thought. 

That  their  varied  possibilities  may  be  realized,  the  games  require 
very  judicious  direction.  The  Kindergartner  must  wisely  alternate 
dramatic  games  with  those  which  appeal  mainly  to  physical  activ- 
ity; games  which  exercise  the  arms  with  games  which  exercise  the 
legs ;  games  which  emphasize  the  activity  of  a  particular  child  with 
those  which  call  for  united  effort.  She  must  adapt  the  games  to  the 
ages  of  the  children  and  to  the  season  of  the  year.  She  must  connect 
them  with  the  child's  life,  and  help  him  to  see  in  them  the  reproduction 
of  his  experiences.  She  must  not  play  one  game  too  long,  lest  monot- 
ony result  in  inattention  ;  neither  must  she  change  the  games  too  often, 
lest  she  tempt  to  frivolity.  She  must  guide  as  a  playmate,  and  not  as  a 
teacher.  She  must  allow  no  mechanical  imitation  of  set  movement, 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  599 

but  aim  to  have  movement  spring  spontaneously  from  the  thought  and 
feeling  of  the  children.  She  must  deeply  feel  the  ruling  idea  of  each 
game,  and  communicate  it  by  contagion  as  well  as  by  words.  In  short, 
possessed  with  a  living  spirit,  she  must  infuse  it  into  the  children,  and 
lead  them  to  give  it  free  and  joyful  expression. 

The  daily  talk  with  the  children  is  one  of  the  most  important  and 
yet  one  of  the  most  neglected  features  of  the  Kindergarten.  It  is  neg- 
lected because  it  cannot  be  done  by  rule,  it  is  important  because  through 
it  the  varied  activity  of  the  Kindergarten  is  concentrated  in  the  unity 
of  its  idea.  What  should  be  talked  about  depends  on  what  the  children 
have  been  doing,  and  the  whole  idea  of  the  conversation  is  lost  when  it 
is  perverted  into  an  object  lesson.  What  the  children  have  expressed 
in  play,  in  their  block-building,  in  their  stick-laying,  in  their  weaving 
and  cutting  and  modeling,  that  also  should  they  learn  to  express  in 
words.  What  they  see  around  them  in  the  room,  what  they  have  no- 
ticed on  their  way  to  the  Kindergarten,  the  pebbles  they  have  picked 
up,  the  insects  they  have  caught,  the  flowers  they  have  brought  with 
loving,  smiling  eyes  to  their  motherly  friend — in  one  word,  in  all  the 
thronging  impressions  which  besiege  the  mind  from  without,  and  in 
all  the  crude  activity  which  shows  the  tumultuous  forces  within,  the 
true  Kindergartner  finds  suggestions  for  her  talks  with  the  little  ones 
she  is  trying  to  lead  into  the  light. 

The  stories  have  one  distinct  object,  which  they  realize  in  a  twofold 
way.  They  aim  to  show  the  child  himself,  and  to  attain  this  end  offer 
him  both  contrasts  and  reflections.  The  wise  Kindergartner  alternates 
the  fairy  tales  which  startle  the  child  out  of  his  own  life  and  enable 
him  to  look  on  it  from  an  alien  standpoint,  with  symbolic  stories  of 
birds  and  flowers  and  insects,  and  with  histories  of  little  boys  and  girls 
in  whose  experiences  she  simply  mirrors  his  own.  Using  the  "Mother- 
Play  and  Nursery  Songs,"  she  leads  the  children  toward  the  past,  and, 
as  they  grow  older,  reproduces,  in  the  legends  of  heroes  and  demi-gods, 
and  in  the  touching  narratives  of  the  Bible,  the  infancy  and  childhood 
of  the  human  race.  Moving  thus  from  the  known  to  the  unknown, 
and  from  the  near  to  the  remote,  she  holds  himself  up  to  him  first  in 
the  glass  of  nature,  then  in  the  glass  of  childhood,  and  at  last  in  the 
glass  of  history.  Finally  she  shows  him  ideal  childhood  in  the  life  of 
the  ideal  child,  and  tells  him  how  the  boy  Jesus  "  grew  in  knowledge 
and  wisdom  and  in  favor  with  God  and  man." 

Never  does  the  Kindergarten  present  a  prettier  picture  than  when 
the  work  is  cleared  away,  the  tables  carefully  set,  and  the  children  with 
shining  faces  and  rosy  hands  are  gathered  at  their  lunch.  Here  are 
shown  the  beauty  of  cleanliness  and  the  charm  of  order, — here  the 
children  learn  to  share  generously,  to  accept  graciously,  and  to  yield 
courteously  ;  and  the  social  training,  which  is  one  of  the  most  important 
features  of  the  Kindergarten,  culminates  in  this  half  hour  of  free  yet 
gentle  and  kindly  intercourse.  Good  manners  give  not  only  social 


600  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

charm  but  social  power,  and  surely  in  this  age  of  complex  social  de- 
mands man  cannot  be  taught  too  early  to  move  harmoniously  among 
his  fellows. 

In  what  I  have  to  say  of  Frobel's  gifts  and  occupations  I  wish  to  be 
distinctly  understood  as  stating  only  their  theoretic  possibilities.  Their 
adaptations  to  children  of  different  ages  and  characters  can  only  be 
learned  by  experience.  Some  of  them  may  be  profitably  used  by  the 
baby  in  the  nursery, — others  are  valuable  in  the  primary  school.  Again, 
the  same  gift  or  occupation  may  be  used  in  different  ways  to  secure 
different  ends.  From  the  blocks  the  child  builds  with  when  he  is  five 
years  old,  he  may  learn  at  seven  the  elements  of  form  and  number. 
The  square  of  paper,  which  the  beginner  creases  into  a  salt-cellar  or 
twists  into  a  rooster,  the  older  child  uses  to  produce  artistic  forms  and 
combinations.  In  general,  there  is  advance  from  indefinite  impressions 
to  clear  perceptions,  from  vague  and  half-conscious  comparison  to  sharp 
distinction  and  clear  analysis,  from  isolated  experiences  to  connected 
work  and  thought,  and  from  a  mere  general  activity  to  production  and 
creation. 

With  this  general  understanding  pass  we  now  to  a  detailed  considera- 
tion of  the  gifts  and  occupations,  and  of  their  relationship  to  each  other 
and  to  the  child. 

The  First  Gift  consists  of  six  soft  worsted  balls  of  the  colors  of  the 
rainbow. 

The  Second  Gift  consists  of  a  wooden  sphere,  cube  and  cylinder. 

The  Third  Gift  is  a  two-inch  cube  divided  equally  once  in  each 
dimension,  producing  eight  small  cubes. 

The  Fourth  Gift  is  a  two-inch  cube  divided  by  one  vertical  and  two 
horizontal  cuts  into  eight  rectangular  parallelepipeds.  Each  of  these 
parallelepipeds  is  two  inches  long,  one  inch  broad  and  half  an  inch  thick. 

The  Fifth  Gift  is  a  three-inch  cube  divided  equally  twice  in  each 
dimension  into  twenty-seven  small  cubes.  Three  of  these  are  divided 
by  one  diagonal  cut  into  two  triangular  parts,  and  three  by  two  diagonal 
cuts  into  four  triangular  parts. 

The  Sixth  Gift  is  a  cube  of  three  inches  divided  into  twenty-seven 
parallelepipeds  of  the  same  dimensions  as  those  of  the  Fourth  Gift. 
Three  of  these  are  divided  lengthwise  into  square  prisms,  two  inches 
long,  half  an  inch  wide  and  half  an  inch  thick,  and  six  are  divided 
crosswise  into  square  tablets  an  inch  square  and  half  an  inch  thick. 
Thus  the  gift  contains  thirty-six  pieces. 

The  Seventh  Gift  consists  of  square  and  triangular  tablets.  Of  the 
latter  there  are  four  kinds,  viz. :  Equilateral,  right  and  obtuse  isosceles 
and  right  scalene  triangles. 

The  Eighth  Gift  is  a  connected  slat, — the  Mnth  consists  of  discon- 
nected slats. 

The  Tenth  Gift  consists  of  wooden  sticks  of  various  lengths,  and 
the  Eleventh  Gift  of  whole  and  half  wire  rings  of  various  diameter. 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  601 

Looking  at  the  gifts  as  a  whole  we  see  at  once  that  their  basis  is 
mathematical,  and  we  notice  that  they  illustrate  successively  the  solid, 
the  plane  and  the  line.  We  perceive,  too,  that  they  progress  from 
undivided  to  divided  wholes,  and  from  these  to  separate  and  independ- 
ent elements.  Finally,  we  observe  that  there  is  a  suggestiveness  in  the 
earlier  gifts  which  the  later  ones  lack,  while  on  the  other  hand  the 
range  of  the  latter  far  exceeds  that  of  the  former.  The  meaning  of 
these  distinctions  and  connections  will  grow  clear  to  us  as  we  study  the 
common  objects  of  the  varied  gifts.  These  objects  are  : 

I.  To  aid  the  mind  to  abstract  the  essential  qualities  of  objects  by 
the  presentation  of  striking  contrasts. 

TI.  To  lead  to  the  classification  of  external  objects  by  the  presenta- 
tion of  typical  forms. 

III.  To  illustrate  fundamental  truths  through  simple  applications. 

IV.  To  stimulate  creative  activity. 

I.  We  can  never  recur  too  often  to  the  history  of  the  race  for  the 
interpretation  of  the  individual.  So  I  cannot  consider  it  irrelevant  to 
refer  to  a  recent  result  of  linguistic  research  which  throws  into  clearer 
light  the  trite,  yet  only  vaguely  understood,  truth  that  knowledge 
rests  upon  comparison,  and  which  strongly  confirms  the  wisdom  of 
Frbbel  in  stimulating  comparison  by  suggesting  contrasts.  I  quote 
from  an  article  by  Dr.  Carl  Abel,  one  of  the  best  known  of  the  younger 
philologists  of  Germany.*  After  mentioning  that  the  Egyptian  lan- 
guage can  be  traced  in  hieroglyphics  up  to  about  3000  B.  C.,  and  in  the 
Koptic  to  1000  A.  D.,  "  furnishing  the  student,  therefore,  a  favorable 
opportunity  of  exposing  an  uncommonly  long  period  of  linguistic  devel- 
opment," he  goes  on  to  say  : 

"  In  the  Egyptian  the  words — at  least  in  appearance — have  two  dis- 
tinctly opposite  meanings,  and  the  letters  of  such  words  also  are  some- 
times exactly  reversed.  Suppose  the  German  word  "  gut "  were  Egyp- 
tian, then  besides  meaning  good  it  might  mean  bad,  and  besides  "gut " 
it  might  sound  like  tug.  Tug  again  could  mean  good  as  well  as  bad, 
and  by  a  small  sound  modification,  as  it  often  happened  in  the  life  of  a 
language — perhaps  to  inch — furnish  occasion  to  a  new  conversion  into 
chut  which  again  from  its  side  could  unite  the  two  meanings." 

This  statement  is  followed  by  illustrations  of  the  facts  adduced,  and 
by  reference  to  the  Koptic  researches  of  the  author  which  contain  a 
list  of  such  metatheses  ninety  pages  long.  It  is  then  shown  that  in  the 
Egyptian  writing  the  opposite  meanings  of  the  same  word  were  distin- 
guished by  adding  to  the  sound  value  written  by  letter  of  each  word  a 
determining  picture.  The  word  ken,  for  instance,  could  mean  either 
strong  or  weak,  and  whenever  this  word  appears  in  writing  it  is  accom- 
panied by  a  picture  illustrating  its  meaning  in  the  particular  case. 
Commenting  on  these  very  remarkable  facts  Dr.  Abel  says  : 

"  Our  judgments  are  formed  solely  upon  comparison  and  antitheses. 

*  Translation  in  the  New  Englander  for  November. 


602  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KLNDEKGARTEN. 

As  little  as  we  need  to  think  of  weakness  when  we  have  once  grasped 
the  conception  of  strength,  so  surely  could  not  strength  have  been 
originally  conceived  of  without  measuring  itself  by  contrast  with  weak- 
ness. Let  any  one  attempt  to  grasp  a  single  new  idea  beyond  the  range 
of  thought  which  has  become  familiar  to  him  by  known  word  defini- 
tions without  his  being  put  to  the  trouble  of  seeking  them  out,  and  he 
will  be  convinced  on  this  point  as  to  the  nature  of  intellectual  progress. 
Each  one  to-day  becomes  acquainted  with  strength  without  an  effort  of 
his  own  judgment,  because  the  idea  exists  in  the  language,  because  he 
is  accustomed  to  it  from  childhood  as  a  meaning  for  certain  actions, 
objects  and  persons.  But  when,  leaving  the  range  of  every-day  experi- 
ence and  words  applying  to  it,  we  attempt  to  create  individual  ideas  or 
to  think  over  again  rare  and  seldom  heard  thoughts  of  others,  we  find 
ourselves  face  to  face  with  the  necessity  of  conscious  antithesis.  To 
bide  by  word-thoughts,  no  scholar  has  grasped  the  idea  of  acute,  obtuse 
and  right  angle  without  bringing  the  three  in  real  contrast ;  no  student 
has  grasped  the  esse  of  Hegel  without  having  confronted  it  with  the 
non  esse ;  in  general,  no  one  has  learned  tolerably  a  foreign  tongue 
without  explaining  those  word-meanings  which  vary  from  those  of  his 
native  tongue  by  a  comparison  with  them.  The  Egyptian  leads  us  back 
to  the  infant  period  of  humanity,  in  which  these  first  commonest  con- 
ceptions had  to  be  grasped  in  this  slow  and  thoughtful  manner.  In 
order  to  learn  to  think  of  strength  one  must  separate  one's  self  from 
weakness ;  in  order  to  comprehend  darkness  you  must  separate  light ;  in 
order  to  grasp  much  you  must  hold  little  in  the  mind  for  contrast. 
Such  Egyptian  words  as  antithetically  show  both  branches  of  the 
original  comparison,  furnish  an  insight  into  the  wearisome  work-shop 
in  which  the  first  and  most  necessary  ideas — to-day  the  glibbest  and 
most  easily  handled — were  forged." 

It  is  quite  true,  as  Prof.  Abel  says,  that  we  now  acquire  many  ideas 
along  with  the  means  of  their  expression,  and  the  style  of  our  thinking 
is  largely  determined  by  our  inherited  speech.  To  a  great  extent  this 
coercion  of  our  thought  is  necessary.  If  we  are  to  advance  upon  our 
forefathers,  we  must  learn  in  months  and  years  what  they  learned  in 
generations  and  centuries.  Born  in  an  age  of  steam  engines  we  must 
in  some  way  rapidly  reproduce  the  experiences  which  began  when  some 
forgotten  savage  kindled  the  first  fire.  We  are  mediated  results  our- 
selves, and  therefore  have  to  learn  through  the  mediation  of  others. 
Nature  cannot  tell  us  what  she  told  to  the  first  men  ;  that  secret  she 
has  trusted  to  them  and  we  must  learn  it  from  them  before  we  can 
understand  what  she  has  to  say  to  us.  The  heir  of  all  the  ages  must 
enter  upon  his  inheritance  before  he  can  penetrate  their  increasing 
purpose. 

While  all  this  is  true,  it  is  equally  true  that  ideas  acquired  without 
the  conscious  exercise  of  judgment  and  comparison  lack  vitality.  Tra- 
ditional habits  of  thought  must  end  in  formalism.  The  reaction  of  Ian- 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  fJQS 

guage  upon  mind  will  always  be  powerful.  Through  it  the  whole  past 
presses  upon  the  present,  and  the  thought  of  all  who  have  preceded  us 
contributes  to  the  shaping  of  our  thought.  That  its  constraint  may 
not  be  destructive  of  our  freedom,  we  must  come  into  personal  con- 
tact with  the  simplest  ideas  and  the  commonest  experiences. 

The  great  problem  of  education  is  to  effect  the  necessary  mediation 
without  destroying  originality,  and  this  can  only  be  done  by  organizing 
experiences  which  shall  conduct  to  a  preconceived  end.  This  truth  is 
now  widely  realized,  and  everywhere  we  find  increasing  demand  for 
experiments  in  natural  science  and  illustrations  in  all  branches  of  study. 
But  only  Frobel  has  seen  that  this  same  method  should  be  applied  to 
the  youngest  children  and  to  the  most  familiar  facts,  and  by  a  series  of 
objects  in  which  essential  qualities  are  strongly  contrasted,  aims  to 
excite  the  mind  to  conscious  antithesis. 

It  may  be  urged  that  if  this  process  of  comparison  is  natural  to  the 
mind,  the  mind  may  safely  be  trusted  to  follow  it  out.  We  might  as 
well  argue  that  because  the  law  of  gravitation  has  been  discovered, 
each  generation  should,  unaided,  discover  it  anew.  The  contrasts  of 
nature  are  so  blended  into  harmony  that  their  opposition  is  lost,  yet 
this  very  opposition  must  be  felt  before  their  harmony  can  be  realized. 
Frobel  simply  accelerates  the  natural  tendency  of  thought  by  carefully 
abstracting  from  material  things  their  essential  qualities,  and  then  so 
arranging  his  gifts  that  each  one  shall  throw  some  distinctive  attribute 
into  relief.  Thus  in  the  first  gift  he  presents  contrasts  of  color  ;  in  the 
second,  contrasts  of  form ;  in  the  third,  contrasts  of  size  ;  in  the  fourth, 
contrasts  of  dimension ;  in  the  fifth  he  offers  both  contrasts  of  angles 
and  contrasts  of  number ;  while  in  the  sixth  he  repeats,  emphasizes  and 
mediates  the  contrasts  of  the  preceding  gifts.  Passing  to  the  plane  in 
the  seventh  gift  he  offers  subtler  contrasts  of  form,  while  the  connected 
and  disconnected  slats  render  these  still  more  striking  by  showing  how 
they  are  produced.  The  sticks  and  rings  which,  properly  speaking,  are 
one  gift,  contrast  the  straight  and  curved  line,  and  offer  striking  per- 
ceptions of  position  and  direction.  And  finally  the  solids,  planes  and 
lines  are  mutually  illustrative,  and  the  child  learns  both  clearly  to  dis- 
tinguish the  different  parts  of  his  solids  and  to  connect  his  planes  and 
lines  with  them,  identifying  at  last  his  stick,  the  embodiment  of  the 
straight  line,  with  the  axis  of  the  sphere,  the  edge  of  the  cube  and  the 
side  of  the  square,  and  the  ring  which  embodies  the  curve  with  the  cir- 
cumference of  the  sphere  and  the  edge  of  the  cylinder. 

These  contrasts  of  color,  size,  form,  number,  dimension,  relation, 
direction  and  position  illustrated  in  the  gifts  are  applied  in  the  occupa- 
tions, and  supplemented  in  the  games  and  songs  by  contrasts  of  smell, 
taste,  movement  and  sound.  There  is  no  salient  attribute  of  material 
things  which  is  not  thus  thrown  into  light,  and  as  a  consequence  sharply 
defined  and  firmly  grasped  by  the  mind. 

We  realize  the  significance  of  this  result  more  fully  when  we  reflect 


604  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

that  by  the  perception  of  analogies  between  the  material  and  spiritual 
world,  the  words  designating  the  acts,  objects,  qualities  and  relations  of 
the  one  have  been  adapted  to  express  the  acts,  powers,  states  and  rela- 
tions of  the  other.  There  is  no  single  word  of  our  intellectual  or  moral 
vocabulary  which  was  not  originally  applied  to  something  apprehensi- 
ble by  the  senses,  and  many  of  the  most  important  of  them  refer  to 
physical  facts  and  qualities  with  which  the  child  gets  acquainted  in  his 
earliest  years.  When,  for  instance,  we  speak  of  great  men,  great 
actions,  greatness,  the  analogy  is  obviously  to  size ;  when  we  call  a  man 
straightforward,  allude  to  crooked  dealings  or  describe  a  character  as 
angular,  we  borrow  from  the  language  of  lines  and  their  relations  ;  when 
we  talk  of  lives  rounded  into  completeness  and  actions  that  are  fair  and 
square,  we  are  debtors  to  analogies  with  form  ;  when  we  speak  of  high 
station,  deep  truths,  broad  views,  we  refer,  however,  unconsciously  to  the 
"  threefold  measure  which  dwells  in  space ;  "  and  when  we  mourn  over 
dark  sorrows  and  black  crimes,  we  steal  our  words  from  the  vocabulary 
of  color.  It  was  part  of  Frobel's  idea  to  make  the  child  sensible  of 
these  relationships  by  connecting  his  first  perception  of  the  moral  force 
of  words  directly  with  the  physical  fact  to  which  they  stand  in  analogy. 
To  give  only  a  single  illustration,  in  the  game  of  the  joiner  the  child 
alternates  long  and  short  movements  while  imitating  the  act  of  planing. 
The  long  and  short  of  movement  is  then  connected  with  the  long  and 
short  of  sound,  the  long  and  short  of  form,  and  the  long  and  short  of 
time ;  and  finally,  through  the  story  of  Goliath  and  David,  in  telling 
which  the  contrast  between  the  tall  giant  and  the  stripling  who  defied 
and  conquered  him  is  emphasized,  the  distinction  between  physical  and 
moral  greatness  is  foreshadowed  to  the  mind.  The  mark  of  the  true 
Kindergarten  is  the  all-pervading  connection  between  the  things  of 
sense  and  the  things  of  thought. 

II.  It  is  an  admitted  law  that  the  mind  moves  from  the  known  to  the 
unknown.  Nothing  charms  us  more  than  the  recognition  of  the  old 
in  the  new.  The  man  who  hurries  through  a  foreign  city  indifferent 
and  inattentive  to  the  passing  crowd  feels  a  quick  thrill  of  pleasure 
when  in  the  midst  of  all  this  strangeness  he  recognizes  a  familiar  face. 
Let  our  minds  become  keenly  conscious  of  a  single  thought  and  the 
whole  world  glows  with  illustrations  of  it.  It  was  insight  into  this 
truth  which  led  Frobel  to  make  the  "  archetypes  of  nature  the  play- 
things of  the  child."  "Line  in  nature  is  not  found,"  says  Emerson, 
but  "  unit  and  universe  are  round."  The  ball  illustrates  the  ideal  form 
towards  which  the  universe  strives.  This  then  is  Frobel's  starting 
point  and  he  follows  it  up  with  the  other  forms  which  underlie  the 
works  of  nature  and  of  art.  The  cube  gives  us  the  basis  of  classifica- 
tion for  mineral  forms  and  is  the  fundamental  type  of  architecture. 
The  cylinder,  which  nature  shows  us  in  the  trunks  of  trees  and  the 
stems  of  plants  and  in  the  bodies  and  limbs  of  animals,  is  also  the  basis 
of  the  ceramic  art.  In  short,  in  geometric  forms  we  have  a  key  to  all 


SOME  ASPECTS  OP  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  605 

the  beauty  and  variety  of  material  things,  whether  works  of  God  or 
works  of  man,  made  in  the  image  of  God. 

The  effect  of  these  normal  types  in  developing  observation,  classifica- 
tion and  creative  activity  is  quite  remarkable.  The  shelves  of  the  well 
conducted  Kindergarten  groan  under  the  spools  and  buttons,  the  marbles 
and  apples,  nests  and  eggs,  bottles  and  blocks  which  the  eager  children 
bring  in  morning  after  morning  saying  they  have  found  something 
more  like  their  ball,  cube  or  cylinder.  I  remember  well  a  little  girl  five 
years  old  who  after  playing  for  sometime  with  her  ball  began  to  count 
over  the  different  round  objects  she  could  remember,  and  after  naming 
apples,  grapes,  cherries  and  peaches,  suddenly  exclaimed  with  a  flash  of 
quick  pleasure  in  her  face,  "  Why  all  fruits  are  round,"  and,  she  added 
after  a  moment's  thoughtful  pause,  "  so  are  all  vegetables."  A  little  boy 
of  the  same  age  came  one  morning  with  a  particularly  eager  face  to  the 
Kindergarten  and  begged  "  for  a  lump  of  clay  to  make  his  mamma's 
preserve  dish."  "  How  are  you  going  to  make  it  ?  "  I  asked  as  I  handed 
him  the  clay.  The  answer  was  prompt  and  decided.  "  First  I'll  make 
a  ball  and  flatten  it  to  get  a  circle,  on  top  of  that  I'll  stand  a  long  nar- 
row cylinder,  and  above  that  I'll  put  a  hollowed  out  half -ball."  In  the 
field  flowers  and  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  in  dew  drops  and  jewels,  in 
the  patterns  of  carpets  and  oil  cloths,  in  the  figures  on  wallpaper,  in 
architectural  decorations,  in  the  varied  reflections  of  the  sunlight  and 
the  shifting  figures  of  the  clouds,  the  wide-open  eyes  of  the  Kindergar- 
ten child  rejoice  in  the  revelation  of  familiar  forms,  and  the  heart  made 
for  unity  detects  it  with  a  thrill  of  gladness  under  the  infinite  manifold- 
ness  of  the  external  world. 

III.  There  is  a  growing  belief  among  educators  that  the  mind  should 
be  kept  in  constant  relation  with  all  the  essential  branches  of  knowledge, 
but  that  the  method  of  study  should  vary  with  the  progressive  stages  of 
mental  development.  Thus  they  would  present  the  sensible  facts  of 
any  given  science  to  the  perceptions  of  the  child,  the  relations  of  these 
facts  to  the  understanding  of  the  youth,  and  the  synthesis  of  these 
relations  to  the  reason  of  the  mature  student.  By  this  method  there 
is  secured  continuity  of  thought,  and  the  ultimate  inclusive  principle 
is  made  to  register  the  results  of  a  vivid  personal  experience. 

While  the  evolution  of  moral  truths  has  been  less  distinctly  formu- 
lated, it  is  I  think  widely  felt  that  they  must  be  rooted  in  the  sympathies 
and  fostered  by  exertion  of  the  will.  As  we  present  knowledge  suc- 
cessively to  perception,  reflection  and  pure  thought,  so  we  may  present 
the  same  moral  relationships  successively  to  feeling,  conscience,  and 
spiritual  insight  and  match  our  intellectual  spiral  of  facts,  relations  and 
principles  with  a  spiral  of  moral  presentments,  intuitions  and  compre- 
hensions. 

The  Kindergarten  deals  with  the  first  stage  of  this  double  develop- 
ment and  offers  to  the  mind  perceptions,  and  to  the  heart  presentiments. 
Moreover  it  deals  not  with  special  branches  of  study,  but  with  primal 


606  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

facts,  not  with  special  moral  obligations,  but  with  fundamental  moral 
relationships.  And  finally  it  appeals  not  separately  to  the  mind  and 
heart,  but  through  the  same  objects  and  exercises  touches  both  at  once. 
In  all  this  the  Kindergarten  is  in  accord  with  the  nature  of  the  child. 
No  person  can  be  thrown  with  children  without  noticing  their  religious 
aptitudes  and  sympathies,  their  strongly  developed  sense  of  analogy, 
and  their  aversion  to  analysis.  The  youth  is  analytic  and  investigative, 
ambitious  to  work  out  his  own  purposes,  prone  to  question  and  to  deny. 
But  the  little  child  is  happy  in  the  felt  though  uncomprehended  unity 
of  life,  and  the  sage  finds  rest  at  last  in  a  unity  which  he  comprehends. 
Thus  the  end  of  life  meets  its  beginning.  At  sunrise  and  at  sunset  we 
rejoice  in  the  sun,  though  in  the  glare  of  the  noonday  we  forget  the 
glory  of  the  light  in  the  beauty  of  the  things  enlightened. 

It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  quite  reasonable  when  Frbbel  claims  that 
the  deepest  and  most  universal  truths  should  determine  what  we  do  for 
children  and  how  we  do  it,  and  that  precisely  these  deepest  truths  are  the 
ones  that  the  child  will  most  readily  recognize,  though  of  course  only  under 
limited  forms  and  applications.  The  deepest  of  all  truths  to  Frobel  is 
that  self-recognition  is  effected  through  self-activity,  and  the  practical 
outcome  of  this  insight  is  that  education  should  from  the  beginning 
occupy  the  child  with  plastic  material  which  he  uses  in  subservience  to 
organic  law.  As  he  uses  this  material  he  is  constantly  illustrating  the 
truths  that  all  development  begins  in  separation, — that  through  separa- 
tion there  is  attained  a  higher  union, — that  every  part  is  necessary  to 
the  whole  and  the  whole  is  necessary  to  every  part, — that  deepening 
power  is  restricting  power,  and  that,  advancing  from  the  homogeneous 
to  the  heterogeneous,  a  higher  harmony  results  from  a  constantly  in- 
creasing variety.  These  were  the  thoughts  which  ruled  in  Frobel's 
mind,  and  he  organized  his  gifts  to  give  them  material  expression. 
First  the  undivided  solids  stamp  themselves  as  wholes  upon  the  child's 
mind.  With  the  divided  cube  the  child  begins  to  transform  and  create, 
while  by  the  repeated  reconstruction  of  the  original  form,  the  relation 
of  the  parts  to  the  whole  is  kept  prominently  in  view.  As  the  divis- 
ions of  the  cube  increase  in  variety  and  complexity  he  finds  he  can  pro- 
duce more  and  more  perfect  forms,  and  when,  through  the  constant 
association  of  the  individual  parts  with  the  units  from  which  they  were 
derived,  the  idea  of  organic  connection  has  become  the  regulator  of  his 
instinctive  activity  he  advances  to  a  gift  which  offers  him  not  an  object 
to  transform,  but  independent  elements  which  he  combines  in  varied 
wholes. 

Frobel  would  be  the  weakest  of  educators  if  he  claimed  that  children 
could  understand  these  truths.  But  it  is  a  very  different  thing  to  claim 
that  they  may,  nay,  that  they  must  obey  them  and  that  activities  regu- 
lated by  these  insights  prepare  the  way  for  comprehension.  The  child 
who  in  perceptible  things  has  been  led  to  see  the  ordering  of  parts  to  a 
whole  must  as  his  mind  develops  grasp  logical  relations  in  the  world 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

of  thought,  and  will,  in  a  certain  sense,  be  constrained  to  infer  from 
visible  effects  their  invisible  causes.  For  there  can  be  no  connection 
without  an  underlying  law,  and  it  is  impossible  that  there  can  be  two 
systems  of  logic,  one  applying  to  the  material  and  the  other  to  the 
spiritual  world.  There  is  vast  distance  between  the  child's  perception 
that  he  cannot  rebuild  his  cube  without  using  all  the  cubes  into  which 
it  is  divided  and  the  man's  recognition  that  he  is  an  essential  element 
of  the  great  whole  of  humanity, — between  the  child's  experience  that 
the  most  beautiful  forms  he  produces  are  those  in  which  he  most  com- 
pletely emphasizes  individual  elements  and  the  man's  glad  certainty 
that  his  organic  connections  demand  the  rich  fullness  of  his  personal- 
ity,— yet  if  there  is  continuity  in  life  distance  cannot  abolish  relation, 
and  the  full  stream  of  the  man's  thought  may  be  surely  traced  to  the 
little  springs  of  the  child's  perceptions. 

Evidently  these  results  will  not  come  of  themselves  by  simply  play- 
ing with  the  Kindergarten  gifts.  Frobel's  material  must  be  quickened 
with  Frobel's  spirit,  and  she  who  aspires  to  guide  a  living  mind  must 
herself  be  regenerated  by  the  truth.  Only  as  she  sees  the  end  can  she 
make  the  right  beginning,  and  without  violating  the  child's  freedom 
wisely  direct  his  steps.  The  mustard  seed  grows  into  a  great  tree,  the 
leaven  hid  in  the  meal  leavens  the  lump.  Let  a  single  vital  truth,  in 
however  crude  a  form,  be  stirred  to  life  in  the  mind,  and  straightway  it 
both  re-creates  the  mind  in  its  own  likeness  and  becomes  prolific  of  re- 
lated truths. 

IV.  All  the  features  of  the  Kindergarten  thus  far  alluded  to  are 
simply  results  of  a  single  ruling  thought, — flowers  and  fruit  of  one 
hidden  root.  When  we  comprehend  this  prolific  thought  we  compre- 
hend Frobel.  Until  then  we  can  only  see  in  the  Kindergarten  a  system 
of  more  or  less  valuable  detail.  Briefly  stated  this  root  thought  is  that 
as  God  knows  himself  through  creation  so  must  man,  or  in  other  words 
that  to  truly  live  we  must  constantly  create,  and  that  the  condition  of  a 
complete  self -consciousness  is  a  complete  reflection.  The  life  of  the  soul 
is  a  struggle  towards  self-knowledge,  and  self-knowledge  comes  only 
through  self-externalization.  As  Frobel  puts  it,  "The  inward  as  in- 
ward can  never  be  known,  it  is  only  revealed  by  being  made  outward. 
The  mind  like  the  eye  sees  not  itself  but  by  reflection."  What  we 
want  is  to  know  ourselves,  and  we  learn  to  know  ourselves  not  by  tak- 
ing in  but  by  giving  out.  God  "  for  His  own  glory  "  makes  man  in  His 
own  image,  or  differently  stated,  completes  His  self -consciousness  in 
the  consciousness  of  the  creature,  and  man  too  can  only  realize  himself 
by  producing  his  image. 

Frbbel's  merit  lies  not  in  the  recognition  of  this  truth,  but  in  its 
application.  Many  thinkers  have  stated  it  more  clearly  than  he,  and 
other  educators  have  traced  it  in  the  ceaseless  bub.bling  over  of  the 
child's  speech  and  in  the  ardor  of  his  play.  But  Frobel  alone,  with  in- 
sight into  the  end  the  child  blindly  seeks,  has  aimed  to  aid  the  instinct- 


608  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

ive  struggle  towards  self-consciousness,  and  by  wisely  organized  material 
to  stimulate  and  direct  creative  activity. 

However  we  may  criticise  the  basis  of  Frobel's  thought,  no  fair  ob- 
server will  question  the  results  of  his  method.  Let  a  child  try  to 
fashion  his  lump  of  clay  into  a  bird's  nest,  and  though  his  effort  yield 
no  other  result  it  will  certainly  lead  him  to  examine  carefully  the  next 
bird's  nest  he  sees.  Let  him  make  an  apple  and  a  pear  and  he  must 
feel  their  difference  in  form  as  he  would  never  have  done  had  he  simply 
looked  at  the  two  fruits.  Let  him  attempt  to  lay  with  his  sticks  the 
outline  of  a  house  and  his  attention  cannot  fail  to  be  caught  by  facts 
of  direction  and  proportion.  Let  him  apply  numbers  in  weaving  and 
their  relations  grow  interesting  to  him.  Lead  him  to  construct  sym- 
metrical figures  and  he  must  feel  the  laws  of  symmetry.  Teach  him 
rhythmic  movements  and  he  must  recognize  rhythm.  All  things  are 
revealed  in  the  doing,  and  productive  activity  both  enlightens  and 
develops  the  mind. 

It  has  always  been  a  difficult  problem  to  strike  the  balance  between 
knowledge  and  power.  The  mind  is  not  a  sponge,  nor  is  education  the 
absorption  of  facts.  On  the  other  hand  nothing  is  more  dangerous 
than  energy  uncontrolled  by  knowledge  and  insight.  The  mind  like 
the  stomach  suffers  from  overloading,  yet  both  need  constant  food. 
The  test  of  healthy  assimilation  is  increasing  strength,  and  we  know 
we  are  supplying  the  mind  with  the  right  kind  and  amount  of  food  if 
we  notice  a  gain  in  vigor  and  originality.  The  child's  intense  play  is 
nature's  effort  to  order  the  thronging  impressions  of  the  first  years  of 
life,  and  the  Kindergarten  simply  follows  nature  in  alternating  receptive 
and  creative  activities,  and  in  constantly  registering  the  results  of  per- 
ception in  reproduction. 

In  an  age  so  analytical  and  scientific  as  our  own  the  Kindergarten 
has  a  special  value.  Scientific  methods  need  to  be  supplemented  in 
education  by  artistic  processes.  The  scientist  beginning  with  the  em- 
bodied fact  seeks  its  relations  and  its  causes, — the  thought  of  the  artist 
is  the  final  cause  of  the  statue,  the  painting  or  the  poem.  The  scien- 
tist, "  handicapped  by  fact  and  riveted  to  matter,"  struggles  painfully 
towards  the  spiritual,  while  before  the  artist  the  invisible  is  constantly 
shaping  the  visible  and  the  eternal  declaring  itself  in  the  transitory. 
The  restless  scientist  strives  to  order  a  bewildering  variety,  the  artist 
instinctively  realizes  the  unity  from  which  variety  is  evolved  and  feels 
the  soul  of  the  whole  animating  each  particular  part.  We  prepare  the 
children  for  spiritual  insight  when  we  lead  them  to  create. 

Again,  the  representative  system  is  death  to  superficiality  and  self- 
conceit.  The  child's  imperfect  results  teach  him  humility  and  stir  him 
to  fresh  effort.  He  is  constantly  testing  his  perceptions  by  production, 
and  measuring  himself  by  his  attainment.  He  learns  that  what  he 
can  use  is  his, — that  only  what  he  consciously  holds  he  truly  possesses. 
He  finds  out  in  what  directions  he  can  best  work  and  transforms  un- 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  609 

comprehended  tendency  into  definite  character.  He  advances  on  the 
one  hand  from  perception  to  conception,  from  conception  to  reproduc- 
tion, from  reproduction  to  definition,  and  on  the  other  from  an  instinc- 
tive to  a  self-directing  activity,  and  from  this  to  self-knowledge  and 
self-control.  Thus  by  the  same  process  he  unlocks  creation  and  realizes 
in  himself  the  image  of  his  Creator. 

The  order  of  the  Kindergarten  gifts  follows  the  order  of  mental 
evolution,  and  at  each  stage  of  the  child's  growth  Frobel  presents  him 
with  his  "  objective  counterpart."  "  The  child,"  he  says,  "  develops 
like  all  things,  according  to  laws  as  simple  as  they  are  imperative.  Of 
these  the  simplest  and  most  imperative  is  that  force  existing  must  exert 
itself, — exerting  itself  it  grows  strong — strengthening  it  unfolds — un- 
folding it  represents  .and  creates — representing  and  creating  it  lifts 
itself  to  consciousness  and  culminates  in  insight."  This  perception  of 
the  course  of  development  determines  his  idea  of  the  stages  of  early 
education.  It  should  aim,  first,  to  strengthen  the  senses  and  muscles 
conceived  as  the  tools  of  the  spirit, — second,  to  prepare  for  work  by 
technical  training,  and  to  aid  self-expression  by  supplying  objects  which 
through  their  indefiniteness  may  be  made  widely  representative, — third, 
to  provide  material  adapted  to  the  conscious  production  of  definite 
things  and  diminish  the  suggestiveness  of  this  material  in  direct  ratio 
to  the  increase  of  creative  power,  and  fourth,  by  analysis  of  the  objects 
produced,  and  the  method  of  their  production  lift  the  child  to  conscious 
communion  with  his  own  thought.  The  first  stage  of  this  educational 
process  is  realized  through  the  "Songs  for  Mother  and  Child," — the 
second  through  the  Kindergarten  games,  the  simpler  occupations  and 
the  first  two  Gifts, — the  third  through  the  exercises  with  blocks,  tablets, 
slats,  sticks  and  rings,  and  the  work  in  drawing,  folding,  cutting,  peas 
work  and  modeling,  and  the  fourth  through  the  wise  appeal  of  the 
Kindergartner  to  the  thought  of  the  child  as  she  leads  him  slowly  from 
the  what  to  the  how,  and  from  the  how  to  the  why  and  wherefore  of 
his  own  action. 

The  definitely  productive  exercises  begin  with  the  Third  Gift.  Fro- 
bel contends  that  the  proverbial  destructiveness  of  children  is  a  perver- 
sion of  the  faculties  of  investigation  and  construction,  and  that  the 
broken  toys  strewn  over  our  nursery  floors  express  the  mind's  impatient 
protest  against  finished  and  complicated  things.  Unable  to  rest  in  ex- 
ternals the  child  breaks  his  toys  to  find  out  "  what  is  inside,"  and  scorn- 
ful of  what  makes  no  appeal  to  his  activity  he  turns  from  the  most 
elegant  playthings  to  the  crude  results  of  his  own  manufacture.  What 
he  wants  is  not  something  made  for  him,  but  material  to  make  some- 
thing himself.  What  he  needs  is  an  object  which  he  can  take  to  pieces 
without  destroying,  and  through  which  he  can  gratify  his  instinct  to 
transform  and  to  reconstruct.  At  the  same  time  the  possibilities  of  the 
object  must  not  be  too  varied  and  it  must  be  suggestive  through  its 
limitations.  The  young  mind  may  be  as  easily  crushed  by  excess  as  it 

39 


610  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

is  paralyzed  by  defect.  Hence,  Frb'bel's  choice  of  a  cube  divided  into 
eight  smaller  cubes.  It  is  easily  separated  into  its  elements  and  easily 
reconstructed.  It  is  capable  of  a  reasonable  number  of  transforma- 
tions, and  its  crude  resemblances  satisfy  the  child's  crude  thought.  It 
offers  no  variety  of  form  to  confuse  his  mind,  but  rigidly  confines  him 
to  vertical  and  horizontal,  to  the  right  angle  and  the  square.  Moreover, 
he  can  scarcely  arrange  his  blocks  in  any  way  without  their  taking 
forms  which  will  suggest  some  object  he  has  seen.  If  he  piles  them 
one  above  the  other  a  word  from  mother  or  Kindergartner  enables 
him  to  see  in  the  unsought  result  of  his  doing  a  tower,  a  light-house  or 
a  lamp  post.  If  he  arranges  them  side  by  side  he  is  confronted  with  a 
wall,  if  in  two  parallel  rows,  behold  the  railroad!  The  change  of  a 
single  block  transforms  the  railroad  into  a  train  of  cars,  and  with  an- 
other movement  th6  cars  vanish  in  a  house.  Having  as  it  were  reached 
these  results  accidentally  the  child  next  directly  aims  to  reproduce  them, 
and  thus  through  the  suggestiveness  of  his  material  is  helped  from  an 
instinctive  to  a  self-directing  activity,  and  from  simple  energy  to 
definite  production.  This  point  once  attained  he  triumphs  over  more 
and  more  complicated  material,  and  constrains  an  ever  increasing 
variety  of  elements  to  obey  his  thought.  With  planes  and  sticks  he 
advances  to  surface  representation,  and  prepares  the  way  for  drawing, 
and  finally  begins  of  himself  to  form  letters  and  to  spell  out  the  names 
of  familiar  things.  His  progress,  like  that  of  the  race,  moves  thus  from 
the  concrete  to  the  abstract,  from  the  fact  to  the  picture,  and  from  the 
picture  to  the  sign. 

In  the  exercises  with  the  Gifts,  great  care  is  necessary  on  the  part  of 
the  Kindergartner.  She  must  see  that  each  gift  is  conceived  first  as  a 
whole,  complete  in  itself,  and  must  derive  its  parts  by  analysis.  She 
must  keep  up  the  idea  of  relation  by  requiring  the  use  of  all  the  ele- 
ments of  the  original  whole  in  each  object  produced.  She  must  show 
that  unused  material  is  wasted  material,  must  encourage  neatness 
and  accuracy  through  care  to  build  on  the  squares  of  the  table,  and 
must  strengthen  continuity  of  thought  and  imply  the  connection  of 
things,  by  leading  from  the  building  of  isolated  objects  to  the  develop- 
ment of  sequences,  in  which  each  form  grows  out  of  the  form  that  pre- 
cedes and  hints  the  form  which  follows  it.'  She  must  help  the  child  to 
say  in  words  what  he  has  said  in  material  forms,  lead  him  to  name  and 
describe  what  he  has  made,  and  connect  each  object  produced  with  his 
life  and  sympathies.  She  must,  from  time  to  time,  concentrate  the  ac- 
tivity of  different  children  on  a  common  end,  and  again,  she  must, 
through  stories  and  songs,  organize  their  independent  creations  into  a 
connected  whole.  She  must  not  impair  originality  by  too  constant 
direction,  neither  must  she  suffer  freedom  to  run  into  license.  As 
the  artist  is  not  enslaved,  but  helped  by  the  laws  of  artistic  creation, 
so  the  young  mind  is  not  limited,  but  developed  by  wise  guidance. 
The  felt  need  of  the  child  must,  however,  determine  the  help  given,  as 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  611 

all  through  life  our  realized  lacks  open  our  hearts  to  sympathy  and 
suggestion. 

Through  analysis  of  their  productions  the  children  are  slowly  awak- 
ened to  facts  of  form  and  relations  of  number,  and  led  to  the  clear  and 
precise  use  of  language.  As  they  grow  older  the  analysis  becomes  more 
definite  and  extended,  and  whereas  the  baby  beginners  only  name  the 
objects  they  produce,  the  more  advanced  children  tell  how  they,  make 
each  object,  and  the  graduating  class  must  be  able  to  resolve  whatever 
they  create  into  its  elements,  and  state  the  facts  of  form,  number,  di- 
rection and  relation  which  it  illustrates.  I  consider  this  final  stage  very 
important,  for  the  reason  that  it  makes  clear  to  the  mind  the  meaning 
of  all  its  experiences,  and  leads  from  the  particular  fact  to  the  princi- 
ple governing  all  the  facts  of  the  given  class. 

With  children  who  have  completed  the  pure  Kindergarten  course,  the 
gifts  may  be  profitably  used  to  teach  the  rudiments  of  geometry  and 
arithmetic.  The  geometric  forms  are  first  recognized,  then  sought 
under  their  veiled  manifestations  in  nature,  then  applied  in  construc- 
tion, then  consciously  produced,  clearly  analyzed  and  sharply  defined, 
and  finally  shown  in  their  relations  to  each  other.  Thus  the  child  who 
begins  by  simply  calling  his  building  blocks  "  cubes,"  will  end  by  rec- 
ognizing in  his  cube,  the  solid,  the  polyhedron,  the  hexahedron,  the  prism 
and  the  parallelepiped,  and  will  comprehend  its  precise  definition  as  a 
rectangular  parallelepiped  whose  faces  are  equal  squares.  So,  begin- 
ning by  pointing  out  the  square  corners  of  his  cube,  he  ends  with  the 
definite  conception  of  a  right  angle  as  produced  when  "  two  straight 
lines  meet  each  other  so  as  to  make  the  adjacent  angles  equal."  All 
the  simple  problems  of  geometry  may  be  illustrated  to  perception  and 
grasped  as  matters  of  fact,  and  the  mind  thus  be  prepared  for  the  geo- 
metrical reasoning  of  later  years. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  upon  the  evident  adaptation  of  the  gifts 
to  the  teaching  of  arithmetic.  Infinitely  varied  exercises  in  counting, 
and  in  the  four  fundamental  rules,  may  be  given  with  the  sticks,  while 
the  divided  solids  offer  striking  illustrations  of  fractional  parts — halves, 
quarters  and  eighths  must  grow  clear  through  the  right  use  of  the  third 
and  fourth  gifts,  while  the  fifth  and  sixth  lead  on,  in  their  natural  divi- 
sion, to  thirds,  ninths  and  twenty-sevenths,  and  may  also  be  used  to 
illustrate  halves,  quarters,  sixths  and  twelfths.  The  salient  features  of 
the  method  are,  first,  to  excite  interest  in  the  relations  of  numbers 
rather  than  to  give  mechanical  drill ;  second,  to  constantly  associate 
number  and  form,  making  them  mutually  illustrative ;  third,  to  apply 
numbers  to  mechanical  and  artistic  production.  Whereas  in  the  Kin- 
dergarten proper  the  child  abstracted  from  his  productions  numerical 
facts,  he  now  directly  seeks  in  his  constructions  to  solve  numerical 
problems.  To  illustrate  :  with  a  given  number  of  blocks  the  children 
are  required  to  build  a  house  of  stated  height,  breadth  and  thickness, 
with  a  fixed  number  of  windows  and  doors  of  definite  dimensions,  and 


612  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

having  built  it,  to  calculate  its  square  and  cubic  contents ;  with  their 
tablets  they  make  squares,  oblongs,  rhombs,  etc.,  of  different  sizes, 
noting  length,  breadth  and  contents,  or  with  their  sticks  develop  sym- 
metrical figures  from  different  mathematical  centers,  calculating  them- 
selves the  number  of  sticks  required  for  each  new  addition.  Gradually 
they  grow  capable  of  abstract  exercises,  and  far  from  finding  vexation 
in  multiplication  and  madness  in  fractions,  their  lessons  in  arithmetic 
are  to  them  a  delight  and  an  inspiration. 

From  this  imperfect  survey  of  the  Gifts  let  us  turn  now  to  the  Occu- 
pations. These  are  Perforating,  Sewing,  Drawing,  Intertwining,  Weav- 
ing, Folding,  Cutting,  Peas-work,  Card-board  and  Clay  Modeling. 

The  perforating  tool  is  a  sharp  needle  fastened  into  a  wooden  handle. 
Holding  this  in  a  perfectly  vertical  position  the  child  pricks  small  round 
holes  in  paper.  Little  children  are  provided  with  drawings  in  bold 
lines,  and  by  perforating  these  lines  produce  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
paper  a  raised  outline  of  the  drawn  figure.  As  they  grow  more  expert 
they  produce  pictures  in  relief  by  delicately  perforating  the  surface 
between  the  lines.  They  also  receive  paper  marked  off  in  squares,  and 
first  pricking  the  corners  of  these  squares  and  then  by  careful  perfora- 
tions connecting  these  corners  obtain  vertical  and  horizontal  lines  of 
different  lengths.  These  are  next  united  to  form  figures  and  as  the  eye 
gains  accuracy  and  the  hand  precision,  advance  is  made  to  slanting  and 
curved  lines  and  their  combinations. 

Squared  paper  perforated  only  at  the  corners  and  outline  pictures 
perforated  at  distances  of  about  the  eighth  of  an  inch  give  the  basis  of 
the  sewing  exercises.  Armed  with  worsted  and  an  embroidery  needle 
the  child  connects  the  corners  of  the  paper  and  makes  various  combina- 
tions of  lines,  or  carefully  re-traces  the  outlines  of  pictures.  The 
salient  feature  in  the  new  occupation  is  variety  of  color — and  through 
this  simple  work  the  harmonies  and  contrasts  of  color  may  be  indicated 
and  the  attention  directed  to  the  colors  of  natural  objects. 

Sewing  and  pricking  culminate  in  drawing,  which  again  emphasizes 
both  combinations  of  lines  and  representation  of  objects,  hinting  on 
the  one  hand  the  elements  of  design  and  on  the  other  the  first  princi- 
ples of  artistic  reproduction.  Beginning  by  copying  the  outlines  they 
have  laid  with  sticks,  the  children  advance  to  reproduction  of  the  figures 
resulting  from  combinations  of  tablets,  and  from  these  first  to  front 
views,  and  finally  to  simple  perspective  representations  of  the  solids 
and  their  transformations.  As  the  first  step  in  drawing  is  to  learn  to 
see  correctly,  it  is  evident  that  all  the  exercises  both  in  gifts  and  occupa- 
tions prepare  for  the  use  of  pencil  and  chalk.  As  the  mediation  of 
word  and  object  drawing  is  of  vast  importance  in  its  reaction  on  the 
mind  and  as  the  soul  of  all  technical  processes,  it  is  the  indispensable 
basis  of  industrial  education. 

The  material  for  intertwining  consists  of  strips  of  paper  of  different 
colors,  lengths  and  widths,  which  folded  lengthwise  and  plaited  accord- 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDEBGAliTEN.  613 

ing  to  definite  rules  represent  a  great  variety  of  geometric  and  artistic 
forms.  The  plaiting  by  rule  must  however  lead  up  to  free  combinations. 

In  the  occupation  of  mat  plaiting  the  child  weaves  strips  of  paper 
into  a  leaf  of  paper  cut  into  strips,  but  with  a  margin  left  at  each  end 
to  keep  the  strips  in  place.  Designs  are  not  imitated  from  patterns, 
but  produced  by  numerical  combinations.  In  this  mediation  of  number 
and  form  lies  the  special  significance  of  the  weaving  exercises,  which 
however  are  also  valuable  for  cultivating  the  sense  of  color. 

The  folding  material  consists  of  square,  rectangular  and  triangular 
pieces  of  paper  with  which  a  variety  of  figures  are  produced  by  slight 
modifications  of  a  few  definite  ground  forms.  Through  this  occupation 
ideas  of  sequence  and  connection  are  emphasized,  and  the  relation  of 
mathematics  to  artistic  production  indicated. 

In  the  occupation  of  cutting,  a  square  or  triangle  of  paper  is  folded 
and  cut  by  rule,  and  the  pieces  into  which  it  is  thus  separated  are  com- 
bined in  symmetric  forms  and  mounted  on  a  sheet  of  paper  01  card- 
board. The  child  is  also  encouraged  to  originate  cuts. 

By  fastening  sticks  sharpened  at  the  ends  into  peas  soaked  in  water, 
our  little  worker  next  produces  the  skeletons  of  real  objects  and  of 
geometric  forms.  This  occupation  leads  to  close  analysis  of  form,  con- 
nects different  solids  with  their  corresponding  planes  and  prepares  for 
perspective  drawing. 

While  peas  work  throws  into  relief  the  outlines  of  objects,  card-board 
modeling  represents  their  surface  boundaries,  and  clay  work  brings  us 
back  to  the  solid  itself.  By  modifications  of  the  sphere,  cube  and  cyl- 
inder, a  variety  of  objects  are  represented,  and  these  typical  forms  are 
more  definitely  recognized  in  the  works  of  nature  and  of  man. 

Taken  as  a  whole  the  occupations  apply  the  principles  suggested  by 
the  gifts  and  give  permanence  to  their  vanishing  transformations.  It 
will  be  observed  that  particular  occupations  connect  with  particular 
gifts.  Thus  pricking,  sewing  and  drawing,  which  are  essentially  one, 
connect  with  the  sticks  and  rings,  intertwining  and  mat  plaiting  con- 
nect with  the  slats,  folding  and  cutting  with  the  tablets  and  peas  work, 
card-board  and  clay  modeling  with  the  undivided  and  divided  solids 
of  the  first  six  gifts.  It  is  also  noticeable  that  while  the  gifts  move 
from  the  solid  to  the  surface,  the  line  and  the  point,  the  occupations, 
reversing  this  movement,  develop  from  point  to  line,  surface  and  solid, 
and  that  while  the  determined  material  of  the  gifts  limits  to  the  com- 
bination and  arrangement  of  unchangeable  elements,  the  plastic 
material  of  the  occupations  is  increasingly  subservient  to  the  modifying 
thought  and  touch  of  the  embryo  artist. 

As  has  been  repeatedly  said  the  aim  of  the  Kindergarten  is  to 
strengthen  and  develop  productive  activity.  But  we  must  be  conscious 
of  ideas  before  we  can  express  the"m,  and  we  must  gain  the  mastery  of 
material  before  we  can  use  it  as  a  means  of  expression.  Hence  the  first 
use  of  the  gifts  is  to  waken  by  their  suggestiveness  the  mind's  sleeping 
thoughts,  and  the  first  use  of  the  occupations  to  train  the  eye  and  the 


614  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

mind  to  be  the  ready  servants  of  the  will.  While  the  child  is  still 
imitative  in  the  occupations  he  becomes  inventive  in  the  gifts,  but  as 
he  grows  to  be  more  and  more  a  law  unto  himself  he  turns  from  the 
coercion  of  his  blocks,  tablets  and  sticks  to  obedient  paper  and  clay, 
and  ultimately  outgrowing  the  simpler  occupations,  concentrates  his 
interest  in  the  exercises  of  drawing,  coloring  and  modeling.  These 
artistic  processes,  with  a  technical  training  according  to  the  very  suc- 
cessful Russian  plan,  might  it  seems  to  me  be  profitably  introduced 
into  our  regular  school  course. 

The  effect  of  Kindergarten  training  in  the  increase  of  health,  in  th6 
development  of  grace,  and  in  the  formations  of  habits  of  cleanliness, 
courtesy,  neatness,  order  and  industry,  are  now  so  readily  acknowledged 
that  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  do  more  than  allude  to  them.  Its 
power  to  develop  ideas  of  number  and  form,  to  give  mastery  of  mate- 
rial through  technical  training,  to  impresss  fundamental  perceptions 
sharply  on  the  mind,  to  lead  to  nice  discrimination  and  choice  use  of 
words,  and  to  hint  the  truths  which  are  the  forms  in  which  all  creation 
is  cast,  has  probably  been  sufficiently  illustrated  in  the  preceding  pages. 
But  there  are  other  results  obvious  to  any  open-eyed  mother  or  teacher 
to  which  the  attention  of  those  who  cannot  study  the  Kindergarten  for 
themselves  should  be  directed. 

First  among  these  I  should  emphasize  happiness.  I  do  not  venture 
to  say  that  the  complacent  misery  and  self-satisfied  despair  which  are 
the  fashion  of  the  day  have  their  roots  in  the  peevish  discontent  and 
selfish  exactions  of  a  childhood  untrained  to  work  and  unaccustomed  to 
give,  but  I  never  look  at  the  bright  faces  or  watch  the  busy  fingers  of 
children  in  a  Kindergarten,  that  I  do  not  feel  sure  they  will  grow  up 
into  men  and  women  who  will  look  upon  idleness  as  a  vice,  and  persist- 
ent unhappiness  as  a  crime;  whose  awakened  minds  will  with  increasing 
enthusiasm  increase  in  knowledge  and  power ;  whose  trained  wills  will 
know  the  joy  of  ceaseless  striving,  and  whose  hearts  will  enter  with  a 
shout  and  a  bound  into  each  fresh  privilege  of  love.  The  Kindergarten 
emphasizes  mental  activity  in  opposition  to  mental  dissipation,  and  a 
healthy  objectivity  as  opposed  to  a  sickly  pre-occupation  with  self,  and 
my  observation  of  children  who  have  had  its  training  enables  me  to  say 
that  they  like  better  to  work  and  play  themselves  than  to  be  amused  by 
others  ;  that  they  prefer  study,  to  diverting  reading ;  that  their  imagina- 
tion seeks  healthful  embodiments ;  that  their  moral  tendencies  are 
rather  practical  than  sentimental,  and  that  in  consequence  they  are 
merry  as  the  crickets  and  full  of  glad  song  as  the  birds. 

Another  noticeable  result  is  the  developed  spirit  of  helpfulness.  If 
the  supreme  revelation  of  Christianity  is  the  fatherhood  of  God,  and  its 
supreme  duty  practical  recognition  of  universal  brotherhood,  then  I 
know  no  spot  on  earth  nearer  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  than  the  true 
Kindergarten.  The  director,  essentially  the  sympathetic  helper  of  the 
children,  teaches  them  by  her  example  to  help  each  other,  and  the 
motherliness  of  the  older  girls,  the  eager  desire  of  all  the  children  to 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  615 

show  each  other  their  work,  the  glad  approval  breaking  out  into  audible 
praise,  and  the  blame  of  wrong  which  blends  with  pity  and  helpfulness 
for  the  wrong  doer,  these  are  daily  expressions  of  the  moral  life  of  the 
Kindergarten  which  tell  us  what  human  life  might  be  were  the  truths 
we  profess  so  glibly  the  real  movers  of  our  souls.  That  great  philoso- 
pher to  whom  so  many  of  our  strongest  religious  thinkers  owe  so  much 
of  their  best  thought,  has  said  that  "  Christianity  carries  in  its  bosom  a 
power  of  renovation  which  is  still  unsuspected,"  and  that  when  acting 
no  longer  only  on  individuals  it  becomes  "  the  internal  and  organizing 
force  of  society,  it  will  reveal  itself  to  the  world  in  all  the  depth  of  its 
conceptions  and  in  all  the  richness  of  its  blessings."  Could  Fichte  have 
peeped  into  the  Kindergarten  he  would  have  seen  there  the  beginning 
of  the  end,  and  rejoiced  in  the  sway  of  that  spirit  which  shall  yet  solve 
the  problem  of  the  many  and  the  one. 

Another  flower  which  blossoms  freely  in  the  Kindergarten  is  loving 
faith  in  "  grown-up  people."  The  great  necessity  of  human  hearts  is 
comprehension.  The  sharer  of  our  lives  and  thoughts  is  the  one  who 
influences  both.  Understanding  of  the  instrument  gives  the  power  to 
play  upon  it  at  will.  Understanding  guided  by  love  and  consecrated  to 
help  makes  the  power  of  the  Kindergartner,  and  explains  why  the 
happy  children  turn  to  her  as  flowers  turn  to  the  sun.  Finding  their 
dumb  needs  met,  their  blind  energies  directed,  their  unasked  questions 
answered,  and  their  groping  fingers  clasped  in  a  fiyn  yet  tender  hand 
and  guided  to  a  rewarding  work,  they  grow  in  faith  as  they  grow  in 
wisdom  and  match  increasing  power  with  increasing  love.  And  just  as 
the  lisping  baby  calls  all  men  "  papa  "  and  in  every  ceiling  finds  the 
sky,  so  the  child  brimming  over  with  love  for  one  wise  friend  believes 
in  the  friendliness  of  all  older  persons  and  turns  to  them  with  instinct- 
ive sympathy.  This  is  no  fancy  sketch  of  an  unrealized  possibility.  It 
is  a  fact  which  I  have  noticed  many  times  in  many  different  Kinder- 
gartens, and  the  experience  of  which  is  the  rich  reward  of  each  one  who 
faithfully  tends  the  living  plants  in  her  living  garden. 

I  shall,  perhaps,  express  the  crowning  result  of  the  Kindergarten 
most  clearly  if  I  say  that  in  proportion  as  children  respond  to  its  train- 
ing, they  learn  to  live  their  lives  consciously.  They  know  the  powers 
in  whose  exercise  they  rejoice,  and  blessings  brighten  to  them  without 
taking  flight.  They  feel  the  unity  of  life  and  see  their  own  morning 
hours  growing  towards  the  noon-day,  and  to  them,  as  to  the  poets  of 
old,  all  things  are  aglow  with  a  revelation  of  God.  In  these  richest 
fruits  of  Frb'bel's  method  I  cannot  be  mistaken,  for  I  had  noticed  them 
long  before  I  understood  their  significance,  and  it  was,  indeed,  through 
them  that  I  was  led  finally  into  the  secret  of  his  thought. 

The  struggle  of  life  is  a  struggle  towards  complete  self-consciousness. 
Power  existing,  exerted,  comprehended, — separation  tending  ever  to  a 
closer  union,  spirit  through  incarnation  rising  to  self-recognition,  the 
whole  creation  groaning  and  travailing  together  in  pain,  until,  in  the 
fullness  of  time,  the  self-conscious  creature  reflects  the  eternally  self- 


616  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN. 

conscious  Creator, — this  is  the  history  alike  of  the  universe  and  of  the 
individual  soul.  Light  may  flash  from  the  jewel  and  sparkle  in  the  dew- 
drop,  paint  the  morning  sky  with  roses,  and  transfigure  the  clouds  of 
evening  into  a  golden  glory,  but  not  until  the  living  eye  comes  forth  to 
see,  is  the  secret  of  the  sun  revealed.  So,  too,  the  angry  waves  may 
dash  themselves  against  the  shore,  the  thunder  roll  in  the  sky,  and  the 
wild  wind  how  the  grain  and  uproot  the  trees,  yet  the  silence  of  Nature 
never  breaks  into  sound  until  confronted  with  the  living  ear.  Dark- 
ness gives  way  to  light  and  chaos  to  order,  nebulous  masses  compact 
themselves  into  worlds,  worlds  crown  themselves  with  trees  and  flowers, 
and  earth,  and  water  bring  forth  abundantly  the  living  creature  that 
hath  life,  yet, 

"  The  fleeting  pageant  tells  for  nought 
Till  orbed  in  mind's  creative  thought." 

It  was  Frobel'saim  to  aid  this  struggle  of  the  soul  in  that  first  period 
of  life,  when  thought  is  potential,  character  faintly  outlined  in  ten- 
dency, and  will  expressed  only  in  an  indefinite  energy.  In  the  light 
of  this  aim  we  understand  his  method.  Recognizing  companionship 
as  a  condition  of  growth,  that  mind  reflects  mind  as  "  eye  to  eye  op- 
posed salutes  each  other  with  each  other's  form,  "Frb'bel,  contradict- 
ing Rousseau  and  advancing  upon  Pestalozzi,  demands  that  the  child 
shall  see  himself  in  children.  Recognizing  "•  obedience  as  the  organ  of 
spiritual  knowledg^,"  and  the  trained  will  as  the  condition  of  the  en- 
lightened mind,  he  foreshadows  moral  facts  through  their  correspond- 
ing virtues,  and  through  the  performance  of  small  duties,  prepares  for 
the  comprehension  of  great  truths.  Recognizing  that  there  can  be 
no  knowledge  of  external  things  without  seizing  the  distinctions  be- 
tween them,  and  no  self-recognition  without  estrangement  from  self,  he 
presents  on  the  one  hand  that  organized  sequence  of  contrasts  through 
which  the  child  learns  to  know  the  world  without,  and  on  the  other  that 
organized  system  of  work  through  which  he  reflects  the  world  within. 

Describing  the  influences  which  had  most  strongly  affected  the  evolu- 
tion of  his  own  thought,  Frobel  said  that  the  field  had  been  his 
school-room  and  the  tree  his  tutor ;  the  nursery  his  university,  and  lit- 
tle children  his  professors.  From  the  tree  he  learned  the  continuity  of 
life  and  traced  the  successive  differentiations  which  mark  the  process  of 
organic  growth  ;  studying  children  he  beheld  the  continuity  of  life  melt 
into  the  varied  unity  of  creative  thought,  and  learned  to  see  in  the 
course  of  development  through  progressive  differentiations  the  embodi- 
ment of  thought's  eternal  distinction  of  the  self  from  the  self.  Hence 
his  final  word  is  that  there  is  nothing  true  but  thought,  and  his  funda- 
mental educational  maxim  to  teach  children  to  think  by  training  them 
to  do.  In  development  through  an  activity  which  is  both  receptive  and 
productive  lies  the  secret  of  his  method  and  the  explanation  of  the 
child's  otherwise  inexplicable  growth  in  "  self -reverence,  self-knowledge, 
self-control ;  "  the  three,  that  "  alone  lead  life  to  sovereign  power." 


NECESSITY  OF  KINDERGARTEN  CULTURE. 

IN  OUR  SYSTEMS  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION.* 
BY   MISS   ELIZABETH  P.    PEABODY. 


QUALITY  OP  EDUCATION   TO   BE   CONSIDERED. 

The  history  of  many  great  nations  shows  that  there  may  be  an  educa- 
tion, which  paralyzes  and  perverts  instead  of  developing  and  perfecting 
individual  and  national  life.  It  is  not  from  want  of  a  most  careful  and 
powerful  system  of  education  that  China  is  what  she  is.  And  India, 
Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome  had  their  systems  of  education,  efficient  for  the 
production  of  material  and  intellectual  glories  certainly,  but  which, 
nevertheless,  involved  the  principle  of  the  decay  and  ruin  of  those 
nations.  Even  the  education  of  Christian  Europe,  that,  with  all  its 
acknowledged  defects  of  method  and  scope,  has  made  all  the  glory  of 
modern  civilization,  has  failed  to  bring  out  the  general  results  that  are  to 
be  hoped  for,  if  we  are  to  believe  in  the  higher  prophetic  instincts  of  the 
sages  and  saints  of  past  ages,  to  say  nothing  of  the  promises  of  Christ, 
who  expressly  includes  the  life  that  now  is  with  that  which  is  to  come. 
At  our  own  present  historical  crisis,  when  it  is  the  purpose  to  diffuse 
throughout  the  United  States  the  best  educational  institutions,  it  is  our 
duty  to  pause  and  ask  whether  all  has  been  gained  in  educational  method 
and  quality  which  it  is  desirable  to  spread  over  the  South;  whether  it 
may  not  be  possible  to  improve  as  well  as  diffuse,  and  in  the  reconstructed 
States  to  avoid  certain  mistakes  into  which  experience  has  proved  that 
the  North-eastern  States  have  fallen.  It  is  certain  that  mere  sharpening 
of  the  wits,  and  opening  to  the  mind  the  boundlessness  of  human  oppor- 
tunity for  producing  material  wealth,  are  not  the  only  desiderata.  As 
education  builds  the  intellect  high  with  knowledge,  it  should  sink  deep 
in  the  heart  the  moral  foundations  of  character,  or  our  apparent  growth  -vvw 
will  involve  future  national  ruin.  In  denning  education  as  only  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge,  which  is  but  an  incident  of  it,  we  have  indeed 
but  followed  the  example  set  by  the  Old  World,  and  have  hoped  that  by 
offering  this  knowledge  to  all,  instead  of  sequestrating  it  to  certain  classes, 
we  have  done  all  that  is  possible.  But  it  is  not  so.  The  quality  of  our 
education  should  rise  above,  or  at  least  not  sink  below,  that  of  the  nations 
that  have  educated  their  few  to  dominate  over  the  many,  else  our  self- 
government  will  be  disgraced;  and,  therefore,  I  would  present  the  claims 
of  the  new  system  of  primary  education,  which  has  been  growing  up  in 
Germany  during  the  present  century,  and  which,  in  the  congress  of  Euro- 


*  First  published  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1870. 


618  KINDERGARTEN  CULTURE. 

pean  philosophers  that  met  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  in  1869,  was  pro- 
nounced, after  searching  examination,  the  greatest  advance  of  method. 

In  the  report  of  Dr.  HOYT  (United  States  commissioner  to  the  Paris 

Exposition  of  1867)  on  the  present  state  of  education  in  Europe,  there  is  a 

short,  clear,  and  very  striking  statement  of  the  normal  education  given  to 

the  primary  teachers  of  all  the  Germanic  nations,  Prussia  taking  the  lead. 

He  says  they  "all  recognize  that  the  primary  department  of  education  is 

at  once  the  most  important  and  difficult,  and  requires  in  its  teachers,  first, 

the  highest  order  of  mind;  secondly,  the  most  general  cultivation;  and 

thirdly,  the  most  careful  cherishing,  greatest  honor,  and  the  best  pay,  for 

it  has  the  charge  of  children  at  the  season  of  life  when  they  are  most 

entirely  at  the  mercy  of  their  educators."    As  this  report  is  distributed 

by  the  Senate  to  whoever  will  send  for  it,  I  will  not  repeat  Dr.  HOYT'S 

minute   description  of    the  normal   training   required   of   the  primary 

teachers,  or  his  statistics  of  the  satisfactory  results  of  their  teaching,  but 

pass  at  once  to  a  consideration  of  the  still  profounder  method  of  FROEBEL, 

which  immediately  respects  the  earliest  education,  but  of  which  Dr.  HOYT 

does  not  speak,  inasmuch  as  it  is  not  yet  anywhere  a  national  system, 

though  within  the  last  twenty  years  it  has  spread  over  Germany  and  into 

Scandinavia  and  Switzerland,  and  been  introduced  into  Spain,  France, 

Italy,  and  Russia;  but  to  no  country  is  it  adapted  so  entirely  as  to 

America,  where  there  is  no  hindrance  of  aristocratic  institution,  nor 

mountain  of  ancient  custom,  to  interfere  with  a  method  which  regards 

every  human  being  as  a  subject  of  education,  intellectual  and  moral  as 

well  as  physical,  from  the  moment  of  birth;  and,  as  the  heir  of  universal 

nature  in  co-sovereignty  with  all  other  men,  endowed  by  their  Creator 

with  equal  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

It  is  all  the  more  important  to  make  an  exact  statement  of  FROEBEL'S 
art  and  science  of  education  in  its  severity,  because  it  has  been  and  is 
extensively  travestied  in  this  country,  by  numerous  schools  called  Kinder- 
gartens which  have  disgraced  its  principle,  as  they  have  only  a  superfi- 
cial resemblance  to  those  institutions  to  which  FROEBEL  gave  that  name. 

THE    FROEBEL    IDEA. 

The  fundamental  or  rather  root  point  in  which  FROEBEL'S  method 
differs  from  that  of  all  other  educators,  is  this :  he  takes  up  the  human 
being  in  the  full  tide  of  that  prodigious  but  blind  activity  in  which  he 
comes  into  the  world,  and  seeks  to  make  it  intelligent  of  itself  and  of 
things  around  it,  by  employing  it  to  produce  palpable  effects,  at  once  sat- 
isfactory to  the  heart  and  fancy  of  childhood,  and  true  to  nature,  by 
knowledge  of  whose  order  and  organization  the  human  understanding  is 
built  up  in  soundness  and  truth.  For  the  blind  heart  and  will,  which  the 
human  being  is,  until  by  becoming  intelligent  of  nature  he  is  transmuted 
into  a  principle  of  order,  is  the  very  principle  of  evil.  Without  imagining 
any  inherent  malignity  of  heart,  we  must  admit,  that  the  child  necessarily 
goes  on  knocking  down  and  tearing  up,  and  creating  disorder  generally, 
to  its  own  and  other  people's  annoyance,  in  its  vain  endeavor  to  satisfy 
the  instinct  to  alter  that  is  the  characteristic  of  human  will,  until  it  is 
educated  to  recognize  and  obey  the  laws  of  God  expressed  in  nature. 


KINDERGARTEN  CULTURE.  #19 

For  a  time  the  young  senses  are  not  adequate  to  accurate  perception  of 
outward  objects;  and  far  less  is  the  power  of  abstracting  the  laws  of 
order  developed  in  a  young  child.  A  certain  evil  is  therefore  originated 
which  seems  so  inevitable,  that  it  has  tasked  the  human  intellect  to 
reconcile  it  with  Divine  benevolence,  and  driven  men  into  various  the- 
ories, more  or  less  unsatisfactory  to  all,  upon  the  nature  of  evil  and  its 
place  in  the  economy  of  creation.  Now  FROEBEL  undertakes  to  give  a 
practical  solution  of  this  terrible  problem,  by  his  art;  for  he  seizes  this 
very  activity  in  the  earliest  infancy,  and  gently  guides  it  into  the  produc- 
tion of  effects  that  gratify  the  intense  desires  of  the  soul,  and  cause  it 
actually  to  produce  the  beauty  and  use  at  which  it  has  blindly  aimed. 
He  looks  upon  the  child  as  a  doer  primarily,  and  a  knower  subsequently; 
that  is,  an  an  artist  before  he  is  a  scientist.  Entering  with  genial  sym- 
pathy into  that  primal  activity  which  we  call  childish  play,  he  guides  the 
child  first  to  embody  and  then  carefully  observe  eternal  laws,  even  on  this 
humble  plane,  by  which  he  surprises  and  delights  himself  with  the  beauty 
or  use  that  grow  under  his  hands,  and  therefore  absorb  his  attention. 
For  what  meets  a  child's  internal  sense  of  fitness  and  beauty,  especially  if 
it  is  his  own  work,  he  is  delighted  to  examine:  and  he  loves  to  analyze 
the  process  by  which  the  delightful  result  has  been  obtained.  While  it  is 
a  hard  thing  to  make  a  child  copy  the  work  of  another,  he  will  repeat  his 
own  process  over  and  over  again,  seeming  to  wish  to  convince  himself  that 
like  antecedents  involve  like  consequences.  These  repetitions  sharpen  his 
senses  as  well  as  develop  his  understanding;  they  also  give  skillfulness  to 
his  hands,  and  make  him  practically  realize  individuality,  form,  size, 
number,  direction,  position,  also  connection  and  organization,  which  last 
call  forth  his  reflective  and  inventive  powers. 

Hence  Kindergarten  teaching  is  just  the  careful  superintendence  and 
direction  of  the  blind  activity  of  little  children  into  self-intelligence 
and  productive  work,  by  making  it  artistic  and  morally  elevated.  For  it 
carefully  regards  the  ennobling  of  the  soul  by  developing  the  love  of  good 
and  beauty  which  keeps  the  temper  sweet  and  the  heart  disinterested ; 
occupying  the  productive  powers  in  making  things — not  to  hoard — not 
to  show  how  much  they  can  do,  which  might  foster  selfishness,  vanity, 
and  jealousy — but  for  the  specific  pleasure  of  chosen  friends  and  com- 
panions. Thus,  without  taking  the  child  out  of  his  childish  spontaneity 
and  innocence,  FROEBEL  would  make  him  a  kind,  intelligent,  artistic, 
moral  being,  harmonizing  the  play  of  will,  heart,  and  mind  from  the  very 
beginning  of  life,  into  a  veritable  image  of  the  creativeness  of  God. 

The  mother  gave  FROEBEL  the  model  for  this  education,  in  the  instinct- 
ive nursery  play  by  which  she  helps  her  little  one  to  consciousness  of  his 
body  in  its  organs  of  sense  a,nd  motion.  She  teaches  him  that  he  has 
hands  and  feet,  and  their  uses,  by  inspiring  and  guiding  him  to  use  them; 
playing  with  him  at  "pat-a-cake,"  and  "this  little  pig  goes  to  market  and 
this  stays  at  home,"  &c.  I  wish  I  had  room  to  give  a  review  of  FROEBEL'S 
book  of  mother  songs,  nursery  plays,  pictures,  and  mother's  prattle,  which 
is  the  root  of  the  whole  tree:  but  I  can  merely  refer  to  it  in  passing.* 

"This  work,  Froebel's  Mother  Play  and  Nursery  Songs,  with  the  music,  engraved  illus- 
trations, and  notes,  is  published  in  Boston  by  Lee  &  Shepard. 


620  KINDERGARTEN  G'ULTURE. 

He  shows  in  it  that  what  he  learnt  from  the  mother  he  could  return  to 
her  tenfold,  bettering  the  instruction;  and  that  the  body  being  the  first 
word  of  which  the  child  takes  possession  by  knowledge,  though  not 
without  aid,  we  must  play  with  the  child.  If  we  do  not,  he  ceases  to 
play.  CHARLES  LAMB  has  given  a  most  affecting  picture  of  the  effects 
of  this  in  his  pathetic  paper  on  the  neglected  children  of  the  poor;  and 
the  statistics  of  public  cribs  and  foundling  hospitals  prove,  that  when 
children  are  deprived  of  the  instinctive  maternal  nursery  play,  almost  all 
of  them  die,  and  the  survivors  become  feeble-minded  or  absolute  idiots, 
Dr.  HOWE  says  much  idiocy  is  not  organic  but  functional  only,  and  to  be 
referred  to  coarse  or  harsh  dealing  with  infants,  paralyzing  their  nerves 
of  perception  with  pain  and  terror;  even  a  mere  inadequate  nursing  may 
have  this  effect;  and  he  and  other  teachers  of  idiots  have  inversely  proved 
this  to  be  true,  by  the  restoring  effects  of  their  genial  methods.  And 
what  produces  idiocy  in  these  extreme  cases  produces  chronic  dullness, 
discouragement,  and  destruction  of  all  elasticity  of  mind,  in  the  majority 
of  children.  It  is  appalling  to  think  what  immense  injury  is  done,  and 
what  waste  made  of  human  faculty,  by  those  defective  methods  of  educa- 
tion which  undertake  to  reverse  the  order  of  nature,  and  make  children 
passive  to  receive  impressions,  instead  of  keeping  them  active,  and  letting 
them  learn  by  their  own  or  a  suggested  experimenting.  Some  people, 
having  seen  that  the  former  was  wrong,  let  their  children  "run  wild,"  as 
they  call  it,  for  several  years ;  but  this  is  nearly  an  equal  error.  Not  to  be 
attaining  habits  of  order  is  even  for  the  body  unhealthy,  and  leaves  chil- 
dren to  become  disorderly  and  perverse.  The  very  ignorance  and  help- 
lessness of  children  imperatively  challenge  human  intervention  and  help. 
They  would  die  out  of  their  mere  animal  existence  in  the  first  hour  of 
their  mortal  life,  did  not  the  mother  or  nurse  come  to  their  rescue.  Most 
insects  and  other  low  forms  of  animal  life  know  no  care  of  parents. 
They  are  endowed  with  certain  absolute  knowledge,  enabling  them  to  fill 
their  small  sphere  of  relation  unerringly  as  the  needle  points  to  the  pole. 
We  call  it  instinct,  But  as  the  scale  of  being  rises,  relations  multiply, 
which,  though  dependencies  at  first,  become,  by  the  fulfillment  of  the 
duties  they  involve,  sources  of  happiness  and  beneficent  power  ever 
widening  in  scope.  Man,  who  is  to  fill  the  unlimited  sphere  of  an  immor- 
tal existence,  knows  nothing  at  all  of  the  outward  universe  at  his  birth. 
The  wisdom  that  is  to  guide  his  will,  is  in  the  already  developed  and 
cultivated  human  beings  that  surround  him;  and  he  depends  on  that 
intercommunion  with  his  kind  which  begins  in  the  first  smile  of  recogni- 
tion that  passes  between  mother  and  child,  and  is  to  continue  until  it 
becomes  the  "communion  of  the  just  made  perfect,"  which  is  highest 
heaven  both  here  and  hereafter.  ' 

The  instinct,  therefore,  that  makes  a  mother  play  with  her  baby,  is  n 
revelation  of  a  first  principle,  giving  the  key-note  of  human  education; 
and  upon  it  FROEBEL  has  modulated  his  whole  system,  which  he  calls 
Kindergarten ;  not  that  he  meant  education  to  be  given  out  of  doors,  as 
some  have  imagined;  but  because  he  would  suggest  that  children  are 
living  organisms  like  plants,  which  must  blossom  and  flower  before  they 
can  mature  fruit;  and  consequently  require  a  care  analogous  to  that  which 


KINDERGARTEN  CULTURE.  621 

the  gardener  gives  to  his  plants,  removing  obstacles  and  heightening  the 
favoring  circumstances  of  development. 

The  seed  of  every  plant  has  in  miniature  the  form  of  its  individual 
organization,  enveloped  in  a  case  which  is  burst  by  the  life-force  within 
it,  so  that  the  germ  may  come  into  communication  with  those  elements, 
whose  assimilation  enables  it  to  unfold,  in  one  case  a  tree,  in  other  cases 
other  vegetable  forms.  In  like  manner  the  infant  soul  is  a  life  force 
wrapped  up  in  a  material  case,  which  is  not,  however,  immediately 
deciduous ;  for,  unlike  the  envelope  of  the  seed,  the  human  body  is  also 
an  apparatus  of  communication  with  the  nature  around  it,  and  especially 
with  other  souls,  similarly  limited  and  endowed,  who  shall  meet  its  out- 
burst of  life,  and  help  it  to  accomplish  its  destiny — or  hinder!  I  beg 
attention  to  this  point.  We  either  educate  or  hinder.  The  help  to  be 
given  by  education,  is  an  essential  part  of  the  Eternal  providence,  and  we 
must  accept  our  duty  of  embodying  the  divine  love  in  our  human  provi- 
dence, which  we  denominate  education,  on  the  penalty  of  injuring,  which 
is  the  supreme  evil.  "Woe  unto  him  who  shall  offend  one  of  these  little 
ones.  It  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hung  about  his  neck, 
and  he  were  cast  into  the  uttermost  depths  of  the  sea." 

As  the  child  gets  knowledge  and  takes  possession  of  his  own  body,  by 
the  exercise  of  his  several  organs  of  sense  and  the  movement  of  his  limbs, 
so  he  must  gradually  take  possession  of  the  universe,  which  is  his  larger 
body  on  the  same  principle;  by  learning  to  use  its  vast  magazine  of  mate- 
rials to  embody  his  fancies,  attain  his  desires,  and  by  and  by  accomplish 
his  duties,  education  being  the  mother  to  help  him  to  examine  these  mate- 
rials and  dispose  them  in  order,  keeping  him  steady  in  his  aims,  and 
giving  him  timely  suggestions,  a  clew  to  the  laws  of  organization,  by  fol- 
lowing which  all  his  action  will  become  artistic.  For  art  is  to  man  what 
the  created  universe  is  to  God.  I  here  use  the  word  art  in  the  most 
general  sense,  as  manifestation  of  the'  human  spirit  on  every  plane  of 
expression,  material,  intellectual,  and  moral. 

FROEBEL,  therefore,  instead  of  beginning  the  educating  process  by 
paralyzing  play  (keeping  the  child  still,  as  the  phrase  is,)  and  superin- 
ducing the  adult  mind  upon  the  childish  one,  accepts  him  as  he  is.  But 
he  organizes  the  play"  in  the  order  of  nature's  evolutions,  making  the  first 
playthings,  after  the  child's  own  hands  and  feet,  the  ground  forms  of 
nature.  He  has  invented  a  series  of  playthings,  beginning  with  solids — 
the  ball,  the  cube,  and  other  forms — going  on  to  planes,  which  embody 
the  surfaces  of  solids,  (square  and  the  various  triangles,)  and  thence  to 
sticks  of  different  lengths,  embodying  the  lines  which  make  the  edges  of 
the  solids  and  planes ;  and,  finally,  to  points,  embodied  in  peas  or  balls  of 
wax,  into  which  can  be  inserted  sharpened  sticks,  by  means  of  which 
frames  of  things  and  symmetrical  forms  of  beauty  may  be  made,  thus 
bringing  the  child  to  the  very  borders  of  abstraction  without  going  over 
into  it,  which  little  children  should  never  do,  for  abstract  objects  of 
thought  strain  the  brain,  as  sensuous  objects  do  not,  however  minutely 
they  are  considered.  In  building  and  laying  forms  of  symmetrical  beauty 
with  these  blocks,  planes,  sticks,  and  peas,  not  only  is  the  intellect 
developed  in  order,  but  skilful  manipulation,  delicate  neatness,  and  orderly 
process  become  habits,  as  well  as  realized  facts.  The  tables  that  the 


622  KINDERGARTEN  CULTURE. 

children  sit  at  as  they  work  are  painted  in  inch  squares,  and  the  blocks, 
planes,  and  sticks  are  not  to  be  laid  about  in  confused  heaps,  but  taken 
one  by  one  from  the  boxes  and  carefully  adjusted  to  these  inch  squares. 
In  going  from  one  form  to  another  the  changes  are  made  gradually  and  in 
order.  No  patterns  are  allowed.  The  teachers  may  at  first,  perhaps 
suggest  how  to  lay  the  blocks,  planes,  sticks,  also  wire  circles  and  arcs,  in 
relation  to  each  other  severally,  and  to  the  squares  of  the  table.  '  For  sym- 
metrical forms  they  suggest  to  lay  opposites  till  the  pupils  have  learned 
the  fundamental  law— union  of  opposites  for  all  production  and  beauty. 
A  constant  questioning,  calling  attention  to  every  point  of  resemblance 
and  contrast  in  all  the  objects  within  the  range  of  sensuous  observation, 
and  also  to  their  obvious  connections,  keeps  the  mind  awake  and  in 
agreeable  activity.  Margin  for  spontaneous  invention  is  always  left, 
which  the  law  of  opposites  conducts  to  beauty  inevitably.  In  acting 
from  suggested  thoughts,  instead  of  from  imitation,  they  act  from  within 
outward,  and  soon  will  begin  to  originate  thoughts,  for  Kindergarten  has 
shown  that  invention  is  a  universal  talent. 

But  the  time  comes  when  children  are  no  longer  satisfied  with  making 
transient  forms  whose  materials  can  be  gathered  back  into  boxes.  They 
desire  to  do  something  which  will  remain  fixed.  FROEBEL'S  method 
meets  this  instinct  with  materials  for  making  permanent  forms  by  draw- 
ing, sewing,  weaving,  interlacing,  cutting,  modeling,  etc. 

The  stick-laying  is  the  best  possible  preparation  for  drawing,  for  it 
trains  the  eye,  leaving  the  children  to  learn  the  manipulation  of  the  pencil 
only,  and  this  is  again  made  easy  by  having  the  slates  and  paper  ruled  in 
eighths  or  tenths  of  an  inch,  that  the  pencil  of  the  child  may  be  guided 
while  the  hand  is  yet  unsteady,  for  FROEBEL  would  never  have  the  child 
fail  of  doing  perfectly  whatever  he  undertakes,  and  this  is  effected  by 
making  him  begin  with  something  easy,  and  proceeding  by  a  minute 
gradualism.  He  would  also  train  the  eye  to  symmetry  by  never  allowing 
him  to  make  a  crooked  line,  just  as  the  ear  is  trained  in  musical  educa- 
tion by  never  making  a  false  note.  Though  the  net  which  guides  the 
hand  to  straightness,  when  it  is  yet  feeble,  is  a  mechanical  help,  it  does 
not  prescribe  the  forms  drawn,  which  are  suggested  to  or  invented  by  the 
fancy,  not  imitated  from  a  copy. 

Beside  the  drawing, which  is  carried  to  quite  a  wonderful  degree  of  beauty, 
invented  even  by  children  under  seven  years  old,  pricking  of  symmetrical 
forms  may  be  done  by  means  of  the  same  squared  paper;  and  again, 
pricked  cardboard  may  be  sewed  with  colored  threads,  teaching  harmo- 
nies of  color.  Also  another  variety  of  work  is  made  by  weaving  into 
slitted  paper  of  one  color  strips  of  other  colors,  involving  not  only  the 
harmonizing  of  colors,  but  the  counting  and  arrangement  for  symmetrical 
effect,  which  gives  a  great  deal  of  mental  arithmetic,  while  the  folding  of 
paper  with  great  exactness  in  geometrical  forms,  and  unfolding  it  to  make 
little  boats,  chairs,  tables,  and  what  the  children  call  flowers,  gives  con- 
crete geometry  and  the  habit  of  calculation. 

A  lady  who  traveled  in  Europe  to  study  FROEBEL'S  Kindergartens, 
brought  home  from  Dresden  the  whole  series  of  work  done  by  a  class  of 
children  who  began  at  three  years  old  and  continued  till  seven ;  and  no 


KINDERGARTEN  CULTURE.  623 

one  has  seen  it  without  being  convinced  that  it  must  have  educated  the 
children  that  did  it,  not  only  to  an  exquisite  artistic  manipulation,  which 
it  is  very  much  harder  to  attain  later,  but  to  habits  of  attention  that  would 
make  it  a  thing  of  a  short  time  to  learn  to  read,  write,  and  cipher,  and 
enable  them  to  enter  into  scientific  education,  and  to  use  books  with  the 
greatest  advantage  when  eight  years  old. 

Calisthenics,  ball-plays,  and  plays  symbolizing  the  motions  of  birds, 
beasts,  pretty  human  fancies,  mechanical  and  other  labors,  and  exercising 
the  whole  body,  are  alternated  with  the  quieter  occupations,  and  give 
grace,  agility,  animal  spirits,  and  health,  with  quickness  of  eye  and 
touch,  together  with  an  effect  on  the  mind,  their  significance  taking  the 
rudeness  out,  and  putting  intelligence  into  the  plays  without  destroying 
the  fun.  The  songs  and  music  which  direct  these  exercises  are  learned 
by  rote,  and  help  to  gratify  that  demand  for  rhythm  which  is  one  of  the 
mysteries  of  human  nature,  quickening  causal  power  to  its  greatest  energy, 
as  has  been  proved,  even  in  the  education  of  idiots,  by  the  almost  miracu- 
lous effects  upon  them  of  the  musical  gymnastics,  which  are  found 
to  wake  to  some  self -consciousness  and  enjoyment,  even  the  saddest  of 
these  poor  victims  of  malorganization.  All  FROEBEL'S  exercises  are 
characterized  by  rhythm ;  for  the  law  of  combining  opposites  for  symmet- 
rical beauty  makes  a  rhythm  to  the  eye,  which  perhaps  has  more  pene- 
trative effect  on  the  intellectual  life  than  music. 

If  true  education,  as  FROEBEL  claims,  is  this  conscious  process  of  devel- 
opment, bodily  and  mental,  corresponding  point  by  point  with  the  uncon- 
scious evolutions  of  matter,  making  the  human  life  the  image  of  the 
divine  creativeness,  every  generation  owes  to  the  next  every  opportunity  for 
it.  In  this  country,  whose  prodigious  energies  are  running  so  wild  into 
gambling  trade  and  politics,  threatening  us  with  evils  yet  unheard  of  in 
history,  it  may  be  our  national  salvation  to  employ  them  in  legitimate, 
attractive  work  for  production  of  a  beauty  and  benefit  that  also  has  been 
yet  unheard  of  in  history ;  and  this  can  best  be  done  by  preventing  that 
early  intellectual  perversion  and  demoralization,  with  waste  of  genius  and 
moral  power,  entailed  on  us  by  the  inadequate  arbitrary  modes  of  primary 
discipline  which  deteriorate  all  subsequent  education. 

But  the  indispensable  preliminary  of  this  new  primary  discipline  are 
competent  teachers,  who  can  be  had  only  by  special  training.  What  is  at 
once  delightful  play  and  earnest  work  to  the  children,  requires,  in  those 
who  are  superintending  it,  not  only  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  and  processes 
of  vital  growth,  which  are  analogous  if  not  identical  in  nature  and  art,  but 
the  science  of  infant  psychology  also.  These  things  are  not  intrinsically 
difficult  of  attainment,  and  it  is  easier,  if  the  teacher  has  been  trained  to 
it,  to  keep  a  Kindergarten,  according  to  the  strict  principle  of  FROEBEL, 
than  to  keep  an  ordinary  primary  school  in  the  ordinary  manner,  because 
nature  helps  the  former  with  all  her  instincts  and  powers,  while  the  latter 
is  a  perpetual  antagonism  and  struggle  with  nature  for  the  repression  of 
a  more  or  less  successful  chronic  rebellion. 

The  best  Kindergarten  normal  school  in  the  world  is  that  founded  by 
the  Baroness  MARENHOLTZ-BULOW,  in  Dresden,  where  she  lectures  gratuit- 
ously herself  on  the  philosophy  of  the  method,  and  its  relations  to  "the 


624 


KINDERGARTEN  CULTURE. 


regeneration  of  mankind  "  (to  use  her  own  phrase),  and  the  pupils  have 
instruction  from  professors  in  many  branches  of  science  and  art,  while 
they  go  to  observe  and  practice  several  times  a  week  in  properly  taught 
Kindergartens.  But  Americans,  who  have  had  our  usual  normal  or  high 
school  education,  or  its  equivalent,  if  they  are  fairly  gifted  and  educated, 
genial,  sweet-tempered,  and  candid,  can  obtain  the  special  training  in  a 
six  months'  diligent  course,  and  the  more  surely  the  more  they  have  the 
grace  of  a  wise  humility.  What  it  took  FROEBEL,  with  all  his  heart  and 
genius,  a  half  century  of  study  and  experimenting  to  elaborate,  it  would 
seem  at  first  could  not  be  learned  in  so  short  a  time.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  more  profound  and  complete  the  truth,  the  more 
easily  can  it  be  comprehended  when  once  fairly  stated.  It  took  a  Newton 
to  discover  the  principia  naturae;  and  a  Copernicus  to  replace  the  compli- 
cated Ptolemean  by  nature's  solar  system ;  but  any  child  of  twelve  years 
old  can  comprehend  and  learn  them,  now  they  are  discovered.  FROK* 
BEL'S  authority  inheres  in  his  being  a  self-denying  interpreter  of  nature, 
the  only  absolute  authority  (nature  being  God's  word).  As  EDGAR  Qui- 
NET  said  in  1865,  in  a  letter  to  the  Baroness  MARENHOLTZ-BULOW,  remark* 
ing  that  FROEBEL  "  sees  the  tree  in  the  germ;  the  infinitely  great  in  the 
infinitely  small;  the  sage  and  great  man  in  the  cooing  babe;"  and  "his 
method,  therefore,  is  that  of  nature  herself,  which  always  has  reference  to 
the  whole,  and  keeps  the  end  in  view  in  all  the  phases  of  development," 
comparing  him  to  "the  three  wise  men  from  the  East  who  placed  the 
treasures  of  nature  in  the  hands  of  the  heavenly  Child  " — and  the  state- 
ment is  worthy  of  all  attention — "  It  is  certain  that  the  results  of  this 
method  can  only  be  attained  if  it  is  applied  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
discoverer.  Without  this,  the  best  conceptions  of  FROEBEL  must  be  falsi- 
fied, and  turned  against  his  aim ;  mechanism  alone  would  remain,  and 
would  bring  back  teacher  and  pupil  into  the  old  traces  of  routine." 

But  the  immediate  desideratum  is  a  free  national  school  to  supply  Kin- 
dergarten education  to  the  schools  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  Terri- 
tories, and  the  South,  to  be  located  in  the  District,  or  perhaps  in  Rich- 
mond, Virginia,  where  some  of  the  "ten  thousand  Southern  ladies,"  who 
signed  the  pathetic  petition  to  Mr.  PEABODY  to  found  for  them  an  indus- 
trial school,  might  learn  this  beautiful  art,  and  be  made  able  to  initiate  in 
their  beloved  South  a  higher,  more  refined,  and  also  complete  system  of 
education  than  has  ever  obtained  in  any  country.  It  has  been  ascertained 
that  an  eminent  Kindergartener  in  Europe,  now  in  full  employ,  but  will- 
ing to  leave  all  to  do  this  thing  in  the  United  States,  may  be  secured  for 
five  years,  finding  all  the  apparatus  and  materials  herself.  Will  not  some 
one  of  our  munificent  public  benefactors  trustee  in  the  hands  of  some  per- 
son wise  in  the  matter,  a  sum  of  money  yielding  three  or  four  thousand 
dollars  a  year  to  secure  this  absolutely  necessary  normal  training?  In 
this  country  every  radical  reform  of  education  requires  the  action  of  pri- 
vate intelligence  for  its  inception.  $2,000  a  year  would  suffice. 

N.  B.— This  year  (1879)  a  training  school  for  Southern  ladies  has  been 
established,  (through  the  liberality  of  Mrs.  ELIZABETH  THOMPSON  to  the 
FROEBEL  Union),  in  the  Normal  school  of  Baltimore,  Md. ,  which,  it  is  to 
be  hoped,  friends  of  the  South  will  endow  in  the  future  years. 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

BY  WILLIAM  T.  HARRIS,  LL.D.,* 

Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  in  St.  Louis. 


PRELIMINARY  AND  ASSOCIATED   QUESTIONS. 

THE  question  of  the  kindergarten  cannot  be  settled  without  considering 
many  subordinate  questions. 

In  one  sense  the  whole  of  life  is  an  education,  for  man  is  a  being  that 
constantly  develops  —  for  good  or  evil.  In  every  epoch  of  his  life  an 
education  goes  on.  There  are  well-defined  epochs  of  growth  or  of  educa- 
tion: that  of  infancy,  in  which  education  is  chiefly  that  of  use  and  wont, 
the  formation  of  habits  as  regards  the  care  of  the  person,  and  the  conduct 
within  family  life;  that  of  youth,  wherein  the  child  learns  in  the  school 
how  to  handle  those  instrumentalities  which  enable  him  to  participate  in 
the  intellectual  or  theoretical  acquisitions  of  the  human  race,  and  wherein, 
at  the  same  time,  he  learns  those  habits  of  industry,  regularity,  and  punctu- 
ality, and  self-control  which  enable  him  to  combine  with  his  fellow-men 
in  civil  society  and  in  the  state ;  then  there  is  that  education  which  fol- 
lows the  period  of  school  education — the  education  which  one  gets  by  the 
apprenticeship  to  a  vocation  or  calling  in  life.  Other  spheres  of  education 
are  the  state,  or  body-politic,  and  its  relation  to  the  individual,  wherein 
the  latter  acts  as  a  citizen,  making  laws  through  his  elected  representatives, 
and  assisting  in  their  execution;  the  church,  wherein  he  learns  to  see 
all  things  under  the  form  of  eternity,  and  to  derive  thence  the  ultimate 
standards  of  his  theory  and  practice  in  life. 

The  question  of  the  kindergarten  also  involves,  besides  this  one  of 
province— i.  e. ,  the  question  whether  there  is  a  place  for  it — the  considera- 
tion of  its  disciplines,  or  what  it  accomplishes  in  the  way  of  theoretical 
insight  or  of  practical  will-power;  these  two,  and  the  development  of  the 
emotional  nature  of  the  human  being.  Exactly  what  does  the  kinder- 
garten attempt  to  do  in  these  directions?  And  then,  after  the  what  it  does 
is  ascertained,  arises  the  question  whether  it  is  desirable  to  attempt  such 
instruction  in  the  school;  wrhether  it  does  not  take  the  place  of  more 
desirable  training,  which  the  school  has  all  along  been  furnishing;  or 
whether  it  does  not,  on  the  other  hand,  trench  on  the  province  of  the 
education  within  the  family — a  period  of  nurture  wherein  the  pupil  gets 
most  of  his  internal,  or  subjective,  emotional  life  developed  ?  If  the 
kindergarten  takes  the  child  too  soon  from  the  family,  and  abridges  the 
period  of  nurture,  it  must  perforce  injure  his  character  on  the  whole;  for 
the  period  of  nurture  is  like  the  root-life  of  the  plant,  essential  for  the 
development  of  the  above-ground  life  of  the  plant,  essential  for  the  public 
life  of  the  man,  the  life  wherein  he  combines  with  his  fellow-men. 

*  Prepared  for  Meeting  of  American  Froebel  Union,  December,  1879. 
40 


62G 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 


Then,  again,  there  is  involved  the  question  of  education  for  vocation  in 
life — the  preparation  for  the  arts  and  trades  that  are  to  follow  school-life — 
as  the  third  epoch  in  life-education.  Should  the  education  into  the  techni- 
calities of  vocations  be  carried  down  into  the  school-life  of  the  pupil;  still 
more,  should  it  be  carried  down  into  the  earliest  period  of  transition  from 
the  nurture-period  to  the  school -period? 

Besides  these  essential  questions,  there  are  many  others  of  a  subsidiary 
nature,— those  relating  to  expense,  to  the  training  of  teachers  and  their 
supply,  to  the  ability  of  public-school  boards  to  manage  such  institutions, 
to  the  proper  buildings  for  their  use,  the  proper  length  of  sessions,  the 
degree  of  strictness  of  discipline  to  be  preserved,  etc. ,  etc.  The  former 
essential  questions  relate  to  the  desirability  of  kindergarten  Education ;  the 
latter  relate  to  the  practicability  of  securing  it. 

IDEAL   OF   THE   KINDERGARTEN. 

The  most  enthusiastic  advocates  of  the  kindergarten  offer,  as  grounds 
for  its  establishment,  such  claims  for  its  efficiency  as  might  reasonably  be 
claimed  only  for  the  totality  of  human  education,  in  its  five-fold  aspect — 
of  nurture,  school,  vocation,  state,  and  church.  If  what  they  claim  for 
it  were  met  with  as  actual  results,  we  certainly  should  realize  the  fairest 
ideals  of  a  perfected  type  of  humanity  at  once.  Such  claims,  however, 
can  be  made  only  of  a  life-long  education  in  its  five-fold  aspect,  and  not 
of  any  possible  education  which  lasts  only  from  one  to  four  years  in  the 
life  of  the  individual.  Notwithstanding  this  exaggeration,  it  may  prove 
to  be  the  case  that  the  kindergarten  is  justified  in  claiming  a  province 
heretofore  unoccupied  by  the  school  or  by  family  nurture,  and  a  province 
which  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  right  development  of  those 
phases  of  life  which  follow  it.  It  is,  indeed,  no  reproach  to  the  friends  of 
the  "new  education"  (as  they  call  it)  to  accuse  them  of  exaggeration. 
The  only  fault  which  we  may  charge  them  with  is  a  tendency  to  ignore, 
or  under-rate,  the  educational  possibilities  of  the  other' provinces  of  human 
life,  and  especially  those  of  'the  school  as  it  has  hitherto  existed. 

To  illustrate  the  breadth  of  view  which  the  advocates  of  the  kindergarten 
entertain  in  regard  to  the  theory  and  practical  value  of  the  kindergarten, 
I  quote  here  a  statement  of  its  rationale,  furnished  me  by  Miss  Elizabeth 
Peabody,  justly  considered  the  leading  advocate  for  the  new  education 
in  this  country : — 

"The  rationale  of  Froebel's  method  of  education  is  only  to  be  given  by 
a  statement  of  the  eternal  laws  which  organize  human  nature  on  the  one 
side  and  the  material  universe  on  the  other. 

"Human  nature  and  the  material  universe  are  related  contrasts,  which 
it  is  the  personal  life  of  every  human  being  to  unify.  Material  nature  is 
the  unconscious  manifestation  of  God,  and  includes  the  human  body,  with 
which  man  finds  himself  in  relation  so  vital  that  he  takes  part  in  perfecting 
it  by  means  of  the  organs  ;  and  this  part  of  nature  is  the  only  part  of 
nature  which  can  be  said  to  be  dominated  vitally  by  man,  who,  in  the 
instance  of  Jesus  Christ,  so  purified  it  by  never  violating  any  law  of  human 
nature — which  (human  nature)  is  God's  intentional  revelation  of  Himself 
to  each — that  He  seems  to  have  had  complete  dominion,  and  could  make 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  627 

Himself  visible  or  invisible  at  will ;  transfiguring  His  natural  body  by  His 
spiritual  body,  as  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration;  or  consuming  it 
utterly,  as  on  the  Mount  of  Ascension.  Whether  man,  in  this  atmosphere, 
will  ever  do  this,  and  thus  abolish  natural  death,  or  not,  there  is  no  doubt 
there  will  be  infinite  approximation  to  this  glorification  of  humanity  in 
proportion  as  education  does  justice  to  the  children,  as  Froebel's  educa- 
tion aims  to  do  it;  for  it  is  his  principle  to  lead  children  to  educate  them- 
selves from  the  beginning — like  Socrates's  demon — forbidding  the  wrong 
and  leaving  the  self  activity  free  to  goodness  and  truth,  which  it  is  des- 
tined to  pursue  for  ever  and  ever." 

A  writer  in  the  Canadian  School  Journal  gives  utterance  to  the  follow- 
ing estimate  of  the  value  of  kindergartens: — 

"  Graduated  from  a  true  kindergarten,  a  child  rejoices  in  an  individual 
self-poise  and  power  which  makes  his  own  skill  and  judgment  important 
factors  of  his  future  progress.  He  is  not  like  every  other  child  who  has 
been  in  his  class;  he  is  himself.  His  own  genius,  whatever  it  maybe, 
has  had  room  for  growth  and  encouragement  to  express  itself.  He 
therefore  sees  some  object  in  his  study,  some  purpose  in  his  effort. 
Everything  in  his  course  has  been  illuminated  by  the  same  informing 
thought ;  and,  therefore,  with  the  attraction  that  must  spring  up  in  the 
young  mind  from  the  use  of  material  objects  in  his  work,  instead  of  a 
weariness,  his  way  has  been  marked  at  every  step  by  a  buoyant  happiness 
and  an  eager  interest.  Any  system  that  produces  such  results  is  educa- 
tionally a  good  system.  But  when  you  add  that  all  this  has  been  done  so 
naturally  and  so  judiciously  that  the  child  has  derived  as  much  physical 
as  mental  advantage,  and  an  equally  wholesome  moral  development,  who 
can  deny  that  it  is  superior  to  any  other  yet  devised  or  used,  and  that,  as 
such,  it  is  the  inalienable  birthright  of  every  child  to  be  given  the  advan- 
tages of  its  training?  .  .  .  Before  the  time  of  Froebel,  the  science 
of  pedagogics  was  founded  upon  abstruse  thought,  although  sometimes 
introducing — as  in  the  various  object-systems — the  concrete  form  as  a 
means  of  education;  but  Froebel,  by  a  Divine  inspiration,  laid  aside  his 
books,  wherein  theory  mystified  theory,  and  studied  the  child.  He  said, 
God  will  indicate  to  us  in  the  native  instincts  of  His  creature  the  best 
method  for  its  development  and  governance.  He  watched  the  child  at  its 
play,  and  at  its  work.  He  saw  that  it  was  open  to  impressions  from  every 
direction;  that  its  energies  were  manifested  by  unceasing  curiosity  and 
unceasing  restlessness ;  that,  if  left  to  itself,  the  impossibility  of  reaching 
any  satisfactory  conclusions  in  its  researches,  little  by  little  stifled  its 
interest;  the  eager  desire  to  explore  deeply  the  world  of  ideas  and  objects 
before  him  passed  into  a  superficial  observation,  heeding  little  and  sure 
of  nothing.  He  saw  that  the  law  which  made  it  flit  from  object  to  object- 
in  this  unceasing  motion  was  a  law  of  development  implanted  by  God, 
and,  therefore,  good;  but  that,  unless  it  were  directed  and  given  aim  and 
purpose,  it  became  an  element  of  mischief  as  well.  Then  what  could  be 
done?  How  was  the  possible  angel  to  be  developed,  and  the  possible 
devil  to  be  defeated?  Froebel  said:  'If  we  take  God's  own  way,  we 
must  be  right ;  so  let  us  direct  into  a  systematic,  but  natural  course  of 
employment  all  these  tender  fancies,  these  fearless  little  hands  and  feet, 


628       KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

and  these  precious  little  eager  souls;  and  then  we  shall  work  with  the 
Divine  love  and  intelligence,  and  it  with  us,  and  our  children  shall  find 
the  good  and  avoid  the  evil.'  Then  year  was  added  to  year  of  thought 
and  study  and  practice,  until  he  gave  his  system  to  the  world  in  its  present 
completed  form. " 

The  disciples  of  Froebel  everywhere  see  the  world  in  this  way.  With 
them  the  theory  of  the  kindergarten  is  the  theory  of  the  world  of  man 
and  nature.  Froebel  himself  was  as  much  a  religious  (or  moral)  enthu- 
siast as  a  pedagogical  reformer.  The  moral  regeneration  of  the  race  is 
the  inspiring  ideal  which  his  followers  aim  to  realize. 

I  do  not  disparage  this  lofty  ideal ;  it  is  the  ideal  which  every  teacher 
should  cherish.  No  other  one  is  a  worthy  one  for  the  teacher  of  youth ! 
But  I  think  that  any  gifted  teacher  in  our  district  schools,  our  high  schools, 
or  our  colleges,  may,  as  reasonably  as  the  teacher  of  the  kindergarten, 
have  this  lofty  expectation  of  the  moral  regeneration  of  the  race  to  follow 
from  his  teachings.  If  the  child  is  more  susceptible  at  the  early  age  when 
he  enters  the  kindergarten,  and  it  is  far  easier  then  to  mould  his  personal 
habits,  his  physical  strength  and  skill,  and  his  demeanor  towards  his 
equals  and  his  superiors,  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  high-school  teacher 
or  the  college  professor  comes  into  relation  with  him  when  he  has  begun 
to  demand  for  himself  an  explanation  of  the  problem  of  life,  and  it  is 
possible,  for  the  first  time,  at  this  age  to  lead  him  to  insight — the  immedi- 
ate philosophical  view  of  the  universality  and  necessity  of  principles. 
Insight  is  the  faculty  of  highest  principles,  and,  of  course,  more  import- 
ant than  all  other  theoretical  disciplines.  It  is  therefore  probable  that  the 
opportunity  of  the  teacher  who  instructs  pupils  at  the  age  of  sixteen  years 
and  upwards  is,  on  an  average,  more  precious  for  the  welfare  of  the  indi- 
vidual than  that  of  the  teacher  whose  pupils  are  under  six  years.  This 
advantage,  however,  the  teacher  of  the  youngest  pupils  has:  that  she 
may  give  them  an  influence  that  will  cause  them  to  continue  their  educa- 
tion in  after-life.  The  primary  school,  with  its  four  years'  course,  usually 
enrolls  five  pupils  where  the  grammar-school,  with  a  course  of  four  years, 
enrolls  only  one  pupil.  The  importance  of  the  primary  school  is  seen  in 
the  fact  that  it  affects  a  much  larger  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  a 
community,  while  the  importance  of  the  high  school  rests  on  the  fact  that 
its  education  develops  insight  and  directive  power,  so  that  its  graduates 
do  most  of  the  thinking  and  planning  that  is  clone  for  the  community. 

But  there  are  special  disciplines  which  the  child  of  five  years  may 
receive  profitably,  that  the  youth  of  sixteen  would  not  find  sufficiently 
productive. 

GENERAL  AND   SPECIAL   DISCIPLINE. 

'There  has  been  for  some  time  a  popular  clamor  in  favor  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  arts  and  trades  into  public  schools.  It  has  been  supposed 
by  self-styled  "practical"  writers  upon  education  that  the  school  should 
fit  the  youth  for  the  practice  of  some  vocation  or  calling.  They  would 
have  the  child  learn  a  trade  as  well  as  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic ; 
and  the  most  zealous  of  them  demand  that  it  shall  be  a  trade,  and  not 
much  else.  But  the  good  sense  of  the  educational  world,  as  a  whole,  has 
not  been  moved  to  depart  from  the  even  tenor  of  its  way,  and  has  de- 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  629 

fended  its  preference  for  technical,  conventional,  and  disciplinary  training 
of  a  general  character,  useful  for  each  and  every  one,  no  matter  what  his 
vocation  shall  be.  Who  can  tell,  on  seeing  the  child,  what  special  voca- 
tion he  will  best  follow  when  he  grows  up?  Besides  this,  the  whole  time 
of  the  child,  so  far  as  it  can  be  had  without  overtasking  him  is  needed 
from  the  period  of  six  or  seven  years  to  sixteen  years  in  order  to  give  him 
a  proper  amount  of  this  training  in  technical,  conventional,  and  disciplin- 
ary studies.  Moreover,  it  is  evident  that  these  general  studies  are  the 
keys  to  the  world  of  nature  and  man,  and  that  they  transcend  in  value 
any  special  forms  of  skill,  such  as  arts  and  trades,  by  as  great  a  degree  as 
the  general  law  surpasses  the  particular  instance.  It  is  to  be  claimed  that 
arithmetic,  the  science  of  numbers,  for  example,  is  indispensable  in  a 
thousand  arts  and  sciences,  while  each  art  has  much  in  it  that  is  special, 
and  of  limited  application  in  the  other  arts. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  analytical  investigation  has  done  much  in  the 
way  of  singling  out  from  the  physical  movements  involved  in  the  trades 
those  which  are  common,  and  may  be  provided  for  by  general  disciplines 
of  the  body,  which  may  be  introduced  into  the  school  along  with  the 
science  underlying  the  art.  For  example,  the  theory  and  practice  of 
drawing  involves  arithmetic  and  geometry,  and  also  the  training  of  the 
hand  and  eye.  Thus,  drawing  furnishes  a  kind  of  propaBdeutics  to  all 
of  the  arts  and  trades,  and  could  not  fail  to  make  more  skillful  the  work- 
man, whatever  his  calling.  Drawing,  then,  may  properly  enter  the  pro- 
gramme of  all  schools,  having  its  claim  acknowledged  to  be  a  general 
discipline. 

But  while  we  may  acknowledge  the  transcendent  importance  of  the  reg- 
ular branches  for  the  period  of  time  claimed  by  the  school  at  present — 
namely,  from  the  age  of  six  to  sixteen — it  must  be  conceded  that  the  age 
from  four  years  to  six  years  is  not  mature  enough  to  receive  profit  from 
the  studies  of  the  school.  The  conventional  and  the  disciplinary  studies 
are  too  much  for  the  powers  of  the  child  of  four  years  or  five  years.  But 
the  child  of  four  years  or  five  years  is  in  a  period  of  transition  out  of  the 
stage  of  education  which  we  have  named  "  nurture."  He  begins  to  learn 
of  the  out-door  life,  of  the  occupations  and  ways  of  people  beyond  the 
family  circle,  and  to  long  for  a  further  acquaintance  with  them.  He  be- 
gins to  demand  society  with  others  of  his  own  age  outside  his  family,  and 
to  repeat  for  himself,  in  miniature,  the  picture  of  the  great  world  of  civil 
society,  mimicking  it  in  his  plays  and  games.  Through  play  the  child 
gains  individuality;  his  internal — "  subjective,"  as  it  is  called — nature  be- 
comes active,  and  he  learns  to  know  his  own  tendencies  and  proclivities. 
Through  caprice  and  arbitrariness,  the  child  learns  to  have  a  will  of  his 
own,  and  not  to  exercise  a  mere  mechanical  compliance  with  the  will  of 
his  elders. 

TRANSITION   FROM  HOME   TO   SCHOOL. 

It  is  at  this  period  of  transition  from  the  life  in  the  family  to  that  of  the 
school  that  the  kindergarten  furnishes  what  is  most  desirable,  and,  in  doing 
so,  solves  many  problems  hitherto  found  difficult  of  solution.  The  genius 
of  Froebel  has  provided  a  system  of  discipline  and  instruction  which  is 
wonderfully  adapted  to  this  stage  of  the  child's  growth,  when  he  needs 


(530  KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

the  gentleness  of  nurture  and  the  rational  order  of  the  school  in  due  ad- 
mixture. The  "  gifts  and  occupations,"  as  he  calls  them,  furnish  an  ini- 
tiation into  the  arts  and  sciences;  and  they  do  this  in  a  manner  half  play- 
tul,  half  serious. 

Of  the  twenty  gifts  which  the  kindergarten  system  offers,  the  first  six 
form  a  group  having  the  one  object  to  familiarize  the  child  with  the  ele- 
mentary notions  of  geometry.  He  learns  the  forms  of  solids,  the  cube, 
sphere,  and  cylinder,  and  their  various  surfaces— also,  divisions  of  the 
cube,  end  combinations  of  the  cube  and  its  divisions,  in  building  various 
objects,  He  learns  counting  and  measuring  by  the  eye,  for  the  cube  and 
its  divisions  are  made  on  a  scale  of  an  inch  and  fractions  of  an  inch, 
and  the  squares  into  which  the  surface  of  his  table  is  divided  are  square 
inches.  Counting,  adding,  subtracting,  and  dividing  the  parts  of  the  cube 
give  him  the  elementary  operations  of  arithmetic,  so  far  as  small  numbers 
are  concerned,  and  give  him  a  very  practical  knowledge  of  them ;  for  he 
can  use  his  knowledge,  and  he  lias  developed  it,  step  by  step,  with  his  own 
activity. 

It  is  always  the  desideratum  in  education  to  secure  the  maximum  of 
self-activity  in  the  pupil.  The  kindergarten  gifts  are  the  best  instrumen- 
talities ever  devised  for  the  purpose  of  educating  young  children  through 
self -activity.  Other  devices  may  do  this — other  devices  have  done  it — but 
Froebel's  apparatus  is  most  successful.  It  is  this  fact  that  occasions  the 
exaggerated  estimate  which  his  disciples  place  upon  the  originality  of 
Froebel's  methods.  Long  before  his  day,  it  was  known  and  stated  as  the 
first  principle  of  pedagogy  that  the  pupil  is  educated,  not  by  what  others 
do  for  him,  but  by  what  he  is  led  to  do  for  himself.  But  Froebel's  system 
of  gifts  is  so  far  in  advance  of  other  systems  of  apparatus  for  primary  in- 
struction as  to  create  an  impression  in  the  mind  of  the  one  who  first  stud- 
ies it  that  Froebel  is  the  original  discoverer  of  the  pedagogical  law  of  self- 
activity  in  the  pupil.  The  teacher  who  has  already  learned  correct  meth- 
ods of  instruction,  or  who  has  read  some  in  the  history  of  pedagogy, 
knows  this  principle  of  self-activity,  but  has  never  found,  outside  of  the 
kindergarten,  so  wonderful  a  system  of  devices  for  the  proper  education  of 
the  child  of  five  years  old. 

The  first  group  of  gifts,  including  the  first  six  of  the  twenty,  as  already 
remarked,  takes  up  the  forms  of  solids  and  their  division,  and,  therefore, 
deals  with  forms  and  number  of  solids.  The  second  group  of  gifts  includes 
the  four  from  the  seventh  to  the  tenth,  and  concerns  surfaces,  and  leads 
up  from  the  manipulation  of  thin  blocks  or  tablets  to  drawing  with  a  pen- 
cil on  paper  ruled  in  squares.  In  drawing,  the  child  has  reached  the  ideal 
representation  of  solids  by  means  of  light  and  shade — marks  made  on  a 
surface  to  represent  outlines.  The  intermediate  gifts— the  eighth  and 
ninth — relate  to  stick-laying  and  ring  laying,  representing  outlines  of  ob- 
jects by  means  of  straight  and  curved  sticks  or  wires.  This,  in  itself,  is  a 
well-devised  link  between  the  quadrangular  and  triangular  tablets  (which 
are  treated  only  as  surfaces)  and  the  art  of  drawing.  We  have  a  complete 
transition  from  the  tangible  solid  to  the  ideal  representation  of  it. 

Counting  and  the  elementary  operations  in  numbers  continue  through 
all  the  subsequent  groups  of  gifts,  but  in  the  first  group  are  the  chief 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  631 

object.  In  tlie  first  group  the  solid,  in  its  various  shapes,  is  the  object  of 
study  for  the  child.  He  learns  to  recognize  and  name  the  surfaces,  cor- 
ners, angles,  etc.,  which  bound  it.  In  the  second  group,  the  surface,  and 
its  corners  or  angles  become  the  sole  object.  But  the  child  begins  the 
second  group  with  the  surface  represented  by  tablets,  thin  blocks,  and 
proceeds  to  represent  mere  outlines  by  means  of  sticks  or  wire  (in  the  eighth 
gift),  and  then  to  leave  the  solid  form  altogether  and  to  make  an  ideal  one 
by  means  of  pencil-marks  on  slate  or  paper  (in  the  tenth  gift).  The  slate 
or  paper,  ruled  in  squares  of  an  inch,  like  the  kindergarten  tables,  is  the 
best  device  for  training  the  muscles  of  the  fingers  and  hand  to  accuracy. 
The  untrained  muscles  of  the  hand  of  the  child  cannot  guide  the  pencil  so 
as  to  make  entire  forms  at  first ;  but  by  the  device  of  the  ruled  squares  he 
is  enabled  to  construct  forms  by  the  simple  process  of  drawing  straight 
lines,  vertical,  horizontal,  and  oblique,  connecting  the  sides  and  corners 
of  the  ruled  squares.  The  training  of  the  eye  and  hand  in  the  use  of  this 
tenth  gift  is  the  surest  and  most  effective  discipline  ever  invented  for  the 
purpose. 

KINDERGARTENS   PREPARE   FOR   TRADES. 

Here  it  becomes  evident  that,  if  the  school  is  to  prepare  especially  for 
the  arts  and  trades,  it  is  the  kindergarten  which  is  to  accomplish  the  ob- 
ject ;  for  the  training  of  the  muscles — if  it  is  to  be  a  training  for  special 
skill  in  manipulation — must  be  begun  in  early  youth.  As  age  advances, 
it  becomes  more  difficult  to  acquire  new  phases  of  manual  dexterity. 

Two  weeks'  practice  of  holding  objects  in  his  right  hand  will  make  the 
infant,  in  his  first  year,  right-handed  for  life.  The  muscles,  yet  in  a 
pulpy  consistency,  are  very  easily  set  in  any  fixed  direction.  The  child 
trained  for  one  year  on  Froebel's  gifts  and  occupations  will  acquire  a  skill- 
ful use  of  his  hands  and  a  habit  of  accurate  measurement  of  the  eye  which 
will  be  his  possession  for  life. 

But  the  arts  and  trades  are  provided  for  in  a  still  more  effective  manner 
by  the  subsequent  gifts.  The  first  group,  as  we  have  seen,  trains  the  eye 
and  the  sense  of  touch,  and  gives  a  technical  acquaintance  with  solids, 
and  with  the  elementary  operations  of  arithmetic.  The  second  group 
frees  him  from  the  hard  limits  which  have  confined  him  to  the  reproduc- 
tion of  forms  by  mere  solids,  and  enables  him  to  represent  by  means  of 
light  and  shade.  His  activity  at  each  step  becomes  more  purely  creative 
as  regards  the  production  of  forms,  and  more  rational  as  regards  intellec- 
tual comprehension;  for  he  ascends  from  concrete,  particular,  tangible 
objects  to  abstract  general  truths  and  archetypal  forms. 

The  third  group  of  gifts  includes  the  eleventh  and  twelfth,  and  develops 
new  forms  of  skill,  less  general  and  more  practical.  Having  learned  how 
to  draw  outlines  of  objects  by  the  first  ten  gifts,  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
gifts  teach  the  pupil  how  to  embroider — i.  e. ,  how  to  represent  outlines  of 
objects  by  means  of  needle  and  thread.  The  eleventh  gift  takes  the  first 
step,  by  teaching  the  use  of  the  perforating  needle.  The  child  learns  to 
represent  outlines  of  forms  by  perforations  in  paper  or  cardboard.  Then, 
in  the  twelfth  gift,  he  learns  the  art  of  embroidering;  and,  of  course, 
with  this  he  learns  the  art  of  se\ving,  and  its  manifold  kindred  arts.  The 
art  of  embroidery  calls  into  activity  the  muscles  of  the  hand — and  espe- 


fi32  KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM, 

cially  those  of  the  fingers — the  eye,  in  accurate  measurement,  and  the  in- 
tellectual activities  required  in  the  geometrical  and  arithmetical  processes 
involved  in  the  work. 

The  fourth  group  of  gifts  (including  the  thirteenth  to  the  eighteenth) 
introduces  the  important  art  of  weaving  and  plaiting. 

Among  the  primitive  arts  of  man  this  was  the  most  useful.  It  secures 
the  maximum  of  lightness  with  the  maximum  of  strength,  by  using  frag- 
ile material  in  such  a  manner  as  to  convert  the  linear  into  the  surface,  and 
combine  the  weak  materials  into  the  form  of  mutual  firm  support. 

The  thirteenth  gift  (with  which  the  fourth  group  begins)  teaches  how 
to  cut  the  paper  into  strips;  the  fourteenth  weaves  the  strips  into  mats  or 
baskets,  with  figures  of  various  devices  formed  by  the  meshes;  the  fifth 
gift  uses  thin  slats  of  wood  for  plaiting,  and  the  sixteenth  uses  the  same, 
jointed,  with  a  view  to  reproducing  forms  of  surfaces;  the  seventeenth 
gift  intertwines  paper,  and  the  eighteenth  constructs  elaborate  shapes  by 
folding  paper.  This  group  constructs  surfaces  by  the  methods  of  com- 
bining strips,  or  linear  material.  Vessels  of  capacity  (baskets,  sieves, 
nets,  etc.),  clothing  (of  woven  cloth),  and  shelter  (tents,  etc.)  are  furnished 
by  branches  of  this  art. 

Wood  is  linear  in  its  structure,  and  stronger  in  the  direction  of  the  grain 
of  the  wood.  Hence  it  became  necessary  to  invent  a  mode  of  adding  lat- 
eral strength  by  crossing  the  fibres,  in  the  form  of  weaving  or  plaiting,  in 
order  to  secure  the  maximum  of  strength  with  the  minimum  of  bulk  and 
weight.  Besides  wood,  there  are  various  forms  of  flexible  plants  (the  wil- 
low, etc.)  and  textile  fibres  (hemp,  flax,  cotton,  etc.)  which  cannot  be  util- 
ized except  in  this  manner,  having  longitudinal  but  not  lateral  cohesion. 

In  the  fourth  group  of  gifts  the  industrial  direction  of  the  work  of  the 
kindergarten  becomes  the  most  pronounced.  There  is  more  of  practical 
value  and  less  of  theoretic  value  in  its  series  of  six  gifts  (thirteenth  to 
eighteenth).  But  its  disciplines  are  still  general  ones,  like  drawing,  and 
furnish  a  necessary  training  for  the  hands  and  eyes  of  all  who  will  labor 
for  a  livelihood;  and,  besides  these,  for  all  who  will  practice  elegant  em- 
ployments for  relaxation  (ladies'  embroidery),  or  athletic  sports  and  amuse- 
ments (the  games  and  amusements  that  test  accuracy  of  hand  and  eye,  or 
mathematical  combination,  marksmanship,  hunting,  fishing,  ball-playing, 
archery,  quoits,  bowling,  chess-playing,  etc.). 

The  fifth  group,  including  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  gifts,  teaches 
the  production  of  solid  forms,  as  the  fourth  teaches  the  production  of  sur- 
faces from  the  linear.  The  nineteenth,  using  corks  (or  peas  soaked  in  water) 
and  pieces  of  wire  or  sticks  of  various  lengths  and  pointed  ends,  imitates 
various  real  objects  and  geometrical  solids  by  producing  their  outlines, 
edges,  or  sections.  This  gift,  too,  furnishes  the  preparation  for  drawing 
in  perspective.  The  twentieth  and  last  gift  uses  some  modeling  material 
(potter's  clay,  beeswax,  or  other  plastic  substance),  and  teaches  modeling 
of  solid  objects.  This  group  of  gifts  is  propaedeutic  to  the  greater  part  of 
the  culinary  arts,  so  far  as  they  give  shape  to  articles  of  food.  It  also 
prepares  for  the  various  arts  of  the  foundry — casting  or  modeling — of 
the  pottery,  etc. ,  and  the  fine  arts  of  sculpture  and  the  preparation  of  ar- 
chitectural ornament. 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  633 

In  the  common  school,  drawing — which  has  obtained  only  a  recent  and 
precarious  foothold  in  our  course  of  study — is  the  only  branch  which  is 
intended  to  cultivate  skill  in  the  hand  and  accuracy  in  the  eye.  The  kin- 
dergarten, on  the  other  hand,  develops  this  by  all  of  its  groups  of  gifts. 

Not  only  is  this  training  of  great  importance  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
most  children  must  depend  largely  upon  manual  skill  for  their  future  live- 
lihood, but,  from  a  broader  point  of  view,  we  must  value  skill  as  the  great 
potence  which  is  emancipating  the  human  race  from  drudgery,  by  the  aid 
of  machinery.  Inventions  will  free  man  from  thraldom  to  time  and 
space. 

By  reason  of  the  fact,  already  adverted  to,  that  a  short  training  of  cer- 
tain muscles  of  the  infant  will  be  followed  by  the  continued  growth  of  the 
same  muscles  through  his  afterlife,  it  is  clear  how  it  is  that  the  two  years  of 
the  child's  life  (his  fifth  and  sixth),  or  even  one  year,  or  a  half-year,  in  the 
kindergarten  will  start  into  development  activities  of  muscles  and  brain 
Which  will  secure  deftness  and  delicacy  of  industrial  power  in  all  after 
life.  The  rationale  of  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  pleasure  to  use 
muscles  already  inured  to  use;  in  fact,  a  much-used  muscle  demands  a 
daily  exercise  as  much  as  the  stomach  demands  food.  But  an  unused  mus- 
cle, or  the  mere  rudiment  of  a  muscle  that  has  never  been  used,  gives  pain 
on  its  first  exercise.  Its  contraction  is  accompanied  with  laceration  of 
tissue,  and  followed  by  lameness,  or  by  distress  on  using  it  again.  Hence 
it  happens  that  the  body  shrinks  from  employing  an  unused  muscle,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  demands  the  frequent  exercise  of  muscles  already  trained 
to  use.  Hence,  in  a  thousand  ways,  unconsciou  to  ourselves,  we  manage 
to  exercise  daily  whatever  muscles  we  have  already  trained,  and  thus  keep 
in  practice  physical  aptitudes  for  skill  in  any  direction.  The  carriage  of 
a  man  who  appears  awkward  to  us  is  so  because  of  the  fact  that  he  uses 
only  a  few  muscles  of  his  body,  and  holds  the  others  under  constraint  as 
though  he  possessed  no  power  to  use  them.  Freedom  of  body,  which  we 
term  gracefulness,  is  manifested  in  the  complete  command  of  every  limb 
by  the  will.  This  is  the  element  of  beauty  in  the  Greek  statuary.  The 
gymnastic  training  may  be  easily  recognized  in  a  young  man  by  his  free 
carriage — as  he  moves,  he  uses  a  greater  variety  of  muscles  than  the  man  of 
uncultivated  physique.  It  follows  that  a  muscle  once  trained  to  activity 
keeps  itself  in  training,  or  even  adds  by  degrees  to  its  development,  simply 
by  demanding  its  daily  exercise,  and  securing  it  by  some  additional  move- 
ment which  it  has  added  as  subsidiary  to  activities  in  which  other  muscles 
are  chiefly  concerned.  In  his  manner  of  sitting  or  rising,  of  walking  or 
running,  even  of  breathing,  of  writing,  or  reading,  one  man  varies  from  an- 
other through  the  use  or  disuse  of  subsidiary  muscles,  thus  kept  in  train^ 
ing  or  allowed  to  remain  as  undeveloped  rudiments. 

I  have  in  this  protracted  discussion  of  the  significance  of  Froebel's 
gifts  as  a  preparation  for  industrial  life,  indicated  my  owrn  grounds  for 
believing  that  the  kindergarten  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  common-school 
system.  It  should  be  a  sort  of  sub-primary  education,  and  receive  the 
pupil  at  the  age  of  four  or  four  aud  a  half  years,  and  hold  him  until  he 
completes  his  sixth  year.  By  this  means  we  gain  the  child  for  one  or 
two  years  when  he  is  good  for  nothing  else  but  education,  and  not  of 


634  KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

much  value  even  for  the  education  of  the  school  as  it  is  and  has  been. 
The  disciplines  of  reading  and  writing,  geography  and  arithmetic,  as 
taught  in  the  ordinary  primary  school,  are  beyond  the  powers  of  the 
average  child  not  yet  entered  upon  his  seventh  year.  And  beyond  the 
seventh  year  the  time  of  the  child  is  too  valuable  to  use  it  for  other  than 
general  disciplines — reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  etc.,  and  drawing.  He 
must  not  take  up  his  school-time  with  learning  a  handicraft. 

The  kindergarten  utilizes  a  period  of  the  child's  life  for  preparation  for 
the  arts  and  trades,  without  robbing  the  school  of  a  portion  of  its  needed 
time. 

Besides  the  industrial  phase  of  the  subject,  which  is  pertinent  here,  wre 
may  take  note  of  another  one  that  bears  indirectly  on  the  side  of  produc- 
tive industry,  but  has  a  much  wider  bearing.  At  the  age  of  three  years 
the  child  begins  to  emerge  from  the  circumscribed  life  of  the  family,  and 
to  acquire  an  interest  in  the  life  of  society,  and  a  proclivity  to  lorm  rela- 
tionship with  it.  This  increases  until  the  school  period  begins,  at  his 
seventh  year.  The  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  years  are  years  of  transition, 
not  well  provided  for  either  by  family  life  or  by  social  life  in  the  United 
States.  In  families  of  great  poverty,  the  child  forms  evil  associations  on 
the  street,  and  is  initiated  into  crime.  By  the  time  he  is  ready  to  enter 
the  school  he  is  hardened  in  vicious  habits,  beyond  the  power  of  the 
school  to  eradicate.  In  families  of  wealth,  the  custom  is  to  intrust  the 
care  of  the  child  in  this  period  of  his  life  to  some  servant  without  peda- 
gogical skill,  and  generally  without  strength  of  will-power.  The  chttd 
of  wealthy  parents  usually  inherits  the  superior  directive  power  of  the 
parents,  who  have  by  their  energy  acquired  and  preserved  the  wealth. 
Its  manifestation  in  the  child  is  not  reasonable,  considerate  will-power, 
but  arbitrariness  and  self-will — writh  such  a  degree  of  stubbornness  that  it 
quite  overcomes  the  much  feebler  native  will  of  the  servant  who  has 
charge  of  the  children.  It  is  difficult  to  tell  which  class  (poor  or  rich)  the 
kindergarten  benefits  most.  Society  is  benefited  by  the  substitution  of  a 
rational  training  of  the  child's  will  during  his  transition  period.  If  he 
is  a  child  of  poverty,  he  is  saved  by  the  good  associations  and  the  indus- 
trial and  intellectual  training  that  he  gets.  If  he  is  a  child  of  wealth,  he 
is  saved  by  the  kindergarten  from  ruin  through  self-indulgence  and  the 
corruption  ensuing  on  weak  management  in  the  family.  The  worst  ele. 
ments  in  society  are  the  corrupted  and  ruined  men  who  were  once  youth 
of  unusual  directive  power — children  of  parents  of  strong  wills. 

While  the  industrial  preparation  involved  in  the  kindergarten  exercises 
is  a  sufficient  justification  for  its  introduction  into  our  school  system,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  this  is  far  from  satisfactory  to  the  enthusiastic  dis- 
ciples of  Froebel.  They  see  in  the  kindergarten  the  means  for  the  moral 
regeneration  of  the  human  race,  and  they  look  upon  the  industrial  phase 
of  its  results  as  merely  incidental  and  of  little  consequence ;  and,  indeed, 
they  regard  those  who  attempt  to  justify  the  kindergarten  on  an  industrial 
basis  as  sordid  materialists.  That  they  have  good  reason  to  claim  more 
than  this  preparation  for  manual  arts  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the 
games,  gifts,  and  occupations  are  symbolic,  and  thus  propaedeutic  to  sub- 
sequent intellectual  and  moral  training.  Every  conscious  intellectual 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  635 

phase  of  the  mind  has  a  previous  phase  in  which  it  was  unconscious, 
and  merely  symbolic.  Feeling,  emotion,  sensibility — these  are  names  of 
activities  of  the  soul  which  become  thoughts  and  ideas  by  the  simple  addi- 
tion of  consciousness  to  them — i.  e.,  the  addition  of  reflection.  What  smoke 
is  to  the  clear  flame,  in  some  sort  is  instinct  to  clear  rational  purpose. 
Thoughts  and  ideas  preOxist,  therefore,  as  feelings  and  impulses;  when, 
later,  they  are  seen  as  ideas,  they  are  seen  as  having  general  form,  or  as 
possessing  universality.  As  feelings,  they  are  particular  or  special,  having 
application  only  then  and  there;  as  thoughts,  they  are  seen  as  general 
principles  regulative  of  all  similar  exigencies. 

The  nursery  tale  gives  the  elements  of  a  thought,  but  in  such  special 
grotesque  form  that  the  child  seizes  only  the  incident.  Subsequent  reflec- 
tion brings  together  the  features  thus  detached  and  isolated,  and  the  child 
begins  to  have  a  general  idea.  The  previous  symbol  makes  easy  and 
natural  the  pathway  to  ideas  and  clear  thought. 

OTHER  ADVANTAGES. 

Besides  the  industrial  training  (through  the  "  gifts  and  occupations  ") 
and  the  symbolic  culture  (derived  chiefly  from  the  "games"),  there  is 
much  else,  in  the  kindergarten,  which  is  common  to  the  instruction  in  the 
school  subsequently,  and  occupies  the  same  ground.  Some  disciplines 
also  are  much  more  efficient  in  the  kindergarten,  by  reason  of  its  peculiar 
apparatus,  than  the  same  are  or  can  be  in  the  common  school. 

The  instruction  in  manners  and  polite  habits  which  goes  on  in  all  well- 
conducted  kindergartens  is  of  very  great  value.  The  child  is  taught  to 
behave  properly  at  the  table,  to  be  clean  in  his  personal  habits,  to  be  neat 
in  the  arrangement  of  his  apparatus,  to  practice  the  etiquette  and  ameni- 
ties of  polite  life.  These  things  are  much  better  provided  for  in  Froebel's 
system  than  elsewhere.  Moreover,  there  is  a  cultivation  of  imagination 
and  of  the  inventive  power  which  possesses  great  significance  for  the 
future  intellectual  growth.  The  habits  of  regularity,  punctuality,  silence, 
obedience  to  established  rules,  self-control,  are  taught  to  as  great  a  degree 
as  is  desirable  for  pupils  of  that  age,  but  not  by  any  means  so  perfectly  as 
in  the  ordinary  well-conducted  primary  school.  The  two  kinds  of  atten- 
tion that  are  developed  so  well  in  a  good  school :  (i)  the  attention  of  each 
pupil  to  his  own  task— so  absorbed  in  it  that  he  is  oblivious  to  the  work 
of  the  class  that  is  reciting,  and  (2)  the  attention  of  each  pupil  in  the  class 
that  is  reciting,  to  the  work  of  pupil  reciting — the  former  being  the  atten- 
tion of  industry,  and  the  latter  the  attention  of  critical  observation — are 
not  developed  so  well  as  in  the  primary  school,  nor  is  it  to  be  expected. 
The  freedom  from  constraint  which  is  essential  in  the  kindergarten,  or  in 
any  school  for  pupils  of  five  years  of  age,  allows  much  interference  of 
each  pupil  with  the  work  of  others,  and  hence  much  distraction  of  atten- 
tion. It  is  quite  difficult  to  preserve  an  exact  balance.  The  teacher  of 
the  kindergarten  is  liable  to  allow  the  brisk,  strong-willed  children  to 
interfere  with  the  others,  and  occupy  their  attention  too  much. 

As  regards  imagination  and  inventive  power,  it  is  easily  stimulated  to 
an  abnormal  degree.  For,  if  it  is  accompanied  by  conceit,  there  is  a  ct>r- 
responding  injury  done  to  the  child's  faith  and  reverence  which  must 


636  KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

accompany  his  growth  if  he  would  come  to  the  stores  of  wisdom  which 
his  race  has  preserved  for  him.  The  wisest  men  are  those  who  have 
availed  themselves  most  of  the  wisdom  of  the  race.  Self -activity,  it  is 
true,  is  essential  to  the  assimilation  of  the  intellectual  patrimony,  but  it 
is  a  reverent  spirit  only  that  can  sustain  one  in  the  long  labor  of  master- 
ing and  acquiring  that  patrimony. 

The  cultivation  of  language— of  the  power  of  expression — is  much 
emphasized  by  the  advocates  of  the  kindergarten,  and,  I  believe,  with 
fair  results. 

There  is  a  species  of  philosophy  sometimes  connected  with  the  system 
which  undoubtedly  exercises  a  great  influence  over  the  minds  of  the 
followers  of  Froebel.  It  is,  apparently,  a  system  founded  on  a  thought 
of  Schelling — the  famous  "identity  system" — which  made  the  absolute 
to  be  the  indifference  or  identity  of  spirit  and  nature.  Its  defect  is, 
that  it  deals  with  antitheses  as  resolvable  only  into  "indifference" 
points ;  hence  the  highest  principle  must  be  an  unconscious  one, 
which  makes  its  philosophy  a  pantheistic  system  when  logically  carried 
out.  But  Froebel  does  not  seem  to  have  carried  it  out  strictly.  He  uses 
it  chiefly  to  build  on  it  as  a  foundation  his  propaedeutics  of  reflection,  or 
thinking  activity.  Antithesis,  or  the  doctrine  of  opposites  (mind  and 
nature,  light  and  darkness,  sweet  and  sour,  good  and  bad,  etc.),  belongs 
to  the  elementary  stage  of  reflection.  It  is,  however,  a  necessary  stage 
of  thought  (although  no  ultimate  one),  and  far  above  the  activity  of 
sense-perception.  But,  compared  with  the  thinking  activity  of  the  com- 
prehending reason,  it  is  still  very  crude.  Moreover,  from  the  fact  that  it 
is  not  guided  by  a  principle  above  reflection,  it  is  very  uncertain.  It  is 
liable  to  fall  from  the  stage  of  reflection  which  cognizes  antithesis 
(essential  relation)  to  that  which  cognizes  mere  difference  (non-essential 
relation).  Such  imperfection  I  conceive  to  belong  rather  to  some  of  the 
interpreters  of  Froebel's  philosophic  views  than  to  Froebel's  system  as  he 
understood  it.  It  is  certainly  not  a  fault  of  his  pedagogics.  His  philos- 
ophy is  far  deeper  than  that  of  Pestalozzi,  while  his  pedagogical  system 
is  far  more  consistent,  both  in  theory  and  in  practice. 

MORAL   DISCIPLINE. 

As  regards  the  claimed  transcendence  of  the  system  over  all  others  in 
the  way  of  moral  development,  I  am  inclined  to  grant  some  degree  of 
superiority  to  it,  but  not  for  intrinsic  reasons.  It  is  because  the  child  is 
then  at  an  age  when  he  is  liable  to  great  demoralization  at  home,  and  is 
submitted  to  a  gentle  but  firm  discipline  in  the  kindergarten,  that  the 
new  education  proves  of  more  than  ordinary  value  as  a  moral  discipline. 
The  children  of  the  poor,  at  the  susceptible  age  of  five  years,  get  many 
lessons  on  the  street  that  tend  to  corrupt  them.  The  children  of  the  rich, 
meeting  no  wholesome  restraint,  become  self-willed  and  self-indulgent. 
The  kindergarten  may  save  both  classes,  and  make  rational  self-control 
take  the  place  of  unrestrained,  depraved  impulse. 

But  the  kindergarten  itself  has  dangers.  The  cultivation  of  self-activity 
may  be  excessive,  and  lead  to  pertness  amd  conceit.  The  pupil  may  get 
to  be  irreverent  and  overbearing — hardened  against  receiving  instruction 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  637 

from  others.  In  fact,  with  a  teacher  whose  discernment  is  dimmed  by 
too  much  sentimental  theory,  there  is  great  danger  that  the  weeds  of 
selfishness  will  thrive  faster  among  the  children  than  the  wholesome 
plants  of  self-knowledge  and  self-control.  The  apotheosis  of  childhood 
and  infancy  is  a  very  dangerous  idea  to  put  in  practice.  It  does  well 
enough  in  Wordsworth's  great  ode,  as  a  sequence  of  the  doctrine  of 
preGxistence;  and  it  is  quite  necessary  that  we  should,  as  educators, 
never  forget  that  the  humblest  child — nay,  the  most  depraved  child — has 
within  him  the  possibility  of  the  highest  angelic  being.  But  this  angelic 
nature  is  only  implicit,  and  not  explicit,  in  the  child  or  in  the  savage,  or 
in  the  uneducated.  To  use  the  language  of  Aristotle,  the  undeveloped 
human  being  is  a  "first  entelechy,"  while  the  developed,  cultured  man  is 
a  "second  entelechy."  Both  are,  "  by  nature,"  rational  beings;  but  only 
the  educated,  moral,  and  religious  ma*n  is  rational  actually.  "By  nature " 
signifies  "potentially,"  or  "  containing  the  possibility  of." 

NATURE  AND  NATURAL  METHODS. 

There  is  no  technical  expression  in  the  history  of  pedagogy  with  which 
more  juggling  has  been  done  than  with  the  word  "nature."  As  used  by 
most  writers,  it  signifies  the  ideal  or  normal  type  of  the  growth  of  any 
thing.  The  nature  of  the  oak  realizes  itself  in  the  acorn-bearing  monarch 
of  the  forest.  The  nature  of  man  is  realized  in  the  angelic,  god-like 
being  whose  intellect,  and  will,  and  emotions  are  rational,  moral,  and 
pervaded  by  love.  We  hear  the  end  of  education  spoken  of  as  the  har- 
monious development  of  human  nature,  physical,  intellectual,  moral,  and 
affectional.  This  "nature,"  in  the  sense  of  ideal  or  normal  type,  is, 
however,  liable  to  be  confounded  with  "nature  "in  the  opposite  sense, 
viz.,  nature  as  the  external  world  (of  unconscious  growth).  This  con- 
fusion is  the  worst  that  could  happen,  when  we  are  dealing  with  the 
problem  of  human  life;  for  man,  by  nature  (as  unconscious  growth),  is 
only  the  infant  or  savage — the  mere  animal — and  his  possible  angelic 
"nature  "  is  only  possible.  Moreover,  this  possibility  never  will  become 
actuality  except  through  his  own  self -activity:  he  must  make  himself 
rational,  for  nature  as  the  external  world  will  never  do  this  for  him. 
Indeed,  where  nature  as  the  external  (unconscious)  world  is  most  active 
in  its  processes — say,  in  the  iorrid  zone — there  the  development  of  man 
will  be  most  retarded.  Nature  as  external  world  is  a  world  of  depend- 
ence, each  thing  being  conditioned  by  everything  else,  and  hence  under 
fate.  The  humblest  clod  on  the  earth  pulsates  with  vibrations  that  have 
traveled  hither  from  the  farthest  star.  Each  piece  of  matter  is  neces- 
sitated to  be  what  it  is  by  the  totality  of  conditions.  But  the  nature  of 
man — human  nature — must  be  freedom,  and  not  fate.  It  must  be  self- 
determined,  and  not  a  mere  "thing''  which  is  made  to  be  what  it  is  by 
the  constraining  activity  of  the  totality  of  conditions.  Hence,  those  who 
confuse  these  two  meanings  of  "nature  "  juggle  with  the  term,  and  in  one 
place  mean  the  rational  ideal  of  man — the  self -determining  mind — and  in 
another  place  they  mean  a  thing,  as  the  product  of  nature  as  external 
world.  The  result  of  this  juggling  is  the  old  pedagogical  contradiction 
found  in  Rousseau  throughout,  and  now  and  then  in  the  systems  of  all 


638  KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

other  pedagogical  reformers— Pestalozzi  in  particular,  and  even  in  Locke 
before  Rousseau. 

To  become  rational,  man  must  learn  to  practise  self-control,  and  to  sub- 
stitute moral  purpose  for  mere  impulse.  Man  inherits  from  nature,  in 
time  and  space,  impulses  and  desires  ;  and,  as  subject  to  them,  he  is  only 
a  PrometJieus  Vinctus —  a  slave  of  appetite  and  passion,  like  all  other  ani- 
mals. The  infant  begins  his  existence  with  a  maximum  of  unconscious 
impulse,  and  a  minimum  of  conscious,  rational,  moral  purpose.  The  dis- 
ciple of  Froebel  who  apotheosizes  infancy,  and  says,  with  Wordsworth, — 

"Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy," 
and  who  thinks  that  the  child  is  a  — 

"  Mighty  prophet !  Seer  blest, 
On  whom  those  truths  do  rest 
Which  we  are  toiling  all  our  lives  to  find," 

is  prone  to  regard  the  kindergarten  as  a  "child's  paradise,"  wherein  he 
should  be  allowed  to  develop  unrestrainedly,  and  the  principle,  laissez 
faire —  "let  him  alone" — 'is  to  fill  the  world  with  angels. 

This  belief  in  the  perfection  of  nature  is  the  arch  heresy  of  education. 
It  is  more  dangerous  because  it  has  a  side  of  deepest  truth — the  truth 
which  makes  education  possible,  viz. ,  the  truth  that  man  possesses  the 
capacity  for  self -regeneration — the  capacity  of  putting  off  his  natural  im- 
pulses and  desires,  his  animal  selfishness,  and  of  putting  on  righteousness 
and  holiness.  His  ideal  nature  must  be  made  real  by  himself  in  order  to 
be.  His  real  nature,  as  a  product  of  time  and  space,  must  be  annulled 
and  subordinated,  and  his  ideal  nature  be  made  real  in  its  place. 

The  child  as  individual,  and  without  availing  himself  of  the  help  of  his 
fellows,  is  a  mere  slave,  a  thing,  a  being  controlled  by  fate.  Through 
participation  with  his  fellow-men  united  into  institutions — those  infinite, 
rational  organisms,  the  product  of  the  intellect  and  will  of  the  race  con- 
spiring through  the  ages  of  human  history  and  inspired  by  the  Divine  pur- 
pose which  rules  all  as  Providence — through  participation  in  institutions, 
man  is  enaoled  to  attain  freedom,  to  complement  his  defects  as  individual 
by  the  deeds  of  the  race  ;  he  subdues  nature  in  time  and  space,  and  makes 
it  his  servant ;  he  collects  the  shreds  ot  experience  from  the  individuals 
of  the  race,  and  combines  them  into  wisdom,  and  preserves  and  transmits 
the  same  from  generation  to  generation  ;  he  invents  the  instrumentalities 
of  intercommunication — the  alphabet,  the  art  of  printing,  the  telegraph 
and  railroad,  the  scientific  society,  the  publishing-house,  the  book-store, 
the  library,  the  school,  and,  greater  than  all,  the  newspaper.  The  poor 
squalid  individual,  an  insignificant  atom  in  space  and  time,  can,  by  the 
aid  of  these  great  institutions,  lift  himself  up  to  culture,  and  to  the  infini- 
tude of  endless  development,  From  being  mere  individual,  he  can 
become  generic — i.  e.,  realize  in  himself  the  rationality  of  the  entire 
species  of  the  human  race.  By  education  we  mean  to  do  exactly  this 
thing  ;  to  give  to  the  individual  the  means  of  this  participation  in  the 
aggregate  labors  of  all  humanity. 

Hence  we  are  bound  to  consider  education  practically,  as  a  process  of 
initiating  the  particular  individual  into  the  life  of  his  race  as  intellect 
and  will-power.  We  must  give  to  a  child  the  means  to  help  himself,  and 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  639 

the  habit  and  custom  of  helping  himself,  to  participate  in  the  labors  of 
his  fellowmen,  and  to  become  a  contributor  to  the  store  created  by  man- 
kind. Institutions.— the  family;  civil  society,  with  its  arts,  and  trades, 
and  professions,  and  establishments,  schools,  etc. :  the  state,  with  its 
more  comprehensive  organizations;  and,  finally,  the  church: — these  are 
greater  than  the  individual,  and  they  are  products  of  his  ideal  nature, 
and  exist  solely  as  means  whereby  the  individual  may  develop  his  ideal. 

The  kindergarten,  then,  has  the  same  general  object  that  the  school 
has  had  all  along — to  eliminate  the  merely  animal  from  the  child,  and  to 
develop  in  its  place  the  rational  and  spiritual  life. 

EDUCATIVE  FUNCTION  OF  PLAY. 

Now,  as  regards  the  science  of  the  kindergarten,  there  is  one  more  con- 
sideration which  is  too  important  to  pass  by — the  theory  of  play  as  an 
educational  element. 

The  school  had  been  too  much  impressed  with  the  main  fact  of  its 
mission — viz.,  to  eliminate  the  animal  nature  and  to  superinduce  the 
spiritual  nature — to  notice  the  educative  function  of  play.  Froebel  was 
the  first  to  fully  appreciate  this,  and  to  devise  a  proper  series  of  dis- 
ciplines for  the  youngest  children.  The  old  regime  of  the  school  did  not 
pay  respect  enough  to  the  principle  of  self -activity.  It  sacrificed  spon- 
taneity in  an  utterly  unnecessary  manner,  instead  of  developing  it  into 
rational  self-determination.  Hence  it  produced  human  machines,  gov- 
erned by  prescription  and  conventionality,  and  but  few  enlightened  spon- 
taneous personalities  who  possessed  insight  as  well  as  law-abiding  habit. 
Such  human  machines,  governed  by  prescription,  would  develop  into 
law-breakers  or  sinners  the  moment  that  the  pressure  of  social  laws 
was  removed  from  them.  They  did  not  possess  enough  individuality  of 
their  own.  They  had  not  assimilated  what  they  had  been  compelled  to 
practice.  They  were  not  competent  to  readjust  themselves  to  a  change 
of  surroundings. 

Now,  in  play,  the  child  realizes  for  himself  his  spontaneity,  but  in  its 
irrational  form  of  arbitrariness  and  caprice.  In  its  positive  phase  he  pro- 
duces whatever  his  fancy  dictates;  in  its  negative  phase  he  destroys  again 
what  he  has  made,  or  whatever  is  his  own.  He  realizes  by  these  opera- 
tions the  depth  of  originality  which  his  will-power  involves — the  power  to 
create  and  the  power  to  destroy.  This  will-power  is  the  root  of  his  per- 
sonality— the  source  of  his  freedom.  Deprive  a  child  of  his  play,  and 
you  produce  arrested  development  in  his  character.  Nor  can  his  play  be 
rationalized  by  the  kindergarten  so  as  to  dispense  altogether  with  the 
utterly  spontaneous,  untamed  play  of  the  child — wherein  he  gives  full 
scope  to  his  fancy  and  caprice — without  depriving- his  play  of  its  essen- 
tial character,  and  changing  it  from  play  into  work.  Even  in  the  kinder- 
garten, just  as  in  the  school,  there  must  be  prescription.  But  the  good 
kindergarten  wisely  and  gently  controls,  in  such  manner  as  to  leave  room 
for  much  of  the  pure  spontaneity  of  play.  It  prescribes  tasks,  but  pre- 
serves the  form  of  play  as  much  as  is  possible.  If  the  child  were  held  to  a 
rigid  accountability  in  the  kindergarten  for  the  performance  of  his  task,  it 
would  then  cease  to  be  play,  and  become  labor.  Labor  performs  the  pre- 


640        KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

scribed  task.  Play  prescribes  for  itself.  The  attempt  to  preserve  the 
form  of  self  prescription  for  the  child  in  his  tasks  is  what  saves  the  kinder- 
garten from  being  a  positive  injury  to  the  child  at  this  tender  and  imma- 
ture age.  It  is  the  preservation  of  the  form  of  play,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  induction  of  the  substance  of  prescription,  that  constitutes  what 
is  new  and  valuable  in  Froebel's  method  of  instruction.  There  is  a  gentle 
insinuation  of  habits  of  attention,  of  self-control,  of  action  in  concert,  of 
considerateness  towards  others,  of  desire  to  participate  in  the  common  re- 
sult of  the  school,  that  succeeds  is  accomplishing  this  necessary  change  of 
heart  in  the  child — from  selfishness  to  self-renunciation — without  sacri- 
ficing his  spontaneity  so  much  as  is  done  in  the  old-fashioned  primary 
school.  And  he  g«ts  large  measures  of  the  benefits  of  the  school  that  he 
would  have  lost  had  he  remained  at  home  in  the  family.  The  child,  too, 
at  this  period  of  life  has  begun  to  experience  a  hunger  for  the  more  sub- 
stantial things  of  social  life,  and  the  family  alone  cannot  satisfy  his  long- 
ings. The  discovery  of  Froebel  gives  the  child  what  is  needed  of  the 
substantial  effects  of  the  school  without  the  danger  of  roughly  crushing 
out  his  individuality  at  the  same  time. 

PRACTICAL  CONDITIONS  NECESSARY  FOR  SUCCESS. 

After  we  have  decided  in  the  affirmative  the  essential  questions  relative 
to  the  reasonableness  of  the  course  of  study  and  discipline  of  the  kinder- 
garten, its  suitability  to  the  age  of  the  children,  its  effect  upon  the  educa- 
tion that  follows  it,  wTe  come  to  the  subsidiary  questions  regarding  expense, 
training  of  teachers,  and  the  details  of  management.  These  questions 
are  not  important,  unless  the  decision  is  reached  that  the  kindergarten 
theory  is  substantially  correct.  If  it  is  found  to  be  a  valuable  adjunct  to 
the  school,  then  we  must  solve  the  practical  problems  of  how  to  intro- 
duce it  into  the  public  school  system.  The  problem  is,  how  to  meet  the 
expense.  If  the  traditional  form  of  the  kindergarten  be  adopted,  that  of 
one  teacher  to  each  dozen  pupils,  and  this  constituting  an  isolated  kinder- 
garten, the  annual  cost  of  tuition  would  be  from  $50  to  $100  per  pupil,  a 
sum  too  extravagant  to  be  paid  by  any  public  school  system.  The  average 
tuition  per  pupil  in  public  school  systems  of  the  United  States  ranges 
from  $12  to  $20  for  the  year's  schooling  of  200  days.  No  school  board 
would  be  justified  in  expending  five  times  as  much  per  pupil  for  tuition 
in  a  kindergarten  as  it  expended  for  the  tuition  of  a  pupil  in  the  primary  or 
grammar  school. 

If  it  is  necessary  to  limit  the  number  of  pupils  per  teacher  to  twelve  or 
twenty,  while  in  the  primary  school  each  teacher  can  manage  and  properly 
instruct  fifty  or  seventy,  it  becomes  likewise  necessary  to  invent  a  system 
of  cheaper  teachers.  At  once  the  Lancasterian  system— or  the- "moni- 
torial" system — suggests  itself  as  a  model  for  the  organization  of  the 
cheap  kindergarten.  The  kindergarten  shall  be  a  large  one,  located  in  a 
room  of  ample  size  to  hold  five  to  ten  tables,  each  table  to  have  fifteen 
children  attending  it,  and  presided  over  by  a  novitiate  teacher;  and  the 
whole  room  shall  be  placed  under  the  charge  of  a  thoroughly  competent 
teacher,  of  experience  and  skill,  and  well  versed  in  the  theory  and  practice 
of  Froebel's  system.  The  director  of  the  kindergarten  must  be  a  well- 


KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  541 

paid  teacher,  receiving  as  much  as  the  principal  of  a  primary  school,  with 
two  assistants.  Her  assistants,  the  "novitiate  teachers,"  are  learners  of 
the  system.  The  first  year  they  shall  be  volunteers,  and  receive  no  salary: 
the  second  year,  or  as  soon  as  they  pass  the  first  examination  in  theory 
and  practice  of  the  kindergarten,  they  are  to  receive  a  small  salary  as 
"  paid  assistants. "  After  a  year's  service  as  paid  assistants  they  may  pass 
a  second  examination,  and,  if  found  competent,  be  appointed  directors, 
and  receive  a  higher  salary. 

In  the  St.  Louis  kindergartens,  the  number  of  60  pupils  entitles  the 
director  to  one  paid  assistant,  and  there  is  one  additional  appointed  for 
each  30  pupils  above  that  number.  Thus,  there  would  be  a  director  and 
four  paid  assistants  if  the  kindergarten  had  150  pupils.  (The  director 
would,  in  St.  Louis,  receive  $350  per  annum,  and  each  paid  assistant  $125 
per  annum.  The  cost  of  tuition — based  on  teachers'  salaries — would  be 
$850  per  annum  for  the  150  pupils,  being  less  than  $6  per  annum  for 
each.) 

Beside  the  salaried  teachers  of  the  kindergarten,  it  is  expected  that 
there  will  be  an  equal  or  greater  number  of  volunteers.  In  order  to  make 
it  worth  while  for  volunteers  to  join  the  system,  as  well  as  to  secure  the 
development  of  the  salaried  teachers,  'it  is  necessary  to  have  two  persons, 
of  superior  ability,  that  can  give  instruction,  once  a  week,  on  the  theory 
and  practice  (the  "  gifts  and  occupations  ")  of  Froebel's  system.  A  young 
woman  will  find  so  much  culture  of  thought  to  be  derived  from  the  dis- 
cussion of  Froebel's  insights  and  theories,  and  so  much  peculiarly  fitting 
experience  from  her  daily  class  in  the  kindergarten — experience  that  will 
prove  invaluable  to  her  as  a  wife  and  mother — that  she  will  serve  her 
apprenticeship  in  the  kindergarten  gladly,  though  it  be  no  part  of  her 
intention  to  follow  teaching  as  a  vocation. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  system,  as  an  adjunct  to  the  public  schools,  to  edu- 
cate young  women  in  these  valuable  matters  relating  to  the  early  training 
of  children.  I  have  thought  that  the  benefit  derived  by  the  200  young 
women  of  the  St.  Louis  kindergartens  from  the  lectures  of  Miss  Blow  to 
be  of  sufficient  value  to  compensate  the  city  for  the  cost  of  the  kinder- 
gartens. A  nobler  and  more  enlightened  womanhood  will  result,  and  the 
family  will  prove  a  better  nurture  for  the  child. 

Here  we  come  upon  the  most  important  practical  difficulty  in  the  way 
of  the  general  introduction  of  the  kindergarten.  If  the  teachers  are  no 
better  than  the  average  mothers  in  our  families,  if  they  are  not  better  than 
the  average  primary  teacher,  it  is  evident  that  the  system  of  Froebel  can- 
not effect  any  great  reform  in  society.  "It  is  useless  to  expect  social 
regeneration  from  persons  who  are  not  themselves  regenerated." 

In  our  St.  Louis  work  we  have  been  very  fortunate  in  having  a  lady  of 
great  practical  sagacity,  of  profound  and  clear  insight,  and  of  untiring 
energy  to  organize  our  kindergartens  and  instruct  our  teachers.  Her 
(Miss  Susan  E.  Blow's)  disinterested  and  gratuitous  services  have  been 
the  means  of  securing  for  us  a  system  that  now  furnishes  its  own  direc- 
tors, assistants,  and  supervisors. 

There  is  another  important  point  connected  with  the  economy  of  the 
kindergarten.  The  session  should  not  last  over  three  hours  for  the  chil- 

41 


642  KINDERGARTEN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

dren  of  this  age.  Hence  each  room  permits  two  sessions  to  be  held  in  it 
per  day,  one  in  the  morning  and  one  in  the  afternoon,  thus  accommodat- 
ing double  the  number  of  pupils.  In  some  cases,  where  the  teacher  has 
attained  experience  and  strength  sufficient,  she  teaches  in  both  sessions, 
and  receives  a  higher  grade  of  salary  for  the  work.* 

The  furniture  of  the  kindergarten  is  made  up  of  small,  movable  chairs, 
and  small  tables,  each  one  capable  of  accommodating  two  children — the 
surface  of  the  table  being  marked  off  into  divisions  one  inch  square.  It 
is  better  to  use  the  small  tables  than  large  ones  that  will  accommodate  a 
whole  class,  for  the  small  ones  may  be  moved  easily  and  combined  into 
large  ones  of  any  desirable  size,  and  may  be  readily  arranged  into  any 
shape  or  figure,  and  placed  in  any  part  of  the  room,  by  the  children  them- 
selves. It  is  necessary  to  use  the  floor  of  the  room  during  one  exercise  each 
day  for  the  games,  at  which  time  all  the  children  are  collected  "  on  the 
circle  " ;  at  this  time  it  may  be  desirable  to  remove  the  tables  to  the  sides 
of  the  room,  and  with  small  tables  this  can  be  easily  accomplished. 
Again,  in  the  absence  of  one  of  the  teachers,  it  may  become  necessary  to 
combine  two  classes  into  one,  uniting  two  tables.  The  small  tables  are 
therefore  an  important  item  in  the  economy  of  the  kindergarten. 

With  these  suggestions,  I  leave  the  subject,  believing  they  are  sufficient 
to  justify  the  directors  of  our  public  schools  in  making  the  kindergarten 
c  part  of  our  school  system.  The  advantage  to  the  community  in  utiliz- 
ing the  age  from  four  to  six:  in  training  the  hand  and  eye;  in  developing 
habits  of  cleanliness,  politeness,  self-control,  urbanity,  industry;  in  train- 
ing the  mind  to  understand  numbers  and  geometric  forms,  to  invent  com- 
binations of  figures  and  shapes,  and  to  represent  then?  with  the  pencil — 
these  and  other  valuable  lessons  in  combination  with  theii  fellow-pupils 
and  obedience  to  the  rule  of  their  superiors — atovc  c.lls  the  youthful  sug- 
gestions as  to  methods  of  instruction  which  will  come  from  the  kinder- 
garten and  penetrate  the  methods  of  the  other  schools — will,  I  think, 
ultimately  prevail  in  securing  to  us  the  establishment  of  this  beneficent 
institution  in  all  the  city  school-systems  of  our  country. 

*In  St.  Louis,  directors  receive  $600  for  two  sessions  per  day,  and  $350  for  one  session; 
paid  assistants  receive  $125  for  one  session,  and  $200  per  annum  for  two  daily  sessions. 


KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PUBLIC  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. 

BY  MRS,    LOUISE   POLLOCK, 
Principal  of  Kindergarten  Normal  Institute  of  Washington,  D.  C. 


LECTURE  TO  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  TEACHERS. 

Since  it  may  yet  be  some  time  ere  this  city  will  give  its  citizens  the  free 
Kindergarten,  I  have  invited  the  Public  School  teachers  here  to-night,  to 
explain  to  them,  in  as  concise  a  manner  as  possible,  the  distinctive  features 
of  the  Kindergarten  system,  which  is  called  by  Frederic  Frcebel,  its  dis- 
coverer, "  Nature's  Method  of  Education. "  You  may  find  some  of  its  edu- 
cational principles  and  methods  adapted  to  the  primary  grades  of  the  public 
schools,  and  incorporate  them  with  your  own  to  the  great  advantage  of 
your  pupils. 

In  the  true  Kindergarten  the  children  are  to  be  under  six  years  of  age, 
but  where  children  have  never  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  this  system  at  home 
or  in  the  Kindergarten  proper,  children  over  six  years  of  age,  you  will 
find,  enjoy  all  the  exercises  designed  for  younger  children,  only  their 
advancement  from  the  most  simple  to  the  difficult  will  be  more  rapid,  and 
the  conversations  and  instructions  accompanying  the  occupations  must  be 
adapted  to  their  age. 

The  opening  exercises  in  the  first  grade  or  lower  primary  school  might 
well  be  the  same  as  in  the  Kindergarten,  namely:  singing,  conversation, 
and  stories,  as  well  as  the  learning  of  the  songs  or  games  which  are  on 
the  programme  of  the  day, — for  there  needs  to  be  a  regular  programme, 
and  each  day  should  have  its  own  occupations  and  plays,  which  are 
divided  into  four  different  kinds, — but  to  classify  and  describe  these  would 
require  one  or  two  separate  lectures. 

In  the  primary  school  as  well  as  in  the  Kindergarten,  the  observing  and 
reasoning  faculties  of  young  children  should  be  developed  first  by  inspec- 
tion and  experiments,  made  with  the  various  gifts,  and  repeated  with 
other  objects  having  similar  properties.  Thus  the  little  ball,  the  first  gift, 
is  spun  around  and  we  sing: 

See  me  spinning  round  and  round, 
Never  idle  am  I  found. 

Another  day  this  spinning  around  is  done  with  the  wooden  sphere  of 
the  second  gift  upon  a  plate,  singing: 

No  matter  how  first  I  spin  or  race, 
I  always  show  the  same  round  face. 

"With  this  play  the  children  make  the  additional  observation  that  it 
spins  not  only  around  itself,  but  also  around  the  center  of  the  plate. 
Again  when  making  a  little  clay  ball,  on  modeling  days,  they  find  out 
that  it  cannot  roll  if  it  kas  any  corners  or  edges.  This  experience  has 
also  been  gained  while  presenting  the  cube  of  the  second  gift. 


644          KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PUBLIC  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. 

Everything  around  us  has  a  language,  and  it  is  the  part  of  the  educator 
to  make  this  language  understood  to  the  child,  or  it  may  go  through  life 
with  eyes  that  do  not  see,  and  ears  that  do  not  hear,  and  a  mind  that  does 
not  understand. 

Lessons  simple  and  advanced  may  well  be  given  with  the  first  gift,  on 
color,  material,  motions,  qualities,  and  uses  of  this  gift,  in  accordance 
with  the  age  of  the  child,  or  the  time  he  has  attended  the  Kindergarten. 

The  child,  in  playing  with  the  second  gift,  is  led  to  find  out  the  sim- 
ilarities and  differences  of  his  soft  ball  and  the  wooden  sphere ;  the  cylin- 
der is  presented  and  when  spun  round  shows  the  sphere  : 

When  I  spin  yon  around,  my  dear, 
Then  we  see  a  little  sphere. 
When  we  spin  the  cylinder  around, 
Then  a  little  sphere  is  found. 
When  we  spin  you  round,  my  dear, 
All  your  edges  disappear. 

Perhaps  without  this  play  the  child  would  not  have  noticed  that  the 
cylinder  had  any  edges.  The  cube  of  the  second  gift  offers  also  a  large 
field  for  comparing  and  experimenting  which  shall  lead  the  child  to  dis- 
cover the  peculiar  form  and  characteristics  of  the  cube: 

One  face  only  now  yon  see, 
Where  may  all  the  others  be? 

To  make  the  child  notice  the  plurality  of  faces.     Or: 
When  we  spin  you  around,  my  dear, 
All  your  corners  disappear. 
When  we  spin  the  cube  around, 
Then  a  cylinder  is  found. 

This  gift  could  also  be  advantageously  used  in  the  first  grade  of  the 
primary  schools  when  the  children  have  had  no  previous  Kindergarten 
training.* 

The  third  gift  is  the  cube  divided  into  eight  smaller  cubes,  which  leads 
to  a  closer  intimacy  and  analysis  of  its  form  and  uses. 

Ever  having  nature  for  his  guide,  Froebel  would  have  system  and 
organization  in  the  manner  of  presenting  this  gift,  first  as  a  whole,  then 
analyzed  or  taken  to  pieces;  then  made  whole  again,  when  the  play  is 
finished.  This  not  only  satisfies  the  child's  curiosity  and  desire  for  break- 
ing things,  but  develops  the  constructive  instinct,  which,  after  building 
with  the  blocks,  restores  and  reconstructs  the  previous  order  and  original 
form,  and  is  gratified  by  making  whole  what  has  been  destroyed. 

With  this  and  all  the  gifts  the  child  is  made  acquainted  with  the 
law  of  oppositcs  and  of  combinations  or  connections,  which  leads  him 
to  take  delight  in  symmetrical  forms  and  harmonious  designs  and  inven- 
tions of  his  own.  This  gift  would  be  most  useful  in  the  primary  school, 
succeeded  by  and  in  combination  with  the  fourth  gift,  which  is  the  cube 
divided  into  eight  oblongs.  Lessons  in  arithmetic  can  be  given  with  the 
very  best  results,  with  these  gifts  as  well  as  with  the  fifth  gift,  which  is  the 

*  In  our  lectures  to  the  normal  pupils  we  fully  explain  the  reasons  why  Froebel  selected 
his  various  gifts  and  how  they  will  lead  to  higher  education. 


KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PUBLIC  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS.         645 

cube  divided  diagonally  into  halves,  quarters,  thirds.  For  this  gift  is 
composed  of  twenty-seven  cubes,  and  offers  a  far  richer  field  for  amuse- 
ment and  instruction  than  the  third  or  fourth  gift.  This  gift  may  be  used 
not  only  in  the  second  grade  but  also  in  the  third  grade  of  the  public 
schools,  to  the  great  intellectual  progress  and  advantage  of  children,  who 
have  never  enjoyed  previous  Kindergarten  training.  One  of  the  thirds  of 
this  cube  being  cut  diagonally,  the  child  may  learn  that  one-third  and 
one-half  of  one  third  are  the  exact  half  of  his  whole  twenty-seven  cubes, 
or  of  the  three  thirds  of  his  cube.  With  the  solid  triangles  of  this  gift, 
one  placed  upon  the  other,  he  can  form  the  triangular  or  the  square  prism, 
and  in  connection  with  the  box  of  geometrical  forms  may  distinguish  the 
difference  between  the  pyramid  and  the  prism,  and  the  cone  and  the  pyra- 
mid; he  can  form  also  square,  oblong,  hexagonal,  or  octagonal  buildings, 
and  if  the  teacher  has  had  the  proper  normal  training,  she  may  also  teach 
in  this  connection  the  various  styles  of  architecture  with  the  object  les- 
son, which  precedes  the  building  with  children  in  the  primary  grades. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  sixth  gift,  which  is  equally  useful,  and 
permits  of  even  more  pleasing  structures,  and  may  be  used  with  equally 
good  results  to  convey  impressions  in  regard  to  form,  space,  and  number. 
As  you  will  observe,  there  is  a  close  connection  and  careful  guiding  from 
the  most  simple  to  the  more  complex.  Thus  while  in  the  previous  six 
gifts  the  child  has  had  solid  bodies  to  handle  and  play  with,  which 
appeal  more  directly  to  his  senses,  now,  the  seventh  gift,  the  laying  tab- 
lets, the  child  is  occupied  with  the  faces  only  of  his  previous  solid  toys. 
His  taste  and  ingenuity  of  design,  his  unconscious  comprehension  of  the 
law  of  opposites,  now  comes  into  fuller  play. 

With  this  occupation  the  child  becomes  familiar  with  all  the  various 
angles  which  he  outlines  with  another  gift,  the  little  round  sticks. 

This  gift  of  "laying  sticks "  is  to  lead  from  the  planes  or  faces  of  solid 
bodies  to  their  edges  or  outlines,  and  is  a  fair  preparation  to  the  succeed- 
ing drawing  occupation,  by  means  of  which  the  child  embodies  the  forms 
of  things  conceived  or  perceived  by  his  mind.  The  rings  lead  him  to  a 
still  higher  appreciation  of  facts  and  a  just  appreciation  of  what  is  correct 
and  beautiful  in  outline. 

The  occupation  of  sewing  is  in  direct  harmony  with  the  drawing  and 
all  other  occupations  which  describe  the  outline  or  edges  of  anything,  arid 
is  a  harmonious  sequence  to  the  perforating  occupation,  which  rests  on 
the  principle  of  leading  the  child  from  the  outline  or  edges  of  a  body  to 
its  corners  or  points,  which  are  brought  into  relation  or  connected  again 
by  the  thread  or  stitch  from  point  to  point.  The  same  is  done  with  the 
peas-work,  where  the  edges,  represented  by  wires  and  connected  at  the 
corners  by  peas,  serve  the  admirable  purpose  of  showing  the  perspective 
outlines  of  figures  and  forms.  These  two  occupations  are  very  delight- 
ful to  the  child,  as  they  gratify  his  ideality,  his  inborn  desire  for  activity, 
and  under  systematic  direction  develop  skill  and  invention. 

The  perforating  should  not  be  used  by  anyone  who  has  not  been  prop- 
erly trained  in  the  rules  which  regulate  its  use,  or  it  may  lead  to  injury 
of  the  eyes. 


646         KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PUBLIC  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS 

The  interlacing  slats  prepare  for  the  weaving  with  paper ;  many  of  the 
instructions  given  with  the  previous  gifts  may  be  repeated  under  a  new 
guise.  The  weaving  leads  us  back  from  combining  edges  to  planes,  and 
with  the  modeling  in  clay  we  return  to  solid  bodies. 

The  folding  in  paper  leads  to  many  observations,  useful  as  a  foundation 
for  higher  scientific  education,  while  it  cultivates  accuracy  of  eye  and 
hand,  most  useful  in  every  vocation  in  life. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  cutting  in  paper,  where  the  additional 
lesson  of  political  economy  is  inculcated,  in  so  far  as  the  children  are 
taught  to  save  every  little  piece  that  falls  off  in  order  to  give  it  its  appro 
priate  place  and  so  let  it  form  an  additional  feature  of  the  beauty  of  the 
figure  attained.  They  also  learn  thereby  that  everything  is  good  and  fills 
a  useful  part  if  it  is  in  its  appropriate  place. 

All  these  gifts,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the  modeling,  which 
involves  considerable  labor  on  the  teacher's  part,  of  washing  hands  and 
clearing  away,  may  be  a  source  of  delightful  observations  and  instruc- 
tions in  the  primary  school  to  children  from  six  to  ten  years  of  age. 

I  am  positive  that  when  the  teachers  of  the  public  schools  shall  have 
received  the  Kindergarten  normal  training,  they  will  be  anxious  to  devote 
one  hour  each  day  to  kindergarten  methods,  and  they  will  find  that  the 
children  advance  just  as  fast,  if  not  more  rapidly,  in  their  elementary 
pursuits,  and  have  a  clearer  comprehension  of  all  they  learn. 

Miss  Clara  Heald,  a  teacher  of  a  third  grade  public  school  in  this  city, 
gives  her  testimony  to  this  effect :  That  whereas  she  had  been  teaching  as 
a  matter  or  duty  in  regular  prescribed  methods,  with  no  particular  inter- 
est in  the  children,  as  soon  as  she  had  advanced  to  a  certain  degree  in  her 
Kindergarten  normal  training,  with  my  daughter  and  myself,  she  began 
to  make  use  of  her  instructions.  The  result  was  most  gratifying  to  her; 
not  only  were  the  children  much  interested  in  the  process  of  learning 
through  doing,  but  she  enjoyed  her  school  far  more,  began  to  love  her 
pupils  individually,  and  to  look  upon  her  teacher's  profession  as  an 
ennobling,  honorable,  beneficent  work.  Stories  and  exercises  intended 
for  very  young  children  were  relished  and  gave  pleasurable  instruction  to 
children  from  eight  to  twelve  years  of  age,  because  they  were  what  they 
needed,  and  had  been,  as  I  may  say,  cheated  out  of,  in  earlier  childhood." 
*A  Kindergarten  is  considered  a  play  school,  and  children  over  seven 
years  of  age  feel  almost  ashamed  to  go  to  one.  But  our  private  Kinder- 
gartens could  not  exist  if  they  limited  their  instructions  to  children  of  the 
Kindergarten  age.  We  therefore  have  graded  classes  in  our  Kindergar- 
tens, and  separate  teachers,  who  give  instruction  adapted  to  the  age  of  the 
pupils.  This  affords  our  normal  pupils  an  opportunity  to  observe  the 
practical  application  of  Kindergarten  methods  at  different  stages  of  the 
children's  advancement  and  ages.  The  Kindergarten  is  truly  a  place 
where  the  children  learn  how  to  play  in  such  a  manner  that  the  founda- 
tion is  laid  for  unselfish,  law-abiding  citizenship. 

Here,  also,  they  daily  listen  to  the  kind  of  sermon  which  children 
can  understand  and  profit  by,  namely,  the  sweet  and  simple  parables 
which  come  in  and  are  suggested  by  the  various  forms  they  build,  sew,  or 
model.  Here  they  learn,  perhaps  for  the  first  time,  that  their  little  indi- 


' 


KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PUBLIC  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. 

viduality  is  only  a  part  of  one  great  whole;  and  although  at  home  they 
may  be  permitted  to  rule  every  one,  here  others  have  as  much  right  as 
they,  and  they  begin  to  feel  the  natural  consequences  of  their  actions. 
The  Kindergartner  needs  to  be  a  person  of  superior  judgment,  possessed 
of  refinement  of  manners,  and  of  a  strong  will,  yet  withal  respecting  the 
will  of  others,  and  ever  ready  to  examine  herself  carefully  and  conscien- 
tiously to  find  out  if  what  she  desires  is  simply  the  expression  of  her  own 
self-will,  or  if  it  is  dictated  by  her  desire  for  the  highest  good  of  the  child 
in  her  charge.  She  must  feel  that  it  is  her  duty  to  train  and  direct  the 
will  of  her  pupils  into  right  and  virtuous  paths,  but  that  it  is  by  no  means 
her  business,  or  anybody  else's,  to  break  the  will  of  the  child,  that  great 
moral  force,  which  he  will  need  so  much  for  every  action  of  his  life.  We 
should  rather  give  it  wholesome  exercise,  by  giving  the  child  opportunity 
to  decide  questions  for  himself  whenever  an  opportunity  arises;  for 
instance,  in  the  choice  of  colors  when  giving  out  the  balls,  and  in  the 
formation  of  figures  and  invention  of  designs  after  his  short  dictation  lesson 
is  over.  Every  educator  should  always  be  ready  to  imagine  herself  in  the 
child's  place;  she  needs  to  be  full  of  sympathy  and  ever  ready  to  render 
such  assistance  that,  while  it  prevents  his  becoming  discouraged,  will 
bring  out  the  child's  self-activity  and  desire  to  do  for  himself,  which, 
together  with  perseverance  and  neatness  of  execution,  must  be  encouraged 
at  every  step.  Above  and  over  all,  she  must  be  conscious  of  the  fearful 
responsibility  she  assumes  when  she  becomes  the  motherly  guide  of  young 
children,  and  ever  treat  the  children  in  such  a  manner  as  she  would  that 
others  should  treat  hers.  Her  ready  sympathy,  the  stories,  and  the  har- 
monious manner  of  conducting  the  musical  plays,  her  gentle  and  impartial 
manner  of  settling  all  their  little  troubles  and  disputes,  and  her  suggest- 
ing the  manner  of  disposing  of  their  little  handiwork;  these  are  the 
moral  agents  for  developing  the  affectionate  and  spiritual  element  of 
children  in  the  Kindergarten. 

I  will  now,  in  as  brief  a  manner  as  possible,  recapitulate  the  main 
features  which  characterize  the  Kindergarten,  and  the  objects  attainable 
by  the  general  adoption  of  its  methods  in  our  primary  schools. 
The  peculiar  features  of  the  Kindergarten  are  as  follows:* 
1.  (ft)  The  Kindergarten  training  aims  to  bring  harmony  to  the  child's 
own  being;  between  the  expression  of  his  thoughts,  his  feelings,  and  his 
will-power;  his  will  and  his  reflections  or  reason.  (J)  It  aims  to  show 
him  his  true  relation  to  his  surroundings,  his  playmates,  friends.  The 
result  should  be  his  delight  in  peaceful,  affectionate  intercourse  with 
others,  (c)  It  aims  to  lead  the  child  to  feel  himself  one  with  nature  and 
obedient  to  nature's  laws.  He  shall  make  correct  observations  with  the 
aid  of  the  Kindergartner,  he  shall  make  correct  imitations  of  natural 
objects,  and  by  means  of  child-like,  familiar  conversation  he  shall  peep 
into  her  secret  workshop,  and  learn  to  admire  the  beauty  and  order  of  its 
organization.  He  will  thereby  learn  to  love  its  phenomena,  the  living  cre- 
ation, and  learn  to  respect  nature's  laws  everywhere  and  at  all  times,  (d) 
Finally,  the  child  shall  be  led  to  feel  himself  in  harmony  with  what  is 

*K6hler's  Practical  aiid  Theoretical  Kindergarten  Guide. 


g48         KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PUBLIC  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. 

good,  noble,  and  true;  in  harmony  with  God,  and  to  grow  into  child-like 
relations  to  Him. 

2.  The  Kindergartner,  to  be  able  to  carry  out  the  above  aims  of  educa- 
tion, needs  to  be  conscious  of  her  work,  and  understand  what  are  the 
results,  and  how  to  employ  the  law  of  opposites  and  their  connection  or 
harmonious  relationship  and  combination.  She  must  realize  that  in  order 
to  arrive  at  a  clear  comprehension  of  what  anything  is,  she  must  first  find 
out  what  it  is  not;  for  there  can  be  no  comparison  or  correct  impression 
without  contrasts  or  opposites  being  brought  to  notice ;  for  example,  we 
could  not  decide  that  it  was  a  warm  day  if  the  temperature  were  always 
the  same ;  that  it  was  day  if  there  were  no  night ;  that  anything  is  right  if 
there  were  no  left;  that  anything  is  high  without  there  being  its  opposite. 
The  law  of  opposites  rules  our  universe  ;  and  the  work  of  civilization,  of 
education,  and  of  religion,  natural  and  revealed,  is,  to  bring  these  opposites 
into  harmonious  union,  and  for  everything  to  fill  its  own  highest  sphere  of 
usefulness,  that  it  was  intended  to  fill  by  a  wise  creator.  The  early  train- 
ing of  the  child  should  aim  to  make  him  conscious  that  he  fills  an  important 
part  when  he  experiences  harmonious  relations  with  himself,  with  nature, 
his  neighbors,  and  his  God.  The  Kindergartner  must  always  appeal  to 
the  highest  motives  in  the  child's  soul,  not  to  his  selfish  or  emulative 
spirit;  only  the  spirit  of  love  must  pervade  the  atmosphere  of  the  Kinder- 
garten. She  must  offer  no  medals  nor  prizes.  She  must  realize  that  it  is 
in  her  power  to  awaken,  fan,  and  strengthen  the  tiny  germs  of  goodness, 
which  are  born  in  every  child. 

The  natural  characteristics  of  the  child  may  be  led  in  two  opposite 
directions  by  the  influence  of  circumstances  and  education.  Thus  the 
naturally  timid  child  may  become  a  modest  being,  or  one  who  is  abject, 
cringing;  one  who  is  daring,  full  of  rougish  activity,  may  grow  to  be 
energetic,  executive,  noble,  and  daring,  or  he  may  develop  into  a  rude  and 
cruel  character  without  the  fear  of  God  or  man. 

It  requires  the  utmost  care  and  trouble  to  keep  what  we  call  the  evil 
propensities  in  a  dormant,  inactive  state,  or  to  direct  them  in  such  ways 
that  what  would  have  been  a  vice  becomes  a  virtue ;  and  the  sooner  atten- 
tion is  given  to  this  work  the  more  satisfactory  will  be  the  result.  Frce- 
bel's  Plays  with  the  Baby  are  a  faithful  guide  to  the  educator. 

I  do  not  claim  that  the  Kindergarten  system  regenerates  those  who  are 
born  with  unfortunate  organizations,  but  it  surely  modifies  all  evil  pro- 
pensities, it  prevents  a  great  deal  of  crime,  hardness  of  heart,  idle  and 
vicious  habits.  And  although  it  may  be  said  your  own  children  and 
pupils  are  not  as  good  as  they  ought  to  be  with  the  advantages  they  have 
enjoyed,  I  can  truthfully  assert,  they  would  not  have  been  as  good  as 
they  are  if  they  had  not  had  them.  "  We  should  not  undervalue  the  ser- 
vices of  a  physician  who  keeps  the  family  from  getting  sick."  It  is  the 
same  with  the  Kindergarten  system,  whose  great  merit  is  in  preventing 
harm  and  the  growth  of  evil. 

4.  The  Kindergarten  can  fulfil  its  duties  to  the  child  only  when  it  pre- 
serves the  family  spirit  with  motherly  affections  on  the  teacher's  part,  and 
perfect  confidence  and  respect  on  the  children's  part,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  constitutes  a  little  community,  where  the  rights  of  all  are  respected 


KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PUBLIC  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS.         649 

and  the  social  instinct  of  the  child  is  gratified.  Early  shall  the  child  learn 
and  acquire  habits  of  politeness,  observe  the  consequences  of  selfishness 
or  rudeness,  and  enjoy  the  beauty  of  order,  mutual  helpfulness  and  even 
self-sacrifice,  which,  however,  must  always  be  spontaneous,  not  incited  by 
outside  influence,  though  we  should  not  refuse  to  praise  him ;  nor  should 
we  neglect  to  always  set  an  example  to  him. 

5.  Another  important  and  peculiar  feature  of  the  Kindergarten  train- 
ing is,  that  it  considers  the  child,  almost  from  its  birth,  as  an  active,  cre- 
ative being.     We  respect  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  and  the  proficiency 
of  useful  accomplishments  but  merely  as  the  means  of  increased  power 
for  good  actions.     Words  and  deeds  which  bespeak  the  noble  character, 
to  these  humanity  owes  its  greatest  debt  of  gratitude.     Therefore  would 
Frcebel  have  us  encourage  the  child's  inborn  desire  for  creative  activity, 
and  by  no  means  repress  it.     Vacancy  of  mind  and  idleness  of  hand  are 
the  worst  enemies  to  the  child's  moral  nature  and  progress. 

6.  In  the  Kindergarten  there  should  not  be  any  regular  hearing  of 
lessons,  as  in  school,  nor   the  same  repressive  discipline  and  spirit  of 
routine. 

7.  la  the  Kindergarten  proper,  for  children  under  six  years  of  age, 
there  should  be  no  books  nor  drilling,  but  here  the  Kinclergartner  or 
teacher  should  place  herself  on  the  child's  plane,  and  amuse  by  child- 
like stones  and  conversations  while  occupying  and  entertaining  with  such 
occupations  as  are  pleasing  and  adapted  to  the  child's  limited  powers,  and 
yet  exert  the  right  educational  and  developing  influences.     His  little  hands 
shall  gain  delicacy  and  profiency  of  touch  and  manipulation,  and  his  mind 
shall  be  trained  in  the  virtues  of  patience  and  perseverance.     He  shall  also 
be  cheered  and  animated  by  sweet  and  lively  songs  and  games  calculated 
to  make  him  physically  strong  and  active. 

8.  There  should  be,  if  possible,  a  garden  connected  with  every  Kinder, 
garten. 

The  objects  of  the  Kindergarten  are : 

1.  That  the  child  shall  be  prepared  to  become  a  happy,  useful,  virtu- 
ous citizen. 

The  little  songs,  mostly  accompanied  by  motions,  which  are  contained 
in  Frcebel's  Mother's  Book  of  Song  and  Play,  published  by  Lee  &  Shepard, 
are  a  guide  to  mothers  and  Kinclergartners  how  to  develop  the  physical 
and  moral  nature  of  the  child  by  such  means. 

In  my  lectures  to  mothers  I  use  my  own  translations,  which  will  be 
published  this  (1880)  summer. 

The  ladies  who  in  eight  months'  time  do  all  the  Kindergarten  work 
which  children  receive  when  they  remain  four  years  in  the  Kindergarten, 
have  invariably  expressed  the  conviction  that  not  only  has  the  work  been 
to  them  a  great  benefit  and  pleasure,  while  their  hand,  eye,  and  powers  of 
observation  received  superior  training,  but  their  whole  life,  their  relation 
toward  children  and  toward  humanity  in  general  have  become  so  essen- 
tially enlightened  and  awakened  to  activity,  that  all  they  had  previously 
learned  seemed  to  be  recalled  to  memory  and  to  find  a  proper  use.  So 
that  it  seems  a  matter  of  regret  that  every  young  woman  should  not 
receive  this  training,  which  is  of  so  much  more  importance  to  their  own 


650          KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PUBLIC  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. 

welfare  and  to  that  of  the  rising  generation  than  many  of  the  accom- 
plishments upon  which  money  and  years  of  time  are  lavishly  expended. 

The  gifts  and  occupations,  if  used  in  the  systematic,  orderly,  but  not 
pedantic  manner  indicated  to  the  normal  student,  will  feed,  not  quench, 
the  child's  natural  thirst  for  knowledge  and  investigation,  develop  his 
creative  and  inventive  spirit,  train  his  eye  to  notice  small  divergences, 
give  him  accuracy  of  detail  and  execution,  and  familiarity  with  geomet- 
rical terms  and  meaning,  through  the  intelligent  use  of  and  play  with 
such  toys  as  are  calculated  to  produce  this  result. 

The  greatest  value  of  the  Kindergarten  is  that : 

1.  It  is  a  moral  agent  which  exercises  not  only  an  elevating  influence 
on  the  rising  generation,  but  also  reaches  the  parents  and  enriches  their 
ideas  of  education. 

2.  It  paves  the  way  to  an  education  in  accordance  with  and  not  against 
nature.     The  children  learn  by  doing.     Thinking  and  acting,  sentiment 
and  reality,  desire  or  will,  and  execution  or  doing — observations  and  facts 
are  here  as  closely  related  as  the  spring  to  the  brook,  one  is  inseparable 
from  the  other. 

3.  The  Kindergarten  system  leads  to  a  better  comprehension  of  child- 
nature  and  a  more  rational  treatment  of  and  intercourse  with  children. 

4.  It  seems  to  be  the  only  existing  institution  where  mothers  may  learn 
the  true  and  right  method  for  educating  their  children. 


NOTE. 

MRS.  LOUISE  POLLOCK,  born  in  Prussia,  became  interested  in  Frcebel's  ideas  and 
the  Kindergarten  from  an  article  in  the  Christian  Examiner  in  1859,  and  interviews  with 
Miss  Peabody  in  Boston.  In  1863-4  she  translated  for  Nichols  and  Noyes  The  Paradise  of 
Childhood,  by  Mrs.  Lina  Morgenstern  :  and  with  Madame  Ronge's  Kindergarten  Guide, 
and  Mrs.  Mann's  Moral  Culture  of  Infancy  and  her  own  motherly  instincts,  began  to  prac- 
tice Frcebel's  gifts  in  her  own  nursery,  and  in  a  Kindergarten,  opened  by  Mr.  Allen  in  his 
Classical  School  at  West  Newton,  where  she  was  then  residing.  In  18G4-5  she  wrroto 
a  series  of  articles  for  the  Friend  of  Progress,  published  by  Mr.  Charles  Plumb  in  New 
York,  explaining  the  principles  and  the  gifts  and  occupations  of  the  Kindergarten. 

In  1869  Mrs.  Pollock  sent  her  daughter,  then  eighteen,  to  Berlin,  where  she  took  the 
Mother's  Course  with  Lina  Morgenstern,  and  a  full  Teacher's  Course  in  the  Berlin  Frauen- 
Yerein,  under  Herr  Luther,  enjoyingopportunities  of  observation  in  several  Kindergartens 
there.  After  spending  six  months  in  Paris,  Miss  Pollock  returned  to  enter  on  her  work 
as  Kindergartner  in  Boston ;  and  until  she  located  in  1874  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  where  she 
was  associated  for  two  years  with  Miss  Marwedel.  In  1877  Mrs.  Pollock  \vith  her  daughter 
opened  a  Training  Institute  for  Mothers  and  Kindergartners,  each  conducting  a  Kinder- 
garten of  her  own.  Mrs.  and  Miss  Pollock  spent  two  months  In  the  summer  of  1879  in 
Raleigh  N.  C.,and  will  spend  the  same  time  in  1880  in  Chapel  Hill,  in  introducing  the  Kin- 
dergarten system  under  the  auspices  of  Professors  in  the  State  University. 

PROF.  N.  T.  ALLEN,  founder  of  the  English  and  Classical  School  at  West  Newton, 
Mass.,  learning  from*his  brother  Jame-»,  who  was  in  Germany  in  1859-60,  of  the  Kinder- 
garten and  Madame  Marenholtz,  wrote  back,  *n  186^,  authorizing  him  to  engage  a  suit- 
able Kindergartner  to  come  over  and  start  an  institute  after  the  Froebel  idea  in  their 
school.  Not  successful  in  this  application,  he  extended  every  facility  in  his  power 
to  Mrs.  Pollock  who  opened  a  Kindergarten  in  connection  with  his  school,  in  September, 
1864,  which  was  carried  on  in  the  true  spirit  and  methods  of  Froebel  by  her  until  other 
engagements  compelled  her  to  relinquish  the  undertaking. 


CHARITY  KINDERGARTENS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


DEVELOPMENT. 

The  term  Charity  Kindergartens  requires  some  explanation.  When  Miss 
Blow  began  her  work  in  St.  Louis  she  began  it  and  persevered  for  two 
or  more  years  on  her  own  means,  casting  her  bread  upon  the  waters. 
Her  success  the  world  knows,  and  she  has  reaped  the  reward  of  seeing 
the  public  mind  in  St.  Louis  so  much  impressed  with  the  beneficial  results 
that  Kindergartens  form  at  present  a  part  of  the  public  school  system. 

The  Charity  Kindergartens  of  Boston  and  Cambridge,  and  their  vicin- 
ity, are  a  little  different.  They  pick  up  the  very  most  neglected  children, 
and  much  parish  visiting,  as  it  may  be  called,  is  enjoined  by  Mrs.  Shaw 
upon  her  teachers,  and  cordially  done  by  them.  It  would  please  Mrs. 
Shaw  better  if  they  were  called  free  Kindergartens,  because  her  sympathy 
for  the  poor  is  so  genuine  that  she  does  not  wish  to  have  their  feelings 
hurt  in  any  way,  but  her  wish  has  not  been  strictly  followed  because  it  is 
not  quite  so  descriptive  of  the  thing  as  is  " charity"  Kindergartens.  Her 
agents  are  instructed  not  only  to  bring  neglected  children  in,  but  to  fur- 
nish them  with  clothing,  when  necessary.  Indeed  there  is  no  outside  to 
her  great  heart. 

The  first  charity  Kindergarten  in  the  United  States  was  that  of  Miss' 
Susan  E.  Blow,  of  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  who  in  the  winter  of  1872-3  went  to 
New  York  city  and  studied  the  system  thoroughly,  and  in  1873-4  kept  a 
Kindergarten  of  thirty  pupils  in  the  Normal  school-house,  where  Superin- 
tendent Harris  gave  her  a  room,  rent  free.  The  children  were  between 
three  and  six.  In  the  fall  of  1874  some  twenty  of  her  pupils,  who  were 
then  seven  years  of  age,  went  into  the  primary  school  and  showed  the 
value  of  the  Kindergarten  training  by  going  through  the  three  years' 
work  in  one  year,  thus  saving  two  years  for  the  grammar  schools.  Miss 
Blow  also  gratuitously  trained  twelve  ladies  for  Kindergartners  that  year. 
The  next  year,  with  four  of  these  for  assistants,  she  taught  one  hundred 
children  in  her  Kindergarten,  and  there  were  two  Kindergartens  taught 
by  two  of  her  ladies,  each  with  three  of  their  classmates  for  assistants. 
Miss  Blow  continued  her  training-school  for  teachers  the  next  year  with 
many  in  the  class,  and  on  Saturdays  all  of  them  met  with  the  old  class  for 
a  general  lesson.  The  effect  of  these  on  the  primary  schools  when  the 
Kindergarten  children  went  into  them  determined  the  school  board  to 
institute  twelve  Kindergartens,  and  pay  as  many  teachers,  and  Miss  Blow 
took  the  superintendence  of  them,  all  still  gratuitously,  and  carried  on  her 
Kindergarten,  whose  pupils  became  volunteer  assistants  in  the  Kinder- 
gartens. Now,  in  1880,  there  are  fifty-two  Kindergartens  in  St.  Louis, 
whose  head  teachers  are  paid  $500  out  of  the  school  appropriation  and 
whose  assistants  are  volunteers  from  Miss  Blow's  free  training  class. 


652  CHARITY  KINDERGARTENS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  next  great  charity  work  in  this  cause  was  done  by  Mr.  S.  H.  Hill 
of  Florence.  Miss  Peabody  having  given  a  lecture  in  the  Cosmean  hall  of 
that  village,  and  some  citizens  expressing  a  desire  for  the  Kindergarten, 
this  gentleman  offered  his  own  house  and  paid  Mrs.  Aldrich  to  open  a 
nursery  and  had  it  free  to  all  the  children  of  the  village.  This  was  in 
1874-5.  The  Kindergarten  grew  and  he  subsequently  paid  more  Kinder- 
gartners,  built  two  houses — one  for  the  teachers  to  live  in,  and  one  acom- 
modating  two  hundred  children.  At  present  there  are  nearly  one  hun- 
dred in  actual  attendance.  With  four  Kindergartners  paid  by  a  fund  that 
Mr.  Hill  has  put  in  trust,  some  other  citizens  of  Florence  contributing, 
and  children  of  all  colors  and  social  position  are  prepared  in  these  Kin- 
dergartens for  the  public  schools. 

In  1876  Mrs.  Quincy  A.  Shaw  had  two  Kindergartners  trained  by  Miss 
Garland,  dividing  between  them  $1,200  and  providing  rooms,  furniture, 
and  material  for  a  charity  Kindergarten  in  Jamaica  Plain.  Immediately 
afterwards  she  did  the  same  thing  for  Brookline,  that  town  providing  a 
room,  rent  free,  in  the  town  hall.  Soon  after  followed  another  in  Rox- 
bury  in  connection  with  a  nursery.  This  Kindergarten  of  eighteen  pupils 
was  under  the  care  of  one  teacher,  paid  $600.  Then,  hearing  of  Mrs. 
Mann's  effort  to  get  up  a  charity  Kindergarten  in  Cambridge  by  means  of 
a  subscription  headed  by  the  poet  Longfellow,  she  came  to  her  aid  wTith 
what  was  wanting.  This  Kindergarten  still  goes  on,  supported  by  the  sub- 
scriptions of  Cambridge  citizens.  The  perfect  success  of  all  these  Kin- 
dergartens in  improving  the  children,  together  with  the  collateral  gracious 
effects  on  the  poor  parents,  soon  stimulated  Mrs.  Shaw  to  establish  more 
of  them  and  a  nursery  in  Cambridge,  and  the  same  in  Cambridgeport, 
until  now  there  are  no  less  than  thirty  Kindergartens  and  ten  nurseries 
under  this  munificent  patronage,  in  Jamaica  Plain,  Brookline,  Roxbury, 
Cambridge,  Chelsea,  Canton,  and  Boston.  In  Boston  and  some  other 
places  the  municipality  grants  rooms,  rent  free.  Some  other  ladies  help 
about  the  Kindergarten  in  the  North  End  missions,  and  Mrs.  James  Tol- 
man  supports  a  Kindergarten  entirely  herself  at  the  south  end  of  Boston. 
There  are  always  twenty-five  children  in  the  Kindergartens  kept  by  one 
teacher,  with  $600  salary,  all  expenses  found  besides,  and  where  there 
are  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  scholars,  two  teachers  with  $500  salary  each. 
There  is  some  voluntary  assistance  given  sometimes  by  the  pupils  of  the 
training  schools  for  the  sake  of  the  practice  they  get  thereby. 

Mrs.  Mann,  Mrs.  Shaw,  Mrs.  Tolman,  and  the  other  ladies  interested 
in  the  Boston  and  Cambridge  Kindergartens  hope  to  make  such  an  im- 
pression of  their  public  value  on  the  school  authorities  as  Miss  Blow  made 
by  her  great  work  to  which  she  has  contributed  herself  entirely,  as  well  as 
money,  so  that  they  may  be  made  the  first  grade  of  the  public  education, 
for  of  course  such  munificent  benefactors  as  the  lady  who  spends  from 
thirty  to  forty  thousand  dollars  a  year  on  this  charity,  are  not  to  be 
readily  found — nor  can  be  a  permanent  resource. 

In  New  York  and  Philadelphia  charity  Kindergartens  have  been  started 
and  carried  on  for  two  years  by  a  subscription  of  the  members  of 
churches,  who  give  a  room  for  the  children  of  their  neighborhood,  irre- 
spective of  denominational  name.  An  eminent  success  has  attended  that 


CHARITY  KINDERGARTENS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  f>53 

of  the  Anthon  Memorial  Church  of  New  York.  Mrs.  Kraus  and  Miss 
Peabody  at  different  times  addressed  the  ladies  of  that  church,  and  Mr. 
Newton,  the  rector,  followed  it  up  by  distributing  freely  Kindergarten 
tracts,  which  any  one  can  procure  by  sending  five  cents  to  E.  Steiger,  25 
Park  Place,  New  York.  At  the  end  of  the  year — rather  in  the  Spring  of 
1878,  he  asked  his  people  assembled  who  would  subscribe  for  a  charity 
Kindergarten.  Eight  hundred  dollars  was  at  once  subscribed,  and  half  a 
dozen  young  ladies  volunteered  to  assist  a  Kindergartner  trained  by  Mrs. 
Kraus  Bcelte,  to  whom  $600  was  paid.  The  next  year  $900  was  subscribed 
and  some  other  ladies  sent  in  a  substantial  dinner  for  the  children. 
We  trust  this  Kindergarten  will  prove  a  model  for  church  work,  uni- 
versally. Nothing  done  for  the  poor  has  such  gracious  effect  or  gives 
such  promise. 

In  Philadelphia  a  parochial  Kindergarten  is  attached  to  a  nursery 
in  St.  Peter's  church,  and  is  taught  by  Miss  Fairchild,  a  graduate  of  Miss 
Burritt's,  and  some  attempts  have  been  made  beside,  in  which  Miss 
Stevens,  Miss  Dickey,  and  Mrs.  G.  Gourlay  have  begun  good  work.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  the  church  of  the  Epiphany  did  not  continue  Miss 
Sterling  in  her  excellent  beginning  in  their  church  parlor.  Her  success 
in  winning  the  children  and  their  parents  was  so  signal  that  they  expressed 
great  grief  in  having  to  give  it  up,  and  if  Miss  Sterling  could  have  found 
another  rent-free  room  she  would  have  gone  on  at  her  own  expense,  as 
the  poor  parents  proposed  to  pay  enough  cents  by  the  week  to  keep  up 
the  supply  of  material.  It  is  necessary  in  all  cases  that  the  patrons  of  a 
Kindergarten  should  be  fully  apprised  of  the  nature  of  the  Kindergarten. 
In  this  case  that  requisite  preparation  was  omitted  and  the  whole  expense 
fell  on  the  purse  of  the  rector,  which  could  not  be  perennial. 

In  Chicago,  Mrs.  E.  W.  Blatchford  has  established  at  her  own  expense 
a  Kindergarten  under  a  graduate  of  Mrs.  A.  H.  Putnam,  and  which  has 
her  valuable  superintendence. 

In  Cincinnati  a  Charity  Kindergarten  has  been  established  under  the 
auspices  of  an  association  of  ladies,  and  the  immediate  direction  of  Miss 
Shank  of  St.  Louis,  one  of  Miss  Blow's  pupils.  The  plan  embraces  a 
kitchen  in  which  the  older  pupils  will  be  taught  practical  cooking  and  all 
lighter  house- work. 

The  most  remarkable  development  of  Charity  Kindergarten  is  going  on 
in  California,  under  several  organizations  of  workers,  all  of  which  aim  to 
bring  the  most  neglected  children  within  the  elevating  and  refining  influ- 
ences of  the  best  Froebel  training. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES. 

BY  MRS.  MARY  PEABODY  MANN. 


HOMES  AS  THEY  ARE,    AND   THEIR  IMPROVEMENT. 

WHEN  we  consider  what  homes  and  schools  are  in  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  world,  it  is  impossible  for  the  thinking  mind  not  to  ask,  What 
can  be  done  to  improve  them?  They  surely  do  not  produce  the  effect 
upon  society  that  could  be  expected  from  ideal  homes  and  schools,  and  it 
is  these  that  we  would  now  discuss. 

The  institution  of  home  is  a  divine  one,  as  far  as  we  can  judge  of  divine 
things.  The  family  is  eminently  God's  institution,  and  nothing  should 
be  allowed  to  mar  it.  It  is  based  upon  the  most  powerful  and  all-pervad- 
ing sentiments  of  the  human  soul,  and  our  quest  should  be  to  ascertain  by 
reflection  all  its  capabilities  for  influencing  the  destiny  of'  man.  The 
child  is  born  into  the  arms  of  its  parents  who  may  well  stand  appalled  before 
the  magnitude  of  the  duty  it  imposes  upon  them,  if  they  have  any  adequate 
appreciation  of  it  at  all,  for  we  know,  alas!  that  the  actual  parents  of  the 
majority  of  the  human  race  have  a  very  inadequate  sense  of  their  duty  to 
their  children.  Children  do  not  come  voluntarily  into  the  world,  nor  do 
parents  summon  them  from  the  abyss  of  time  and  space  with  an  intelli- 
gent consciousness  that  they  are  new  emanations  or  creations  of  God's 
Spirit,  to  be  instructed  in  their  relations  to  the  glorious  universe  to  whose 
study  their  faculties  are  adapted.  Often  unwelcome,  the  product  of  pas- 
sion instead  of  noble  and  religious  sentiment,  they  are  largely  left  to  find 
out  through  suffering  and  unaided  experience  those  relations  to  the  uni- 
verse which  are  the  earnest  of  their  immortality.  And  because  the  endow- 
ment of  nature  is  often  so  rich  as  to  overcome  all  obstacles  to  the  building 
up  of  that  spiritual  nature  which  it  is  their  own  part  to  erect  upon  that 
basis,  many  shallow  persons  idly  say  that  the  consequences  of  neglect  and 
obstructions  to  progress  prove  that  adversity  and  hindrances  are  the  best 
circumstances  under  which  to  form  character.  Out  of  conflict  and  strife 
much  truth  is  elicited,  because  these  stimulate  the  intellect  to  action,  but 
it  is  as  idle  to  say  that  neglect  and  absence  of  love  are  in  themselves  good 
for  the  soul,  as  that  the  indigestible  matter  we  often  eat  strengthens  the 
powers  of  digestion.  Souls  are  often  starved  for  the  want  of  proper  influ- 
ences, as  stomachs  are  ruined  by  indigestible  food.  It  is  true  that  even 
the  stomach  will  survive  much  abuse,  and  we  know  that  souls  have  an 
immortal  principle  that  will  stand  by  them  in  some  sphere  of  being  if  not 
in  this — but  why  lose  the  highest  benefits  this  life  can  bestow,  the  world 
that  now  is  as  well  as  that  which  is  to  come?  The  race  has  grown  in 
spite  of  all  the  obstacles  it  has  had  to  encounter,  and  the  earnest  inquiry 
that  has  engaged  the  greatest  minds  in  it  has  resulted  at  last  in  the  dis- 
covery of  a  method  of  improving  homes  and  education  within  and  out- 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES.  (555 

side  of  them.  Madame  Marenholz-Bulow,  who  may  well  be  called  the 
apostle  of  Froebel,  having  devoted  thirty  years  of  her  life  to  the  promul- 
gation of  his  system  in  many  lands,  has  of  late  issued  a  little  book  upon 
the  evils  of  the  present  time,  and  she  resolves  them  all  into  the  deficient 
education  of  women.  While  women  are  of  inferior  education,  how  can 
homes  be  what  they  ought  to  be  and  evidently  were  intended  to  be?  God 
does  not  do  things  arbitrarily.  An  eloquent  preacher  once  said:  "God 
takes  care  of  the  helpless  babe,  not  by  folding  it  under  an  angel's  wing, 
but  by  pillowing  it  on  a  mother's  breast."  God  does  not  speak  from  the 
skies  to  teach  women  to  fit  themselves  to  be  good  mothers,  but  having 
endowed  the  human  race  with  faculties  adequate  to  all  their  needs — and 
who  can  compass  the  glory  of  their  possible  destiny? — he  inspires  the 
mother's  heart  to  learn  by  experience.  If  it  is  true  that  in  early  times 
men  lived  hundreds  of  years,  it  could  have  been  none  too  long  to  learn 
the  lessons  of  this  great  school  of  a  world.  At  present  we  seem  to  live 
long  enough  only  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  what  is  left  for  us  to  do.  Women 
were  once,  and  in  some  places  are  still  treated  only  as  chattels,  or  at  least 
merely  as  the  bearers  of  bodies,  and  are  not  expected  to  educate  the  souls. 
Even  in  the  most  educating  modern  country  (Germany)  it  was  not  long 
since  considered  best  for  the  sons  to  be  taken  from  the  influence  of  their 
mothers  as  early  as  possible.  It  had  not  apparently  dawned  upon  them  that 
the  mothers  should  be  better  educated  for  their  office.  May  we  not 
justly  attribute  to  this  custom  the  prevalence  of  irreligion  among  distin- 
guished Germans?  for  if  religion  is  not  cherished  at  the  mother's  knee,  by 
the  mother's  heart,  where  will  it  be  likely  to  be  done?  The  mother 
watches  every  motion  of  her  nursing  babe,  and  its  organic  life  in  her  is 
thus  far  cherished,  but  when  a  little  older  the  care  becomes  troublesome, 
especially  if  she  is  worldly,  and  she  calls  in  the  aid  of — whom?  Does 
she,  like  queens,  appoint  the  best  educated  and  most  unexceptionable 
woman  in  her  sphere  to  aid  her  in  the  holy  duty?  Should  not  every 
mother  provide  that  none  but  good  examples  shall  be  set  before  the 
awakening  mind  and  heart  of  her  little  immortal?  and  consult  at  every 
turn  with  assistant  educators?  And  as  her  child  increases  in  years,  does 
she  guard  it  on  every  side  from  evil  influences?  Does  she  especially 
watch  her  own  words  and  acts,  which  have  such  powerful  influence  upon 
the  child  as  long  as  its  faith  in  her  is  unbroken,  the  faith  that  is  the 
matrix  of  faith  in  God?  Does  she  never  break  a  promise,  or  present  an 
unworthy  motive,  or  use  a  subterfuge  with  her  child?  Did  she  come  to 
her  task  prepared  for  it?  or  was  she  married,  or  did  she  become  a  mother 
without  studying  the  subject?  Probably  nine-tenths  of  all  the  women 
who  are  married  think  only  of  the  gratification  of  their  own  affections. 
When  the  relation  of  mother  comes  to  a  conscientious  woman,  the  mater- 
nal sentiment  awakes  and  absorbs  almost  her  every  thought,  but  how 
poorly  does  she  find  herself  equipped  for  the  new  duty !  She  searches 
herself  to  know  what  are  her  resources,  and  deplores  her  deficient  educa- 
tion when  she  finds  how  limited  they  are.  New,  pressing  duties  of 
many  kinds  prevent  her  from  educating  herself  now,  and  she  is  obliged 
to  depend  upon  her  maternal  instincts,  whose  scope  she  has  never  studied. 
These  instincts,  uneducated,  may  make  her  sacrifice  every  one  else  to  her 


(556  KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES. 

child,  which  she  has  not  the  right  to  do.  More  children  corne  and  she  is 
overwhelmed.  How  frequent  is  this  history!  She  must  now  learn  wis- 
dom by  her  mistakes,  and  her  children  are  the  victims  of  this  long-de- 
ferred training! 

In  reading  the  history  of  Froebel's  life  and  study  of  man,  and  his  final 
discovery  of  the  true  method  of  education,  what  woman  is  not  mortified 
to  think  that  it  was  not  made  by  a  woman  and  a  mother?  Froebel 
learned  it  from  his  observation  of  tender,  noble  mothers,  who  had  learned 
wisdom  by  their  costly  experience,  guided  by  the  maternal  instinct  which 
makes  the  good  mother  obliterate  herself  for  the  good  of  her  child. 
Standing  a  little  apart  from  the  duty,  and  bringing  a  cultivated,  scientific 
mind  to  the  subject,  he  saw  where  the  difficulty  lay,  and  why  all  mothers 
were  not  equal  to  their  task,  and  why  children  were  left  to  suffer  uncom- 
prehended,  unsympathized  with.  This  tender,  womanly  nature,  from 
which  he  had  suffered  so  much  after  losing  his  own  mother,  was  enlisted 
in  the  reform  of  this  world-wide  evil,  and  he  has  shown  mothers  how  to 
remedy  it.  This  sentiment  pervades  all  his  works. 

But  this  is  not  to  be  done  slumbering.  Woman  must  rise  in  her  might 
and  see  that  all  women  are  educated  for  their  vocation.  It  is  not  enough 
that  a  mother  here  and  there  studies  the  system,  but  every  woman 
should  be  trained  to  the  work,  so  that  children  may  fall  into  no  evil 
hands.  No  woman  should  consider  herself  educated  who  does  not  make 
herself  acquainted  with  a  method  that  is  acknowledged  by  the  highest 
thinkers  to  meet  all  the  requisitions  for  the  education  of  the  little  child; 
for  the  Kindergarten  system  provides  for  every  want  of  human  nature — 
physical,  moral,  and  intellectual.  If  all  women  studied  the  principles  of 
this  science,  for  it  is  a  science,  no  motherless  child  would  be  left  to  suffer, 
for  nothing  so  draws  out  the  maternal  nature  in  woman  as  the  profound 
study  of  child-nature.  Every  good  Kindergartner  finds  the  motherly 
element  in  herself,  and  by  adoption  makes  every  child  she  deals  with  her 
own,  so  that  the  most  difficult  cases  do  not  discourage  her,  or  wear  out 
her  patience,  or  exhaust  her  resources.  She  is  sure  the  right  germ  is 
there  if  her  skill  can  find  it,  and  the  challenge  to  the  resources  she  has 
laid  by  seem  to  create  new  ones  to  meet  every  contingency. 

HOW   IS  THIS  TRAINING  TO  BE  MADE  UNIVERSAL? 

Every  public  school  organization  should  have  appended  to  it  a  training 
school,  in  which  all  the  girls  of  the  school  (subject  to  an  examination  for 
qualification)  can  take  a  course  of  this  study  after  they  have  given  all  the 
time  they  can  command  to  their  general  education.  The  most  highly 
cultivated  will  then  take  their  rank  as  Kindergarten  educators — for  a  Kin- 
dergarten of  practice  must  accompany  such  a  training  school,  and  the 
charity  Kindergartens  will  afford  ample  field  also — those  of  inferior 
grade  can  act  as  nurses,  and  every  woman  will  be  suitably  educated  for 
marriage.  If  marriage  is,  for  any  cause,  not  her  lot  in  life,  she  will  still 
have  a  vocation  that  will  give  her  congenial  employment  in  any  sphere. 
When  this  matter  is  understood  and  appreciated,  women  will  come  for- 
ward and  found  such  institutions  in  which  all  their  sex  can  be  educated 
to  this  work,  the  rich  paying  for  their  own  instruction,  the  poor  receiving 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES.  65  T 

it  gratis.  One  noble  example  of  similar  action  is  before  us.  Others  would 
fill  up  the  ranks  and  do  likewise  if  they  knew  what  the  work  is.  It  has 
not  yet  become  general  enough  to  show  its  effects  saliently.  When 
it  has,  the  sun  is  not  more  certain  to  rise  than  that  means  will  be  offered 
and  the  work  will  be  entered  upon. 

INFLUENCES  OF   KINDERGARTENS  ON    HOMES. 

It  is  now  the  work  of  those  who  have  had  the  opportunity  to  mark  the 
beneficent  effects  of  such  trained  care  upon  the  rising  generation,  to 
spread  the  knowledge  of  it  and  point  out  its  workings.  We  have  already 
the  means  of  doing  this,  although  the  field  is  yet  a  small  one.  Some 
thirty  charity  kindergartens  of  the  last  three  years  afford  the  material.* 
They  have  been  carefully  watched,  not  only  in  the  school-rooms  but  in 
their  influence  on  the  families  of  the  children.  It  is  true  that  these  f am 
ilies  are  not  yet  reformed  so  far  as  to  be  publicly  conspicuous,  but  the 
kindergartners  and  the  friends  who  have  aided  them  and  sympathized  in 
the  work  have  noted  the  changes  wrought  by  these  little  ministers  of  the 
cause,  who  have  gone  home  from  the  little  paradises  where  their  minds 
are  organized  to  observe,  wills  educated  to  choose  the  right,  and  their 
hearts  trained  to  love,  and  uttered  sentiments  in  their  childish  prattle 
that  have  arrested  the  attention  of  the  members  of  the  families  where  for 
the  first  time  the  children  are  treated  with  respect,  for  when  they  hear 
profane  language  they  manifest  pain,  and  in  the  simplicity  of  their  moral 
courage  they  check  their  very  mothers  in  their  rough  speech,  and  show 
courtesy  and  disinterestedness  to  brothers  and  sisters.  Their  lives  have 
been  set  to  music,  and  the  hard-looking  and — alas!  we  must  say  it — hard 
drinking  parents  are  arrested  by  the  spectacle  and  their  hearts  softened 
by  the  tender  voices  that  chant  the  beautiful  sentiments  that  have  human- 
ized the  children  out  of  their  former  savage  demeanor  (for  the  animal 
development  was  the  first  one  in  their  case),  and  are  now  to  humanize  the 
parents  who  have  hitherto  met  with  a  blow  or  a  kick  any  disobedience  or 
annoyance  from  their  children.  Men  stay  at  home  from  the  grog-shops 
to  hear  their  four-year-old  babes  sing!  and  teach  the  older  ones  the  pretty 
plays  that  symbolize  all  sorts  of  occupations,  and  hear  them  describe 
nature,  flowers,  birds,  and  the  beauty  in  every  thing.  Children  of  the 
neglected  class,  who  are  left  to  find  their  own  amusement,  are  often  noted 
for  early  sharpness  and  cunning  resource.  Natural  selfishness  leads  them 
specially  to  steal  what  they  want,  till  they  are  taught  that  there  is  a  golden 
rule  by  which  alone  justice  can  be  done  to  all,  themselves  included. 
Little  children  that  robbed  gardens  to  gratify  the  lust  of  their  eyes — for 
they  love  beautiful  things  as  well  as  more  favored  children  do,  and  per- 
haps better,  since  they  are  never  surfeited  with  them — now  go  through 
the  streets,  hand  in  hand,  singing  songs,  in  obedience  to  their  teachers1 
recommendation,  and  are  easily  distinguished  from  other  children  who 
watch  their  opportunity  to  pounce  upon  something  displayed  in  shop 
windows,  notably  something  to  eat,  which  can  soon  be  safely  disposed  of. 
Nothing  is  more  striking  in  the  way  of  improvement  than  these  children's 

*  The  Charity  Kindergartens  established  and  sustained  by  individual  beneficence  in 
Cambridge  and  Boston.        ,  43 


658  KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES. 

altered  behavior  to  one  another,  as  well  as  to  their  elders.  Mothers, 
whose  naturally  tender  hearts  have  been  crusted  over  with  the  too  heavy 
burdens  of  unassisted  care  and  never  ending  recurrence  of  it,  weep  when 
they  see  their  children  grow  in  lovely  traits,  and  gradually  learn  to  believe 
that  kindness  is  the  best  discipline,  when  they  see  how  much  better  it 
works  than  the  harsh  word  and  the  brutalizing  slap.  "My  mother  does 
not  slap  half  as  much  as  she  used  to  before  Harry  went  to  the  kinder- 
garten," said  a  young  girl,  the  eldest  of  nine  children,  most  of  whom 
were  boys.  "  She  thinks  your  way  is  the  best." 

When  thirty-five  mothers  saw  the  orderly,  courteous,  obedient  behavior 
of  fifty  children  who  had  Been  under  but  three  months  training  in  two 
kindergartens,  and  were  assembled  together  at  a  Christmas  festival,  in 
which  there  was  not  an  instance  of  rudeness  or  misbehavior  of  any  kind, 
with  no  visible  restraints  to  curb  them,  some  of  them  ejaculated  "I  never!'* 
"How  kind  the  ladies  must  be,  they  love  them  so!  "  "How  patient  the 
ladies  must  have  been!"  Others  wept  and  could  not  speak.  Some  of 
them  had  pretty  stories  to  tell  of  their  children's  politeness  at  home  where 
they  were  characterized  as  "the  best  behaved  people  in  the  family."  A 
new  idea  had  entered  their  minds ;  their  faces  wore  a  different  expression 
from  the  one  with  they  had  first  assembled  to  "  hear  about  kindergarten," 
and  were  thankful  to  be  relieved  of  some  of  the  care  of  their  little  ones, 
but  without  an  idea  of  anything  but  this  welcome  relief  of  a  few  hours  of 
the  day — evidently  incredulous  of  more! 

Usually  the  poorer  class  of  children  go  into  the  primary  schools  reluct- 
antly— they  have  heard  traditions  in  their  short  lives  of  tedious  constraints, 
stupid  times,  ferulings,  and  school  fights,  but  the  children  who  attend 
kindergartens  cry  to  go  and  wish  to  stay  all  day.  Even  in  aristocratic 
kindergartens  this  is  generally  the  case,  so  great  with  children  is  the  love 
of  that  species  of  amusement  in  which  they  are  themselves  the  factors 
and  producers — in  short,  in  which  their  faculties  are  brought  into  action, 
and  the  imagination  and  love  of  beauty  addressed.  It  is  found  that  very 
badly  behaved  children  are  the  exception  in  kindergartens  or  elsewhere; 
faults  are  often  merely  experiments,  mere  natural  expressions  .of  their 
propensities,  and  something  substituted  for  these  idle  experiments  that 
occupies  the  faculties  more  agreeably,  soon  disarms  them  and  opens  a  new 
vista  in  the  universe  into  which  they  would  fain  enter,  and  whose  delights, 
obliterate  the  very  memory  of  their  own  unaided  and  aimless  endeavors 
after  amusement  and  activity.  Those  children  who  are  removed  from 
the  kindergartens  to  the  primary  schools  often  go  with  not  only  tears  but 
screamings,  having  exhausted  all  their  little  powers  to  avert  the  calamity. 
But  once  transferred,  if  they  have  had  a  decent  length  of  time  in  the 
kindergarten  (it  ought  to  be  three  years,  if  possible),  their  progress  is  very 
rapid  and  very  satisfactory,  for  their  habits  of  attention  and  observation 
make  tasks  easy  to  them  which  to  those  not  so  trained  are  uninteresting 
and  apparently  hopeless,  and  therefore  do  not  chain  the  attention.  It  is 
impossible  to  test  what  the  children  learn  in  a  kindergarten  by  any  process 
of  examination.  All  children  can  learn  by  rote,  but  there  must  be  faith 
in  the  process  which  cultivates  the  powers  and  enables  them  to  use  their 
faculties  intelligently,  and  to  "do  to  others  as  they  would  be  done  by.1" 


KINDEBGABTBN  AND  HOMES.  659 

The  true  test  is  at  a  later  stage,  when  they  are  found  with  their  little 
minds  fertilized  with  related  facts  which  they  apply  to  the  exigencies  of 
life,  and  are  seen  to  think  for  themselves,  to  act  in  reference  to  conditions, 
to  choose  intelligently  the  good  from  the  evil,  to  restrain  their  own  pas- 
sions, and  to  fulfill  their  little  duties.  It  may  be  said  these  are  the  results- 
of  life-long  exertions,  and  this  is  true ;  but  the  direction  may  be  given  in 
the  earliest  childhood,  and  children  can  learn  in  company  with  each  other 
the  duties  of  society.  They  are  more  influenced  by  each  other  as  they 
grow  older  than  by  adults,  but  babydom  turns  to  the  mother  or  her  sub- 
stitute for  guidance  and  protection,  and  at  that  age  has  an  organic  life  in 
her  which  makes  it  all  important  what  she  is.  To  make  herself  what  she 
should  be  is  then  her  first  duty.  To  those  who  study  this  new  education, 
life  is  no  longer  a  mystery.  It  is  a  frequent  exclamation  of  its  students : 
"I  know  now  what  I  was  made  for!"  Can  there  be  a  more  eloquent 
commentary  upon  what  the  study  is,  when  such  an  exclamation  is  heard 
from  a  young  woman  just  entering  life  with  all  its  hopes  and  enchant- 
ments and  possibilities  teeming  in  her  imagination?  Watch  them  after- 
ward as  they  move  round  the  little  assemblies  they  take  charge  of,  full  of 
sympathy — I  mean  an  understanding  sympathy,  not  a  sentimental  passion 
for  the  little  beings  they  are  guiding  and  loving.  They  do  indeed  fill 
one's  idea  of  ministering  angels,  especially  when  the  children  are  gleaned 
from  streets  and  hovels  and  neglected  homes.  One  little  boy,  not  four 
years  old,  came  into  a  kindergarten  drunk.  It  was  learned  from  him, 
subsequently,  that  when  father  got  his  money  the  Saturday  before,  he 
bought  whiskey,  and  all  the  children  shared  it !  Instead  of  being  punished 
for  the  naughtiness  it  had  put  into  him,  his  ministering  angel  had  inves- 
tigated the  case  and  discovered  the  secret  of  it.  It  will  be  her  mission 
now  to  teach  him  to  resist  the  temptation,  and  who  knows  but  what  he 
will  save  his  parents  yet?  One  bright  little  fellow  in  the  same  kinder- 
garten, who  had  come  in  just  before  the  summer  vacation,  in  such  a 
condition  of  neglect  that  it  required  some  resolution  to  take  hold  of  him, 
but  who  was  now  washed,  combed,  and  prettily  dressed,  and  had  quite 
an  aristocratic  air  by  the  poise  of  his  fine  head  and  the  animated  expres- 
sion of  his  handsome  face,  amused  himself  with  kicking  all  his  little 
neighbors — not  brutally,  but  "for  fun."  His  ancles  were  tied  firmly 
together  till  the  end  of  the  session,  and  when  the  others  moved,  one  of 
the  teachers  drew  him  into  her  lap  in  a  corner  and  had  a  long  talk  with 
him,  as  if  he  was  her  own  dear,  erring  child,  instead  of  somebody  else's 
naughty  boy,  and  when  she  put  him  down  after  this  conference,  his  face 
was  irradiated,  and  he  was  allowed  to  mingle  with  the  rest  as  if  all  the 
lightning  had  been  drawn  from  his  cloud.  He  had  a  twin  brother  whom 
one  could  hardly  distinguish  from  him,  who  had  explained  to  me  his 
condition  as  soon  as  I  entered — "You  see,  he  kicks" — and  he  was  evi- 
dently of  a  different  quality  of  character,  though  looking  so  much  like 
the  little  kicker.  He  watched  his  discipline  with  great  interest.  Some- 
times wonderful  transformations  take  place  at  once,  as  if  the  mere  sub- 
stitution of  the  right  motive  for  a  wrong  one,  or  for  no  motive  at  all,  was 
all  that  was  needed — but  again,  there  are  difficult  cases  that  are  only  con- 
quered by  patient  perseverance.  Violence  is  not  used;  not  only  because 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES. 

that  is  not  the  heavenly  way,  but  because  that  was  probably  the  cause  of 
the  whole  difficulty,  or  if  it  was  not  personal  violence,  it  was  injudicious 
and  reckless  severity  of  judgment,  at  which  the  human  soul  revolts  and 
stands  on  its  own  defence.  A  child  will  hang  his  head  with  shame  at  an 
astonished  expression  of  countenance,  especially  from  one  he  loves,  who 
would  perhaps  resist  opposition  to  the  last  extremity.  If  the  way  can 
only  be  found  to  remand  him  to  the  monitor  within,  and  lead  him  to  con- 
demn himself,  even  silently,  the  work  is  well  begun  if  not  done. 

The  kindergartners  should  be  looked  upon  as  a  holy  order,  as  true 
sisters  of  charity,  and  should  have  every  encouragement  and  furtherance 
that  society  can  give,  for  their  task  is  a  hard  one.  When  all  women  are 
educated  in  the  science  of  child-culture,  there  will  be  no  want  of  sympa- 
thy for  them,  for  each  one  will  feel  it  to  be  her  vocation  also,  although 
all  may  not  give  their  lives  to  it  with  the  same  devotion  as  those  who 
make  it  their  prime  calling.  The  office  of  teacher  has  often  been  in  past 
times  looked  upon  as  that  only  of  an  upper  servant  in  a  family  or  com- 
munity. It  is  notably  in  places  of  the  highest  general  culture  that  they 
take  their  true  position.  They  rank  in  such  communities  with  the  clergy- 
men, for  they  also  have  the  care  of  souls,  and  in  proportion  to  their  en- 
lightenment take  rank  with  the  philosopher,  seeker  of  wisdom.  The  vis- 
itation desirable  to  be  connected  with  the  kindergartens  is  a  most  valua- 
ble adjunct.  In  this  way  families  are  to  be  reached,  and  the  love  of  their 
children,  shown  and  evidently  felt  by  their  teachers,  will  win  its  way  to 
otherwise  cold  and  suspicious  hearts  of  poor  mothers.  Nothing  so  bridges 
over  the  abyss  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  as  these  kindergartens. 
When  the  poor  mother  sees  her  child  treated  with  respect,  all  her  opposi- 
tion vanishes,  and  in  this  country  at  least  she  can  look  forward  to  her 
children's  occupying  any  position  of  which  they  will  prove  worthy.  And 
if  the  early  culture  of  the  children  morally  and  physically  will  help  to 
elevate  the  families  they  belong  to,  there  will  not  be  that  painful  discrep- 
ancy between  the  uneducated  parents  and  the  educated  children.  So 
large  a  proportion  of  the  foreign  poor  of  our  cities  are  wanting  in  any 
education  whatever,  that  half  the  value  of  the  early  training  of  the  chil- 
dren is  lost,  unless  the  minds  of  the  parents  are  also  reached.  The  most 
invaluable  class  of  visitors  of  the  poor  therefore  is  the  kindergartners,  for 
with  their  passport  into  the  families  who  require  charity  of  all  kinds,  spir- 
itual as  well  as  material,  they  have  an  opportunity  never  offered  before. 
It  is  a  good  gauge  of  the  fitness  of  the  kindergartner  for  her  blessed  task 
if  she  is  found  to  see  the  importance  of  this  part  of  her  work.  Let  the 
idle,  wealthy  women  who  wish  they  had  something  useful  to  do,  visit 
these  divine  institutions  of  modern  benevolence,  and  they  will  find  ample 
occupation  in  assisting  in  their  work.  Many  helps  can  come  from  out- 
side. Beautiful  pictures  are  invaluable  aids  in  the  culture  of  children — 
not  pictures  of  Johnny,  in  Mother  Goose,  tripping  up  his  grandmother, 
or  tying  rags  to  an  old  man's  coat,  or  Taffy  stealing  the  pig.  Such  demor- 
alizers as  these  should  have  the  reprobation  of  society,  but  pictures  illus- 
trating moral  beauty,  such  as  those  that  adorn  Froebel's  Mother  and  Cosset 
songs  and  De  Gerando's  illustrated  work  of  the  prizes  given  by  the  French 
Academy  for  noble  deeds  of  humanity — as  well  as  pictures  of  nature,  ani- 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES.  6GI 

mals,  sports,  etc.,  of  which  the  world  is  now  full.  A  little  child  will  see 
much  in  a  picture  that  will  escape  an  adult,  and  nothing  will  bring  him 
forward  so  fast  in  expressing  himself  intelligently  as  the  talk  over  beauti- 
ful pictures.  The  benevolent  who  befriend  these  kindergartens  have  after 
all  limited  means,  both  of  multiplying  the  kindergartens  and  furnishing 
them  with  all  the  appliances  they  need.  If  the  inhabitants  of  each  ward 
could  supply  good  places  for  kindergartens,  or  even  one  with  ample  space 
and  in  a  quiet  neighborhood,  which  are  conditions  absolutely  necessary  to 
their  good  success,  it  would  be  far  better  than  to  have  them  in  public 
school-buildings  in  noisy  streets.  A  commission  of  ladies  formed  for  the 
purpose,  as  a  regular  board  of  visitors,  would  be  an  invaluable  help  to  the 
kindergartens,  and  thus  women  could  begin  at  once  to  assist  in  this  best 
of  charities.  It  is  often  sympathy  rather  than  money  that  is  needed  for 
God's  work  in  the  world.  Every  one  can  emulate  his  moral  government 
of  it.  One  lady  now  furnishes  food  to  one  of  the  kindergartens  for 
lunches  for  those  children  whose  parents  are  too  poor  to  furnish  them,  or 
if  not  actually  too  poor,  too  intemperate  or  too  wicked,  and  whose  chil- 
dren are,  as  it  were,  picked  out  of  the  street.  Some  of  these  very  little 
waifs  are  among  the  brightest  and  most  attractive  when  washed,  combed, 
and  dressed  decently,  and  show  an  evident  self-respect,  which  is  a  great 
change  from  the  cowed,  frightened,  brutal  condition  in  which  they 
entered  what  to  them  must  seem  to  be  the  gates  of  heaven. 

The  kindergartners  are  the  educators  to  be  consulted  by  mothers  ^rather 
than  wise  men  who  exercise  their  brains  about  school  curriculums  and 
think  very  little  in  that  connection  of  "  love  your  neighbor,"  and  "do  to 
others  as  you  would  have  them  do  to  you."  The  kindergartners  make 
the  philosophy  of  the  human  mind  their  study  when  they  have  devoted 
themselves  to  child-culture,  and  they  learn  from  Froebel's  exposition  of 
his  principles  why  the  artistic  faculties  and  love  of  doing  are  to  be  trained 
joyfully  before  abstract  ideas  are  offered  them  and  before  they  are  taught 
anything  else.  In  one  sense  we  understand  nothing,  in  childhood,  or 
ever.  We  can  learn  by  observation  that  the  germ  of  the  seed  throws  out 
a  root  and  a  plumule,  and  that  the  pea,  for  example,  throws  out  leaves 
and  goes  on  growing  until  it  blossoms  and  bears  a  pod  containing  other 
seeds  like  the  one  we  planted ;  for  every  instant  of  this  process  can  be 
watched  for  by  placing  the  peas  in  a  glass  tumbler  in  the  midst  of  wet 
cotton,  every  movement  from  the  beginning  can  be  seen,  but  the  wisest 
of  us  do  not  understand  the  forces  of  nature  that  make  it  grow.  This  is 
the  time  when  the  intelligent  child  asks  why  and  how,  and  the  proper 
answer  to  the  question  here  is,  "No  one  knows  why  or  how  but  God." 
This  points  out  the  unseen  agency  of  the  Creator,  and  will  make  him 
better  understand  the  voice  of  God  in  his  own  breast.  The  faith  of  child- 
hood will  germinate  belief,  and  when  a  child  has  watched  the  growth  of 
a  plant,  it  comprehends  what  is  meant  when  it  is  told  that  its  goodness 
can  grow  if  it  is  cherished.  We  do  not  have  to  supply  the  consciousness 
that  this  analogy  is  true.  God  has  planted  that  in  the  human  soul,  ready 
to  be  developed  at  the  right  moment,  but  let  us  not  forestall  the  time  when 
it  can  be  recognized.  Let  the  cultivated  senses  form  a  basis  for  the  thought, 
which  will  then  need  no  explanation  in  words.  Nature  is  teeming  with 


662  KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES. 

similar  analogies  on  every  side.  A  cultivated  mind  (and  only  such  should 
guide  the  development  of  children)  sees  a  thousand  illustrations  of  ideas 
that  she  can  convey  to  them.  I  question  if  a  well- trained  kindergartner 
will  ever  have  recourse  to  nonsense  verses  to  amuse  children.  Brilliant 
verses,  striking  images,  startling  contrasts  are  all  in  order,  but  no  words 
should  be  given  them  that  have  not  a  meaning.  It  is  an  insult  to  their 
understandings  and  often  a  cause  of  much  after  perversion  of  mind  and 
confusion  of  ideas.  Many  confessions  of  great  men,  who  remember 
something  that  puzzled  their  minds  in  childhood,  intellectually  and 
morally,  testify  to  this. 

MR.  COMBE'S  EARLY  CHILDHOOD. 

Idle  and  unconsidered  words  often  make  a  deep  impression  upon  chil- 
dren and  lead  to  important  consequences.  In  the  Introduction  to  Mr. 
George  Combe's  little  work  upon  the  "Relation  between  Science  and 
Religion,"  he  recounts  such  an  instance.*  On  the  occasion  of  his  dividing 
a  bit  of  sugar-candy  with  his  brothers  and  sisters  (he  was  six  years  old) 
the  nursery  maid  said  to  him,  "  That's  a  good  boy — God  will  reward  you 
for  this."  He  says,  "  These  words  were  uttered  by  her  as  a  mere  form  of 
pious  speech,  proper  to  be  addressed  to  a  child ;  but  they  conveyed  to  my 
mind  an  idea;  they  suggested  intelligently  and  practically,  for  the  first 
time,  the  conception  of  a  Divine  reward  for  a  kind  action ;  and  I  instantly 
put  the  question  to  her:  "How  will  God  reward  me?"  "He  will  send 
you  everything  that  is  good."  "What  do  you  mean  by  good — will  he 
send  me  more  sugar-candy?  "  "  Yes — certainly  he  will  if  you  are  a  good 
boy."  "  Will  he  make  this  piece  of  sugar-candy  grow  bigger?"  "  Yes 
— God  always  rewards  those  who  are  kind-hearted." 

Mr.  Combe  was  a  logical  reasoner  from  childhood.  If  the  nursery- 
maid had  said,  "God  has  made  you  so  that  you  will  always  be  happier 
for  doing  a  good  action,"  his  experience  would  have  verified  the  remark, 
and  the  consequences  might  have  been  beneficent  to  his  character;  but 
her  words  were  destined  to  work  in  another  way,  long  puzzling  to  his 
understanding.  "I  could  not  rest  contented  with  words,"  he  goes  on  to 
say,  "but  at  once  proceeded  to  the  verification  of  the  assurance  by  experi- 
ment and  observation.  I  forthwith  examined  minutely  all  the  edges  of 
the  remaining  portion  of  sugar-candy,  took  an  account  of  its  dimensions, 
and  then,  wrapping  it  carefully  in  paper,  put  it  into  a  drawer,  and  waited 
with  anxiety  for  its  increase.  I  left  it  in  the  drawer  all  night,  and  next 
morning  examined  it  with  eager  curiosity.  I  could  discover  no  trace  of 
its  alteration  in  its  size,  either  of  increase  or  decrease.  I  was  greatly  dis- 
appointed; my  faith  in  the  reward  of  virtue  by  the  Ruler  of  the  world 
received  its  first  shock,  and  I  feared  that  God  did  not  govern  the  wTorld  in 
the  manner  which  the  nursery  maid  represented. 

"  Several  years  afterwards  I  read  in  the  Grammatical  Exercises,  an  early 
class-book  then  used  in  the  High  School  of  Edinburgh,  these  words: 
'  Dem  gubernat  mundum,'  God  governs  the  world.  '  Mundus  gubernatur 
a  Deo,'  the  world  is  governed  by  God.  These  sentences  were  introduced 

"This  essay  of  Mr.  Combe's  upon  the  Relation  between  Science  nnd  Religion  is  a  book 
that  ought  to  be  in  every  Kindergarten  library. 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES.  553 

into  the  book  as  exercises  in  Latin  grammar,  and  our  teacher,  the  late 
Mr.  Luke  Fraser,  dealt  with  them  merely  as  such,  without  e.ntering  into 
any  consideration  of  the  ideas  embodied  in  them.  This  must  have 
occurred  in  the  year  1798,  when  I  was  ten  years  of  age,  and  the  words 
made  an  indelible  impression,  and  continued  for  years  and  years  to  haunt 
my  imagination.  As  a  child  I  assumed  the  fact  itself  to  be  an  indubitable 
truth,  but  felt  a  restless  curiosity  to  discover  Tww  God  exercises  his  juris- 
diction." 

The  process  that  went  on  in  his  mind  through  long  years  of  study  is  so 
minutely  described  that  it  is  too  long  to  be  extracted  here,  but  every  word 
of  it  is  of  import.  History  disappointed  him,  because  the  great  rulers  of 
the  world  did  not  govern  justly  or  appear  to  recognize  God's  action.  At 
home,  his  parents  administered  their  affairs  pretty  well,  but  with  such 
evident  imperfection  that  "  it  was  impossible  to  trace  God's  superintend- 
ence or  direction  in  their  administration. "  Napoleon  Bonaparte  in  France, 
George  III,  Mr.  Pitt,  and  Mr.  Melville,  did  no  better.  When  he  studied 
the  literature,  mythology,  and  history  of  Greece  and  Rome,  he  wae 
equally  disappointed.  Most  rulers  and  other  people  seemed  to  acknowl- 
edge in  words  that  God  governed  the  world,  "  but  the  belief  seemed  to  be 
like  a  rope  of  sand  in  binding  their  consciences. " 

In  studying  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  the  orthodox  catechisms, 
he  found  more  direct  statements  of  God's  moral  government,  but  never 
could  apply  the  examples  to  practical  purposes.  The  pious  frauds  of  the 
Catholic  priesthood,  and  also  of  Protestant  divines,  formed  farther  stum- 
bling blocks,  and  in  his  theological  studies  he  was  taught  that  God  often 
leaves  the  wicked  to  run  the  course  of  their  sins  in  this  world  without  pun- 
ishing them,  reserving  His  retribution  for  the  Day  of  Judgment.  This 
seemed  to  imply  "  that  God  does  not  govern  the  world  in  any  intelligible 
or  practical  sense,  but  merely  takes  notes  of  men's  actions,  and  com- 
mences his  actual  and  efficient  government  only  after  the  resurrection 
from  the  dead."  Such  was  the  influence  of  his  Calvinistic  education,  such 
the  terrors  inspired  by  it,  that  he  wished  himself  an  inferior  animal  without 
a  soul.  He  used  to  climb  high  up  on  the  rocks  of  Edinburgh  Castle, 
which  overhung  his  father's  house,  and  gaze  with  intense  interest  on  the 
evening  star,  and  longed  to  see  into  its  internal  economy,  with  the  thought 
that  if  he  could  but  discover  that  summer  and  winter,  heat  and  cold,  life 
and  death  prevailed  there  as  here,  he  should  be  happy,  for  then  he  could 
believe  that  this  world  was  not  cursed,  but  that  it  and  the  planet  were 
both  such  as  God  intended  them  to  be.  His  distress  was  aggravated  by 
finding  such  doubts  and  difficulties  described  in  the  catechism  as  "pun- 
ishments of  sin,"  and  ascribed  to  "blindness  of  mind,  a  reprobate  sense, 
and  strong  delusions. "  He  had  never  heard  the  truth  of  the  catechism 
questioned,  and  it  was  not  till  a  later  period  that  he  became  convinced 
that  the  feelings  he  mentioned  arose  from  the  intuitive  revulsion  of  the 
moral,  religious,  and  intellectual  faculties  with  which  he  had  been  en- 
dowed, against  the  dogmas  of  Calvin.  When  he  studied  the  laws  of  the 
solar  system  and  perceived  the  harmonies  and  adaptation  of  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  planets,  when  new  light  broke  in  upon  his  mind  from  the 
pursuit  of  astronomy  and  physiology,  from  chemistry,  and  other  sciences, 


664  KINDERGARTEN  AND  HOMES. 

all  which  proclaimed  the  all-pervading  God,  he  still  asked  HOW  He  gov- 
erned the  moral  world,  and  it  was  not  till  Gall's  discovery  of  the  functions 
of  the  brain,  that  he  was  led  step  by  step  to  understand  God's  connection 
with  the  soul  of  man. 

Doubtless  if  he  had  been  left  to  think  for  himself  he  would  have  arrived 
early  and  happily  to  a  sense  of  the  same,  and  when  we  think  of  the  stereo- 
typed utterances  upon  the  subject  of  our  relations  to  our  Heavenly 
Father,  which  the  little  child  believes  as  soon  as  he  is  intelligently  told  of  it, 
we  realize  how  immense  is  the  importance  of  a  cultivated  mind  to  the  edu- 
cator of  childhood.  A  cultivated  mind  does  not  mean  a  mind  and  memory 
crammed  with  facts  and  book  knowledge,  but  the  trained  power  of  think- 
ing, founded  on  the  analogies  of  nature.  Women,  even  more  than  men, 
are  dependent  upon  others  for  their  thinking,  and  it  is  because  their 
minds  are  not  scientifically  trained  to  anything.  The  religious  aspects  of 
science  can  be  inculcated  upon  the  youngest  children,  and  those  minds 
that  think  no  religious  impressions  can  be  made  upon  them  can  never 
have  lived  with  children  in  the  sense  in  which  Froebel  uses  the  words. 
No  limit  need  be  put  to  the  acquisitions  and  learning  of  women,  but  what 
they  are  to  do  for  society  is  first  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with  the 
nature  of  the  new-born  soul,  and  then  to  see  to  it  that  all  other  women 
share  the  knowledge,  for  the  conscientious  soul  cannot  rest  contented  till 
it  shares  with  others  all  the  good  it  enjoys,  especially  of  a  moral  and 
intellectual  nature.  The  human  race  is  a  solidarity,  and  never  can 
advance  much  as  a  race  till  enlightenment  is  equalized  as  far  as  there  is 
capacity  to  receive  it. 

The  above  is  a  strong  case,  but  Dr.  Channing  relates  one  himself  some- 
what similar,  and  others  recur  to  mind.  Doubtless  innumerable  instances 
of  perversion  of  mind  occur  that  are  never  remedied  by  original  thinking. 
It  seems  strange  even  that  Mr.  Combe  did  not  throw  it  off  earlier.  It 
shows  the  power  of  accepted  dogmas  over  a  conscientious  spirit,  and 
shows  also  how  unprincipled  it  is  to  exert  such  power.  No  disputed 
opinion  should  ever  be  uttered  as  a  fact,  and  this  idea  of  justice  and  truth 
should  rule  in  education  from  the  very  beginning.  A  reasoning  child 
should  not  be  made  to  do  anything  solely  from  obedience  to  any  indi- 
vidual, even  its  mother,  except  in  some  case  of  personal  danger  to  itself 
or  others.  The  motive  inculcated  should  be  a  far  higher  one,  or  we 
should  wait  and  trust  the  human  soul  meanwhile.  We  can  do  this  if  we 
believe  the  human  soul  is  made  aright  by  its  Creator — that  is,  that  it  has 
recuperative  power,  and  we  should  be  satisfied  with  removing  obstacles 
to  its  free  action.  This  is  what  Froebel  meant  by  telling  us  to  study  the 
child  and  never  to  force  it.  Arrest  it  in  the  wrong  course,  so  far  as  to 
enable  it  to  start  afresh  with  a  new  idea  for  its  guide,  but  respect  the  dig- 
nity of  human  nature  from  the  first.  We  shall  then  have  noble  children 
and  not  puppets. 


KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


MISS   EMMA   MARWEDEL.* 

Since  its  introduction  into  this  State,  about  four  years  ago,  the  progress 
of  kindergartening  has  been  steady,  though  by  no  means  as  rapid  as  its 
advocates  desire.  The  advance  of  Free  Kindergarten  has,  perhaps,  been 
more  real  than  apparent.  In  1876  Miss  Emma  Marwedel  came  to  this  State 
from  Washington,  D.  C.,  whence  she  was  called  by  the  Frcebel  Union,  of 
which  she  is  a  member.  Her  success  as  a  trainer  in  the  National  Capital 
was  regarded  as  a  certain  harbinger  of  a  brilliant  career  here.  Her  first 
year's  experience,  however,  fell  far  short  of  expectations.  Settling  in 
Los  Angeles,  she  opened  a  Kindergarten  Normal  Class,  but  secured  only 
three  pupils — Miss  Katharine  D.  Smith,  Miss  Mary  Hoyt,  and  Miss  Nettie 
Stewart.  These  young  ladies,  all  of  whom  were  remarkably  endowed  by 
nature  for  the  calling  they  had  elected,  graduated  with  high  honors  in  the 
following  year.  Their  proficiency  in  details  and  thorough  knowledge  of 
Froebel's  philosophy  as  an  educational  system  were  unusually  marked, 
and  awakened  great  expectations  regarding  their  future  as  kindergartners. 
Subsequent  events  have  demonstrated  that  the  surmises  of  enthusiastic 
friends  of  the  system  and  the  graduates  were  far  from  chimerical.  Upon 
graduating,  Miss  Katharine  D.  Smith  returned  to  her  home  in  Santa 
Barbara,  where  she  taught  over  a  year,  and  until  she  received  a  call  from 
the  Public  Kindergarten  Society  of  San  Francisco  in  1878.  Her  success 
in  this  institution  has  been  the  admiration  of  the  many  who  have  visited  it. 
Miss  Mary  Hoyt  remained  in  Los  Angeles,  where  she  is  meeting  with  con- 
siderable success.  Miss  Nettie  Stewart  opened  a  kindergarten  in  Los 
Angeles,  which  she  conducted  with  flattering  success  until  she  received  a 
position  in  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asylum  at  Berkeley,  where  she  has  charge 
of  the  primary  department. 

Shortly  after  the  graduation  of  her  first  class  in  Los  Angeles,  Miss 
Marwedel  was  called  to  Oakland,  where  she  remained  about  a  year  and 
until  last  August,  when  she  removed  to  Berkeley.  Among  the  young 
ladies  who  graduated  with  her  in  Oakland  were  Miss  Elizabeth  Reed,  Miss 
May  Benton,  Miss  Mary  Conness,  Miss  Van  Den  Bergh,  and  Miss  Allen. 
This  is  the  Miss  Lizzie  Reed  who  did  so  much  to  build  up  the  Jackson 
street  Kindergarten  on  its  organization  by  Mrs.  Sarah  B.  Cooper.  Miss 
Conness  is  connected  with  Mrs.  West's  Seminary,  where  she  has  charge 
of  the  kindergarten  and  primary  department.  Miss  Van  Den  Bergh  is 
engaged  in  Miss  Colgate  Baker's  Seminary,  and  Miss  Allen  has  a  private 
kindergarten  in  Oakland.  Miss  Marwedel  has  since  removed  to  this  city. 
Miss  May  Kittridge  is  engaged  in  the  Jackson  street  Kindergarten  as 
Principal,  vice  Miss  Lizzie  Reed,  resigned.  Miss  Lizzie  Muther  is  now 
in  charge  of  the  free  kindergarten  under  the  management  of  the  Young 

*  From  the  San  Francisco  Herald,  July,  1880. 


£66  KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

Women's  Christian  Association,  which  has  been  re-organized  on  the 
Frcebel  system.  She  also  has  had  the  advantages  of  a  lengthy  experience 
in  the  Silver  street  Kindergarten.  Miss  Fanny  Woodbridge  is  first  assist- 
ant in  the  Silver  street  Kindergarten,  and  Miss  Annie  Stovall  is  first 
assistant  in  the  Jackson  street  Kindergarten  school. 

Young  Women's  Christian  Association. 

On  the  8th  of  last  April  a  grand  dramatic  and  social  event  occurred 
which  resulted  in  giving  to  the  Silver  street  and  Jackson  street  kindergar- 
tens nearly  four  hundred  dollars  each.  Such  large  returns  from  but  one 
entertainment  are  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  there  were  no  expenses 
attached  to  it  worth  mentioning,  as  those  interested  in  it  vied  with  one 
another  in  the  liberality  of  their  contributions.  Encouraged  by  this  suc- 
cess, and  aware  that  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  had 
thoughts  of  abandoning  its  infant  school,  the  committee  in  charge  volun- 
teered to  repeat  the  comedies  for  the  benefit  of  a  new  kindergarten  to  be 
conducted  by  the  Association,  instead  of  the  one  heretofore  under  its  care. 
The  proffered  aid  was  gratefully  accepted,  the  entertainment  repeated, 
and  between  $100  and  $200  realized.  With  this  fund  the  Association  has 
opened  a  free  kindergarten  on  Minna  street  between  First  and  Second, 
with  new  benches,  tables,  (gifts,)  material  for  occupations,  etc.,  required 
in  a  thorough  prosecution  of  this  incomparable  system  of  mental,  moral, 
and  physical  culture.  Miss  Lizzie  Muther,  the  Principal,  says  that  she 
finds  the  children  very  old  in  their  ways;  that  they  do  not  take  to  the 
games  in  the  manner  customary  among  children.  Members  of  the  Asso- 
ciation also  frequently  lend  their  assistance.  It  will  be  readily  seen  that 
although  $100  is  of  great  assistance  to  an  institution  of  this  kind,  it  serves 
only  to  liquidate  present  demands,  while  current  expenses  accumulate 
with  clock-work  regularity  and  must  be  met.  For  this  reason  the  com- 
mittee express  a  sincere  hope  that  their  friends  and  a  generous  public  will 
sustain  them  with  liberal  and  correspondingly  regular  contributions.  The 
Kindergarten  Committee  are:  Mrs.  J.  J.  Bowen,  Mrs.  D.  Van  Denburgh, 
Mrs.  C.  R  Story,  Mrs.  Fisher  Ames,  Mrs.  G.  P.  Thurston,  and  Miss  Atkin- 
son. The  volunteer  teachers  are  Miss  Carrie  Story,  Mrs.  A.  E.  Stetson, 
Miss  Florence  Follansbee,  Miss  Kale  McLanc,  Miss  Kate  R.  Stone,  Miss 
Mary  Bates,  Miss  McLanc,  Miss  Sophie  McLane. 
Little  Sisters  Kindergarten. 

Last  November  the  ladies  of  the  Little  Sisters'  Infant  Shelter  at  512 
Minna  street,  founded  a  kindergarten  in  connection  with  their  establish- 
ment, which  is  in  a  flourishing  condition,  having  thirty  scholars,  who  are 
under  the  direction  of  Miss  Fannie  Temple.  Since  the  introduction  of 
the  kindergarten  there  has  been  an  increase  in  the  number  of  children 
admitted  to  the  Shelter. 

The  Ladies'  Protection  and  Relief  Society,  which  is  a  similar  institu- 
tion, is  considering  the  expediency  of  establishing  a  kindergarten  in 
connection  with  their  school.  The  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  favorable 
decision  is  purely  one  of  dollars  and  cents.  With  funds  forthcoming 
they  would  launch  out  at  once.  Good  news  is,  however,  anxiously 
awaited  from  the  committee  that  will  report  at  the  next  regular  meeting 
to  be  held  this  month. 


KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA.  667 

Shipley  Street  Kindergarten. 

Recently  several  benevolent  ladies  interested  in  kindergartens  opened  a 
new  school  at  146  Shipley  street,  near  Sixth,  with  Mrs.  Lloyd,  an  experi- 
enced kindergartuer,  as  Principal.  The  opening  took  place  under  most 
favorable  auspices,  and  "  Kindergarten  No.  4,"  as  it  is  called,  promises  to 
be  the  peer  of  any  in  the  city.  There  is  a  daily  attendance  of  about  fifty 
bright-faced,  intelligent  children. 

Jackson  Street  Kindergarten. 

Among  the  most  indefatigable  workers  in  behalf  of  free  kindergarten 
is  Mrs.  Sarah  B.  Cooper.  Since  her  first  visit  to  the  Silver  street  Kinder- 
garten she  has  worked  by  day  and  planned  by  night,  till  now  she  has  the 
gratification  of  seeing  a  first-class  kindergarten  on  Jackson  street,  built 
by  her  own  labor  and  protected  by  her  own  motherly  love.  In  this  she 
has  been  ably  assisted  by  the  members  of  her  Bible-class  in  Calvary 
Church,  many  of  whom  take  turns  in  assisting  Miss  Mary  Kittridge,  the 
principal,  who,  by  the  way,  is  a  member,  as  is  also  Miss  Kate  Smith  of 
the  Silver  street,  and  Miss  Lizzie  Muther  of  the  Young  Women's  Chris- 
tian Association  Kindergarten. 

Prominent  citizens  have  come  forward  and  generously  contributed  five 
dollars  per  month  toward  the  support  of  her  kindergarten,  and  many 
others  give  two  or  three  dollars  per  month,  according  to  their  means 
or  inclination.  Well  does  this  good  Christian  woman  deserve  such  sup- 
port and  encouragement  in  her  philanthropic  labors,  for  never  was  any 
one  more  devoted  than  she  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  ignorant, 
poor,  and  needy. 

The  following  are  the  officers  of  the  Jackson  street  Kindergarten :  Mrs. 
Edward  Rix,  President;  Miss  Hattie  Cooper  and  Miss  Nellie  Van  Winkle, 
Vice-Presidents ;  Miss  Jennie  Fitch,  Treasurer;  Miss  Hattie  Horn,  Sec. 

Last  February,  Mrs.  Cooper  founded  a  receiving  class,  assisted  by  John 
Swett,  Principal  of  the  Girls'  High  School,  who  secured  benches,  black- 
boards, desks,  chairs,  stove,  etc.,  by  requisition  upon  the  School  Depart- 
ment, He  also  sent  Normal  Class  pupils  to  teach,  thus  accomplishing  a 
dual  benefit — the  children's  gratuitous  instruction  and  the  teacher's  prac- 
tical application  of  theories  of  education. 

Silver  street  Kindergarten. 

The  history  of  the  Silver  street  Kindergarten  alone  would  make  a  vol- 
ume in  itself,  so  many  interesting  incidents  occur  there  daily.  There  is 
not  a  phase  of  human  nature  the  Principal  has  not  seen  during  the  two 
years  she  has  been  in  charge.  In  visiting  families,  she  has  been  called 
upon  to  perform  the  duties  of  spiritual  counselor,  physician,  mother, 
nurse,  provider,  benefactor,  and  general  guardian ;  with  what  success  may 
be  learned  from  scores  of  parents  in*  the  neighborhood  who  have  been 
raised  from  squalor,  drunkenness,  and  crime  to  cleanliness,  sobriety,  and 
virtue,  and  who  now  speak  in  terms  of  enthusiastic  and  unqualified 
praise,  tinged  with  reverential  awe,  of  "Miss  Kate."  The  Silver  street 
Kindergarten  originated  as  follows :  In  July,  1878,  Professor  Felix  Adler, 
the  New  York  philanthrophist,  came  to  San  Francisco  and  delivered  a 
series  of  lectures  on  various  topics,  in  which  frequent  allusion  was  made 


(568  KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

to  the  astonishing  beneficial  results,  morally,  intellectually,  and  physi- « 
cally,  of  free  kindergartens.  On  one  occasion  he  said:  "If  we  apply 
the  spirit  of  preventive  charity  to  our  age,  we  must  face  the  evil  of  pau- 
perism, the  root  of  which  lies  in  a  lack  of  education  of  the  children.  In 
the  United  States  the  social  question  is  not  yet  acute,  as  it  is  in  Europe, 
and  we  are  called  upon  to  prevent  it  from  becoming  a  menace  to  our 
republican  institutions  by  building  up  a  class  of  voters — inaugurating  the 
Kindergarten  system  of  education,  and  so  save  the  rising  generation  from 
destruction."  In  private  he  sought  out  Solomon  Heydenfeldt,  S.  Nick- 
lesburg,  Dr.  J.  Hirschfelder,  and  other  friends,  all  of  whom  he  so  thor- 
oughly convinced  that  kindergarten  was  unapproachable  as  a  moral, 
benevolent,  and  educational  agency,  that  they  agreed  to  organize  a  Kin- 
dergarten Society,  if  meeting  with  public  support  and  encouragement. 
Accordingly,  they  set  out  to  secure  subscribers,  and  in  one  day  they 
obtained  one  hundred.  This  was  considered  sufficient  to  form  a  nucleus, 
and  a  card  bearing  the  following  call  was  mailed  to  each : 

DEAR  SIR:  A  meeting  for  organization  of  the  Public  Kindergarten 
Society  of  San  Francisco  will  be  held  Tuesday  evening,  July  23d,  at  9 
o'clock  P.  M.,  in  the  Baldwin  Hotel  parlors.  The  assistance  and  counte- 
nance of  your  presence  at  this  first  and  most  important  meeting  is  espe- 
cially  and  earnestly  requested.  For  the  Committee, 

FELIX  ABLER. 

Pursuant  to  this  call  a  meeting  was  held  that  evening.  The  attendance 
was  very  large,  and  Mr.  Heydenfeldt  was  elected  Chairman,  and  Dr.  J. 
Hirschfelder  Secretary.  The  proceedings  were  characterized  by  great 
enthusiasm  and  unanimity.  At  another  meeting  held  two  days  subse- 
quent, the  "Public  Kindergarten  Society  of  San  Francisco "  was  organized 
by  the  election  of  the  following  officers :  S.  Heydenfeldt,  President ;  S. 
Nicklesburg,  Vice-President;  Dr.  Jos.  Hirschfelder,  Secretary;  Julius 
Jacobs,  Treasurer.  Board  of  Directors — Rev.  Horatio  Stebbins,  John 
Swett,  Frederick  Roeding,  Mrs.  L.  Gottig,  Mrs.  H.  Behrendt,  Mrs.  H. 
Lessing,  Miss  E.  Marwedel. 

So  faithfully  and  well  have  they  discharged  their  duties  that  they  have 
been  unanimously  re-elected  every  term,  and  now  hold  the  same  positions. 
The  Directors  were  Schueneman-Pott,  Mrs.  H.  Behrendt,  Mrs.  L.  Gottig, 
afterwards  increased  by  the  addition  of  Mrs.  H.  Lessing  and  Miss  Mar- 
wedel. In  June,  1870,  another  addition  was  made  to  the  Board,  includ- 
ding  Rev  Dr.  Stebbins,  John  Swett,  Professor  Hilgard,  Dr.  Fisk,  Fred. 
Roeding.  The  directors  now  stand :  Rev.  Dr.  Stebbins,  John  Swett,  Dr. 
Fisk,  Professor  Hilgard,  Fred.  Roeding,  Mrs.  L.  Gottig,  Mrs.  H.  Behr- 
endt, Mrs.  H.  Lessing,  and  Miss  E.  Marwedel. 

A  Teacher's  Trials  and  Troubles. 

On  the  recommendation  of  Miss  E.  Marwedel,  Miss  Kate  Smith,  who  was 
then  in  Santa  Barbara,  was  selected*  as  teacher.  Miss  Smith  experienced 
great  difficulty  at  first  in  getting  mothers  to  understand  the  nature  and 
object  of  the  new  school,  but  succeeded  in  a  remarkably  short  time.  On 
the  opening  day,  which  was  the  first  Monday  in  September,  she  had 
eight  pupils,  and  before  the  week  was  out  she  had  over  fifty  applicants 
and  a  full  school.  The  regular  attendance  now  is  about  forty.  The  roll 
numbers  fifty.  There  are  several  hundred  applicants.  Many  of  the 


KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA.  669 

children  being  street  Arabs  of  the  wildest  type,  the  prosecution  of  her 
multifarious  duties  were  fraught  with  incalculable  vexation  and  hardships 
during  the  opening  days.  On  the  first  afternoon  there  were  several  free 
fights,  resulting  in  scratched  and  bleeding  noses  and  faces.  During  a 
momentary  and  ominous  silence  on  the  second  day  that  foreboded  little 
good,  the  electrifying  clang  of  the  fire-bell  brought  every  youngster  to  his 
or  her  feet,  and  pell-mell  they  rushed  in  an  eager  go  as-you-please  contest 
for  the  scene  of  the  conflagration  near  by.  Miss  Smith's  warning  voice 
was  unheard  or  unheeded.  She  called  after  them  in  vain,  with  hands 
convulsively  clasped,  great  tear  drops  dewing  her  eye-lashes,  and  her 
countenance  wearing  a  most  woe-be-gone  expression.  She  sank  upon  a 
settee  in  despair,  deploring  from  the  bottom  of  her  heart  that  she  ever  left 
her  peaceful  home  and  school  in  Santa  Barbara.  But  the  little  scape- 
graces all  returned  and  day  by  day  they  were  gradually  weaned  from 
their  unruly  conduct  and  taught  to  find  pleasure  in  obedience,  and  the 
musicians  of  "  Sunny  Italy  "  may  grind  their  most  heart  and  ear-piercing 
strains  of  unrecognizable  operas  under  the  very  windows  of  the  school- 
house  without  disturbing  Miss  Smith's  equanimity  or  mental  serenity,  for 
not  a  child  will  turn  its  head  in  that  direction.  The  transformation  which 
takes  place  in  some  children  is  truly  marvelous,  a  fact  strikingly  illustra- 
ted in  a  most  cruel  and  selfish  overgrown  boy,  about  four  years  old,  who 
was  among  the  first  admitted.  Both  his  parents  were  drunkards,  and 
made  a  precarious  livelihood  by  retailing  liquor.  The  youth  had  been 
raised  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  concentrated  essence  of  malicious 
mischief.  He  had  been  given  up  as  intractable  at  home,  and  so  was  sent 
to  the  Kindergarten,  out  of  the  way.  Here  his  worst  passions  found  a 
wide  field  of  activity.  He  proved  domineering  and  cruel  to  his  childish 
associates,  whom  he  viciously  attacked  on  the  slightest  provocation. 
Self-willed  and  rebellious,  he  would  violate  every  injunction  of  his 
teacher,  whom  he  bit,  scratched,  kicked,  and  cursed  from  pure  ugliness — 
often  anticipating  and  violating  her  wishes  with  aggravating  delight. 
From  his  advent  he  was  a  terror  in  the  school-room,  and  was  given  a  wide 
berth.  Within  six  months  he  was  remolded  into  an  exemplary  child, 
and  became  a  favorite  with  all.  His  less  robust  companions  looked  up  to 
him  for  encouragement  and  assistance,  and  he  was  ever  ready  to  lend  a 
helping  hand.  He  grew  to  fairly  worship  his  teacher,  whose  hands  and 
clothing  he  would  caress  with  childish  expressions  of  spontaneous  en- 
dearment, and  found  perfect  happiness  in  performing  for  her  any  little 
favors  she  might  ask.  All  his  apples,  oranges,  sweets,  cake,  and  flowers 
were  brought  to  her,  and  he  would  refuse  the  use  of  any  till  she  accepted 
a  portion.  He  "graduated"  last  Christmas,  and  now  stands  at  the  head 
of  his  class  in  the  primary  school.  This  may  be  said  of  nearly  every 
child  who  has  gone  from  the  Kindergarten  into  the  public  schools. 

One  difficulty  and  source  of  great  annoyance  to  Miss  Smith  was  that  of 
striving  to  clean  the  children  and  keep  them  so.  If  every  child  required 
one  or  two  daily  washings  at  her  hands,  she  might  as  well  change  the 
establishment  into  a  bath-house,  and  devote  her  energies  to  ablution. 
Miss  Smith  wracked  her  brain  for  a  remedy.  She  was  well  aware  that  to 
go  and  tell  a  mother  that  her  offspring  was  too  dirty  to  come  to  school, 


670  KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

would  result  in  an  open  breach  of  friendship,  if  not  of  the  peace.  The 
plan  she  adopted,  and  which  worked  to  perfection,  was  to  see  the  mother 
and  make  a  friend  of  her — listen  to  all  her  woes,  secrets,  and  gossip,  mean- 
while, little  by  little  work  upon  her  self-respect  and  better  nature  till  ulti- 
mately, not  only  the  child  but  the  whole  family  were  transformed  from 
mire-wallowers  to  paragons  of  cleanliness.  After  two  years'  unremitting 
strife,  toil,  and  trouble,  Miss  Smith  has  the  rare  satisfaction  of  seeing 
grand  results  attend  her  efforts,  and  now  she  has  gone  East  on  three 
months'  leave  of  absence  to  compare  notes  with  leading  minds  in  the 
work  there.  Miss  Smith  has  been  materially  assisted  by  the  young  ladies 
of  the  High  School  Normal  class,  two  or  three  of  whom  are  in  daily 
attendance  in  her  Kindergarten. 

Among  the  generous-hearted  supporters  of  this  institution  are  Wm.  M. 
Lent,  who  was  the  first  to  avail  himself  of  the  privilege  of  becoming  a 
life  member  of  the  Society  by  payment  of  $100.  His  daughter,  Miss 
Fannie,  also  became  a  life-member  nearly  a  year  ago.  Hundreds  of  ladies 
and  gentlemen  who  have  visited  the  Kindergarten  and  examined  its 
method  of  operation  and  results,  have  attested  their  unqualified  belief  in 
the  system,  and  left  substantial  evidence  of  the  fact  in  the  hands  of  Dr. 
Hirschfelder,  the  Secretary.  Mrs.  R.  Johnson,  the  almoner  of  the  late 
Michael  Reese,  donated  the  institution  $500  last  December,  and  $400  more 
was  realized  from  the  dramatic  benefit  entertainment  already  alluded  to; 
yet  it  requires  a  large  amount  of  money  to  continue  the  successful  prose- 
cution of  the  work,  and  contributions  are  always  welcome. 

KINDERGARTEN  WORKERS. 

Solomon  Heydenfeldt,  the  President,  is  an  earnest  advocate  of  kinder- 
garten, and  has  a  proposition  in  mind  to  lay  before  the  pastors  of  the 
various  churches  with  a  view  to  getting  them  interested  in  the  work 
in  their  respective  Sunday-schools.  He  claims  that  at  present  only  the 
very  poor  and  very  rich  may  derive  benefit  from  kindergartering,  while 
the  great  middle  class  is  excluded.  He  thinks  that  by  a  very  little  effort  a 
kindergarten  could  be  opened  in  connection  with  every  church  and  con- 
ducted at  a  trifling  expense,  till  such  times  as  provision  can  be  made  for 
the  accommodation  of  all  in  the  School  Department. 

Since  his  identification  with  the  public  Kindergarten  Society,  Rev.  Dr. 
Stebbins  has  been  a  most  zealous  and  active  member.  To  his  efforts  is 
largely  due  the  favorable  action  recently  taken  by  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, which  seems  disposed  to  do  what  lies  in  its  power  towards  engrafting 
the  kindergarten  system  on  to  that  of  the  public  schools.  Dr.  Stebbins, 
with  Prof.  Swett,  Dr.  Fisk,  and  Professor  Hilgard  were  appointed  by  the 
society  a  committee  to  confer  with  the  board  upon  this  subject.  The 
result  of  the  conference  was  that  a  special  meeting  was  held  in  the  Board 
of  Supervisors'  Chambers,  new  City  Hall,  on  February  27th,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  hearing  the  views  of  the  Committee  and  their  friends.  The 
attendance  was  one  of  the  largest  ever  seen  there,  and  included  scholars  of 
every  profession,  educators,  philanthropists,  and  business  men.  Stirring 
addresses  were  made  by  Dr.  Stebbins,  Judge  Heydenfeldt,  Mrs.  Sarah  B. 
Cooper,  Miss  Kate  D.  Smith,  Prof.  Swett,  John  W.  Taylor,  A.  McF. 
Davis,  and  others,  all  of  whom  testified  to  the  transcendent  merits  of  kin- 


KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA.  57 1 

dergarten  over  all  other  known  systems  of  juvenile  training,  and  strongly 
urged  its  adoption  by  the  board.  The  benevolent  side  of  the  question, 
which  is  one  of  its  strongest,  was  not  advanced,  but  only  the  educational 
pure  and  simple. 

Kindergartens  in  tJie  Public  School  System. 

The  meeting  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  Rev.  Dr.  Stebbins,  School 
Director  Eimball,  and  School  Superintendent  Taylor,  as  a  committee  to 
investigate  the  system  of  kindergarten  instruction,  to  ascertain  what  has 
been  its  fruits  in  those  portions  of  the  world  where  it  has  been  generally 
adopted;  whether  it  is  advisable  to  adopt  it  in  connection  with  the  public- 
school  system  of  this  State,  etc.  The  subsequent  illness  of  Dr.  Stebbins, 
chairman  of  the  committee,  prevented  it  from  performing  its  duties  for  a 
time,  but  on  his  recovery  the  matter  was  pushed  energetically  forward  to 
a  happy  consummation,  for  on  May  24th,  the  committee  reported  in  favor 
of  establishing  kindergartens,  recommending  the  Jackson  street  one  to  be 
first  thus  recognized  and  adopted. 

The  board  adopted  the  report,  and  the  Freeholders'  Charter  contains  a 
provision  authorizing  the  incorporation  of  kindergartens  in  the  public 
school  system. 

Who  shall  become  a  Kindergartnerin? 

Miss  Marwedel  answers  this  question  in  the  opening  address  to  her 
Normal  Class  of  1874^5  as  follows  : 
Only  those  who — 

1.  Are  able  to  depend  on  a  healthy,  graceful  body  ;  a  perfectly  bal- 
anced, serene  temper  ;  a  good  voice;  a  lively,  sympathetic  countenance  ; 
and  a  loving  heart  for  children. 

2.  Those  who  have   already  not  only  a  good  foundation  of  general 
knowledge,  but  who  themselves   are  interested  in  all  questions  about 
causes  and  effects  ;  able  to  catch  at  once  the  ideas  of  the  child,  and  to 
illustrate  them  in  such  a  manner  that  they  shall  instruct  and  interest  the 
child,  sufficiently  to  make  its  own  original  representation  according  to 
Frcebel's  laws :  dictating  to  develop  the  child's  own  knowledge,  leading 
it  to  observe  and  compare  for  itself,  from  the  general  to  the  special,  from 
the  concrete  to  the  Abstract,  always  in  direct  connection  with  what  is  at 
hand,  to  make  an  impression  upon  the  child's  senses. 

3.  Those  who  have  practical  ability  to  learn,  and  artistic  talent  to 
execute  Frcebel's  occupations,  and  are  able  to  impart  them  to  the  child 
without  any  mechanical  drill  (though  instruction  in  order  and  accuracy 
in  detail  are  essential),  always  bearing  in  mind  that  these  occupations  are 
only  the  tools  for  a  systematic  educational  development  of  all  the  faculties 
born  in  and  with  the  child ;  and  that  the  explanation  of  how  and  why  these 
tools  are  to  be  applied,  according  to  obvious  laws  contain  the  most  im- 
portant points  of  the  system,  and.  further,  that  these  laws  have  to  be  fully 
understood  in  the  movement  plays  and  use  of  the  ball,  as  well  as  in  the 
weaving  and  the  modeling,  so  that  their  profound  logical  connection,  for 
the  rigorous,  systematic  appliance,  may  be  recognized.     This  philosophic 
insight  into  the  depths  of  the  system  is  needed  to  mature  you  to  inde- 
pendence of  thought  and  originality  in  arrangements, — for  kindergart- 
nerinen  are  nothing  if  not  original, — and  that  you  may  do  justice  to  your 


672  KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

individual  talents,  your  own  conceptions,  your  own  observation  of  nature 
•and  life,  and  of  their  educational  relation  to  the  child  and  its  human  ex- 
istence ;  to  be  saved  from  the  great  danger  of  debasing  the  system  to  a 
repetition  of  mere  words,  phrases,  and  dead  actions,  thereby  introducing 
more  monotonies,  more  mechanism,  and  narrowing  influences  into  this 
educational  training  than  exists  in  the  ordinary  school  methods.  There 
never  was  a  more  liberal,  tolerant  leader  than  Froebel  himself,  who,  in  all 
his  works  and  all  his  letters,  addresses  the  motherly  and  individual 
natural  teaching  power  and  ingenuity, — the  source  of  his  own  ideas. 

4.  Those  who  are  able  to  observe,  to  study,  and  describe,  the  wonders 
and  the  beauty  of  nature  and  man,  in  that  elevating,  poetical,  and  moral 
sense  we  call  religion, — a  religion  which  teaches  the  tender  heart  of  the 
child  what  is  right  and  wrong,  by  filling  its  sweet  mind  with  taste  for 
beauty;  to  reject  the  wrong  instinctively  and  habitually,  unconsciously 
becoming  aware  that  it  is  born  to  serve  itself  and  others,  and  that  life  has 
no  other  value  than  what  we  make  of  it  by  our  own  work,  and  that  each 
one  is  responsible  to  the  whole  of  which  even  the  child  is  a  part ;  every 
play,  every  song,  every  little  gift  made  by  the  child,  being  presided  over 
by  this  spirit. 

5.  And,  finally,  all  those  who  are  earnestly  striving  to  fulfill  these  con- 
ditions may  joyfully  enter  the  glorious  field  of  this  educational  mission, 
known  under  the  name  of  the  Kindergarten  system.     And  if  ever  any 
earthly  work  does  carry  its  own  reward,  it  is  the  teaching  and  loving  of 
our  dear  little  ones  according  to  Froebel's  advice;  making  the  teacher  a 
child  among  children,  and  the  happiest  of  all,  because  she  feels  that  she 
is  a  teacher,  a  mother,  and  a  playmate,  all  in  one !    But  she  must  not  only 
be  the  youngest  and  the  oldest  of  her  circle :  she  must  also  unite  them. 
The  power  she  exercises  will  lead  the  children,  unconsciously,  either  to 
wrong  habits  or  right  power.     Her  un worded  but  powerful  example  is  to 
impress  the  young  mind  with  all  the  higher  aims  and  laws  of  life. 

She  has  to  be  true,  firm,  just,  and  above  all,  loving.  The  few  rules, 
once  given,  have  to  be  strictly  kept ;  orders,  when  given,  must  be  ful- 
filled. She  must  live  in  all  and  for  all,  never  devoting  herself  to  one 
while  neglecting  others.  She  must  hear  and  see,  have  an  eye  for  every 
thing,  good  and  bad.  Then  the  child  will  feel  bound  under  the  spiritual 
power,  which  will  fill  his  whole  imagination,  his  faith,  his  love,  his  vene- 
ration. She  will  be  a  teacher  who  never  fails!  And  this  finally  is  the 
only  key  to  discipline.  Without  it  all  other  powers  will  be  powerless. 

CALIFORNIA  KINDERGARTEN  UNION. 

In  1879,  at  a  meeting  of  Kindergartners  held  under  the  call  of  Miss 
Marwedel  at  Berkeley  on  the  8th  of  November,  an  association  was 
formed,  with  the  avowed  objects:  "to  preserve  the  doctrines  of  Froebel  in 
purity,  to  encourage  closer  unity  among  his  disciples,  to  interchange 
ideas,  and  discuss  plans  for  improving  materials,  methods  of  teaching,  and 
the  Kindergarten. " 

Officers  for  1879-80. 

Miss  Emma  Marwedel,  President;  Miss  Kate  D.  Smith,  Vice-President ; 
Miss  M.  F.  E.  Benton,  Secretary. 


PLEA  FOR  FROEBEL'S  KINDERGARTEN 

AS  THE  FIRST  GRADE  OF  PRIMARY  ART  EDUCATION. 
BY  ELIZABETH  P.    PEABODY. 


ARTIST  AND  ARTISAN  IDENTIFIED.* 

identification  of  the  artisan  and  the  artist,  which  Cardinal  Wise- 
man proves  to  have  been  the  general  fact  in  Greece  from  the  sixth  century, 
and  in  Rome  from  the  second  century,  before  Christ,  was  no  accident, 
but  the  result  of  the  education  given  to  the  initiated  of  certain  temples, 
especially  those  of  Apollo,  Mercury,  Minerva,  and  Vulcan. 

In  Greece  and  Rome,  there  was  an  aristocracy  of  races  and  families,  each 
of  which  had  its  own  traditions  of  wisdom  and  art,  connected  with  the 
names  of  tutelary  divinities,  whose  personality  presumably  inhered  in 
leaders  of  the  emigrations  from  Asia,  who  were  doubtless  men  of  great 
genius  and  power,  and  served  with  divine  honors  by  their  posterity,  and 
the  colonies  which  they  led. 

This  service,  in  the  instance  of  the  gods  above  named,  involved  educa- 
tion in  the  Fine  Arts,  just  as  that  of  Ceres  and  Proserpine  taught  the  ini- 
tiated of  one  degree  the  science  of  Agriculture,  and  those  of  a  higher 
degree  the  doctrine  of  Immortality  (which  vegetation  symbolizes  in  the 
persistence  of  its  life-principle  and  deciduousness  of  its  forms). 

In  the  far  East,  the  productive  arts  were  early  included  under  the  word 
'magic  ;  whose  secrets,  as  an  ancient  historian  tells  us,  were  reserved  as  the 
special  privilege  of  royal  families,  and  hence  died  out. 

Under  despotic  governments,  the  inspirations  of  Science  and  Art  inva- 
riably have  died  out  into  formulas  to  be  worked  out  mechanically;  as  has 
happened  in  China.  But,  in  Greece  and  Rome,  freedom,  though  it  only 
existed  as  a  family  privilege,  fostered  individual  originality.  The  initia- 
ted, believing  themselves  subjects  of  inspiration,  would  have  that  confi- 
dence in  inward  impulse,  which,  when  disciplined  by  observation  of 
nature  conceivedtas  living  expression  of  indwelling  gods,  could  not  but  be 
beautiful  and  true.  High  Art  excludes  the  fantastic,  and  is  always  sim- 
ple,— because  it  is  useful,  like  nature.  The  identification  of  the  artist  with 
the  artisan  will  restore  it,  because  the  necessities  of  execution  control 
design  when  artist  and  artisan  are  one.  The- modern  artist  is  apt  to  design 
with  no  regard  to  use  or  nature.  He  needs  the  check  of  the  executing 
hand  upon  his  impracticable  conceptions ;  and  will  be  no  less  a  gainer 
thereof,  than  the  artisan,  by  identification  with  him.  Hay,  in  his  several 
works,  especially  in  the  one  on  "  Symmetrical  Beauty,"  shows  that  the 
generation  of  the  forms  of  the  ancient  vases  rested  on  a  strict  mathemat- 
ical basis;  and  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  study  of  mathe- 
matics was  quite  as  profound  in  antiquity  as  it  has  been  since ;  though 
then  it  was  applied  to  art,  rather  than,  as  now,  to  the  measurement 

*  The  title  given  to  a  republication  in  Boston,  in  1870,  of  Cardinal  Wiseman's  lecture  on 
the  "  Relations  of  the  Arts  of  Design  and  the  Arta  of  Production,"  to  which  this  paper  of 
Miss  Peabody  was  appended.  The  lecture  and  plea  had  a  wide  circulation. 

43 


g74  PLEA  FOR  KINDERGARTENS— 1869. 

of  nature.  The  wars  and  revolutions  which  convulsed  the  world  in  tht? 
declining  days  of  the  old  Eastern  Empires,  and  even  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  broke  up  the  ancient  schools  of  magic  and  art.  They  never,  how- 
ever, were  quite  lost  in  the  darkest  ages,  but  preserved  a  shy  and  secret 
existence ;  and,  at  the  revival  of  letters  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen 
turies,  were  restored  for  a  splendid  season  of  about  three  centuries,  by 
secret  societies,  like  the  Freemasons,  and  in  many  ecclesiastical  cloisters. 
Then  building  and  other  mechanical  work  again  became  High  Art. 

This  adequate  education,  with  its  elevating  effect  on  the  laborer,  bottt 
in  respect  to  his  inner  life  and  outward  relations,  can  be  given  now,  and 
in  America,  only  by  making  our  Public  Schools  give  the  same  profound 
and  harmonious  training  to  the  whole  nature  of  all  the  people  that  those 
ancient  secret  societies  gave  to  the  few, — a  thing  that  is  to  be  expected 
much  more  by  reforming  and  perfecting  the  primary  department,  than 
by  endowing  universities ;  though  the  latter  are  the  cap-stones  of  the  ed- 
ucational edifice.  Even  the  late  (1870)  act  of  the  Massachusetts  Legisla 
ture,  requiring  a  free  drawing-school  in  every  town  of  five  thousand  in- 
habitants in  the  State,  though  it  is  a  move  in  the  right  direction  (and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  working  men  will  not  let  the  law  lapse  by  neglecting 
to  call  for  its  enforcement),  will  be  of  very  little  use  unless  the  children 
shall  be  prepared  for  these  art-schools  in  the  primary  department.  It  is  the 
main  purpose  of  the  present  publication  to  set  forth  that  this  can  be  done, 
and  therefore  ought  to  be  done  at  once.  Froebel's  Kindergarten  is  a  pri- 
mary art-school ;  for  it  employs  the  prodigious  but  originally  blind  activ- 
ity and  easily  trained  hand  of  childhood,  from  the  age  of  three  years,  in 
intelligent  production  of  things  within  the  childish  sphere  of  affection  and 
fancy;  giving  thereby  a  harmonious  play  of  heart  and  mind  in  actively 
educating — without  straining  the  brain — even  to  the  point  of  developing 
invention,  while  it  keeps  the  temper  sweet  and  spirits  joyous  with  the 
pleasure  of  success.  Childish  play  has  all  the  main  characteristics  of  art, 
inasmuch  as  it  is  the  endeavor  "to  conform  the  outward  shows  of  things 
to  t!ie  desires  of  the  mind."  Every  child,  at  play,  is  histrionic  and  plastic. 
He  personates  character  with  mimic  gesture  and  costume,  and  represents 
whatever  fancy  interests  him  by  an  embodiment  of  it, — perhaps  in  mud  or 
sand  or  snow;  or  by  the  arrangement  of  the  most  ungainly  materials,  such 
as  a  row  of  footstools  and  chairs,  which  become  a  railroad  train  to  him  at 
his  "  own  sweet  will."  Everybody  conversant  with  children  knows  how 
easily  they  will  "  make  believe,"  as  they  call  it,  out  of  any  materials  what- 
ever; and  are  most  amused  when  the  materials  to  be  transformed  by  their 
personifying  and  symbolizing  thought  are  few.  For  so  much  do  children 
enjoy  the  exercise  of  imagination,  that  they  prefer  simple  primitive  forms, 
which  they  can  "  make  believe  "  to  be  first  one  thing  and  then  another,  to 
elaborately  carved  columns,  and  such  like.  There  is  nothing  in  life  more 
charming  to  a  spectator,  than  to  observe  this  shaping  fancy  of  children, 
scorning  the  bounds  of  possibility,  as  iu  were.  But  children  themselves 
enjoy  their  imaginations  still  more,  when  they  find  it  possible  to  satisfy 
their  causative  instinct  by  really  making  something  useful  cr  pretty. 

It  was  Froebel's  wisdom,  instead  of  repressing,  to  accept  this  natural 
activity  of  childhood,  as  a  hint  of  Divine  Providence,  and  to  utilize  its 
spontaneous  play  for  education.  And,  in  doing  so,  he  takes  out  of  school 


PLEA  FOR  KINDERGARTENS-18tt9.  675 

discipline  that  element  of  baneful  antagonism  which  it  is  so  apt  to  excite, 
and  which  it  is  such  a  misfortune  should  ever  be  excited  in  the  young 
towards  the  old. 

The  divine  impulse  of  activity  is  never  directly  opposed  in  the  kinder- 
garten, but  accepted  and  guided  into  beautiful  production,  according  to 
the  laws  of  creative  order.  These  the  educator  must  study  out  in  nature, 
and  genially  present  to  the  child,  whom  he  will  iiiid  docile  to  the  guid- 
ance of  his  play  to  an  issue  more  successful  than  it  is  possible  for  him  to 
attain  in  his  own  ignorance. 

Intellect  is  developed  by  the  appreciation  of  individual  forms  and  those 
relations  to  each  other  which  are  agreeable  to  the  eye.  There  are  forms 
that  never  tire.  In  the  work  of  Hay,  to  which  allusion  has  been  made, 
it  is  shown  that  every  ancient  vase  is  a  complex  of  curves  that  belong  to 
one  form  or  to  three  forms  or  to  five  forms;  but  all  vases  whose  curves 
belong  to  one  form  are  the  most  beautiful.  These  ground  forms  are  of 
petals  of  flowers;  and  the  mathematical  appreciation  of  them  is  very  inter 
esting,  showing  that  the  forces  of  nature  act  to  produce  a  certain  symmetry, 
as  has  been  lately  demonstrated  in  snowflakes  and  crystals,  that  have 
been  respectively  called  "  the  lilies  of  the  sky,  and  the  lilies  of  the  rocks," 
(for  the  lily  is  the  most  symmetrical  of  flowers).  Froebel's  exercise  on 
blocks,  sticks,  curved  wires,  colors,  weaving  of  patterns,  pricking,  sewing 
with  colored  threads,  and  drawing,  lead  little  children  of  three  years'  old 
to  create  series  of  forms,  by  a  simple  placing  of  opposites,  which  involves 
the  first  principle  of  all  design,  polarity.  By  boxes  of  triangles,  equilate- 
ral, isosceles,  right  angled,  or  scalene,  the  foundations  of  mathematical 
thought  may  be  laid  to  the  senses.  Before  children  are  old  enough  for 
the  abstract  operations  of  simple  arithmetic,  they  may  know  geometry  in 
the  concrete.  And,  in  these  various  games  of  the  generation  of  form,  the 
greatest  accuracy  of  eye,  and  delicacy  and  quickness  of  manipulation  are 
insensibly  acquired,  precluding  all  clumsiness  and  awkwardness. 

Froebel's  exercises  with  block,  sticks,  curved  wires,  triangles,  which 
lead  the  children  to  make  an  ever- varying  symmetry  by  simply  placing 
opposites,  are  concrete  mathematics,  which  become  the  verylaw  of  their 
thoughts.  The  mind  is  developed  by  appreciated  forms  and  their  com- 
binations. The  same  law  of  polarity  is  followed  in  the  weaving  of  col- 
ored papers,  where  harmony  of  colors  is  added  to  symmetrical  beauty;  and 
from  the  moment  when  a  child  can  hold  the  pencil,  and  draw  a  line  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  long,  he  can  also  make  symmetrical  forms  upon  a  slate 
or  paper  squared  in  eighths  of  an  inch. 

But  to  conduct  such  education  as  this  is  a  great  art,  founded  on  the 
deepest  science  both  within  and  without  the  human  soul ;  and  therefore, 
preliminary  to  its  being  undertaken,  there  must  be  a  special  training  of 
the  kindergarten  teacher.  Froebel  never  established  a  kindergarten  any- 
where that  he  did  not  also  establish  normal  training  for  young  women, 
who  were  to  supervise  the  children  at  their  play  and  work,  so  as  to  make 
these  guided  exercises  of  the  limbs  and  hands  a  moral,  artistic,  and  intel- 
lectual education,  all  in  one. 

For  moral  culture,  it  is  necessary  that  the  children  produce  things,  and 
play  with  each  other,  from  self -forgetful  motives  of  gratitude  to  parents 
and  affection  for  their  companions,  or  a  gentle  sympathy  for  the  unfortu- 


PLEA  FOR  KINDERGARTENS-1869. 

nate.  Moral  culture  cannot  be  given  in  a  didactic  manner.  Sentiment 
becomes  selfish  weakness  unless  it  is  embodied  in  disinterested  action. 
Even  successful  and  happy  play  involves  mutual  consideration.  It  is 
necessary  that  children  should  act  from  a  motive  leading  them  from 
within  out  of  themselves.  There  is  no  way  to  learn  goodness  but  to 
be  practically  good.  Froebel  would  not  have  children  make  things  to 
hoard,  or  merely  to  exhibit  their  power,  and  stimulate  their  vanity;  but 
to  give  away  to  some  object  of  their  affection  or  respect  or  pity.  Before 
anything  is  done,  the  question  always  arises,  Who  is  to  be  made  happier  or 
better  by  it  ?  They  can  be  kept  busy  the  whole  year  in  providing  gifts 
for  all  their  friends'  birthdays,  new-years  day,  and  the  Christmas-tree; 
and,  especially,  if  the  poor  and  sick  are  remembered.  Thus  their  activity 
is  disciplined  by  their  hearts,  that  supply  the  motive,  no  less  than  by  their 
intellect,  that  accepts  the  law  according  to  which  the  thing  is  made. 

They  become  intellectual  by  learning  that  there  is  always  a  law  as  the 
innermost  secret  of  every  object  of  nature  and  art.  The  rule  involving 
the  law  is  suggested  in  words  at  each  step  of  the  procedure,  and  repeated 
until  the  idea  of  the  law  is  caught.  As  crude  material  and  simple  ground- 
form  is  varied  into  varieties  of  beauty,  they  get  a  knowledge,  deeper  than 
words  can  convey,  of  the  substantiality  of  law,  seeing  it  to  be  no  less  a 
factor  of  the  thing  than  the  material  out  of  which  it  is  made.  In  its 
turn,  the  material  itself  becomes  the  subject  of  an  object  lesson,  not  only 
as  to  its  structure,  but  its  origin ;  and  this,  when  considered  in  its  use,  or 
the  delight  it  gives,  leads  the  mind  inevitably  to  the  spiritual  Fountain  of 
all  good  things. 

The  child's  own  active  heart  witnesses  to  a  heavenly  Father,  and  pre- 
cludes any  necessity  for  didactic  teaching  on  that  point.  It  is  only  nec- 
cessary  to  refer  to  Him  when  the  little  heart  is  full  of  generous  love,  and 
the  little  mind  is  realizing  that  its  own  thought  is  an  indispensable  factor 
of  the  thing  done.  Thus  art-education  is  religious;  because  art  is  the 
image  in  man  of  God's  creativeness.  It  has  been  profoundly  said 
that,  if  science  is  irreligious  in  its  effect,  because  it  deals  only  in  appear 
ances,  and  its  method  is  analysis  which  murders,  art  is  necessary  to 
strike  the  balance  in  education,  because  it  deals  in  substances,  and  not 
only  produces,  but  makes  alive  by  giving  expression  to  matter.  Since 
what  makes  the  crude  and  unformed  material  which  the  child  uses  a 
thing  of  beauty  or  use,  is  the  immaterial  a3sthetic  force  within  him,  which 
applies  the  law  (itself  an  immaterial  entity),  he  necessarily  infers  and 
appreciates  that  the  universe  as  a  whole  is  the  guarantee  of  an  immater- 
ial Creator  who  loves  its  intelligent  denizens. 

It  is  impossible  for  a  kindergarten  to  be  carried  on  by  a  teacher  who 
does  not  understand  this  constitution  of  human  nature  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  laws  of  the  universe,  in  some  degree,  upon  the  other.  No  mechan- 
ical imitation,  and  no  patterns  are  permitted;  but  the  children  are  led  on 
to  act  from  their  own  thoughts  by  first  acting  from  the  teacher's  sugges- 
tion or  direction  of  their  thoughts.  It  is  astonishing  to  most  persons  to 
see  how,  almost  immediately,  they  begin  to  invent  new  applications  of 
the  laws  given.  Originality  is  fostered  by  questions  leading  them  to 
give  an  account  of  how  they  produce  effects,  which  prevents  destructive 
tendencies,  and  gives  clearness  of  intellectual  consciousness;  and  no  strain 


PLEA  FOR  KINDERGARTENS-1869.  ^77 

Is  put  upon  the  brain,  because  the  child  is  always  kept  within  the  child's 
world  and  made  of  ability  there.  In  the  moral  sphere,  also,  questioning 
is  a  better  mode  of  suggestion  than  precept.  Unless  there  is  a  certain 
freedom  of  feeling,  and  virtue  preserves  a  certain  spontaneity,  hypocrisy 
may  be  superinduced.  Children  love  others  as  naturally  and  well  as  they 
love  themselves,  if  not  better;  and  love  has  its  own  various  creative  play, 
and  its  own  modesty,  which  should  be  sacredly  respected.  Wake  up 
the  heart  and  mind,  and  moral  dictation  will  be  as  superfluous  as  it  is 
pernicious  :  and,  above  all,  children  should  not  be  led  into  professions, 
or  praised  for  goodness;  but  goodness  should  be  presumed  as  of  course. 

In  short,  kindergarten  education  is  INTEGRAL,  resulting  in  practical  re 
ligion,  because  it  gives  intelligence  and  sentiment  to  the  conception  of 
God  and  his  providence,  and  prevents  that  precocity  which  is  always  a 
one-sided,  deforming,  and  ultimately  a  weakening  development.  It  is 
greatly  in  contrast  with  the  ordinary  primary-school  teaching,  which  gen- 
erally begins  by  antagonizing  all  spontaneous  life  (keeping  children  still, 
as  it  is  called),  in  order  to  make  them  passive  recipients  of  knowledge 
having  no  present  relation  with  the  wants  of  their  minds  or  hearts. 

But  if  the  training  which  fits  for  kindergarten  teaching  not  only  in- 
volves knowledge  of  the  sciences  of  outward  nature  to  a  considerable 
extent,  but  a  study  of  the  philosophy  of  human  nature  also,  yet  it  is 
such  a  philosophy  as  any  fairly  cultivated,  genial-hearted  young  woman, 
of  average  intellect,  is  capable  of  receiving  from  one  already  an  adept  in 
it ;  for  it  is  the  universal  motherly  instinct,  appreciated  by  the  intellect, 
and  followed  out  to  its  highest  issues.  Froebel's  philosophy  and  art  are 
just  the  highest  finish  to  any  woman's  education,  whether  she  is  to  keep 
a  kindergarten  or  not.  Froebel  considered  women  to  be  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed educators  of  children,  for  the  first  seven  years  of  their  lives  at 
least,  until  they  become  fully  conscious  of  their  power  of  thought,  and 
know  how  to  apply  thought  for  effect.  For  two  or  three  years  their 
place  is  in  the  nursery,  whose  law  is  acknowledged  to  be  amusement.  The 
nursery  method  of  sympathetic  supervision  of  children's  spontaneity 
(which  never  should  be  left  to  uninstructed  nurses)  is  simply  continued 
in  the  kindergarten,  where  symbolic  plays,  for  general  bodily  exercise, 
and  the  "occupations,"  as  the  quieter  games  of  production  are  called, 
suggest  conversations  which  are  the  first  object  lessons.  It  is  quite 
enough  intellectual  work  for  children  under  seven  years  of  age  to  learn  to 
express  their  thoughts  and  impressions  in  appropriate  words ;  to  sing  by 
rote  the  songs  which  describe  their  plays ;  to  become  skillful  in  the  man- 
ipulations that  the  occupations  involve;  with  such  objective  knowledge 
as  is  directly  connected  with  the  materials  used.  They  can  then  go,  at 
seven  years  old,  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  common  primary  school,  with 
habits  of  docility,  industry,  and  order  already  acquired;  wide-awake 
senses  and  attention ;  tempers  not  irritated  by  stupid  and  unreasonable 
repressions  of  their  nature,  and  wills  unperverted,  and  reasonably  obedi- 
ent. Is  it  not  plain  that,  thus  educated,  they  will  easily  learn  to  read  ? 
and  the  knowedge  acquired  from  books  will  stimulate  production  in  large 
spheres  of  life,  and  the  love  of  labor  will  not  be  in  danger  of  dying  out 
when  the  progressive  rise  into  "the  perfect,  good,  and  fair  "  is  guaranteed 
by  works,  that  shall  bring  the  life  which  is  to  come  into  that  which  now  is. 


678  PLEA  FOR  KINDERGARTENS-ISM. 

The  immoral — some  go  so  far  as  to  call  it  the  demoralizing influence 

of  our  public  schools,  which  now  at  best  sharpen  the  wits,  and  give  means 
of  power  to  do  evil  as  well  as  good,  has  called  attention  of  late  to  the 
character  of  State  education,  and  the  necessity  of  making  it  industrial,  if 
only  to  save  the  masses  of  children  from  the  temptations  that  now  assail 
those  who  need  to  earn  their  living  at  once,  but  who  leave  school  at  four- 
teen or  fifteen  years  of  age  unskilled  in  any  species  of  labor.  The  only 
way  to  elevate  the  laborer  to  equal  social  position  with  the  professional 
man,  or  even  to  self-respect,  is  to  make  labor  spontaneous  and  attractive. 
But  to  make  industry  ARTISTIC  is  the  only  way  to  make  it  attractive,  and 
supersede  that  spirit  of  gambling  in  business  and  politics  which  so 'fear- 
fully weakens  and  corrupts  our  national  character,  and  threatens  the  lib 
erties  which  rest  on  truth  and  justice. 

Finally,  unless  the  right  thing  is  done  at  once,  and  this  reform  of  the 
fundamental  education  is  initiated  by  competent  teachers,  a  very  great 
evil  will  arise.  Already  children's  schools,  assuming  the  name  of  kinder- 
garten,— sometimes  innocently,  because  ignorantly, — are  growing  up  at 
different  points  in  this  country,  which  necessarily  disgrace  the  principle 
of  Froebel,  who  worked  out,  by  a  whole  life-time  of  experimenting,  the 
true  processes  of  the  first  stages  of  human  education.  These  pseudo- 
kindergartens  are  a  mere  alternation  of  the  old  routine  with  plays  and 
imitative  working  by  patterns,  making  children  frivolous,  or  little  ma- 
chines, or  else  disgusting  them ;  for,  in  proportion  to  their  natural  abound- 
ing life,  children  tire  of  what  is  merely  mechanical. 

The  first  thing  we  have  to  do,  then,  is  to  train  teachers  in  Froebel's 
science  and  art.  There  is  one  training  school  (1870)  at  127  Charles  street, 
Boston,  kept  by  Mrs.  and  Miss  Kriege,  educated  in  the  best  training 
school  in  the  world, — that  of  Baroness  Marenholtz-Bulow  of  Berlin,  who 
is  chief  of  Froebel's  personal  disciples  and  apostles.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  city  or  State  will  make  this  a  public  institution.  A  very  supe- 
rior expert  in  the  Froebel  philosophy  (Maria  Boelte)  now  engaged  in 
Lubec,  Germany,  and  perfectly  skilled  in  the  English  language,  might 
be  induced,  by  adequate  compensation,  to  come  and  found  another  in 
some  more  southerly  or  western  State.*  If  there  could  be  raised  by  pri- 
vate donation,  or  public  appropriation,  a  loan-fund  to  enable  many 
young  women  who  ardently  desire  this  education  to  attend  the  private 
school  of  Madame  Kriege,  in  a  year  we  might  have  enough  trained 
teachers  to  open  schools  all  over  the  country;  and  effectually  commence 
that  radical  reform  of  primary  education  which  shall  ultimate  in  the 
Indentification  of  the  Artist  and  Artisan.  '  What  is  well  begun  is  half  done. ' 

*In  1872  this  lady,  who  was  of  high  social  position,  and  had,  from  pure  love  of  the  Art 
and  Science  of  Froebel,  studied  with  his  widow  three  years,  came  to  America  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  celebrated  Henrietta  B.  Haines  of  New  York,  and  the  next  year  set  up 
a  training  school  in  New  York.  This  she  still  keeps  in  that  city— 7  East  22d  Street,  be- 
ing married  to  John  Kraus,  a  graduate  of  Diesterweg's  Normal  School,  who  emigrated 
some  years  previous  to  this  country,  and  wrote  in  newspapers,  especially  in  the  Army 
and  Navy  Gazette  on  the  subject.  He  assists  his  wife  in  her  kindergarten  with  his  fine 
music,  and  supplements  it  with  an  intermediate  and  connecting  school. 

In  the  same  year,  1872,  Miss  Mary  J.  Garland,  a  pupil  of  Mrs.  Kriege,  opened  her  kin 
dergarten  school,  as  successor  to  Mrs.  Kriege  in  Boston. 


CLAY  MODELING  FOR  KINDERGARTENS. 

EDWARD  A.  SPRING. 


INTRODUCTION. 

WITH  a  few  exceptions,  laughed  at  as  mere  child's  sport,  or  remem- 
bered in  biographies  of  artists  as  indications  of  genius,  clay  modeling 
was,  until  Friedrich  Frbbel's  time,  a  technical  process  in  the  art  of 
sculpture ;  but  it  may  be  called  a  natural  process. 

Some  Modoc  Indians  told  me  that  on  the  outskirts  of  one  of  their 
villages  their  children  would  make  little  clay  men  and  animals,  the 
wigwams,  horses  and  riders ;  thus  representing  the  whole  life  of  the 
village.  That  was  modeling.  There  is  the  sweet  legend  of  the  Child 
Jesus  from  the  early  centuries.  He  and  his  playmates  modeled  doves 
of  clay,  and  his  dove  flew. 

If  I  say,  "  Voice  unefemme  et  un  enfant ; "  if  I  say,  "  Hier  ist  einefrau, 
und  ein  kind ;"  if  I  write  this,  "  Mulier  et  infans;  if  I  do  this  (making 
a  sketch  on  the  board  of  a  woman  and  baby),  or  if  I  do  this  (modeling 
rapidly  a  mother  and  baby  in  clay},  it  is  merely  using  five  different  lan- 
guages to  express  the  same  idea. 

A  French  child  would  understand  the  first,  a  German  child  the 
second,  a  graduate  of  a  European  or  American  university  the  third, 
written  there  on  the  board  ;  any  child  of  any  nation  or  race,  who  was 
not  blind,  would  understand  a  carefully  finished  drawing, — but  all  of 
the  reasonable  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  including  the  blind,  could 
understand  the  idea  expressed  by  the  modeled  group.  A  language, 
therefore,  that  appeals  so  generally  to  all  intelligences,  it  surely  is  wise 
to  use  as  one  means  of  training. 

In  my  studio,  for  the  past  twenty  years,  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
setting  little  children  to  modeling. 

I  soon  found  that  with  a  rough  lump  of  clay  they  seemed  to  have 
little  ability  to  do  anything  but  crush  and  crumble  it,  by  themselves. 
But  give  them  the  idea  of  laying  out  the  masses,  and  securing  the  main 
forms,  and  they  accomplish,  at  least,  something  educational.  Children 
are  imitators.  I  have  very  seldom,  if  ever,  known  of  a  young  child 
shaping  anything  in  clay  that  was  not  suggested  by  some  near  associa- 
tion of  ideas,  or  some  other  person's  influence. 

Little  Johnny  F-,  held  in  his  nurse's  arms,  was  eager  to  get  some 
clay,  too,  seeing  his  little  sisters  making  the  kindergarten  standby — 
the  "bird's  nest."  So  I  took  a  little  piece  in  my  hand  and  while 
watching  Johnny's  face,  with  my  head  a  little  one  side,  I  rolled  it  into 
a  ball,  with  the  palms  of  my  hands,  and  then  I  rolled  it  on  the  table. 
Giving  Johnny  a  similar  piece  he  made  a  ball,  round  enough  to  roll, 
about  as  quickly  as  I  had  made  mine.  Johnny  was  about  a  year  old  and 
could  neither  speak  nor  step.  There  was  one  very  funny  thing — I  could 
not  get  him  to  look  at  the  clay  in  his  hand  for  some  time.  He  would 

679 


680  CLAY  MODELING  FOR  KINDERGARTENS. 

watch  my  face  with  his  head  on  one  side,  a  caricature  of  my  action, 
and  not  until  I  had  kept  my  sight  riveted  on  several  balls  while  I  was 
making  them,  denying  myself  the  study  of  his  baby  eyes,  could  I  start 
him  on  the  track  of  attending  to  his  work,  by  sight  as  well  as  feeling. 

They  are  greatly  pleased,  when  I  give  them  a  soft  clay  i'ace,  head,  or 
animal,  pressed  in  a  plaster  mold,  with  a  suggestion  from  me  of  some 
change  for  them  to  make  in  it. 

One  little  fellow  who  had  been  visiting  his  older  brother  at  West 
Point,  added  a  soldier  cap  and  military  moustache  to  the  head  I  gave 
him.  West  Point  must  have  made  a  powerful  impression  on  him. 
Commonly,  I  find  that  they  go  but  little  way,  unless  told,  for  their  sub- 
jects. Very  possibly,  in  this  case,  some  accidental  scratch  or  bungling 
had  given  the  face  a  likeness  to  an  officer  he  had  seen. 

Two  little  brothers,  one  with  a  long,  and  the  other  with  a  broad  and 
very  different  face,  were  given  "presses"  of  a  face  from  the  same 
mold.  It  was  their  first  clay  work,  and  each  exaggerated  his  own 
peculiarities — a  tendency  towards  self-portraiture,  frequently  shown  by 
beginners  in  modeling  and  drawing,  and  from  which  many  artists  are 
not  quite  free.  I  was  modeling  in  the  next  room,  and  they  worked  in 
unbroken  silence  for  over  two  hours.  Troubled  that  I  had  let  them  go 
on  so  long,  I  went  to  look  after  them  ;  but  though  they  were  tired,  they 
did  not  want  to  stop,  and  when  the  elder  attempted  to  correct  the 
other's  work,  the  little  one  burst  out  with  great  indignation  :  "  No,  you 
must  n't  touch  it,  that's  mine !  " 

According  to  the  principle  of  the  new  education,  that  whatever  work 
is  natural  and  pleasing  to  children,  only  needs  guidance  to  become 
educational,  Frobel  made  clay,  which,  when  unsystematized,  is  hardly 
more  valuable  than  any  other  substance  to  the  child,  a  means  of  great 
use.  In  a  substance  so  plastic  as  clay,  the  making  of  a  desired  form  is 
reduced  to  the  least  mechanical  difficulty.  Frobel  was  a  practical 
geometrician,  and  when  Curator  of  the  Geological  Museum  and  later, 
took  special  interest  and  did  practical  clay  work  in  crystallography,  but 
he  did  not  attempt  to  give  young  children  a  comprehensive  understand- 
ing of  all  geometry,  crystallography,  or  of  all  natural  science ;  nor  did 
he  divide  the  cube  to  show  the  tetrahedron,  and  the  octahedron  within 
the  tetrahedron.  He  gave  the  child  two  standards  of  measure  or  form  ; 
the  ball,  symbolic  of  organic  things,  and  the  cube,  symbolizing  inorganic 
things ;  thus  making  the  clay  an  essential  part  of  his  system  of  human 
development,  while  through  several  simple  exercises  some  of  his  most 
important  principles  were  rendered  clear.  These  exercises  and  the 
occasional  free  use  of  clay,  making  it  possible  for  the  child  to  approach 
his  baby  ideals  ;  to  feel  that  out  of  earth  he  can  make  something,  have 
made  modeling  perhaps  the  most  welcome  and  engrossing  of  all  the 
kindergarten  occupations.  A  ball  is  one  of  the  easiest  and  best  things 
for  a  child  to  make  in  clay. 

A  word  about  so-called  birds'  nests.  I  am  unable  to  see  what  educa- 
tional purpose  it  can  serve  to  encourage  children  to  punch  a  hole  in  a 


CLAY  MODELING  FOR  KINDERGARTENS.  681 

ball  and  call  it  a  birds'  nest.  I  never  knew  the  birds  that  would  lay  an 
egg  in  the  hundreds  of  birds'  nests  I  have  seen  in  many  kindergartens. 
Where  the  children  have  known  what  real  birds'  nests  are,  I  have  seen 
some  very  typical  forms  modeled  for  nests  of  particular  birds,  but 
there  is  danger  in  falsely  naming  things  to  children. 

Children  must  and  will  learn,  at  an  early  age,  certain  properties  of 
matter.  Give  them  a  little  lump  of  soft  clay  to  pull  and  cut  apart. 
Then,  after  awhile  they  will  find  that  by  pressing  and  knocking,  the 
divided  pieces  will  stick  together  again.  Thus  they  are  prepared  by 
experience  for  a  later  knowledge  of  physics.  Also  at  once  the  baby 
experiences  a  thrill  of  delight.  He  has  made  something.  As  soon  as  a 
child  has  made  a  change  in  a  piece  of  clay,  even  if  only  to  obliterate 
the  nose  of  a  fine  face,  he  claims  the  whole  as  his  work  and  his  prop- 
erty, in  opposition  to  all  comers.  This  feeling  is  so  strong  that  I  have 
found  a  very  safe  rule  is,  that  "  the  modeling  work  of  a  pupil  must  not 
be  touched  by  the  teacher  nor  by  any  one  else." 

In  regard  to  the  use  of  these  molds,  if  a  whole  class  in  a  school  have 
impressions  from  the  same  mold,  each  one  shows  just  what  has  been 
done,  but  with  children  in  the  kindergarten  it  would  be  very  unwise  to 
make  use  of  molds  of  finished  work,  as  the  falsehood  would  grow  of 
the  claim,  "  /  did  that,"  when  all  the  child  has  done  is  injury. 

Care  should  be  taken  not  to  let  the  first  times  of  using  clay  be  for  so 
long  continued  as  to  be  fatiguing.  I  should  say,  beginning  with  fifteen 
minutes  as  a  first  touching  of  the  clay  for  such  young  children,  the 
time  might  be  extended  by  degrees  to  one  or  two  hours  without  danger, 
provided  there  is  no  attempt  to  compel  any  particular  work.  Care 
should  be  had  that  every  crumb  of  clay  is  saved  and  the  place  made 
tidy  by  the  children  themselves,  to  give  them  practice  in  elements  of 
neatness  and  dexterity. 

Children  have  a  wonderful  quickness  at  distinguishing  types  of  form, 
if  they  have  opportunities  of  comparison,  and  this  ability  to  see  re- 
semblances should  be  encouraged.  The  baby  will  announce  what  he 
fancies  his  work  is  like  with  the  exultant,  "  I  did  it  all  myself."  The 
delight  of  the  artist  in  his  highest  success  seems  to'  be  felt  also  by  the 
child  in  his  first  essays,  and  like  the  artist  the  interest  is  centered  upon 
the  work  in  hand. 

Experience  proves  in  hundreds  of  cases,  that  very  young  children 
will  manipulate  the  clay  more  skillfully,  up  to  a  certain  point,  than  the 
majority  of  adults  if  left  entirely  to  themselves.  Over  zealous  teachers 
sometimes  prevent,  by  doing  too  much,  what  the  children  would  ac- 
complish spontaneously  if  let  alone ;  still  guidance  is  necessary.  In  my 
own  case,  I  could  have  been  saved  years  of  practice  if  I  had  been 
started  in  the  art  work,  as  I  can  now  see  is  done  in  the  kindergarten. 
Palissy  said,  in  his  "  Art  de  Terre,"  that  he  learned  most  by  his  own 
failures.  Of  course  it  is  not  the  simple  realization  that  we  have  failed 
which  helps  us,  but  the  perception  of  how  near  we  were  to  success. 
The  educator  should  not  lay  stress  upon  the  pupil's  failures,  but  show 


682  CLAY  MODELING  FOR  KINDERGARTENS. 

how  a  little  step  more  would  have  accomplished  good  results.  If  the 
ring  fingers  or  little  fingers  spoil  the  work,  "  Never  mind  ;  try  again," 
for  a  question,  leading  to  the  cause  of  mischief,  is  better  than  theoretical 
explanation.  In  the  season  of  rapid  growth,  have  a  care  how  you  dis- 
turb the  root.  In  trying  something  new,  the  common  difficulty  is,  too 
much  muscular  action ;  the  skilled  hand  being  able  to  stop  when  it 
should,  and  the  little  steps  less,  many  a  time  present  greater  difficulty 
than  the  little  steps  more. 

"  Oh  when  will  men  learn  how  much  strength  lies  in  poise- 
That  he  goes  the  farthest  who  goes  far  enough. 
And  all  beyond  that  is  just  bother  and  stuff." 

SOME   PRACTICAL   HINTS    ON   CLAY   MODELING. 

Modeling  will  keep  little  children  engrossed  in  silence  for  the  longest 
time,  and  the  greatest  delight  is  manifested  in  a  school  when  clay  time 
comes. 

Very  little  instruction  is  needed  in  order  to  set  a  child  or  adult  on 
the  way  to  help  themselves. 

Then  the  outfit  for  months  of  work  in  clay  and  tools  need  not  be 
more  than  three  or  four  dollars. 

There  are  very  few,  if  any,  accomplishments  or  arts  that  can  be  fol- 
lowed at  so  little  expense — and  very  often  the  best  progress  is  made  by 
those  who  have  never  tried  to  draw. 

The  following  five  maxims  will  be  readily  understood  by  one  who 
has  modeled — and  will  be  found  wise  to  follow. 

Practical  Maxims  for  Modelers. 

1.  Add  smooth  to  smooth. 

2.  «  The  modeling  is  in  the  half  light."— Hunt. 

3.  Be  neat.     Keep  the  hands  free  from  dry  clay.     Do  not  work  in 
mud. 

4.  "  Use  the  largest  tool."— Ward. 

5.  "Make  plaster    molds,   when    needed,   to    serve    as    modeling 
tools." — Spring. 

1.  How  to  Use  the  Clay. 

Add  smooth  to  smooth. 

See  that  in  joining  clay  to  clay  both  surfaces  joined  are  smooth. 
Ragged  and  torn  surfaces  of  moist  clay  will  not  adhere  together.  Leave 
no  air  confined,  and  the  clay  work  will  stand  firmly,  and,  if  terra  cotta 
clay  is  used,  can  be  baked  in  a  kiln. 

2.  How  to  see  the  Work. 
"  The  modeling  is  in  the  half  light." 

A  strong  light  is  wanted,  from  above  the  level  of  the  eye.  Turn  an 
object  in  the  hand,  or  the  hand  itself,  and  you  will  see  that  the  slight- 
est roughness  of  surface  is  clearly  visible  only  between  the  lightest  and 
darkest  places — i.  e.,  in  the  "  half  light."  Therefore,  in  finishing,  es- 
pecially, the  delicate  modeling  must  be  done  by  frequently  turning  the 
clay  or  moving  the  light,  so  as  to  work  on  the  "  half  light." 


CLAY  MODELING  FOR  KINDERGARTENS.  683 

3.     How  to  be  Neat  in  Clay  Work. 

Keep  the  hands  free  from  dry  clay  and  do  not  work  in  mud. 

Whenever  clay  begins  to  dry  on  the  hands,  wash  them  with  a  few 
rapid  sweeps  of  a  wet  sponge,  and  rinse  them  well  in  several  waters. 
This  will  keep  the  hands  soft.  Do  not  dry  them  on  a  dusty  towel.  If 
clay  dries  upon  the  hands  it  falls  at  every  movement,  and  gets  tracked 
about.  It  also  scatters  on  the  work  and  destroys  the  finish. 

Avoid  touching  the  clay  with  wet  hands,  as  that  makes  mud.  The 
finger  tips  are  sometimes  used  dry  and  sometimes  wet.  A  modeler 
generally  keeps  a  damp  sponge,  to  be  touched  by  the  tips  of  the  fingers 
and  the  tools. 

4.  What  kind  of  Tools  to  use. 

Use  the  largest  tool  that  is  fit  for  the  work.  In  modeling,  there 
can  be  only  three  kinds  of  surface  to  make,  viz. — Plane,  Convex, 
Concave,  and  their  combinations.  Any  tool  that  will  produce  a  given 
result  with  the  fewest  motions  of  the  hand  is  the  best  to  use.  Clay 
could  be  shaped  by  simply  pricking  and  scratching  it  with  a  point. 
But  as  such  a  point  would  be  the  least  effective  and  slowest  kind  of 
tool,  we  may  conclude  that,  to  accomplish  the  most  at  each  stroke,  the 
largest  tool  should  be  used.  It  is  the  knowledge  of  these  details  of 
manipulation  that  saves  the  learner  from  discouragement  or  loss  of 
time,  and  a  few  lessons  from  a  competent  teacher  may  do  much  to- 
wards starting  anybody  in  modeling,  and  removing  the  idea  that  great 
talent  is  required  to  become  an  expert  modeler. 

The  mere  practical  work  of  modeling  bears  much  the  same  relation 
to  sculpture  that  hand-writing  does  to  poetry.  Anybody  can  learn  to 
write,  sing,  draw  or  model,  and  yet  great  poets,  great  singers,  painters, 
or  sculptors  will  always  be  rare  in  the  world.  A  few  hundred  years 
ago  writing  was  as  much  a  separate  occupation  as  modeling  is  now. 

5.  The  Use  of  Plaster  Molds. 

If  there  is  a  wish  to  produce  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same,  form  in 
clay  several  times  over,  it  would  be  convenient  to  have  a  tool  so  shaped 
that  by  simply  pressing,  the  form  could  be  repeated.  Such  a  tool  is 
found  in  a  plaster  mold.  The  resources  for  accurate  scientific  study 
and  comparison,  and  the  various  practical  ways  of  utilizing  this  method 
of  work,  it  will  doubtless  take  years  to  develop. 

To  make  the  mold — (1.)  Surround  the  area  for  each  mold,  or 
piece  of  mold,  with  a  "  fence  "  of  clay  or  other  material.  (2.)  Spray 
it  with  a  solution  of  soap.  (3.)  Mix  plaster,  and  fill  the  space  so  pre- 
pared, and  in  half  an  hour  the  mold  can  be  used. 

For  modeling,  procure  clay  such  as  potters  use,  either  in  the  native 
State,  moistened  simply,  or  "  washed,"  by  mixing  it  to  a  thin  "  slip  " 
with  water,  and  letting  the  sandy  portion  settle,  when  the  clear  water 
can  be  run  off,  leaving  the  clay  fit  for  use. 

The  more  clay  is  worked  over  the  better ;  so  by  carefully  keeping  the 
scraps  and  dry  clay  very  clean,  to  be  put  in  water  and  used  again,  a 
few  cents  worth  of  clay  may  do  much  service. 


684  CLAY  MODELING  FOR  KINDERGARTENS. 

Keep  the  clay  in  anything  air-tight;  and  after  kneading  it  like 
dough,  it  is  always  ready  for  use. 

Finally  :  Never  destroy  your  work  when  you  are  tired,  nor  from  the 
disgust  which  comes  too  often  in  such  work  to  every  one ;  perhaps  as  a 
reaction  from  its  ennobling  and  intense  enjoyment. 

MORAL   AND   MENTAL   EFFECTS   OF   CLAY   MODELING. 

The  gardener  has  a  love  for  his  plants,  and  an  acquaintance  with 
them,  such  as  no  mere  visitor  to  his  garden  ever  can  enjoy. 

The  artisan  takes  pride  in  his  work,  and  feels  the  triumph  over 
matter  at  each  step  of  his  progress. 

The  artist  is  thrilled  with  a  glow  of  inspiration,  as  his  ideal  lives 
before  his  mental  eye,  and  his  hand  seems  about  to  give  expression  to 
that  ideal ;  and  while  he  has  a  work  on  hand,  nothing  to  him  is  so 
important.  Wherever  there  is  a  growth,  from  imperfect  to  perfect — 
from  beginning  to  end,  the  interest  is  kept  up,  and  where  such  growth 
is  the  result  of  mental  action,  as  it  is  in  skilled  labor,  the  interest 
seems  to  be  in  proportion  to  the  quality  of  the  mental  effort. 

In  fact  our  own  work  is  a  part  of  ourselves ;  and  as  the  bird  has  not 
the  feeling  for  some  other  nest  that  it  has  for  the  one  it  is  building, 
nor  such  care  for  other  eggs  as  for  those  in  its  nest,  nor  such  affection 
for  other  young  as  for  those  it  feeds,  so  there  is  that  powerful  love  of 
the  parents  for  their  children,  and  it  is  that  relation  of  parent  which 
the  producer  of  anything  bears  to  the  work  produced,  that  gives  much 
of  the  zest  to  the  work. 

How  wise  then,  for  educators  to  supply  the  conditions  for  those  rela- 
tions of  mental  and  physical  action  which  draw  out  the  powers  to 
their  best  results.  How  wise  to  let  the  little  hands  make  what  the 
mind  is  busied  with,  and  thus  fix  early  in  life  a  clear  understanding  of 
certain  fundamental  principles  of  the  properties  of  matter  and  our 
relations  to  it,  and  give  by  steps  of  prudent  length  an  assurance  of 
power  and  skill  to  do  good  honest  work,  and  a  love  for  it.  It  is  not  the 
theoretical  that  is  needed.  We  have  too  much  of  that  already — we  are 
talked  dry. 

History,  as  now  read  by  many,  proves  that  the  success  and  the  mas- 
tery reside  on  the  side  of  the  skillful  hand,  with  the  sound  practical 
judgment  and  common  sense  growing  out  of  experience.  After  a  gen- 
eration of  kindergartens,  I  believe  that  the  art  academies  would  begin 
instruction  when  now  they  give  diplomas  and  medals  to  "  those  who 
have  it  in  them,"  and  the  average  amateur  might  stand  on  the  level  of 
our  artists.  I  would  have  very  few  professional  artists,  but  I  would 
aim  at  universal  appreciation  for  their  works.  With  such  educational 
advantages  in  view,  the  question  of  children's  modeling  rightly  appears 
as  highly  important.  Two  or  three  repetitions  of  an  impression  are 
sometimes  enough  to  produce  a  habit  in  a  baby.  As  we  grow  older  we 
grow  more  slowly  and  are  dulled,  and  things  that  could  have  easily 
become  automatic  in  childhood,  are  only  learned  with  the  greatest 


CLAY  MODELING  FOR  KINDERGARTENS.  685 

pains.  For  instance,  many  are  rendered  clumsy  for  life  by  using  only 
the  right  hand.  Modeling  necessitates  a  skill  of  both  right  and  left, 
and  children  acquire  it  rapidly.  The  training  seems  also  to  lead  to 
appreciation  of  art  work,  and  it  is  my  happy  experience  that,  after 
twenty  years  with  children,  singly  and  in  large  companies  in  my  studio, 
with  hundreds  of  fragile  objects  all  about  the  place,  I  have  never 
known  of  a  child's  doing  the  least  damage,  while  grown  people  have 
meddled  with  and  broken  things.  I  believe,  moreover,  that  were  all 
children  trained  to  use  their  hands  in  such  work,  the  natural  respect 
could  be  increased  and  the  civilizing  influence  of  beautiful  and  delicate 
objects  would  be  known  in  our  cities  and  our  homes  even  still  more 
than  now  they  are  in  the  older  countries. 

"  The  moral  effect  of  this  occupation,  is  special,  the  yielding  nature 
of  the  clay  seems  to  develop  conscious  power,  to  prophecy  the  domin- 
ion over  material  nature,  commanded  in  the  morning  hymn  of  crea- 
tion, that  begins  the  bible ;  while  the  indestructibility  reveals  the 
inexorableness  of  law ;  truths  which  are  opposite  but  not  contradict- 
ory." Beginning  with  simple  known  forms,  every  day  objects,  pupils 
can  be  led  to  model  in  clay  a  connected  series  of  objects  to  illustrate 
natural  history,  and  finally,  the  unknown  and  inaccessible  things,  the 
furthest  out-reachings  beyond  our  limited  eyes  which  the  Scientist 
has  attained  through  the  telescope  or  the  microscope  which  bring  them 
to  broad  fields  of  interest  and  beauty.  Let  the  mind  be  filled  with 
lofty  themes  and  the  petty  details  of  life  become,  not  the  end  in  view, 
but  the  steps  upon  which  we  rise  to  higher  levels,  and  the  scholar 
finds  that  he  is  surrounded  by  pleasant  ways  leading  to  those  delights. 

Modeling  inexorably  combines  the  real  and  the  ideal,  those  extreme 
contrasts  whose  combination  makes  the  true  man.  For  modeling 
begins  in  the  ideal  which  moves  the  will,  the  will  being  kept  from 
transgressing  the  real  by  the  nature  of  the  material  upon  which  the 
instinct  acts. 

The  novelty,  as  to  the  mere  material  will  pass,  but  though  the 
worker  live  as  old  as  Michael  Angelo  or  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  the  en- 
thusiasm for  learning  will  never  pall. 

In  Frbbel's  system,  the  child  is  not  to  become  a  botanist,  a  geom- 
eter or  an  artist,  but  is  to  develop  toward  roundness  of  character  and 
general  preparation  for  life;  and  blocks,  clay,  paper,  thread,  sticks, 
pencils  and  paints  are  only  as  so  many  rounds  of  the  ladder.  There 
can  be  very  little  of  importance  done  as  free  modeling  in  the  kinder- 
garten or  school.  Sculpture  is  a  fine  and  subtle  art  which  even  the 
Greeks  could  not  exhaust.  Children  are  almost  sure  to  copy  or  adapt 
in  a  weakened  way,  and  unless  they  have  before  them  the  geometrical 
ideals  and  standards  they  become  vague  botchers  full  of  chagrin.  But 
neatness,  skill  in  controlling  both  hands,  and  a  knowledge  of  many 
properties  of  matter  can  very  easily  be  gained  by  all  children  through 
clay,  while  the  few  who  are  born  artists  will  expand  in  natural  growth 
from  the  beginning. 


FftEE  KINDERGARTEN  AND  WOKKINGMAN'S  SCHOOL, 

WOKK-EDUCATION  FOR  THE  WORKINGMAN. 
Supported  by  the  United  Relief  Works  of  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  Institution— of  which  the  Free  Kindergarten  located  (1881)  at  1521 
Broadway  (corner  of  45th  street)  is  the  first  grade— was  founded  in  1878 
by  the  New  York  Society  for  Ethical  Culture,  under  the  lead  of  Prof. 
Felix  Adler,  Ph.  D.,  as  a  model  of  the  instruction  which  can  be  and 
should  be  given  to  the  children  of  the  people — to  enable  them,  when  grown 
up  to  be  men  and  women,  to  help  themselves,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
give  the  dignity  of  intellectuality  to  labor,  and  to  workingmen  as  a  class. 
Prof.  Adler,  in  a  Discourse  before  the  Society,  in  October  1880,  and  in  a 
report  as  Director  of  the  Institution,  sets  forth  with  great  clearness  the 
aims  and  methods  of  its  founders,  and  from  these  documents  (a  well- 
printed  pamphlet  of  fifty-eight  pages,)  we  give  the  following  statement 

THE   INSTITUTION. 

The  workingman's  School  and  Free  Kindergarten  form  one  institution. 
The  children  are  admitted  at  the  age  of  three  to  the  Kindergarten.  They 
are  graduated  from  it  at  six,  and  enter  the  Workingman's  School.  They 
remain  in  the  School  till  they  are  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  of  age. 
Thereafter  those  who  show  decided  ability  receive  higher  technical  instruc- 
tion. For  the  others  who  leave  the  School  proper  and  are  sent  to  work,  a 
series  of  evening  classes  will  be  opened,  in  which  their  industrial  and 
general  education  will  be  continued  in  various  directions.  This  graduate 
course  of  the  "Workingman's  School  is  intended  to  extend  up  to  the 
eighteenth  or  twenty -first  year. 

THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN. 

The  characteristics  of  our  Free  Kindergarten  may  be  briefly  summarized 
as  follows : 

It  is  a  Kindergarten.  It  has  the  merits  which  belong  to  the  Kinder- 
garten system  generally.  It  is  a  Free  Kindergarten  for  the  poor,  that  is, 
it  brings  Kindergarten  education  to  the  poorest  class,  who  are  not  able  to 
pay  for  it  themselves.  It  has  the  negative  advantage  of  taking  little 
children  from  the  streets,  where  they  would  otherwise  be  exposed  to  bad 
companionship  and  pernicious  influences  of  every  kind.  If  it  accom- 
plished nothing  more  than  this,  our  Kindergarten  would  be  rendering  no 
little  service.  But  it  has  also  the  positive  merit  of  placing  the  poor  chil- 
dren under  the  best  educational  influence  which  modern  times  have  de- 
vised. It  is  moreover  the  first  step  in  a  rational  system  of  education. 
Kindergartens  exist  in  great  number.  But  a  very  large  part  of  their 
benefits  is  lost  because  the  rational  method  which  they  begin  is  not  fol- 
lowed up  in  the  later  education  of  the  child.  That  our  Kindergarten  is 


688  KINDERGARTEN  AND  WORKINGMAN'S  SCHOOL. 

connected  with  and  followed  by  a  Workingman's  School,  is  one  of  its 
characteristics  upon  which  I  lay  especial  stress.  Of  other  features  of  the 
Kindergarten,  I  mention  the  following: 

It  has  a  Normal  Glass  attached  to  it.  This  was  founded  by  and  is  in 
charge  of  the  Principal.  The  lady  pupils  of  the  Normal  Class  receive 
instruction  gratis  in  the  theory  and  art  of  Kindergartning.  In  return, 
they  devote  their  service  for  a  year  to  the  Kindergarten,  and  assist  in  its 
practical  management.  We  have  thus  every  year  a  corps  of  eight  or  nine 
Assistant-Kindergartners  supplied  to  us  by  the  Normal  Class. 

The  Kindergarten  has  a  Ladies'  Committee  directly  concerned  in  the 
care  of  it.  The  ladies  are  members  of  the  general  Executive  Committee, 
but  they  exercise  especial  watchfulness  over  the  pupils  of  the  Kinder- 
garten. It  is  their  duty  to  visit  the  home  of  every  applicant  for  admis- 
sion, in  order  that  we  may  be  sure  that  only  the  really  poor  are  taken  into 
our  Institution,  and  we  may  thus  be  protected  against  imposture.  The 
ladies  also  undertake  at  least  one  annual  visitation  of  all  the  families  con- 
nected with  the  Kindergarten,  in  order  to  foster  healthful  relations  between 
the  home  and  School. 

Warm  Luncheons  are  provided  for  the  children  daily  in  the  Kindergarten. 
The  little  children  often  came  to  us  hungry.  We  found  it  difficult  to 
give  them  instruction  on  an  empty  stomach.  A  Free  Kindergarten  for 
the  poor  must  look  to  the  bodily  wants  of  its  pupils  as  well  as  to  their 
milds.  Garments  and  shoes  are  also  distributed  among  the  children  by 
the  Ladies'  Committee,  whenever  cases  of  great  destitution,  such  as  often 
occur,  are  reported. 

The  results  already  achieved  by  our  Kindergarten  work  are  satisfactory. 
Children  came  to  us  who  could  not  smile ;  some  of  them  remained  for 
weeks  in  the  Kindergarten  before  they  were  seen  to  smile.  In  the  Kin- 
dergarten these  sad  little  faces  were  gradually  changed.  The  children 
were  taught  how  to  play;  they  learned  how  to  be  joyoua.  The  children 
came  to  us  unclean  in  everyway;  in  the  Kindergarten  they  are  made 
clean,  and  a  neat  appearance  and  habits  of  tidiness  are  insisted  upon. 
The  children's  minds  were  awakened;  their  faculties — physical  and  intel- 
lectual— were  developed.  And  here,  of  course,  the  degree  of  success 
achieved  in  each  individual  case  varied  with  the  natural  ability  of  the 
pupils.  Best  of  all,  a  powerful  moral  influence  has  been  brought  to  bear 
on  the  children  of  the  Kindergarten.  Even  the  fact  that  they  live  in  a 
little  children's  community,  and  are  compelled  to  submit  to  the  laws  of 
that  community,  is  important.  Then,  too,  direct  moral  suasion  is  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  children  by  their  teachers.  The  faults  of  each  child  are 
studied;  obstinacy  is  checked,  selfishness  is  put  to  the  blush,  and,  by  a 
firm,  yet  mild  treatment,  the  character  is  improved. 

THE  WORKINGMAN'S  SCHOOL. 

The  school,  in  which  work  will  constitute  an  essential  feature,  not  for 
Its  future  productive  value,  but  for  its  current  educative  influence,  was 
opened  in  February,  1880,  under  the  direction  of  G.  Bamberger,  a  native 
of  Hesse,  and  trained  in  the  best  methods,  of  which  it  is  the  aim  of  the 
founders  to  make  this  institution  a  model — "in  which  the  entire  svstem 


KINDERGARTEN  AND  WORKINGMAN'S  SCHOOL.  (589 

of  rational  and  liberal  education  for  the  children  of  the  poorer  class  might 
be  exhibited  from  beginning  to  end."  The  example,  "having  once  been 
set,  would  not  be  without  effect  upon  the  common  school  system  at  large," 
which  is  thought  by  the  projectors  (in  the  light  of  an  article  in  Harpers- 
Magazine  for  November,  1880),  not  to  be  altogether  satisfactory,  at  least  for 
those  who  are  to  get  their  living  by  the  labor  of  their  hands,  or  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  men  and  women  in  American  society.  Assisted  by 
the  munificent  gift  of  $10,000  from  Mr.  Joseph  Seligman,  the  "United 
Relief  Work  "  of  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  added  to  the  Free  Kin- 
dergarten, which  had  already  attained  to  seven  classes,  the  two  lower 
classes  of  the  Workingman's  School — composed  of  twenty-five  graduates 
of  the  Kindergarten.  The  Principal  (Mr.  Bamberger),  in  his  first  report 
at  the  Class  of  1880,  makes  a  statement,  of  which  the  following  are  par- 
agraphs: 

Our  School  is  to  consist  of  eight  classes,  of  which  two  are  now  in  opera- 
tion. The  scheme  of  studies  will  be  found  appended  at  the  close  of  the 
report.  It  embraces  four  hours'  instruction  weekly  in  the  use  of  tools, 
and  to  this  I  beg  leave  to  call  especial  attention. 

First,  we  begin  industrial  instruction  at  the  very  earliest  age  possible. 
Already  in  our  Kindergarten,  we  lay  the  foundation  for  the  system  of 
work  instruction  that  is  to  follow.  In  the  School  proper,  then,  we  seek 
to  bridge  over  the  interval  lying  between  the  preparatory  Kindergarten 
training  and  the  specialized  instruction  of  the  technical  school,  utilizing 
the  school  age  itself  for  the  development  of  industrial  ability.  This, 
however,  is  only  one  characteristic  feature  of  our  institution.  The  other, 
and  the  capital  one,  is,  that  we  seek  to  combine  industrial  instruction 
organically  with  the  ordinary  branches  of  instruction,  thus  using  it,  not 
only  for  the  material  purpose  of  creating  skill,  but  also  ideally  as  a  factor 
of  mind-education.  To  our  knowledge,  such  an  application  of  work- 
instruction  has  nowhere,  as  yet,  been  attempted,  either  abroad  or  in  this 
country. 

The  softest  wood  is  too  hard  for  the  delicate  fingers  of  children  seven 
years  old,  and,  moreover,  requires  the  use  of  heavy  and  sharp  tools,  such 
as  are  not  willingly  entrusted  to  little  ones  at  so  tender  an  age.  We 
finally  decided  to  use  clay.  Clay,  after  it  has  been  prepared  in  a  special 
way  for  this  purpose,  is  easy  to  cut  and  to  manipulate,  does  not  stick  to 
the  tool,  and  is  not  brittle  enough  to  break  and  crumble.  This  proved 
entirely  successful. 

A  complete  series  of  patterns  had  to  be  invented  which  might  be  worked 
by  young  pupils  out  of  this  material.  Thirty  such  patterns  have  been 
produced,  and  in  them  we  have  the  system  of  elementary  industrial  exer- 
cises, with  which  we  begin. 

[Not  having  the  use  of  the  illustrations  we  must  omit  in  this  place  the 
description  of  the  exercises.] 

By  means  of  a  simple  arrangement  the  school  desks  are  converted  into 
work-tables.  Every  child  is  supplied  with  a  set  of  cheap  and  suitable 
tools.  The  work  lessons  occur  in  the  afternoon  on  two  days  of  the  week, 
and  last  two  hours  each  time.  The  pupils  are  obliged  to  behave  as  quietly 
during  work  as  in  the  other  school  hours;  only  just  so  much  whispering 
is  permitted  as  is  necessary  for  the  requesting  and  rendering  of  necessary 
assistance.  We  endeavor  to  give  the  school-room  the  air  of  a  well-con- 
ducted workshop.  Each  pupil-workman  has  his  own  place  and  tools,  for 
which  he  is  held  responsible  so  far  as  possible.  All  begin  work  simultane- 
ously, and  stop  at  the  same  moment.  .  .  . 

44 


690  KINDERGARTEN  AND  WORKWOMAN'S  SCHOOL. 

These  exercises  possess  educational  value  in  many  different  ways,  and 
may  be  shown,  as  we  have  said  in  the  beginning,  to  be  in  close  connection 
with  many  branches  of  instruction,  and  with  the  collective  education  of 
the  pupils.  Instruction  in  drawing  must  of  necessity  go  hand  in  hand 
with  the  modelling.  What  is  drawn  here  is  manufactured  there,  and 
ttce  versa. 

Further,  the  rudiments  of  geometry  are  taught  by  means  of  this  work 
far  better  than  with  the  aid  of  mere  diagrams.  And  a  large  number  of 
definitions  and  propositions,  which  are  commonly  remembered  by  routine, 
are,  by  our  method,  demonstrated  to  the  eye,  and  thus  remain  stamped 
on  the  mind  forever. 

Knowledge  of  arithmetic  is  also  incidentally  acquired.  The  children 
learn  to  cipher  practically,  to  add  and  subtract,  to  read  the  figures  on  the 
scale,  to  divide  and  multiply  them  in  the  most  various  combinations. 

Even  certain  of  the  facts  of  natural  history  may  be  taught  in  connection 
with  the  work.  The  children  learn  to  know  the  material  which  they  are 
handling;  they  study  various  kinds  of  wood,  their  properties,  marks  of 
recognition  and  adaptation.  The  teacher  goes  back  to  the  tree  out  of 
which  the  wood  has  come,  and  explains  the  formation  of  the  annual  rings 
so  easily  perceptible  to  the  children.  They  are  taught  from  these  how  to 
determine  the  age,  quality,  and  value  of  the  wood.  Forms  of  nature, 
also,  are  actually  copied  in  wood,  clay,  and  plaster,  whenever  such  imita- 
tion is  possible;  and  when  it  is  not,  recourse  is  had  to  drawing. 

In  this  way  we  endeavor  to  make  work-instruction  contribute  towards 
the  general  development  of  the  child.  The  hand  is  educated  by  the  mind, 
the  mind  by  the  hand. 

What  further  advantages  does  the  introduction  of  this  species  of  work- 
instruction  offer?  A  great  moral  advantage,  besides,  the  purely  intellect- 
ual ones.  The  habit  of  working  together,  of  living,  as  it  were,  together, 
exercises  the  best  moral  influence.  At  an  age  when  they  are  most  sus- 
ceptible to  educational  influences,  the  children  learn  to  live  harmoniously 
in  social  groups,  and  become  accustomed  to  mutual  aid  and  support.  No 
individual  can  place  himself  above  another;  all  have  similar  duties,  equal 
rights,  equivalent  claims.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  false,  arti- 
ficial equality.  The  children  are  taught  from  the  beginning  the  necessity 
of  subordinating  themselves  to  the  more  able  and  skillful,  while,  warned 
by  their  own  failures,  they  learn  to  sympathize  with  the  weak  and  helpless. 

We  endeavor  to  teach  thoroughly,  whatever  branches  are  taught  in  our 
School  at  all.  We  teach  reading  according  to  the  synthetic  analytical 
method.  The  child  does  not  spell,  it  reads  phonetically,  and  what  it  has 
read  in  this  manner,  it  writes;  and  what  it  has  written  it  reads  again,  and 
understands.  The  reading  of  print  is  reserved  for  the  second  school  year. 
Why  should  we  begin  by  placing  two  difficulties,  two  alphabets,  in  the 
child's  way?  Why  should  children  be  taught  to  write,  or  rather  draw, 
printed  letters — characters  which  they  never  use,  and  which  only  serve  to 
render  the  hand  stiff  and  ungraceful? 

In  the  study  of  geography  we  pursue  the  method  that  has  proved  suc- 
cessful in  some  of  the  best  schools  abroad.  A  very  great  number  of  men 
and  women  live  in  astonishing  ignorance  of  their  immediate  vicinity. 
They  may  have  learnt  by  rote  to  repeat  the  names  of  distant  countries, 
the  capital  cities  of  those  countries,  the  size  of  the  population,  the  staple, 
products,  etc.,  but  of  real  geographical  knowledge  they  are  destitute 


KINDERQAKTEN  /ND  WORKINQMAN'S  SCHOOL.  691 

Our  pupils  are  taught,  in  the  first  instance,  how  to  make  diagrams  and 
maps  of  their  own  school-room,  of  the  streets  leading  to  their  several 
houses,  then  of  the  city  and  its  adjacent  territory,  etc.  They  are  thus 
led,  in  the  study  of  geography,  step  by  step,  to  practical  acquaintance 
with  what  is  unfamiliar  to  them  by  comparison  with  what  is  familiar. 
The  progress  is  logical — from  the  near  to  the  remote,  from  the  known  to 
the  unknown. 

In  the  teaching  of  history  to  these  young  children,  we  hold  it  essential 
that  the  teacher  should  be  entirely  independent  of  any  text-book,  and 
able  to  freely  handle  the  vast  material  at  his  disposal,  and  to  draw  from  it, 
as  from  an  endless  storehouse,  with  fixed  and  definite  purpose.  We 
attach  even  greater  importance  to  the  moral  than  to  the  intellectual  sig- 
nificance of  history.  The  benefits  whi^h  the  understanding,  the  memory, 
and  the  imagination  derive  from  the  study  of  history,  are  not  small.  But 
history,  considered  as  a  realm  of  actions,  can  be  made  especially  fruitful 
of  sound  influence  upon  the  active,  moral  side  of  human  nature.  The 
moral  judgment  is  strengthened  by  a  knowledge  of  the  evolution  of  man- 
kind in  good  and  evil.  The  moral  feelings  are  purified  by  the  abhorrence 
of  the  vices  of  the  past,  and  by  the  admiration  of  examples  of  greatness 
and  virtue. 

Instruction  in  the  system  of  duties  is  a  necessary  element  of  all  educa 
tion,  is,  indeed,  the  keystone  of  the  whole  arch  of  education,  without 
which  any  plan  of  studies  must  remain  essentially  incomplete.  We  pro- 
pose to  offer  such  instruction  to  our  pupils,  and  thus,  to  the  best  of  our 
ability,  to  round  off  the  scheme  of  their  education. 

Prof.  Adler,  in  the  Discourse  referred  to  in  the  opening  paragraph, 
thus  speaks  of  the  design  of  the  Workingman's  School  to  diffuse  sounder 
views  than  now  prevail  on  the  subject  of  equality  and  right. 

A  pauper  class  is  beginning  to  grow  up  among  us,  incapable  of  perma- 
nently lifting  themselves  to  better  conditions  by  their  own  exertions,  in- 
capable of  obtaining  the  satisfaction  of  their  most  natural  desires,  and 
only  rendered  the  more  dangerous  and  furious  by  the  sense  of  equality 
with  all  others,  with  which  our  political  institutions  have  inspired  them. 
If  the  evil  has  not  yet  become  so  aggravated  as  it  is  in  the  Old  World,  let 
us  utilize  the  time  of  respite  which  is  given  us  by  undertaking  earnest  and 
vigorous  measures  to  check  the  evil's  growth.  And,  of  all  these  possible 
measures  of  prevention,  a  suitable,  a  sensible  system  of  education  is 
assuredly  the  most  promising.  Let  us  use  what  influence  we  have  to  cor- 
rect the  false  idea  of  equality  which  is  everywhere  current  around  us. 
Let  us  teach  the  people  the  true  meaning  of  the  great  principle  of  equality 
— namely,  that  all  men  are  created  equal  in  respect  to  certain  fundamental 
rights,  such  as  liberty,  the  protection  of  the  person,  and  a  right  to  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,  but  that  there  is  by  no  means  equality  of  natural 
fitness  and  endowment,  and  that  the  offices  of  life  must  always  therefore 
be  unequally  divided.  Let  us  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  children 
that  the  business  of  life  will  always  be  carried  on  in  a  hierarchy  of  ser- 
vices, and  that  there  is  no  shame  in  doing  a  lesser  service  in  this  hierarchy; 
that  all  honor  accrues  to  us  only  in  doing  that  function  well  to  which  we 
are  committed,  and  taking  pride  and  finding  dignity  in  its  performance. 
And  to  enable  the  working  people  of  the  future  to  take  pride  and  find 
dignity  in  the  work  of  their  hands,  is  the  object  of  the  work  education 
which  we  are  seeking  to  introduce  into  our  school. 


ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR. 

READ  BY  PROF.  D.  BATCHELLOR,  OF  BOSTON,  BEFORE  THE  AMERICAN  FRSBEL 
UNION,  MARCH  1879. 

On  the  Use  of  Color  in  Teaching  Children  to  Sing. 


IN  our  day  there  is  a  growing  tendency  to  look  at  the  arts  and  sci- 
ences in  their  relation  one  to  another.  The  past  age  was  mainly  one 
of  analysis,  in  which  each  seeker  selected  his  own  special  study,  and 
directed  all  his  energies  to  find  out  the  truth  of  that  particular  thing. 
In  this  way,  a  vast  number  of  facts  were  observed,  and  underlying 
laws  brought  to  light.  The  work  is  not  by  any  means  complete,  and 
many  earnest  minds  are  still  following  up  the  separate  paths  of  scien- 
tific discovery.  But  from  the  treasures  already  lying  before  them,  some 
of  our  thinkers  are  now  trying  to  deduce  general  principles,  so  as  to 
arrive  ultimately  at  the  universal  truth,  of  which  all  created  things  are 
but  forms  of  expression. 

It  is  everywhere  seen  that  however  complicated  the  details  of  any  art 
may  be,  its  fundamental  laws  are  few  and  simple.  The  sculptor  finds 
that  beneath  all  the  manifold  changes  of  form,  there  can  be  but  three 
ultimate  principles ;  his  surfaces  must  be  either  convex,  concave,  or 
plane.  The  musician  may  exhaust  his  ingenuity  to  produce  the  most 
varied  musical  effects ;  but  all  possible  combinations  fall  back  upon 
three  tones,  and  these  at  last  merge  into  one — the  key-tone  of  music. 
The  painter  may  revel  in  endless  effects  of  shade,  tint,  and  hue ;  but 
they  are  all  based  upon  three  primary  colors,  and  indeed,  many  sup- 
pose these  to  be  only  different  degrees  of  one — the  primal  red. 

And  not  only  do  we  find  that  the  fundamental  principles  of  each  art 
are  few  and  simple,  but  we  also  begin  to  perceive  that  a  common  rela- 
tionship subsists  between  them — that  the  elements  of  one  are  mysti- 
cally joined  to  all.  No  one  art  stands  alone  and  separate  from  the 
rest,  for  each  is  allied  to  and  dependent  upon  the  others.  Just  as 
recent  discoveries  have  shown  that  there  is  no  clear  boundary  line  be- 
tween mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal  organizations,  so  if  we  look 
beneath  the  surface  and  study  deeply  into  any  art,  we  shall  find  it 
insensibly  blending  into  the  other  arts. 

This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  kindred  arts  of  music  and  paint- 
ing. Probably  there  are  not  many  persons  among  those  who  have 
given  the  subject  a  moment's  attention  but  do  somehow  feel  that  there 
is  a  mystic  relation  between  colors  and  tones.  It  is  true  that  their 
ideas  upon  the  subject  are  too  vague  and  shadowy  to  be  grasped  in 
thought ;  but  this  is  because  they  do  not  understand  the  relation  of 
either  tone  or  color  to  the  mind.  It  is  the  writer's  purpose  to  look  into 
the  matter  a  little  more  closely,  to  see  whether  this  general  conscious- 
ness is  confirmed  by  systematic  observation. 


ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR. 


693 


And  first  we  will  turn  our  attention  to  the  effect  which  musical  tones 
produce  upon  the  mind.  Music  has  been  well  defined  as  the  language 
of  emotion  ;  but  the  knowledge  of  how  and  why  it  appeals  to  the  emo- 
tions has  been  hitherto  confined  to  the  few  who  were  gifted  with  rare 
musical  insight,  and  even  in  their  case,  it  is  doubtful  if  it  has  not  been 
more  a  matter  of  intuition  than  of  understanding.  The  ordinary 
teaching  of  this  emotional  language  has  been  entirely  empirical,  being, 
in  its  earlier  and  more  important  stages,  a  stereotyped  routine  of  me- 
chanical drilling,  about  equally  wearisome  and  unprofitable.  The  phil- 
osophic method  of  instruction  would  be  to  find  out  the  central  fact  or 
root-principle  of  music,  and  then,  having  implanted  it  in  the  student's 
mind,  to  let  it  develop  itself  naturally,  taking  on  signs — i.  e.  notation — 
as  it  needed  visible  embodiment.  Instead  of  a  method  like  this,  the 
student  is  set  to  study  a  complicated  set  of  signs,  which  are  nothing, 
after  all,  but  the  accidental  surroundings  of  music. 

A  noble  exception,  however,  to  the  general  rule  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Tonic  Sol-fa  Method,  which  has  been  so  successful  in  England.  This 
system  from  the  beginning  and  throughout  clearly  sets  forth  the  fun. 
daraental  principle  of  key-relationship ; — i.  e.,  the  relation  which  each 
tone  of  the  scale  bears  to  its  key-tone.  The  thorough  application  of 
this  principle  led  to  another  very  interesting  discovery.  In  comparing 
these  tones  one  with  another,  and  observing  how  the  composers  used 
them  in  their  works,  the  tonic  sol-faists  found  that  each  tone  had  a 
distinct  character,  and  produced  an  impression  upon  the  mind  peculiar 
to  itself.  Thus  the  key-tone  gives  the  impression  of  firmness  and 
strength.  The  ear  is  filled  with  it  at  the  commencement;  we  want  to 
hear  it  frequently  in  the  course  of  the  music,  and  if  it  did  not  come  in 
at  the  close,  the  mind  would  be  kept  waiting  in  suspense  for  a  more 
restful  finish.  This  is  the  foundation  tone  of  musical  structure ;  but 
although  it  is  essential  to  every  tune,  and  lies  firmly  imbedded  in  the 
harmony,  it  does  not  necessarily  arrest  the  attention  of  the  listener. 
More  often,  like  the  strong  foundations  of  a  building  which  are  buried 
out  of  sight,  the  tone  produces  an  unconscious  impression  of  strength 
and  satisfaction.  This  strong  tone,  however,  is  quite  noticeable  in 
melodies  of  a  bold  character,  e.  g. : — 


3?=* 


cry 


breaks  forth  like       thun  -  der    roar. 


And  in  the  following  example  the  tone  happily  expresses  confident 
assurance : — 


know 


that       my        re     -      deem  -  er 


liv  -  eth. 


694 


ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR. 


The  fifth,  or  Dominant,  which  is  the  first  to  respond  to  the  call  of  the 
Tonic,  is  a  clear  ringing  tone,  and  generally  gives  the  impression  of 
joyous  activity.  In  this  respect  it  is  in  marked  contrast  with  the  firm 
repose  of  the  keytone.  The  following  illustration  from  Handel  shows 
the  bold  stirring  effect  of  the  fifth : — 


The     trum  -  pet       shall  sound. 

Or  for  a  clear  and  sweet  effect  take  this : — 


And     like          a       sil  -  ver  clar  -  ion    rung ! 

The  third,  or  Mediant,  is  of  an  altogether  different  type:  it  has 
neither  the  firm  strength  of  the  Tonic,  nor  the  ringing  clearness  of  the 
Dominant ;  but  is  distinguished  by  its  steady  calmness.  Its  peaceful 
effect  is  beautifully  shown  by  Mendelsshon  in  his  "  O  rest  in  the  Lord," 
the  spiritual  restfulness  of  which  is  due  largely  to  the  prominence 
given  to  this  tone. 

These  three  tones  form  a  harmonious  combination,  each  supplying 
something  which  the  others  lack,  and  altogether  making  a  perfect 
whole.  They  are  the  principal  constituents  of  the  scale,  and  serve  as 
points  of  support  upon  which  the  other  four  tones  may  lean.  But  al- 
though these  latter  are  dependent  in  their  nature,  each  has  a  distinct 
character  and  produces  its  own  impression.  For  instance,  the  second 
of  the  scale  is  of  a  hopeful  or  prayerful  character,  undecided  in  itself, 
but  finding  a  sweet  resolution  upward  into  the  third,  or  a  strong  reso- 
lution downward  into  the  keytone,  as  in  Pleyel's  German  Hymn : — 


Here  is  the  same  tone  in  a  higher  and  more  excited  strain : — 


With  shrill  notes         of       an    -    ger,        and   mor    -    tal          a  -  larms ! 

The  fourth  of  the  scale  is  an  awe-inspiring  tone,  and  takes  a  very 
prominent  position  in  the  solemn  Dead  March  in  Saul.  It  is  well 
suited  to  express  despondency  or  foreboding,  e.  g. : — 


ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOK. 


695 


-&—\ 


So  in     the       last     and     dread    -    ful     hour. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  capable  of  expressing  grand  outbursts  of  re- 
ligious enthusiasm,  and  there  are  some  fine  passages  of  this  nature  in 
the  Hallelujah  Chorus.  The  natural  resolution  of  this  tone  is  down- 
ward, into  the  peaceful  third. 

The  sixth,  when  taken  slowly,  is  expressive  of  wailing  sorrow,  and  it 
is  the  predominance  of  this  tone  which  gives  to  slow  minor  music  its 
peculiar  sadness.  Its  effect  may  be  seen  in  these  two  snatches  of 
melody : — 


0     * 

.  j  -  —  .  

*                         * 

J/  L-0  —  —•  

_                                    _A  v- 

~jr  jT  ]  9—  ;  —  •  1 

•rr)     L  £  

__*  J-^-J  ^_ 

—  j  —  Pv  —^  —  b*  —  5  —  1- 

By     the 

1  1  «  1  S  

sad       sea    waves,      I        lis  -  1 

-w  j    .    9*     m 

en  while  they  moan  A     la- 

U  , 

H  1             -N        1  IV 

==-         ^          .  3  1 

rrr~f— 

_H_ 

J^     *i       Ji 

v-y            I 

«l             9    .         ••         1     9          f 

ment 

o'er    graves  *     of           hope     ai 

id    pleas    -    ure    gone; 

* 

1     ]T~,  '7 

1^        1                FL      1 

S            H 

m                           i^          1          v  • 

*         H     H      p     m 

*        4     m                                ^     \ 

J  .. 

Fare  -  well,    ye  lim  -  pid  springs  and  streams,  fare  -  well ! 

The  seventh  is  a  sharp  piercing  tone  which  often  expresses  eager  de- 
sire, as  in  "Angels  ever  bright  and  fair"  and  in  "Waft  her,  angels." 
The  resolution  of  this  tone  is  strongly  upward,  into  the  key  tone. 

These  tonal  effects  can  only  be  very  imperfectly  stated  in  words: 
they  must  be  felt,  to  be  understood.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that 
they  only  hold  good  when  the  tones  are  taken  slowly,  and  in  key-rela- 
tionship. Then,  too,  they  are  subject  to  considerable  modification 
from  differences  of  pitch,  speed,  force,  grouping  and  harmony.  But 
notwithstanding  these  changes  of  mood,  they  never  lose  their  individ- 
ual character.  This  fact  is  kept  constantly  before  the  Tonic  Sol-fa 
students,  and  as  a  result,  they  are  able  not  only  to  sing  at  sight  with 
great  confidence,  but  also  instantly  to  recognize  the  tones  of  a  musical 
phrase  upon  hearing  it. 

Turning  now  to  the  colors  of  the  prism,  we  see  that  they  differ  in 
appearance,  and  that  they  do  not  all  produce  the  same  impression  upon 
the  mind.  The  first  difference  of  impression  which  we  perceive  is  that 
some  colors  are  suggestive  of  warmth,  others  of  coldness. 

Red,  for  instance,  is  par  excellence  the  warm  color.  It  is  the  color  of 
blood  and  of  fire ;  it  reminds  us  of  the  ripened  fruit,  blushing  under 
the  sun's  warm  kiss,  and  it  is  likewise  suggestive  of  the  rosy  cheek  of 
health.  Hence  red  is  associated  with  the  idea  of  warmth  and  strength. 

This  color  has  always  been  the  chosen  emblem  of  love ; — especially 


696  ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR. 

the  beneficent  love  of  the  Heavenly  Father,  or  that  which  most 
nearly  resembles  it, — maternal  love.  Conversely — for  each  color  has 
its  opposite  signification — red  expresses  vital  hatred  or  animal  passion. 

Blue,  on  the  contrary,  impresses  us  with  an  absence  of  warmth. 
Look  at  the  cheeks  and  hands  of  a  shivering  child,  and  you  will  observe 
a  blue  tinge  struggling  with  the  natural  red,  which  indicates  a  lack  of 
vital  warmth.  Doubtless  we  have  all  experienced  a  chilling  sensation 
upon  the  receipt  of  bad  news,  and  we  all  know  the  vulgar  idiom  which 
describes  such  a  check  upon  the  vital  energies  as  "  a  fit  of  the  blues." 
Similarly  a  lack  of  generous  vital  impulse  is  implied  by  the  express- 
ions "  blue-stocking,"  "  blue-spectacles,"  "  blue-laws",  etc.  Some  such 
feeling  as  this  must  have  actuated  the  barbarous  people  who  stained  the 
bodies  of  those  whom  they  intended  to  offer  as  sacrifices  with  blue. 
We  find  also  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  represented  the  disembodied 
soul  as  of  this  color. 

Apart  from  human  associations,  blue  impresses  the  mind  with  a 
sense  of  clearness  and  distance.  It  is  the  color  of  the  atmosphere,  and 
carries  the  vision  away  into  boundless  space;  hence  it  is  the  emble- 
matic color  of  eternity.  Blue  has  always  been  regarded  as  bearing  a 
relation  to  the  intellectual  side  of  human  emotion.  In  sacred  symbol- 
ism it  is  the  emblem  of  Divine  Truth. 

Yellow  is  the  medium  between  these  extremes.  It  has  neither  the 
warmth  and  strength  of  red,  nor  the  clear  coldness  of  blue ;  but  it 
forms  the  bond  of  union  between  the  two  opposites.  Yellow  is  ex- 
pressive of  softness  and  gentleness,  and  when  it  deepens  into  golden,  is 
emblematic  of  moral  excellence ;  hence  in  mediaeval  paintings  and  illu- 
minations, the  saints  are  represented  with  a  golden  halo  around  their 
heads,  and  in  the  MSS.  the  name  of  God  is  inscribed  in  letters  of  gold. 
In  its  bad  sense  yellow  signifies  spiritual  apostasy.  Hence  we  find 
that  at  one  time  in  some  European  countries,  the  Jews  were  obliged  by 
law  to  wear  a  yellow  badge,  and  Judas  Iscariot  is  often  represented  as 
wearing  a  garment  of  that  color.  This  reminds,  us  that  even  to  the 
present  day  English  convicts  who  have  attempted  to  make  their 
escape  enjoy  the  distinction  of  a  yellow  suit  of  clothes,  and  are  popu- 
larly known  as  "  canary-birds." 

Having  proceeded  thus  far,  let  us  review  the  ground  over  which 
we  have  passed.  We  have  seen  not  only  that  music  makes  a  general 
impression  upon  the  mind,  but  that  each  tone  of  the  scale  differs  in 
character  from  the  others,  and  impresses  us  in  a  way  peculiar  to  itself. 
We  have  seen  also  that  the  colors  of  the  spectrum  produce  mental  im- 
pressions, differing  in  kind  one  from  another.  It  now  becomes  an 
interesting  inquiry  whether  these  tone  and  color  impressions  are  of 
the  same  nature  ;  and  if  so,  where  they  coincide. 

That  the  mental  effects  of  the  two  things  are  similar  may  be  argued 
from  the  almost  universal  consciousness  of  a  hidden  sympathy  between 
them.  We  observe  too  that  the  technical  terms  of  the  one  art  are  con- 


ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR.  697 

stantly  running  into  those  of  the  other.  Thus  while  the  painter  uses 
such  expressions  as  tone  and  harmony  in  connection  with  his  art,  the 
musician  constantly  speaks  of  chromatic  tones,  color  effects,  light  and 
shade,  and  so  forth.  This  tendency  to  confound  the  art-terms  has 
sometimes  been  condemned  by  purists ;  but  it  is  a  natural  and  almost 
necessary  way  of  describing  impressions  which  are  so  nearly  alike  in  the 
mind.  Indeed  the  more  we  turn  our  attention  to  this  subject,  the  more 
evident  becomes  the  analogy  between  tone  and  color. 

Although  we  are  not  discussing  the  matter  upon  its  physiological  side, 
it  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  glance  at  a  few  points  of  agreement  in  this 
direction.  Observe,  then,  that  the  tone  and  color  scales  resemble  each 
other  in  their  origin, — both  being  simply  forms  of  motion.  In  the  one 
case,  the  waves  of  motion  fall  upon  the  ear,  through  which  channel  they 
are  conveyed  to  the  brain,  and  mysteriously  produce  the  sensation 
which  we  call  sound  ;  in  the  other,  the  exceedingly  minute  and  rapid 
waves  strike  the  eye,  and  being  through  that  medium  carried  to  the 
brain,  cause  the  sensation  of  light  or  color.  Further  than  this,  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  himself  pointed  out  that  the  relative  length  of  the  sound 
waves  in  the  tone  scale  was  exactly  proportioned  to  the  relative  length 
of  the  light  waves  in  the  color  scale.  One  striking  point  of  difference 
is  that  whereas  we  can  hear  several  octaves  of  tones,  we  cannot  see  one 
full  octave  of  color,  the  eye  stopping  short  at  violet,  instead  of  seeing 
through  crimson  to  the  higher  red.  But  this  discrepancy  may  be  more 
apparent  than  real.  It  only  proves  that  the  ear  has  a  more  extended 
range  of  faculty  than  the  eye.  Now  it  is  known  that  we  can  only  see  a 
small  portion  of  the  rays  of  the  prism ;  far  down  below  the  deepest  red 
extends  a  series  of  invisible  rays,  called  thermal  or  heat  rays ;  and  far  more 
the  violet  extend  other  invisible  rays,  whose  presence  is  demonstrated 
by  their  chemical  action.  In  this  wide  range  there  is  room  enough  for 
several  octaves  of  color.  And  in  proof  that  the  colors  do  not  end 
abruptly  at  the  point  where  they  become  invisible  to  the  eye,  it  is  well 
known  that  under  favorable  conditions  we  see  a  deeper  shade  of  red 
and  brighter  tint  of  violet.  Then  there  are  some  persons  who  claim 
that  they  are  able  to  see  not  only  crimson  and  a  finer  grade  of  red 
beyond  the  violet,  but  also  a  whole  octave  of  color  of  exquisite  fineness 
and  beauty.  If  this  ever  comes  to  be  substantiated  by  more  delicate 
scientific  methods  it  will  establish  another  beautiful  point  of  agreement 
between  tone  and  color. 

But  passing  by  these  physical  analogies,  we  will  consider  the  matter 
from  a  psychological  point  of  view.  And  first  we  find  that  just  as  we 
distinguish  out  of  the  indefinite  gradation  of  sounds  a  scale  of  seven 
distinct  tones,  so  we  are  conscious  of  seven  definite  colors  amid  the 
blending  hues  of  the  spectrum  ;  and  if  we  take  into  account  the  inter- 
mediate hues,  we  find  that  they  have  their  counterpart  in  the  chromatic 
semitones. 

Now  let  us  compare  the  base 'of  the  spectrum,  which  is  red,  with  the 


698  ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR. 

first  tone  of  the  musical  scale.  We  have  seen  that  the  mental  impres- 
sion which  the  key  tone  makes  is  that  of  firmness  and  strength.  We 
saw  also  that  the  color  red  gave  the  impression  of  warmth  and  strength 
and  so  was  allied  to  the  most  vital  of  our  emotions — love  and  hate.  It 
is  worthy  of  note  that  while  in  music  we  have  a  constant  tendency  to 
fall  back  upon  the  key-tone  for  satisfaction,  the  poets  in  their  word 
picturing  use  red — or  colors  which  partake  of  red,  such  as  rosy,  crimson, 
purple,  etc., — far  more  frequently  than  blue  or  green.  And  in  proof 
that  this  is  based  upon  a  natural  instinct,  we  find  on  the  one  hand  that 
as  a  rule  very  little  children,  and  also  savages,  first  distinguish  and 
take  delight  in  red  color  ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  a  tune  to  be  really 
popular  with  the  uneducated  class  of  people,  must  be  of  a  simple 
character,  and  must  give  special  prominence  to  the  key-tone.  As  good 
illustrations,  we  may  refer  to  two  songs,  very  different  in  character, 
and  yet  having  this  strong  and  popular  element  in  common  :  the  first  is 
that  famous  German  war-cry,  "  The  Watch  by  the  Rhine,"  and  the 
other  well  known  revival  tune,  "  Hold  the  Fort."  * 

Surely  enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  emotional  connection  be- 
tween Red,  the  foundation  of  the  color  scale,  and  Doh,  the  foundation 
tone  of  the  sound  scale.  Both  tone  and  color  evidently  make  a  strong 
appeal  to  our  vital  emotion. 

Let  us  next  compare  blue  with  the  fifth  tone  of  the  scale.  It  was 
seen  that  this  tone  had  not  the  strength  and  restfulness  of  the  key 
tone ;  but  that  it  possessed  considerable  brightness  and  vigor.  Its 
essential  characteristic  is  a  clear  ringing  effect,  which  often  suggests 
the  idea  of  going  to,  or  coming  from,  a  distance.  Hence  it  is  used  by 
Handel  in  such  passages  as  these,  "  The  trumpet  shall  sound,"  "  Their 
sound  is  gone  out,"  "  Arise,  shine,"  etc.  So  much  for  the  tone  ;  now 
for  the  color.  In  blue  we  noticed  an  absence  of  that  vital  warmth 
which  characterized  the  red.  It  is  clear,  and  often  gives  the  impression 
of  being  much  farther  off  than  it  really  is.  This  illusion  is  very 
effective  in  a  picture,  where  some  object  stands  in  relief  against  a  dis- 
tant background  of  blue ;  or  it  is  perhaps  even  more  striking  in  a  stained 
glass  window,  where  a  figure  is  set  in  a  background  of  blue  glass, 
which  appears  to  retire  and  leave  the  form  standing  prominently  forth. 
From  the  same  cause  the  effect  is. incongruous  when  patches  of  trans- 
parent blue  form  part  of  the  figure  itself.  Doubtless  this  effect  of  dis- 
tance is  due  to  the  fact  that  blue  is  the  color  of  the  boundless  firmament 
and  that  all  distant  objects  have  a  bluish  tinge. 

Now  here  again  is  a  close  agreement  between  tone  and  color  impres- 
sions. Each  of  these  seems  to  provide  a  bright  outlook  for  the  mind, 
and  to  excite  the  imagination,  which  may  be  called  the  poetry  of  thought ; 
we  therefore  regard  them  as  motors  of  the  intellectual  emotions. 

We  have  now  to  compare  yellow  with  the  third  tone  of  the  scale. 

*The  rhythmic  movement  is  an  important  factor  in  popular  tunes  ;  but  to  speak  of 
that  here  would  carry  us  away  from  our  present  subject. 


ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR.  690 

Remember  that  yellow  or  gold  bears  the  signification  of  spiritual  excel- 
lence. This  is  possibly  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  the  color  is  associated 
with  the  sun,  which  in  the  early  ages  was  worshiped  as  the  chief 
divinity  among  the  hosts  of  heaven.  Bear  in  mind  also  that  the  tone 
is  of  a  calm,  peaceful  nature,  and  although  it  fails  to  give  the  strong 
satisfaction  of  the  keytone,  it  produces  a  feeling  of  spiritual  restfulness 
which  makes  it  beautifully  appropriate  in  such  music  as  Mendelssohn's 
"  O  rest  in  the  Lord,"  and  "  Consolation."  Here  once  more  we  trace  a 
sympathy  between  the  tone  and  color,  both  of  which  appeal  to  our 
moral  or  religious  emotions. 

But  now  let  us  group  these  tones  together,  and  compare  the  effect 
with  that  of  the  grouped  colors.  It  is  well  known  that  the  1st,  3rd, 
and  5th  of  the  scale  sounded  together  produce  perfect  harmony ;  they 
constitute  the  fundamental  chord  upon  which  all  the  other  chords  de- 
pend. It  is  equally  well  known  that  red,  yellow,  and  blue  form  an 
harmonious  combination  which  is  more  used  in  decorative  art  than  any 
other  color  grouping. 

Again,  if  we  place  red  (not  scarlet)  and  blue  together,  the  effect  is 
not  altogether  pleasing.  The  colors  agree  perfectly,  but  we  are  left  with 
a  sense  of  something  wanting.  In  like  manner  the  keytone  and  its 
fifth  when  sounded  together  are  perfectly  concordant;  and  yet  they 
produce  a  hard,  bare  effect,  which  is  carefully  avoided  by  musicians. 
But  place  yellow  with  the  red  and  blue,  or  add  the  third  of  the  scale  to 
the  other  tones,  and  in  each  case  a  feeling  of  relief  and  pleasure  is  the 
result.  This  opens  up  an  interesting  psychological  study.  It  reminds 
us  that  a  person  with  developed  vital  and  intellectual  powers,  but  desti- 
tute of  moral  feeling,  would  hardly  be  a  satisfactory  bosom  companion. 
At  the  best,  it  could  only  be  a  beautiful  Undine  before  she  had  found 
her  soul.  Add  the  moral  feeling,  and  we  get  a  complete  human  nature. 

One  more  analogy  between  the  two  groups  may  be  noticed.  In  the 
chord  we  can  double  either  the  root  or  its  fifth  with  advantage,  as  a 
reinforcement  of  the  root  adds  to  its  strength,  and  an  additional  fifth 
imparts  brightness ;  but  a  doubling  of  the  third  is  generally  unsatis- 
factory, too  much  sweetness  without  sufficient  strength  and  crispness 
making  the  chord  sound  effeminate.  A  corresponding  effect  is  seen  in 
the  colors.  To  produce  the  most  pleasing  effect,  there  must  be  more  of 
red  and  blue  than  of  yellow ;  if  the  latter  color  preponderates,  the 
effect  is  somewhat  sickly. 

The  foregoing  analogies  will  suffice  for  our  purpose.  If  we  have 
succeeded  in  showing  that  a  natural  connection  exists  between  the  first, 
third,  and  fifth — the  most  prominent  constituents — of  these  two  scales, 
there  is  a  strong  presumption  that  the  other  colors  and  tones  will  also 
correspond.  Further  research  tends  to  strengthen  this  belief,  and  we 
are  at  last  brought  to  the  conviction  that  the  tone  and  color  scales  are 
but  two  modes  of  expressing  one  and  the  same  great  truth.  This 
result  is  just  what  we  might  have  expected,  for  all  the  discoveries  of 


700  ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOK. 

science  are  leading  to  a  grand  centralization.  Amid  the  endless  variety 
of  created  things,  there  are  unmistakable  traces  of  a  wondrous  unity, 
and  we  are  beginning  to  understand  how  at  the  foundation  of  all  there 
is  "one  God,  one  law,  one  element." 

But  what  is  the  practical  outcome  of  this  inquiry?  Granting  that 
the  tones  and  colors  do  produce  similar  impressions  upon  the  mind, 
can  this  fact  be  turned  to  account  in  the  education  of  the  children  ? 
Yes.  Let  the  two  things  be  made  mutually  interpreting.  The  eye 
and  ear  are  the  chief  avenues  through  which  the  mind  is  impressed ; 
of  these,  the  eye  takes  in  the  wider  range,  but  the  ear  is  the  more 
profound,  and  the  tone  impressions  stir  us  most  deeply.  The  fable  of 
Orpheus  making  all  things  dance  to  the  music  of  his  lute  embodies  a 
truth.  It  is  a  childlike  way  of  showing  what  a  moving  power  lies  in* 
harmonious  sounds.  See  how  a  concourse  of  people  will  listen  with 
breathless  attention  to  the  tones  of  a  sweet  singer;  or  again  how  the 
tired  soldiers  on  their  forced  marches  will  pluck  up  their  drooping 
spirits  and  step  forward  with  renewed  energy  as  the  strains  of  martial 
music  fall  upon  their  ears.  See,  too,  how  the  practised  orator  can  move 
the  vast  audience  to  laughter  or  to  tears  with  the  tones  of  his  voice.  And 
this  suggests  the  remark  that  we  are  probably  not  aware  how  much 
our  opinions  of  people  are  influenced  by  their  manner  of  speaking.  It 
has  been  noticed  that  the  blind  often  form  a  truer  estimate  of  a  per- 
son's character  than  those  who  have  the  advantage  of  sight,  because 
their  sense  of  hearing  is  more  highly  developed,  and  they  have  learned 
to  trust  it  implicitly.  For  the  same  reason,  they  probably  have  a  more 
exquisite  enjoyment  of  music  than  we  can  have.  Our  nearest  approach 
to  it  is  when  we  close  our  eyes  and  give  ourselves  up  to  the  captivat- 
ing influence  of  sweet  sounds.  We  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon 
this  point  for  the  reason  that  it  is  so  generally  misunderstood.  Because 
sight  is  the  more  obvious,  and  also  is  educated  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  sense  of  hearing,  we  are  apt  to  form  an  unworthy  estimate  of  the 
latter,  and  to  ignore  its  wonderful  possibilities  of  improvement. 

The  sound  impressions  are  deeper,  and  therefore  more  difficult  to 
grasp,  than  the  sight  impressions.  Children  generally  learn  to  distin- 
guish between  colors  before  they  can  catch  and  reproduce  different 
tones  of  the  scale.  A  visit  to  the  Kindergarten  will  make  this  plain. 
There  it  will  be  found  that  while  the  color  sense  in  the  youngest  child- 
ren is  well  developed,  the  tone  sense  is  very  imperfect.  Now  if  it  were 
simply  a  question  of  later  growth  this  early  imperfection  would  not 
matter  much ;  but  the  evil  is  that  many  people  have  to  go  through  life 
with  what  is  called  "no  ear  for  music,"  and  all  for  want  of  early  cul- 
ture. Of  a  truth  there  is  an  urgent  demand  for  better  educational 
methods  of  ear-training. 

The  chief  difficulty  lies  in  the  abstract  nature  of  sound.  Children 
learn  the  properties  of  things  by  seeing  and  handling  them  ;  but  tones 
are  neither  visible  nor  tangible,  therefore  it  is  necessary  to  represent 


ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR.  701 

them  by  signs  or  notation.  But  the  ordinary  symbols  which  are  used 
to  indicate  tones  are  entirely  arbitrary,  having  no  natural  relation  to 
the  thing  symbolized.  The  notes  on  the  staff,  for  instance,  only  vaguely 
indicate  that  one  tone  is  higher  or  lower  than  another,  but  show  noth- 
ing of  its  character.  Dr.  Lowell  Mason  found  the  written  signs  of 
music  so  devoid  of  suggestion  as  to  the  real  character  of  the  tones 
that  he  once  expressed  a  wish  that  the  children  could  be  blindfolded 
while  they  were  learning  to  sing  the  scale.  Where  the  eye  receives  an 
impression  at  variance  with  the  ear,  this  would  certainly  be  an  advant- 
age ;  but  a  better  plan  would  be  to  engage  the  eye  in  sympathy  with 
the  ear,  i.  e.,  to  use  symbols  which  would  naturally  suggest  the  thing 
symbolized.  This  has  to  some  extent  been  done.  Mr.  Cur  wen,  the 
founder  of  the  Tonic  Sol-Fa  school  of  music,  prepared  a  chart  called 
the  "  Modulator,"  which  shows  exactly  the  position  of  the  tones  in  the 
scale,  and  the  relation  of  the  different  keys  one  to  another.  This  is 
a  great  improvement  upon  the  staff,  with  its  complicated  system  of 
sharps  and  flats  ;  but  still  it  fails  to  represent  the  mental  effect  of  the 
tones.  Another  advance  was  made  when,  in  a  happy  moment  of  inspi- 
ration, Mr.  Curwen  conceived  the  idea  of  representing  the  tone-charac- 
ters by  hand  signs.  In  this  way,  the  strong  effect  of  the  key-tone  is 
represented  by  the  firmly  closed  hand ;  the  hopeful  second,  by  the  up- 
turned hand ;  the  peaceful  third,  by  the  open  hand  with  palm  down- 
ward, as  if  in  pacification ;  the  solemn  fourth  with  its  leaning  tendency 
to  the  third,  by  the  forefinger  pointing  downward ;  the  clear  open  fifth, 
by  the  extended  open  hand  turned  sideways ;  the  sorrowful  sixth,  by 
the  hand  drooping  from  the  wrist ;  and  the  sharp  aspiring  seventh,  by 
the  forefinger  pointing  upward.  The  success  which  has  attended  the 
use  of  these  simple  manual  signs  has  been  very  marked.  By  means  of 
them  any  succession  of  tones  can  be  sung  by  a  large  number  of  persons, 
at  the  will  of  the  hand  performer,  and  many  a  tune  has  been  dictated 
and  sung  in  this  way.  But  however  great  their  advantage  as  a  means 
of  instruction,  or  for  social  recreation,  of  course  they  cannot  be  used 
as  a  written  notation. 

It  is  here  that  we  can  make  a  practical  application  of  the  tone  and 
color  relations  by  using  a  color  symbol  to  represent  its  related  tone. 
Thus  red  stands  for  the  keytone ;  orange  for  the  second :  yellow  for  the 
third,  and  so  on  through  the  scale.  Even  as  arbitrary  symbols  they 
would  have  one  great  advantage  over  other  arbitrary  symbols,  viz. : — 
that  children  take  a  natural  delight  in  colors,  and  so  their  sympathies 
would  be  enlisted  on  behalf  of  this  notation.  But  when  we  add  to 
this  the  suggestiveness  of  the  color  symbols,  their  value  will  be  recog- 
nized by  all  who  are  interested  in  educational  methods. 

We  have  now  to  say  a  few  words  about  the  working  of  this  color- 
tone  method  in  the  Kindergarten.  Not  that  this  is  to  be  considered  by 
any  means  as  a  complete  account  of  the  children's  musical  exercises, 
for  in  that  case  considerable  space  would  be  required  to  explain  the 


702  ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR. 

subject  of  rhythm,  which  constitutes  the  chief  part  of  their  earlier 
training.  We  pass  this  subject,  not  as  unimportant  in  its  place,  but  as 
not  essential  to  a  proper  understanding  of  tone  and  color  relations. 

In  teaching  the  elements  of  tune,  the  children  are  led  to  listen  to  the 
keytone,  its  fifth  and  third ;  and  to  notice  how  very  different  they  are 
in  character,  and  yet  how  well  they  agree  together.  Next,  upon  any 
keytone  being  given,  they  will  produce  its  fifth  and  third.  After  this 
is  done  readily,  they  are  expected  to  tell  the  name  of  any  one  of  these 
tones  upon  hearing  it  sung  or  played.  To  assist  them  in  their  study  of 
the  tones,  the  children  have  the  hand-signs,  and  the  sol-fa  names,  as  used 
by  the  Tonic  Sol-faists. 

Their  first  association  of  tone  and  color  is  by  means  of  the  colored 
balls.  It  is  very  interesting  to  the  children  to  discover  that  their 
familiar  playthings  have  a  new  meaning.  The  red,  yellow,  and  blue 
balls  can  be  personified  as  robin,  canary,  and  bluebird;  and  little 
musical  games  may  be  made  up,  so  as  to  present  the  tones  in  many 
ways,  thus  constantly  deepening  their  impression.  The  children  are 
then  taught  to  associate  them  with  other  objects  of  the  same  color,  and 
afterwards  to  see  them  arranged  in  their  order  upon  the  color  chart.  In 
the  rhythmic  exercises  which  precede  this,  the  comparative  length  of 
tones  has  been  learnt  in  connection  with  lines  or  sticks  of  different 
lengths.  Now  we  combine  these  two  forms  of  notation,  color  and 
length,  i.  e. — we  use  colored  lines,  by  which  means  time  and  tune  can 
be  represented  in  one  symbol.  When  the  tones  have  become  familiar 
in  connection  with  the  color  chart,  the  teacher  with  colored  crayons 
writes  down  a  fragment  of  melody  upon  the  blackboard.  First,  the 
children  go  through  with  the  rhythmic  form,  using  a  set  of  simple 
time-names  for  the  purpose,  then  sing  through  the  tones  slowly,  and 
lastly  sing  in  correct  time  and  tune,  thus  getting  their  first  idea  of  the 
construction  of  melody.  They  are  now  provided  with  colored  sticks  or 
narrpw  strips  of  card,  and  upon  a  given  rhythmic  form  set  to  invent  a 
line  of  melody.  Then  "  the  concert "  begins,  in  which  each  child  in 
turn  sings  his  own  composition,  the  teacher  sometimes  pointing  out  a 
fault,  or  suggesting  an  improvement. 

When  the  foundation  is  securely  laid  with  these  three  tones,  the  de- 
pendent tones  are  introduced  in  their  order,  until  the  scale  is  complete. 
The  mental  effect  of  the  tones  is  then  studied  more  thoroughly,  and 
the  children — whose  perceptive  faculties  are  now  more  alive — constantly 
discover  fresh  characteristics  in  them.  Of  course  various  means  have 
to  be  employed  to  give  the  tones  a  sort  of  personal  reality.  Of  these, 
the  children  take  most  interest  in  what  is  called  "  The  Musical  Family." 
We  have  already  discovered  that  some  of  the  tones  seem  masculine 
while  others  by  their  comparative  gentleness  seem  feminine,  and  we 
now  decide  that  they  shall  be  grouped  into  a  family.  The  children 
have  generally  worked  out  the  idea  as  follows :— Don  is  the  father ;  he 
is  a  strong,  self-reliant  man  with  a  firm  and  full  voice.  ME  is  the 


ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOK.  703 

,  because  she  is  so  gentle  and  full  of  sympathy.  Son,  the  eldest, 
son,  is  a  young  man  of  joyous  disposition,  with  a  clear  ringing  voice. 
FAH  is  the  younger  brother,  but  not  at  all  like  Son,  for  he  is  of  a  seri- 
ous disposition,  and  often  has  turns  of  gloomy  despondency ;  though 
he  sometimes  gets  roused  into  grand  outbursts  of  religious  enthusiasm. 
He  is  very  fond  of  sacred  music ;  but  we  like  him  best  because  he 
shows  such  a  constant  attachment  to  his  mother  ME.  LAH,  the  eldest 
daughter,  is  often  found  in  a  sad,  complaining  mood,  and  shows  more 
tendency  to  tears  than  to  smiles ;  but  she  is  apt  at  times  to  swing  off 
into  the  opposite  extreme  of  yaiety.  There  is  considerable  sympathy 
between  her  and  her  brother  FAH  ;  she  lacks  his  intensity  of  character, 
but  in  his  company  generally  shows  to  good  advantage,  being  then  full 
of  sweet  seriousness.  The  younger  sister,  RAY,  is  of  a  hopeful,  confid- 
ing nature,  and  it  is  beautiful  to  see  with  what  tender  affection  she 
turns  to  her  mother  ME,  or  with  what  confident  assurance  she  goes  to 
her  father  Don.  Let  it  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  she  has  a  weak  or 
vacillating  nature,  for  when  the  occasion  calls  for  .it,  she  can  rouse  us 
with  terrible  earnestness.  There  is  one  member  of  the  family  not  yet 
introduced,  and  that  is  the  baby  TE  (£t).  The  chief  things  that  strike 
us  about  this  little  fellow  are  his  shrill  voice,  and  the  habit  he  has  of 
continually  crying  after  his  father  Don.  This  baby  is  a  great  favorite. 

By  such  methods  as  this  the  children  learn  to  distinguish  very  readily 
between  the  different  tones  of  the  scale,  and  they  soon  gain  the  power 
of  singing  them  at  sight,  as  well  as  of  recognizing  them  by  ear.  In  their 
ear  exercises  they  first  learn  to  distinguish  any  one  tone,  then  two  or 
three  tones  in  succession,  and  from  that  they  are  soon  able  to  name  all 
the  tones  in  a  line  of  melody  which  is  sung  to  them.  Their  answers 
may  be  given  either  in  the  tone  names,  by  the  hand-signs,  or,  if  they  are 
able,  by  writing  on  the  blackboard,  while  the  others  watch  carefully  for 
the  chance  of  a  mistake. 

Their  construction  exercises  in  rhythm  and  melody  now  become 
more  elaborate,  and  they  are  led  to  see  the  relation  which  one  phrase 
should  bear  to  another.  After  they  can  produce  two  lines  which  agree 
well  together  they  may  attempt  four,  and  so  make  complete  tunes. 
They  receive  help  in  this  direction  by  each  in  turn  standing  out  before 
the  others,  and  dictating  exercises  with  the  hand-signs. 

The  introduction  of  harmony  marks  a  distinct  advance  in  musical 
education,  and  requires  care  on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  The  children 
find  the  compound  impression  of  hearing  two  tones  together  rather  per- 
plexing. The  teacher  prepares  them  to  hold  their  own  part  side  by  side 
with  another  part  by  dividing  them  into  two  groups,  and  getting  some 
to  sing  the  tones  which  he  indicates  with  his  right  hand,  while  others 
sing  to  his  left  hand-signs.  He  thus  drills  them  upon  strong  fifths, 
sweet  thirds,  and  tender  sixths.  Then  a  short  and  simple  phrase  is 
written  down,  with  a  second  part  below  it ;  at  first  the  teacher  sings 
the  second  part  while  they  sing  the  first ;  but  afterwards  they  sing  both 
parts  themselves. 


7Q4  ANALOGIES  OF  TONE  AND  COLOR. 

By  this  time,  too,  the  staff  notation  may  be  introduced,  and  as  soon 
as  the  symbols  are  explained  the  children  will  have  no  difficulty  in  sing- 
ing from  it.  Just  at  first,  it  may  be  well  to  place  colored  notes  upon 
the  staff,  especially  to  show  how  the  key-tone  changes  its  position  ;  but 
as  the  symbols  become  more  familiar,  the  colors  may  be  dispensed  with, 
for  they  will  have  accomplished  their  purpose.  Yet  it  will  be  a  good 
plan  for  some  time  longer  to  mark  the  key-tone  in  every  key  and  tran- 
sition by  its  color  red. 

This  color-tone  method  has  been  in  operation  for  about  two  years  in 
one  of  the  kindergartens,  where  children  varying  from  3  to  8  years  of 
age  have  been  trained  with  very  satisfactory  results.  At  the  beginning 
a  few  of  the  children  seemed  to  have  no  musical  faculty,  and  in  them  it 
has  been  like  the  growth  of  a  new  sense.  It  is  very  interesting  to  follow 
them  and  see  how  they  first  gain  the  power  to  recognize  a  tone  by  its 
character,  and  then  by  degrees  to  produce  it  themselves. 

The  method  is  being  used  this  year  in  all  the  free  Kindergartens  of 
Boston,  but  as  yet .  the  exercises  have  been  almost  entirely  confined  to 
rhythmic  development.  Upwards  of  eighty  Kindergartners  in  this  city 
are  now  being  trained  for  the  work.  Training  classes  have  also  been 
held  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  new  method  is  being  taught  there. 

In  the  course  of  this  work,  four  things  have  become  evident : — 

1.  The  musical  faculty  is  as  capable  of  being  trained  as  the  mathe- 
matical or  any  other  faculty.     What  is  called   "  no   ear  for  music " 
means  simply  a  sluggish  sense  which  needs  quickening,  and  which  may 
be  educated  to  an  unlimited  extent. 

2.  The  sense  of  time  or  rhythm  manifests  itself  before  the  sense  of 
tune,  and  consequently  the  earliest  music  lessons  of  children  should  be 
chiefly  of  a  rhythmic  nature. 

3.  Children  very  readily  associate  the  ideas  of  tone  and  color.     There 
can  be  no  doubt  about  this.     When  the  color  method  of  teaching  music 
was  introduced  into  the  Kindergarten,  it  was  found  that  the  children  in 
their  other  occupations  often  substituted  the  name  of  the  tone  for  that 
of  the  color.     One  lady  was  for  a  time  troubled  because  her  three-year- 
old  child  was  continually  running  about  the  house  and  pointing  out 
every  red  object  as  "  doh."     This  apparent  confusion  of  ideas,  however, 
soon  rights  itself. 

4.  The  sense  of  harmony  is  of  much  later  growth  then  that  of  rhythm 
and  melody.     This  may  be  seen  in  the  musical  history  of  the  race. 
The  rudest  savage  has  some  idea  of  rhythm  which  he  tries  to  express  by 
clapping  his  hands  or  beating  on  his  drum  while  he  performs  his  gro- 
tesque dance.   Sense  of  melody  marks  a  higher  order  of  growth,  for  there 
is  in  it  something  of  intellectual  refinement.     But  the  introduction  of 
harmony  is  of  comparatively  recent  date,  even  in  the  most  highly  civi- 
lized countries.     This  fact  alone  should  teach  us  that  it  ought  not  to  be 
prematurely  forced  upon  the  children.     Let  them  for  the  present  work 
or;it  their  ideas  of  rhythm  and  melody,  and  in  due  time  their  minds  will 
grasp  and  understand  the  complicated  impressions  of  harmony. 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK, 

BY  REV.  R.  HEBEB  NEWTON,   D.  D., 

Rector  of  Anthon  Memorial  Church,  New  York. 


CHURCH   WORK — EDUCATION. 

Church  work  is  slowly  coming  to  be  read,  I  think,  in  the  light  of 
those  great  words  of  the  Church's  Head,  which  illumine  his  personal 
mission.  "  And  he  came  to  Nazareth,  where  he  had  been  brought  up : 
and,  as  his  custom  was,  he  went  into  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath 
day  and  stood  up  for  to  read.  And  there  was  delivered  unto  him  the 
book  of  the  prophet  Esaias.  And  when  he  had  opened  the  book  he 
found  the  place  where  it  was  written — The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon 
me,  because  He  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ;  He 
hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken  hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the 
captives  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  "  Now  when 
John  had  heard  in  the  prison  the  works  of  Christ,  he  sent  two  of  his 
disciples  and  said  unto  him — Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  or  do  we 
look  for  another?  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them,  Go  and  shew 
John  again  those  things  which  ye  do  hear  and  see :  the  blind  receive 
their  sight,  and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed  and  the  deaf 
hear,  the  dead  are  raised  up  and  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached 
unto  them." 

The  Master's  mission  was  to  heal  the  sickness  and  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing and  sin  of  earth,  in  the  power  of  that  Holy  Spirit  which  was  to 
continue  his  work,  slowly  developing  "  the  regeneration  "  of  all  things, 
in  a  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth.  His  credentials  were  the  signs  of 
his  power  to  effect  this  herculean  labor.  The  Church's  work  must 
then  be  the  carrying  on  of  his  task  of  social  regeneration ;  a  labor  of 
practical  philanthropy  led  up  into  the  heights  of  spiritual  re-formation  ; 
and  the  "  notes  "  of  a  true  church  will  lie  in  its  possession  of  the  Master's 
power  to  further  the  slow  evolution  of  the  better  order.  If  only  to 
make  earth  the  nursery  for  the  heavens  it  must  be  put  into  order,  the 
frightful  ills  of  civilization  be  healed,  the  dreadful  disorders  of  society 
be  righted,  and  man  be  breathed  out  into  the  son  of  God.  The  mag- 
nificent aspiration  of  St.  Paul  is  the  ideal  unto  which  all  church  work 
yearns — "  Till  we  all  come,  (beggarly,  diseased,  vicious,  malformed 
runts  of  humanity)  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man  (manhood)  ;  to  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ." 

Such  a  church  work  must  plainly  be  a  task  of  education.  And  unto 
this  form  of  philanthropy  every  labor  of  love  for  suffering  humanity 
is  coming  round.  The  experience  of  all  who  grapple  with  the  legion 
forms  of  social  ill  results  in  one  conclusion.  Prevention  is  better  than 

45 


706  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

cure;  and  prevention  is — education.  Sanitarians,  prison  reformers, 
temperance  advocates,  charity  administrators,  pastors,  all  alike  are 
joining  in  one  cry — educate.  We  grow  hopeless  of  making  over  again 
the  wrongly  made  up,  misshapen  monstrosities  charitably  called  men 
and  women,  and  feel  that  the  one  hopeful  work  is  in  seeing  that  the 
unspoiled  raw  material,  ever  coming  on,  is  better  made  up  in  the  start. 
Given  a  true  education  and  we  may  hope  for  a  true  manhood  and 
womanhood,  a  true  society  growing  steadily  towards  St.  Paul's  far  off 
ideal.  The  Church's  work  would  then  seem  to  be  that  which  the 
Master  outlined  in  his  parting  word — "  Go  ye,  disciple  all  nations ;  " 
teach  men  in  the  life  of  the  perfect  man,  train  them  towards  the  ideal 
manhood ; — a  charge  of  education. 

1.     Defects  of  the  People's  Scfioots. 

Education  of  one  sort  and  another  we  have  no  lack  of,  but  thought- 
ful people  are  coming  to  see,  that  which  the  wisest  educators  have 
known  for  no  little  time,  that  it  is  mostly  very  crude  and  raw.  Along 
with  the  conviction  that  education  is  the  solvent  of  the  social  problems, 
there  is  spreading  fast  and  far  the  ^conviction  that  we  have  not  yet 
educated  the  true  education  ;  that  our  present  systems  are  viciously 
unsound  and  so  are  building  up  the  old  diseased  body  social  instead  oi 
the  new  and  healthy  organism  of  the  Coming  Man.  With  all  that  is 
good  in  our  People's  Schools  they  seem  lacking  in  certain  vital  elements. 
They  fail  to  provide  for  a  true  physical  culture,  which,  since  health  is 
the  capital  of  life,  is  the  prime  endowment  for  every  human  being. 
They  fail  also  to  provide  for  any  industrial  training.  Nearly  all  men 
and  a  large  minority  of  women  must  earn  their  daily  bread,  and  the 
majority  of  women  must  care  for  the  bread  their  husbands  earn.  The 
great  mass  of  men  and  women  must  be  chiefly  busied  with  manual 
work  in  the  field,  the  factory  or  the  house.  To  prepare  this  mass  of  men 
and  women  to  do  this  necessary  work  successfully  and  happily,  finding 
their  bread  in  it  honorably,  and  that  bread  of  thought  and  sentiment 
on  which  the  finer  part  of  their  beings  live  in  the  interest  it  calls 
forth — this  would  seem  to  be  an  essential  part  of  a  rational  education 
for  the  common  necessities  of  the  common  people  ;  all  the  more  impera- 
tive since  the  old  time  apprenticeships  have  disappeared.  In  the 
absence  of  this  practical  training  all  ranks  of  labor  are  crowded  with 
incompetent  "hands,"  and  domestic  economy  is  caricatured  in  most 
homes ;  a  restless  discontent  with  manual  employments  is  pushing  a 
superficially  educated  mass  of  men  and  women  into  the  over  full 
vocations  supposed  to  be  genteel,  and  storing  up  slumberous  forces  of 
anarchy  among  the  workingmen ;  thus  sapping  health  and  wealth  in 
the  homes  of  the  poor  who  must  need  both. 

Then,  to  pass  by  other  grave  defects  best  behooving  professional 
educators  to  speak  of,  there  is  a  still  more  serious  lack  in  our  Common 
School  system  which  the  churches  are  naturally  quick  to  feel.  The 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  707 

greatest  minds  have  always  united  in  the  view  so  tersely  expressed  in 
Matthew  Arnold's  familiar  phrase,  "  Conduct  is  three  fourths  of  life." 
The  end  of  all  culture  must  be  character,  and  its  outcome  in  conduct. 
The  State's  concern  in  education  is  to  rear  virtuous,  law-abiding,  self- 
governing  citizens.  The  Church's  concern  is  not  something  different 
from  the  State's ;  it  is  the  same  plus  something  more.  She  too  seeks 
to  grow  good  subjects,  only  running  their  relation  to  Law  up  and  on ; 
men  whose  citizenship  is  in  heaven.  State  and  Church  alike  would 
nurture  good  men,  for  this  world  or  the  next.  To  this  the  Church 
believes  with  the  State  that  moral  culture  is  needful,  but  she  believes 
also  that  religious  culture  is  none  the  less  needful.  The  churches 
feel  the  need  of  supplementing  the  education  of  the  common  schools 
with  some  ampler  provision  for  moral  and  religious  training.  If  the 
homes  of  the  land  were  what  they  ought  to  be  they  would  supply  this 
lack.  But  because  of  the  utter  imperfection  of  education  in  the  past, 
they  are  unfortunately  far  from  being  seminaries  of  character.  Some 
other  provision  must  be  made. 

2.  Inadequacy  of  Sunday  Schools  and  Parish  Schools. 
The  churches  have  utilized  a  simple  mechanism  for  moral  and  relig- 
ious education  in  the  Sunday-school.  No  word  from  one  who  owes  so 
much  to  this  institution  can  ever  detract  from  its  just  honor.  It  has 
been  and  still  is  an  indispensable  provision  for  our  present  stage  of  devel- 
opment. It  is  doing  a  noble  work  which  else  were  left  largely  undone. 
But  its  best  friends  are  not  blind  to  its  limitations.  The  clergy  generally 
are  painfully  aware  of  its  utter  inadequacy  to  the  great  task  it  has  as- 
sumed. Superintendents  and  teachers  feel  that  they  are  asked  to  make 
brick  without  being  supplied  with  straw.  For  an  hour  or  an  hour  and  a 
half,  sometimes  two  or  three  hours,  on  one  day  of  the  week,  a  crowd  of 
children,  often  reaching  into  the  hundreds,  are  gathered  into  one  room, 
placed  in  the  hands  of  a  changing  corps  of  volunteer  teachers,  mostly 
very  young,  animated  generally  with  laudable  motives,  but  too  often  pain- 
fully unconscious  of  the  momentousness  of  the  task  they  have  lightly 
undertaken,  and  all  untrained  for  the  delicate  work  of  soul  fashioning. 
As  a  system  of  education  in  Christian  character,  such  an  institution  is 
grotesquely  inadequate.  For  that  education  must  be  chiefly  a  nurture, 
a  tenderly  cherished  growth  under  the  right  conditions  duly  supplied  ^ 
a  training  rather  than  an  instruction,  a  daily  not  a  weekly  work.  The 
ideal  of  such  an  education  of  course  will  be  the  stoiy  of  the  Perfect 
Man  ;  a  growth,  gently  nurtured,  in  a  pious  home,  at  the  knee  of  a  holy 
mother,  through  patient  years ;  hastened  to  the  flower,  under  the  soft 
springtide  of  the  soul,  within  the  warmer  atmosphere  of  the  Temple,  in 
the  opening  consciousness  "  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  in  my  Father's  ?  " 
But  again  I  say  we  are  concerned  with  the  unideal  state  of  earth  to-day, 
whereon  homes  are  not  like  the  Xazarite  cottage  and  mothers  are  far 
below  the  stature  of  the  great  sou-led  Mary. 


708  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

What  is  to  be  done  now  ?  Something,  plainly,  the  churches  feel,  and 
are  sore  perplexed  as  to  what  that  something  is  to  be.  A  portion  of 
the  churches  seem  inclined  to  try  in  some  way  to  make  the  Common 
Schools  attend  more  carefully  to  moral  and  religious  education.  But 
how  to  do  it  does  not  yet  appear.  The  religious  phase  of  this  problem 
is  beset  with  baffling  perplexities.  Others  of  the  churches  are  tending 
in  the  direction  of  Parish  Schools.  But  these  cannot  hope  to  compete 
•with  the  State  Schools  in  mental  culture,  and  so  must  offer  to  the  par- 
ents of  the  land  the  choice  between  a  good  general  education  with  a 
defective  moral  and  religious  training,  and  a  good  moral  and  religious 
training  (possibly)  with  a  narrower  and  feebler  general  education.  The 
average  American  will  not  long  hesitate  in  that  alternative,  when  he 
can  relieve  his  conscience  by  falling  back  upon  the  Sunday-school.  Our 
people  are  thoroughly  committed  to  the  system  of  State  schools,  and  will 
not  favorably  view  any  apparent  sectarian  opposition  to  them.  We 
need,  not  a  system  substituted  for  the  State  schools  and  benefiting  only 
a  small  portion  of  the  people,  but,  one  supplementing  the  State  schools 
and  benefiting  the  whole  people.  Is  such  a  system  discoverable  ?  And 
can  such  a  system  for  moral  and  religious  nurture  be  made  to  supple- 
ment the  Common  Schools  also  in  the  other  defects  alluded  to,  the  lack 
of  physical  training  and  industrial  education  ? 

3.     Importance  of  Infancy. 

The  most  valuable  period  of  childhood  for  formative  purposes  is 
unclaimed  by  the  State.  The  richest  soil  lies  virgin,  un-preempted,  free 
for  the  Church  to  settle  upon  and  claim  for  the  highest  culture.  It  is 
no  new  secret  that  the  most  plastic  period  lies  below  childhood,  in 
infancy  proper.  Thoughtful  people  have  long  ago  perceived  that  the 
chief  part  of  all  human  learning  is  wrought  in  these  seven  years  ;  the 
greatest  progress  made,  the  largest  acquisitions  won,  the  toughest  diffi- 
culties overcome.  No  pretentious  culture  won  in  later  years  is  really 
half  so  wonderful  as  the  almost  unconscious  education  carried  on  in  the 
period  of  infancy.  Dame  Nature  is  busy  with  her  babes  and  has  them 
at  incessant  schooling.  From  the  first  dawn  of  intelligence  they  are 
under  an  unceasing  series  of  lessons,  in  form  and  color,  in  weight  and 
resistance,  in  numbers  and  relations,  in  sound  and  speech.  Every  sense 
is  being  called  into  exercise,  cultivated,  refined.  The  perceptions  are 
ever  at  work  observing,  comparing,  contrasting.  Mastery  is  being  won 
over  every  physical  power ;  the  eye,  the  ear,  the  hand,  the  feet  being 
trained  into  supple,  subtle  skill.  The  bewildering  fingering  of  Ruben- 
stein  or  Von  Bulow  is  not  a  finer  discipline  than  the  games  of  the  active 
boy. 

The  sentiments,  the  imagination,  the  reason,  the  conscience  are  under- 
going a  corresponding  development  in  this  period  we  think  of  as  all 
idleness.  Here  and  there  we  get  hints  of  the  reach  of  infant  mind  in 
its  beautiful  thoughts,  its  fine  feelings,  its  ethical  distinctions,  its 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  709 

religious  musings.  The  vail  lifts  from  the  greatest  of  wonder  lands,  in 
which  we  all  lived  once  and  out  from  which  we  have  passed  through 
the  waters  of  the  river  Lethe.  We  think  lightly  of  the  inner  life  of 
infancy  because  we  know  so  little  of  it.  We  fancy  that  we  are  to  teach 
our  little  ones  religion.  At  the  best  we  can  only  formulate  the  mystery 
which  lies  all  round  them,  vague  and  nebulous  but  profoundly  real. 
Below  the  best  we  succeed  in  botching  and  marring  the  divine  growth 
going  on  within  their  souls,  unseen  by  our  dim  eyes  ;  in  imposing  our 
adult  conceptions  injuriously  on  souls  unprepared  for  them;  and  so 
make  the  windows  through  which  our  sin-seared  souls  see  light,  the 
shutters  closing  the  light  off  from  those  holy  innocents  whose  inner 
beings,  angel-wise,  do  always  behold  the  face  of  their  Father  in  heaven. 
Wordsworth's  ode  is  the  very  truth  of  the  spirit  world.  The  garden  of 
the  Lord,  where  God  himself  walks  amid  the  trees  in  the  cool  of  the 
day,  is  behind  us  all ;  and  our  best  hope  is  to  climb  round  to  it  in  the 
"  lang  last,"  as  the  seer  visions  in  the  far  future  of  the  race  and  of  the 
individual ;  when  having  been  converted  and  become  as  little  children 
we  enter  once  more  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  For,  as  these  words 
remind  us,  it  is  no  less  an  authority  than  that  of  the  Lord  Christ  that 
teaches  us  to  view  in  childhood  the  spiritual  ideal. 

Infancy  then,  (the  first  seven  years),  is  the  most  vital  period  for  the 
formative  work  of  a  true  education,  whether  we  have  regard  to  physi- 
cal, mental  or  moral  and  spiritual  development.  Plato  saw  this  long 
centuries  ago.  "  The  most  important  part  of  education  is  right  train- 
ing in  the  nursery."  [Laws  1  :  643.] 

As  late  as  our  greatest  American  theologian — the  noblest  of  English 
theologians  himself  being  the  judge — this  view  reiterates  itself  with 
especial  reference  to  the  task  of  moral  and  religious  culture  the 
churches  have  in  hand.  Dr.  BushnelPs  "  Christian  Nurture "  insists 
upon  the  prime  importance  of  infancy. 

4.     Educative  Function  of  Play. 

If  then  the  only  period  of  childhood  not  foreclosed  by  the  State  be 
precisely  that  which  is  most  hopeful  for  the  true  education,  the  educa- 
tion which  aims  for  something  like  an  integral  culture,  a  fashioning  of 
the  whole  manhood  into  health,  intelligence  and  virtue  buoyant  with 
the  love  of  God,  the  question  becomes  one  of  technique.  How  are  we 
to  utilize  this  most  plastic  but  most  delicate  of  periods  ?  How  teach 
and  train  the  tender  lives  which  seem  unready  for  anything  but  play  ? 
All  high  and  serious  labor  upon  this  period  seems  ruled  out  by  the 
fractible  nature  of  the  material  upon  which  we  are  to  work.  These 
fragile  bodies  can  bear  little  fatigue,  these  tender  minds  can  bear  little 
strain,  these  delicate  souls  can  bear  little  public  handling  without 
spoiling.  "  O,  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  that  the  prophets  have 
written  !  " — must  we  not  hear  the  Spirit  of  Truth  still  sadly  whisper- 
ing ?  Centuries  since  did  not  the  teacher  sent  from  God  to  the  Greeks, 


710  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK/ 

the  wisest  mind  of  the  wisest  people  of  antiquity,  tell  the  world — if, 
having  ears  to  hear,  they  would  hear — the  riddle  of  this  Sphinx  ? 

"  Our  youth  should  be  educated  in  a  stricter  rule  from  the  first,  for 
if  education  becomes  lawless  and  the  youths  themselves  become  lawless, 
they  can  never  grow  up  into  well  conducted  and  meritorious  citizens. 
And  the  education  must  begin  with  their  plays.  The  spirit  of  law  must  be 
imparted  to  them  in  music,  and  the  spirit  of  order  attending  them  in 
all  their  actions  will  make  them  grow ;  and  if  there  be  any  part  of  the 
state  which  has  fallen  down  will  raise  it  up  again."  [Republic  4  :  425.] 

"  According  to  my  view,  he  who  would  be  good  at  any  thing  must 
practice  that  thing  from  his  youth  upwards,  both  in  sport  and  earnest, 
in  the  particular  manner  which  the  work  requires ;  for  example,  he 
who  is  to  be  a  good  builder,  should  play  at  building  children's  houses  ; 
and  he  who  is  to  be  a  good  husbandman,  at  tilling  the  ground  ;  those 
who  have  the  care  of  their  education  should  provide  them  when  young 
with  mimic  tools.  And  they  should  learn  beforehand  the  knowledge 
which  they  will  afterwards  require  for  their  art.  For  example,  the 
future  carpenter  should  learn  to  measure  or  apply  the  line  in  play ;  and 
the  future  warrior  should  learn  riding,  or  some  other  exercise  for 
amusement,  and  the  teacher  should  endeavor  to  direct  the  children's 
inclinations  and  pleasures  by  the  help  of  amusements,  to  their  final 
aim  in  life.  .  .  .  The  soul  of  the  child  in  his  play  should  be  trained 
to  that  sort  of  excellence  in  which  when  he  grows  up  to  manhood  he 
will  have  to  be  perfected."  [Laws  1  :  643]. 

Plainly  the  natural  activity  of  infancy  is  play,  and  as  plainly  the  only 
possible  education  in  this  period  must  be  through  play.  This  is  pre- 
cisely the  method  of  Mother  Nature.  She  teaches  her  little  ones  all  the 
marvellous  knowledge  they  master  in  infancy  through  pure  play  of 
body  and  of  mind. 

So  far  from  play  being  at  all  inconsistent  with  learning,  the  best 
work  in  education  does  in  fact  take  on  the  character  of  play.  A  critic 
as  unsentimental  as  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  lays  down  the  law  that  all 
education,  in  so  far  as  it  is  true,  tends  to  become  play.  He  tests  all 
methods  by  this  criterion — is  it  task  work  or  is  it  to  the  child  as  good  as 
play  ?  It  is  our  ignorance  of  child  nature,  our  poverty  of  invention,  our 
mechanicalness  of  method  which  leave  learning  mere  work.  All  learn- 
ing ought  to  be  spontaneous,  joyous.  Calisthenics  is  turning  into  a 
semi-dancing,  to  the  music  of  the  piano ;  natural  sciences  are  corning 
to  be  taught  through  excursions  in  the  field  and  wood,  and  by  experi- 
ments in  the  laboratory  ;  the  dry  drill  of  languages  is  brightening  into 
the  cheery  conversation  class ;  the  catechism  in  the  Sunday  school  is 
yielding  room  for  the  music  of  hymns  and  carols.  There  is  nothing 
incompatible  between  the  merry  play  of  the  nursery  and  the  school  into 
which  we  would  turn  it,  if  only  we  can  be  cunning  enough  to  devise  a 
subtle  illusion  wherein  as  the  children  think  they  are  only  playing  we 
shall  see  that  they  are  also  learning.  Leaving  them  their  free,  sponta- 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IX  CHURCH  WORK.  7ll 

neous,  natural  impulses  of  playfulness,  we  may  then  lead  these  impulses 
up  into  a  system  which  shall,  with  benign  subtility,  unwittingly  to  the 
children,  school  them  in  the  most  important  of  knowledges,  train  them 
in  the  most  valuable  of  powers,  fashion  them  into  the  most  precious  of 
habits,  open  within  them  the  deepest  springs  of  eternal  life.  Only  for 
this  finest  and  diviiiest  of  pedagogies  we  must,  as  the  greatest  of  teach- 
ers has  taught  us,  get  low  down  to  the  plane  of  the  little  ones,  and  our- 
selves become  as  children,  that  we  may  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
For  as  Sir  William  Hamilton,  and  long  before  him  Lord  Bacon,  pointed 
out,  childlike  docility  of  soul  is  the  condition  of  entering  into  that 
province  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  which  is  truth,  as  well  as  into  that 
which  is  goodness,  the  secret  of  philosophies  and  sciences  as  of  theologies 
and  life.  To  construct  the  true  system  of  child-schooling  we  must  be 
humble  enough  and  wise  enough  to  go  to  Mother  Nature's  Dame 
Schools  and  learn  her  science  and  art  of  infantile  pedagogy.  If  some 
genius,  child-hearted,  should  seriously  set  himself  to  study  sly  old 
Mother  Nature  in  her  most  trivial  actions,  patiently  watching  her 
most  cunningly  concealed  processes,  he  might  steal  upon  her  thus  and 
catch  the  secret  of  the  Sphinx's  nurturing  by  play,  and  might  open  for  us 
the  ideal  education  for  the  early  years  of  childhood.  And  this  is  just 
what  Frobel  did.  With  unwearied  patience  and  in  the  very  spirit  of  this 
childlike  teachableness  he  studied  the  plays  and  songs  of  mothers  and 
nurses  and  children  left  to  their  own  sweet  will,  till  divining  at  last  the 
principles  underlying  these  natural  methods  he  slowly  perfected  the 
kindergarten;  verifying  it  by  faithful  personal  experiment  and  be- 
queathing to  the  generations  that  should  come  after,  the  child-garden, 
the  sunny  shelter  wherein  in  happy  play  the  bodies,  minds  and  souls  of 
the  little  ones  should  beautifully  grow  out  into  health,  intelligence  and 
goodness. 

5.     Purifying  Influences  of  Happy  Play. 

Visitors  in  a  kindergarten  wratch  its  occupations  and  leave  it  with 
the  sopMwhat  contemptuous  criticism — oh !  its  all  very  nice  and  pleas- 
ant, a  very  pretty  play. 

We1^  this  all,  the  Kindergarten  might  enter  a  strong  plea  on  its  own 
behal*.  In  the  foul  tenements  and  the  dirty  streets  and  alleys  of  our 
great  cities  the  tainted  air  is  sapping  the  vitality  of  the  children, 
poisoning  their  blood,  sowing  their  bodies  with  the  seeds  of  disease, 
and  educating  the  helpless  hosts  who  crowd  every  market  place  of  labor, 
unfit  physically  to  contend  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  In  these  dull 
and  depressing  surroundings  a  gradual  stupefaction  is  stealing  over 
their  minds,  preparing  that  unintelligent  action  wherein  those  whom 
Carlyle  called  "  The  Drudges  "  are  taking  their  place  in  society  as  the 
human  tenders  of  our  super-human  machines.  In  the  sad  and  somber 
atmosphere  of  these  homes,  whose  joylessness  they  feel  unconsciously,  as 
the  cellar  plant  misses  the  light  and  shrivels  and  pales,  the  inner  spring 
of  energy  and  its  strength  of  character,  the  virtus  or  virtue  of  the 


712  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

human  being  relaxes,  and  their  souls  become  flabby  and  feeble.  Lack- 
ing the  sunny  warmth  of  happiness  in  childhood  they  lack  through  life 
the  stored  up  latencies  of  spiritual  heat  which  feed  the  noblest  forces 
of  the  being.  "  We  live  by  admiration,  joy  and  love,"  Wordsworth 
says ;  which  implies  that  we  may  die  by  joylessness. 

True,  the  child  nature  will  not  wholly  be  crushed  out,  and  in  the  most 
squalid  so-called  "  homes  "  in  the  saddest  streets  it  will  play  in  some-wise, 
though  it  is  literally  true  that  not  a  few  have  their  playfulness  smoth- 
ered within  them.  But  what  play !  How  dull  and  dreary,  how  coarse 
and  low, — imitation,  as  the  great  Greek  said  of  many  of  the  stage-plays 
of  children  of  a  larger  growth,  "  of  the  evil  rather  than  of  the  good  that 
is  in  them."  A  veritable  mis-education  in  play,  as  all  who  are  familiar 
with  the  street  plays  of  our  poor  quarters  too  sadly  know,  copying  the 
vile  words  and  brutal  manners  which  are  the  fashion  of  these  sections, 
feeding  the  prurient  fancies  which  Mr.  Ruskin  says  are  the  mental 
putresence  gendered  of  physical  filth  in  the  over-crowding  together  of 
human  beings.  The  play  not  as  of  the  children  of  the  Father  in 
Heaven  but  as  of  the  abducted  little  ones  of  the  Heavenly  Father, 
reared  in  the  purlieus  of  their  false  father  the  Devil.  So  that  there  is  a 
vast  deal  of  philosophy  in  the  remark  contained  in  a  Report  of  a  cer- 
tain Children's  Asylum  in  London,  to  the  effect  that  the  first  thing  the 
matron  found  it  necessary  to  do  with  many  of  the  waifs  brought  into 
the  Home  was  to  teach  them  to  play ! 

If  only  the  little  ones  in  their  most  susceptive  years  are  gathered  in 
from  harmful  surroundings,  are  shielded  from  scorching  heats  and 
chilling  winds,  are  warded  from  the  wild  beasts  that  lurk  around  the 
valleys  where  the  tender  lambs  lie,  though  in  pastures  dry  and  by 
turbid  waters  ;  if  only,  fenced  in  thus  from  the  hearing  of  harsh,  foul 
words,  and  from  the  seeing  of  brutalizing  and  polluting  actions,  they 
are  left  for  the  best  hours  of  each  day  to  disport  themselves  in  innocent 
and  uncontaminating  happiness  amid  these  "  pretty  plays,"  it  would  be 
an  inestimable  gain  for  humanity.  For  thus,  in  its  native  surround- 
ings, the  better  nature  of  each  child  would  have  a  chance  to  grow,  and 
the  angel  be  beforehand  with  the  beast,  when,  not  for  an  hour  on  Sun- 
days, but  always,  their  angels  do  behold  the  face  of  the  Father  in 
Heaven. 

The  Lord  God  made  a  garden,  and  there  he  placed  the  man.  So  the 
sacred  story  runs,  deep-weighted  with  its  parable  of  life.  A  garden  for 
the  soul,  bright  and  warm  in  soft,  rich  happiness,  sunning  the  young 
life  with  "  the  vital  feelings  of  delight " — this  is  the  ideal  state,  or  as  we 
now  phrase  it  the  normal  environment,  for  child  growth.  As  much  of 
the  conditions  of  such  a  child-garden  as  can  be  secured  in  "  this  naughty 
world  "  is  the  first  desideratum  for  that  education  which  looks  on  towards 
the  second  Adam,  the  perfect  manhood,  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fullness  of  Christ.  To  open  such  Child  Gardens  and  to  place  therein 
loving,  sympathetic  women  to  mother  their  plays  and  keep  them  sweet 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  713 

and  clean  and  gentle,  this  were  to  do  for  the  growth  of  the  Christ 
Child  a  work  worthy  of  the  Christian  churches. 

But  this  is  far  from  all  the  good  of  the  Child  Garden.  It  is  indeed 
only  its  outer  and  superficial  aspect,  in  which,  even  before  its  most 
carping  critics,  who  know  not  what  they  say  and  so  are  forgiven, 
Wisdom  is  justified  of  her  children.  Underneath  these  "  pretty  plays  " 
there  is  a  masterly  guidance  of  the  play  instinct  in  the  direction  of 
the  wisest  and  noblest  culture.  They  are  faithful  reproductions  of 
Mother  Nature's  schooling  in  play,  and  every  part  of  the  carefully 
elaborated  system  has  a  direct  educative  value  in  one  of  the  three  lines 
in  which,  as  already  indicated,  our  State  system  seems  most  defective ; 
all  three  of  which,  in  differing  degrees  bear  upon  that  culture  of  char- 
acter with  which  the  Church  has  need  to  busy  herself,  in  disciplining 
men  into  the  perfect  manhood  of  Christ. 

6.     Physical  Training  of  the  Kindergarten  and  its  Bearing  on  Character. 

The  kindergarten  plays  form  a  beautiful  system  of  calisthenics, 
adapted  for  tender  years,  and  filled  out  with  the  buoyancy  of  pure 
sportiveness.  The  marching,  the  light  gymnastic  exercises,  the  imita- 
tive games,  with  the  vocal  music  accompanying  them,  occupy  a  consid- 
erable portion  of  the  daily  session  in  an  admirable  physical  culture.  If 
ordinary  attention  is  paid  to  ventilation,  and  the  room  be,  as  it  ought 
to  be,  a  sunny  room,  guarded  against  sewer  gas  and  other  "modern 
conveniences,"  this  physical  culture  ought  to  have  a  most  positive  and 
beneficent  influence  on  the  health  of  the  children.  If  a  good  substan- 
tial dinner  is  provided  for  them,  one  "  square  meal "  a  day  added  to 
the  pure  air  and  judicious  exercise  ought  to  lay  well  the  first  founda- 
tion, not  alone  of  material,  but  of  moral  success  in  life.  Health  is 
the  basis  of  character  as  of  fortune.  There  is  a  physiology  of  morality. 
Some  of  the  grossest  vices  are  largely  fed  from  an  impure,  diseased 
and  enfeebled  physique.  Drunkenness,  especially  among  the  poor,  is 
to  a  large  extent  the  craving  for  stimulation  that  grows  out  of  their 
ill-fed,  ill-housed,  ill-clothed,  over-worked,  unsunned,  sewer-poisoned 
condition.  Lust  is  intensified  and  inflamed  by  the  tainted  blood  and 
the  over-tasked  nervous  system.  Purity  of  mind  grows  naturally  out 
of  purity  of  body.  Physiologists  understand  these  facts  far  better 
than  ethicists.  Then,  too,  lesser  vices  are  in  their  measure,  equally 
grounded  in  abnormal  physical  conditions.  Faults  of  temper,  irrita- 
bility, sullenness  and  anger  are  intimately  connected  with  low  health, 
the  under  vitalized  state  which  characterizes  the  city  poor. 

Perfection  of  character  implies  a  happy  physical  organization,  or 
that  masterfulness  of  soul  which  is  the  rarest  of  gifts.  Moderate  appe- 
tites, a  serene  disposition,  generous  feelings,  with  their  fellow  excel- 
lences, may  be  the  victory  of  the  exceptional  saints ;  but  they  may  also 
be  the  natural  endowment  of  the  healthy  common  people.  A  harmo- 
nious body  will  sublimate  the  finer  qualities  of  the  soul.  In  man,  as 


*714  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

in  the  animals,  when  we  see  such  physical  organizations  we  look  to  find 
such  moral  natures.  Axiomatic  as  this  is,  it  none  the  less  needs  to  be 
reiterated  in  the  ears  of  moral  and  religious  teachers.  To  claim  this 
is  to  raise  no  question  concerning  the  relative  priority,  in  genesis  or  in 
importance,  of  body  or  mind.  Even  if  the  body  be,  as  I  certainly 
hold,  the  material  envelope  drawn  around  the  spirit,  molded  and 
fashioned  by  the  quality  of  the  soul ;  and  the  prime  concern  be  there- 
fore with  the  vital  energy  and  purity  of  the  spirit ;  still  according  to 
the  materials  supplied  in  food  and  air,  will  the  body  thus  organized  be 
determined,  and  its  reflex  influence  tell  imperiously  upon  the  inner 
being.  In  striving  to  grow  healthful  souls  we  must,  to  this  very  end, 
grow  healthful  bodies.  While  feeding  assiduously  the  forces  of  con- 
science and  affection  and  will,  we  must  largely  feed  them  indirectlv, 
by  filling  the  physical  reservoirs  on  which  these  virtues  need  must  draw 
with  sweet,  clean,  pure,  full  tides  of  life.  The  Church  must  learn  a 
lesson  from  its  Master,  and  be  at  once  Good  Physician  and  Merciful 
Savior;  restoring  health  as  well  as  remitting  sin.  And  the  beginning 
of  this  dual  work  seems  to  me  to  lie  in  some  such  system  of  infantile 
physical  nurture,  carried  on  under  the  name  and  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Our  churches  are  all  more  or  less  busied  with  feed- 
ing the  hungry,  and  otherwise  caring  for  the  bodies  of  the  poor.  Will 
it  not  tell  more  on  the  work  of  saving  men  out  of  sin  to  put  the  money 
spent  in  alms  to  adults — largely  misapplied  and  nearly  always  harmful 
to  the  moral  fiber — into  a  culture  of  health  for  the  children  ? 

7.     Industrial  Training  of  the  Kindergarten  and  its  Bearing  on  Character. 

The  kindergarten  plays  form  a  most  wise  system  for  culturing  the 
powers  and  dispositions  which  lay  the  foundation  for  successful  indus- 
trial skill ;  and  this  also  bears  directly  upon  the  supreme  end  of  the 
Church's  work — the  turning  out  of  good  men  and  women. 

The  fundamental  position  of  the  kindergarten  in  a  system  of  indus- 
trial education  is  recognized  in  Germany,  and  must  soon  be  perceived 
here.  The  natural  instinct  of  childhood  to  busy  itself  with  doing 
something,  its  spontaneous  impulse  to  be  making  something,  is  in  the 
kindergarten  discerned  as  the  striving  of  that  creative  power  which  is 
mediately  in  man  as  the  child  of  God.  It  is  utilized  for  the  purposes 
of  education.  Pricking  forms  of  geometrical  figures  and  of  familiar 
objects  on  paper,  weaving  wooden  strips  into  varied  designs,  folding 
paper  into  pretty  toys  and  ornaments,  plaiting  variegated  strips  of  paper 
into  ingenious  and  attractive  shapes,  modeling  in  clay — these,  with  other 
kindred  exercises,  "  pretty  play  "  as  it  all  seems,  constitute  a  most  real 
education  by  and  for  work.  By  means  of  these  occupations  the  eye  is 
trained  to  quickness  of  perception  and  accuracy  of  observation,  the  hand 
to  deftness  of  touch  and  skill  of  workmanship,  such  as  a  child  may  win, 
the  sense  of  the  beautiful  is  roused  and  cultivated,  the  fancy  fed  and  the 
imagination  inspired,  the  judgme'nt  exercised  and  strengthened,  original- 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  715 

ity  stimulated  by  often  leaving  the  children  to  fashion  their  own  designs, 
while  habits  of  industry  are  inwrought  upon  the  most  plastic  period  of 
life,  and  the  child  accustomed  to  find  his  interest  and  delight  in  work, 
and  to  feel  its  dignity  and  nobleness.  How  directly  all  this  bears 
upon  the  Labor  Problem,  the  vexed  question  of  philanthropy,  is  patent 
to  all  thoughtful  persons.  Every  market  place  is  crowded  with  the 
hungry  host  bitterly  crying  "  no  man  hath  hired  us,"  utterly  uncon- 
scious that  no  man  can  hire  them  save  as  a  charity.  For  skilled  work- 
men and  work-women  there  is  always  room  in  every  line.  Employers 
are  importing  trained  work  people  in  most  industries,  while  all  around 
lies  this  vast  mass  of  people  who  never  were  taught  to  find  the  pride 
and  pleasure  of  life  in  doing  thoroughly  their  bit  of  daily  work. 

Simply  as  a  question  of  the  prevention  of  suffering,  the  immediate 
step  to  be  taken  by  those  who  would  wisely  help  their  poorer  brothers 
is  the  provision  of  schools  for  technical  training  in  the  handicrafts,  such 
as  exist  notably  in  Paris  and  in  parts  of  Germany.  And  as  the  place  to 
begin  is  at  the  beginning,  any  attempt  to  construct  such  a  system  of 
industrial  education  should  start  with  the  training  of  early  childhood  in 
the  powers,  the  habits  and  the  love  of  work,  as  in  the  Kindergarten. 
Miss  Peabody's  open  letter  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Thompson  arguing  for  the 
Kindergarten  as  a  potent  factor  in  the  solution  of  the  Labor  Problem 
was  thoroughly  wise.  In  so  far  as  education  solves  the  problem,  the 
Kindergarten  is  the  first  word  of  the  answer  yet  spelled  out. 

But  the  Labor  Problem  is  not  only  the  dark  puzzle  of  want,  it  is,  in 
large  measure  also,  the  darker  puzzle  of  wickedness.  Want  leads  to 
very  much  of  the  wickedness  with  which  our  courts  deal.  The  preven- 
tion of  suffering  will  be  found  to  be  the  prevention  of  a  great  deal  of 
sinning.  How  much  of  the  vice  of  our  great  cities  grows  directly  out 
of  poverty,  and  the  lot  poverty  finds  for  itself.  Drunkenness  among 
the  poor  is  fed  not  only  from  the  physical  conditions  above  referred  to, 
but  from  the  craving  for  social  cheer  left  unsupplied  in  the  round  of 
long,  hard  work  by  day,  and  dull,  depressing  surroundings  by  evening. 
Who  that  knows  anything  of  the  most  pitiable  class  our  communities 
show  does  not  know  whence  and  how  their  ranks  are  chiefly  recruited. 
Of  old  the  fabled  city,  to  save  its  homes  from  being  devoured,  chose  its 
fairest,  noblest  and  best  to  offer  up  in  propitiatory  sacrifice,  and 
bound  Andromeda  to  the  rocks  a  victim  for  the  monster  of  the  sea. 
Our  cities  send  press-gangs  through  the  humbler  quarters,  entrap 
their  hungry  daughters  with  baits  of  food,  their  struggling  work  girls, 
mis-educated  to  the  ambition  of  becoming  ladies,  with  seductive  snares 
of  ease  and  luxury  and  gentility,  and  bind  their  poor  maidens  to  the 
rocks  of  pitiless  publicity  with  chains  forged  from  poverty,  welded  in 
famine,  and  riveted  with  sham  pride  ;  and  thus,  so  say  our  wise  men, 
preserve  our  homes  intact.  To  eke  out  the  insufficient  wages  of 
unskilled  work  there  is  one  resource  for  working  girls.  To  realize  the 
day-dream  of  the  fine  lady  there  is  the  whispered  temptation  of  the 


716  THE  FHEE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

Spirit  of  Evil.  If  the  church  would  preserve  the  virtue  so  earnestly 
inculcated  upon  its  Sunday-school  children,  it  must  not  rest  with  inspir- 
ing the  right  spirit,  it  must  impart  the  power  to  fashion  the  right  condi- 
tions for  virtuous  life.  It  must  not  only  teach  the  children  to  pray 
"Lead  us  not  into  temptation  ;  "  it  must  train  them  so  as  to  lead  them 
out  of  temptation. 

Nor  is  it  only  a  negative  good  thus  won  for  character  in  laying  the 
foundations  of  industrial  education.  The  more  manly  a  boy  is  made, 
the  stronger  he  becomes  for  all  good  aims,  the  larger  the  store  of 
reserved  forces  on  which  he  can  draw  if  he  really  seeks  to  win  a  noble 
character.  The  more  of  "  faculty,"  as  our  New  England  mothers 
called  efficiency,  a  girl  is  endowed  with,  the  robuster  is  her  strength- 
fulness  of  soul ;  every  added  power  of  being  garrisoning  her  spirit  with 
a  larger  force  for  the  resistance  of  evil.  The  mastery  of  the  body,  the 
culture  of  mental  and  moral  qualities  carried  on  in  the  process  of  develop- 
ing a  skilled  worker,  finding  delight  and  pride  in  doing  the  daily  work 
well,  help  mightily  towards  the  supreme  end  of  life.  Patience,  perse- 
verance, strength  of  will,  sound  judgment,  the  habit  of  going  through 
with  a  thing — these  all  tell  on  the  great  job  the  soul  takes  in  hand. 
A  number  of  years  since  Cardinal  Wiseman's  lecture  on  The  Artist 
and  The  Artisan  called  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  necessity, 
not  only  on  economic  but  on  ethical  grounds,  of  investing  labor  with 
dignity  and  clothing  it  with  delight;  of  filling  out  the  common  tasks  of 
the  artisan  with  the  spirit  of  the  artist,  and  thus  transfiguring  manual 
labor  into  a  spiritual  education.  Mr.  Ruskin  has  been  for  years  preach- 
ing sternly  this  new  gospel.  He  finds  in  it  a  clue  to  the  discontent  and 
consequent  demoralization  of  the  mass  of  our  unintelligent  and  thus 
uninterested  labor,  which  turns  from  its  ordained  springs  of  daily  joy, 
finding  them  empty,  to  drink  of  the  turbid  streams  which  flow  too  near 
to  every  man. 

Again  the  ancient  parable  speaks  unto  us.  In  the  garden  the  Lord 
God  placed  the  man  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it.  The  divine  education  of 
man  is  through  some  true  work  given  him  to  do.  While  he  does  that 
well,  finding  his  delight  in  it,  all  goes  well.  Sin  enters  wrhen,  discon- 
tented with  the  fruit  that  springs  up  beneath  his  toil,  he  covets  that 
which  grows  without  his  toil.  The  use  of  the  world  as  abusing  it,  in 
drunkenness  and  lust  and  every  prostitution  of  natural  appetite,  is  found 
in  the  classes  whose  joy  is  not  in  their  work,  either  as  having  no  work 
to  do,  or  as  despising  that  which  is  necessarily  done. 

One  of  the  finest  and  healthiest  creations  of  the  lamented  George 
Eliot  was  Adam  Bede,  the  carpenter  whose  work-bench  was  his  lesson- 
book,  whose  daily  tasks  were  his  culture  of  character,  and  whose  com- 
mon labor  of  the  saw  and  chisel  fashioned  thus  a  noble  manhood.  Is 
not  this  the  inner  meaning  of  the  fact  that  the  world's  Savior  came  not 
as  the  princely  heir  of  the  throne  of  the  Sakya-Munis,  in  the  splendid 
palace  of  the  royal  city  of  Kapilavastu,  but  as  the  carpenter's  son  in 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  7l7 

the  cottage  of  Nazareth?  So  that  again  we  see  the  need  that  the 
churches  should  make  a  Child  Garden,  and  place  the  infant  Adams 
therein  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it. 

8.     Moral  Culture  through  the  Social  Laws  of  the  Kindergarten. 

And  thus  we  come  at  last  to  the  crux  of  the  case.  The  Kindergarten 
is  a  system  of  child  occupation,  a  curriculum  of  play,  looking  straight 
on  to  the  supreme  end  of  all  culture — character  ;  a  child-garden  whose 
fruitage  is  in  the  spirit-flowering  induced  therein,  beautiful  with  the 
warm,  rich  colors  of  morality,  fragrant  with  the  aromatic  incense  of 
religion.  It  is  essentially  a  soul-school,  reproducing  on  a  smaller  scale 
God's  plans  of  education  drawn  large  in  human  society. 

The  little  ones  just  out  of  their  mother's  arms  are  gathered  into  a 
miniature  society,  with  the  proper  occupations  for  such  tender  years,  but 
with  the  same  drawing  out  of  affection,  the  same  awakening  of  kindly 
feeling,  the  same  exercise  of  conscience  in  ethical  discriminations,  the 
same  development  of  will,  the  same  formation  of  habits,  the  same 
calling  away  from  self  into  others,  into  the  larger  life  of  the  community, 
which,  in  so  far  as  civilization  presents  a  true  society,  constitutes  the 
education  of  morality  in  'Man  writ  large.'  Morality  is  essentially, 
what  Maurice  called  it  in  his  Cambiidge  Lectures,  "  Social  Morality." 

An  order  is  established  round  about  the  little  ones,  environing  them 
with  its  ubiquitous  presence,  constraining  their  daily  habits,  impress- 
ing itself  upon  their  natures  and  moulding  them  while  plastic  into 
orderliness.  Certain  laws  are  at  once  recognized.  They  are  expected 
to  be  punctual  to  the  hour,  regular  in  coming  day  by  day,  to  come  w«ith 
washed  hands  and  faces  and  brushed  hair,  to  be  obedient  to  the  Kin- 
dergartner  etc.  A  sense  of  law  thus  arises  within  their  minds.  It 
steals  upon  them  through  the  apparent  desultoriness  of  the  occupations, 
and  envelopes  their  imaginations  in  that  mystery  of  order  wherein, 
either  in  nature  or  in  man,  is  the  world-wide,  world-old  beginning  of 
religion  ;  while  moulding  their  emotions  and  impulses  into  the  habi- 
tudes of  law  wherein  is  the  universal  beginning  of  morality. 

All  of  the  special  habitudes  thus  induced  tell  directly  and  weightily 
upon  the  formation  of  character;  so  much  so  that  it  is  unnecessary  to 
emphasize  the  fact,  except  perhaps  in  the  case  of  the  habit  of  cleanli- 
ness and  the  care  of  the  person  in  general.  "  Cleanliness  is  next  to 
godliness  "  ran  the  old  saw,  with  a  wisdom  beyond  the  thought  of  most 
of  those  who  glibly  quote  it  in  their  missions  of  charity  to  the  homes  (?) 
of  poverty,  wherein  to  bring  any  true  cleanliness  needs  nothing  less 
than  a  new  education.  Cleanliness  is  essential  to  health,  the  lack  of 
which  saw,  as  already  hinted,  has  so  much  to  do  with  the  temptations 
of  the  poor.  It  is  equally  essential  to  that  self  respect  wherein  ambition 
and  enterprise  root,  and  out  of  which  is  fed  that  sense  of  honor  which 
so  mightily  supports  conscience  in  the  cultured  classes.  It  is  also, 
under  the  all-pervading  law  of  correspondences  which  Swedenborg  has 


718  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK." 

done  most  to  open,  inseparably  inter-linked  with  purity,  the  cleanli- 
ness of  the  soul.  Physiology  and  psychology  run  into  each  other 
undistinguishably  in  a  being  at  once  body  and  spirit,  so  that  the  state 
of  the  soul  is  expressed  in  the  condition  of  the  body,  and  is  in  turn 
largely  determined  by  it.  To  care  for  the  purity  and  decency  of  the 
temple  used  to  be  priestly  service.  To  care  for  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  still  should  be  viewed  not  only  as  the  task  of  the  sanitarian  sex- 
ton but  as  the  charge  of  the  spiritual  priesthood ;  not  a  policing  of 
the  building  but  a  religious  service  in  the  building,  an  instruction  in 
purity,  a  worship  of  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life. 

9.  Moral  Culture  through  the  Social  Manners  of  the  Kindergarten. 
In  this  miniature  society  there  is  a  school  of  manners.  One  smiles 
in  reading  the  account  of  the  back-woods  log  school-house  where  the 
gawky  lad  Abraham  Lincoln  was  taught  manners.  But  indeed  is  not 
this  bound  up  with  any  good  training  of  character?  The  noblest 
schools  of  manhood  have  always  laid  great  stress  upon  manners ; 
whether  it  has  been  the  Spartan  discipline  of  youth  in  respect  to  their 
elders,  through  every  attitude,  as  the  expression  of  that  reverence 
which  they  felt  to  be  the  bond  of  soeiety ;  or  the  training  of  noble  lads 
in  the  days  of  Chivalry  to  all  high  bred  courtesy  and  gentle-manliness, 
as  the  soul  of  the  true  knight  whose  motto  should  be  noblesse  oblige. 
Goethe  in  his  dream  of  the  ideal  education,  in  '  Wilhelm  Meister,'  made 
the  training  of  youth  in  symbolic  manners  a  conspicuous  feature. 
So  great  a  legislator  as  Moses  was  not  above  ordering  concerning  the 
manners  of  the  people  in  his  all  embracing  scheme  of  State  education  ; 
"  Ye  shall  not  walk  in  the  manners  of  the  nations  whom  I  cast  out 
from  before  you."  So  scientific  a  critic  as  Herbert  Spencer  finds  in 
manners  the  outcome  of  a  people's  social  state,  L  e.  of  its  moral  state. 
True,  the  manners  may  be  the  superficial  crust,  the  hardened  conven- 
tionalities which  neither  express  nor  cherish  the  inner  spirit,  but  so 
may  ritual  religion,  the  manners  of  the  soul  with  God,  become  wholly 
formal  and  dead.  Nevertheless  we  do  not  decry  the  ritual  of  religion, 
nor  should  we  any  more  depreciate  the  ritual  of  morality,  manners. 
The  aim  of  the  true  educator  should  be  to  find  the  best  ritual  of  mor- 
ality and  spiritualize  it ;  present  it  always  lighted  up  with  the  ethical 
feeling  of  which  it  is  the  symbolic  expression.  The  homes  of  really 
cultured  and  refined  people  carry  on  this  work,  among  the  other 
educational  processes  which  Emerson  says  are  the  most  important  as 
being  the  most  unconscious.  For  the  children  of  the  very  poor,  whose 
homes  are  rough  and  rude,  unsoftened  by  grace,  unlighted  by  beauty, 
uninspired  by  an  atmosphere  of  gentleness,  unadorned  by  living  pat- 
terns of  cultured  courtesy,  the  need  is  supplied  in  the  Kindergarten,  the 
society  of  the  petite  monde.  Herein  the  little  ones  have  before  them 
daily,  in  the  persons  of  the  Kindergartner  and  her  assistants,  a  higher 
order  of  cultivation,  all  whose  ways  take  on  something  of  the  refine- 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IX  CHURCH  WORK.  719 

ment  that  naturally  clothes  the  lady ;  and,  seen  through  the  atmosphere 
of  affection  and  admiration  which  surround  them,  are  idealized  before 
the  little  ones  into  models  of  manners,  which  instinctively  waken  their 
irnitativeness  and  unconsciously  refine  them  and  render  them  gentle, 
a  very  different  thing  from  genteel.  To  the  Kindergartner  is  drawn  the 
respect  and  deference  which  accustom  the  children  to  that  spirit  which 
a  certain  venerable  catechism  describes  as  the  duty  of  every  child  ;  an 
ideal"  we  may  pray  not  yet  wholly  antiquated  in  these  days  of  democ- 
racy, where  every  man  thinks  himself  as  good  as  his  neighbor  and  a 
little  better  too,  if  the  hierarchy  we  find  in  nature  is  still  any  type  of 
the  divine  ordinations  or  orderings  of  society :  "  My  duty  towards 
my  neighbor  is  ...  to  love,  honor  and  succor  my  father  and 
mother,  to  honor  and  obey  the  civil  authority,  to  submit  myself  to  all 
my  governors,  teachers,  spiritual  pastors  and  masters,  to  order  myself 
lowly  and  reverently  to  all  my  betters." 

Among  themselves  in  the  daily  relations  of  the  Kindergarten,  in  its 
plays  and  games,  the  children  are  taught  and  trained  to  speak  gently, 
to  act  politely,  to  show  courtesy,  to  allow  no  rudeness  or  roughness  in 
speech  or  action.  The  very  singing  is  ordered  with  especial  reference 
to  this  refining  influence,  and  its  soft,  sweet  tones  contrast  with  the 
noisy  and  boisterous  singing  of  the  same  class  of  children  in  the  Sun- 
day-school not  only  aesthetically  but  ethically. 

The  importance  given  to  music  in  the  Kindergarten,  where  every- 
thing that  can  be  so  taught  is  set  to  notes  and  sung  into  the  children, 
is  the  carrying  out  of  the  hints  given  by  the  greatest  thinkers,  from 
Plato  to  Goethe,  as  to  the  formative  power  of  music.  One  who  knows 
nothing  of  these  hints  of  the  wise,. and  who  had  never  reflected  upon 
the  subject,  in  watching  a  well  ordered  Kindergarten  would  feel 
instinctively  the  subtle  influence  of  sweet  music  in  softening  the 
natures  of  the  little  ones,  in  filling  them  with  buoyant  gladness,  in 
leading  them  into  the  sense  of  law,  in  harmonizing  their  whole 
natures.  I  remember  a  late  occasion  when  I  was  profoundly  im- 
pressed with  this  and  felt  the  words  of  the  masters,  long  familiar  to 
me,  open  with  unsuspected  depth. 

10.  Moral  Culture  in  the  Nurture  of  Unselfishness. 
In  this  miniature  society  there  is  a  schooling  in  all  the  altruistic 
dispositions, — to  use  the  rather  pretentious  phraseology  of  our  later 
ethical  philosophers,  in  lieu  of  any  better  expression — an  education  of 
the  individual  out  of  egoism,  self-ism  and  the  selfishness  into  which  it 
rapidly  runs ;  an  instruction  in  the  principles,  and  a  training  in  the 
habits  of  those  duties  each  one  owes  his  neighbor,  which  constitute 
morality.  As  in  the  association  which  civilization  begins,  and  in  whose 
increase  civilization  develops,  so  in  this  miniature  society,  individuali- 
ties are  brought  together  from  their  separate  homes  in  a  common  life, 
a  community  whose  occupations,  aims  and  interests  are  one ;  where  the 


720  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

pleasures  of  each  one  are  bound  up  with  the  pleasures  of  his  fellows, 
his  own  desires  limited  by  the  desires  of  his  playmates,  his  self-regard 
continually  brought  into  conflict  with  the  resistance  offered  by  the  self- 
regard  of  others,  and  he  is  taught  to  exercise  himself  in  thinking  of 
his  companions  and  to  find  a  higher  delight  than  the  gratification  of  his 
own  whims  in  the  gratification  of  others'  wishes.  The  law  of  this  lit- 
tle society  is  the  Golden  Rule.  This  law  is  made  to  seem  no  mere  hard 
imposition  of  a  Power  outside  of  them  which  they  are  painfully  to 
obey,  but  the  pleasant  exposition  of  the  Good  Man  within  them,  the  law 
written  in  their  hearts,  which  they  can  happily  obey,  finding  that 
indeed  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive."  The  little  ones  are 
accustomed  in  their  plays  to  consult  each  other's  wishes  and  to  subor- 
dinate their  individual  likings  to  the  liking  of  some  friend.  "  What 
shall  we  play  now  ?  "  says  the  Kindergartner  ;  and  up  goes  the  hand  of 
some  quick  moving  child — "  Let  us  play  the  farmer."  "  Yes,  that  would 
be  nice,  but  don't  you  think  it  would  be  still  nicer  if  we  were  to  ask 
Fanny  to  choose  ?  She  has  been  away  you  know,  and  looks  as  though 
she  had  a  little  wish  in  her  mind.  I  see  it  in  her  eyes.  Wouldn't  it 
be  the  happiest  thing  for  us  all  if  we  let  our  dear  little  sick  Fanny 
choose?"  And  this  appeal  to  the  generosity  and  kindliness  instinct 
in  all  children,  but  repressed  in  all  from  the  start  by  the  barbarism 
into  which  the  neglected  nursery  runs  and  unto  which  the  competitive 
school  system  aspires,  draws  forth  the  ready  response,  "  Oh  !  yes,  let 
Fanny  choose."  Thus  the  little  ones  have  their  daily  lesson,  changing 
form  with  each  day,  but  recurrent  in  some  form  on  every  day,  in  the 
meaning  of  the  Master's  word  and  the  spirit  of  his  life. 

By  the  side  of  Johnny,  who  is  bright  and  quick  and  is  finishing  his 
clay  modeling  easily,  sits  Eddie,  who  is  slow  of  mind  and  dull  of 
vision  and  awkward  of  hand  and  can't  get  his  bird's  nest  done.  The 
Kindergartner  can  of  course  help  him,  but  a  whisper  to  Johnny  sets  his 
fingers  at  work  with  Eddie's  in  the  pleasure  of  kindly  helpfulness,  and 
the  dull  child  is  helped  to  hopeful  action,  while  the  bright  child  is 
helped  to  feel  his  ability  a  power  to  use  for  his  brother's  good.  If  any 
joy  or  sorrow  comes  to  one  of  the  little  company  it  is  made  the  occa- 
sion of  calling  out  the  friendly  and  fraternal  sympathy  of  all  the 
child  community.  "Have  you  heard  the  good  news,  children?  Mary 
has  a  dear  little  baby  brother,  ever  so  sweet,  too!  Aren't  we  all 
glad  ?  "  And  every  face  brightens  and  all  eyes  sparkle  with  the  quick 
thrill  of  a  common  joy.  "  Poor  dear  little  Maggie  !  Is  n't  it  too  bad ! 
Her  papa  is  very  sick  and  she  can't  come  to  Kindergarten  to-day. 
She  is  sitting  at  home,  so  sad,  because  her  papa  suffers  so  much  and 
her  mamma  is  so  anxious.  Don't  we  all  feel  sorry  for  her?  And 
sha'  n't  we  send  word  to  her  by  Bessie,  who  lives  right  near  her,  that 
we  all  feel  so  sorry,  and  that  we  hope  her  papa  will  soon  be  well  ?  " 

Scarcely  a  day  passes  without  some  such  occasion  of  calling  out  the 
sympathies  of  the  individual  children  into  the  feeling  of  a  larger  life 
in  common,  in  whicli  they  are  members  one  of  another  and  share  each 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  721 

other's  joys  and  sorrows.  "  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens  and  so  fulfill 
the  law  of  Christ,"  may  not  be  written  upon  the  walls  of  the  Kinder- 
garten, but  is  written,  day  by  day,  in  living  lines  upon  the  inner  walls 
of  those  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  where  it  is  read  by  the  Spirit. 

11.     Moral  Culture  through  a  Life,  Corporate  and  Individual. 

In  manifold  ways  each  day  also  brings  opportunities  of  impressing 
upon  the  little  ones  the  mutually  limitiug  rights  of  the  members  of  a 
community,  the  reciprocal  duties  each  one  owes  to  every  other  one 
with  whom  he  has  relations,  and  to  enforce  the  lesson,  "  No  man  liveth 
unto  himself."  A  sense  of  corporate  life  grows  up  within  this  minia- 
ture community,  which  floats  each  life  out  upon  the  currents  of  a 
larger  and  nobler  life.  Each  action  shows  its  consequences  upon 
others,  and  thus  rebukes  selfishness.  Each  little  being  is  bound  up 
with  other  beings,  with  the  whole  society,  and  his  conduct  affects  the 
rest,  changes  the  atmosphere  of  the  whole  company.  Injustice  is  thus 
made  to  stalk  forth  in  its  own  ugliness,  falsehood  to  look  its  native  dis- 
honor, meanness  to  stand  ashamed  of  itself  in  the  condemning  looks 
of  the  little  community.  Justice  rises  into  nobleness,  truth  into  sacred- 
ness,  generosity  into  beauty,  kindness  into  charming  grace  as  their 
forms  are  mirrored  in  the  radiant  eyes  of  the  approving  company. 
That  very  deep  word  of  the  Apostle,  "Let  him  that  stole  steal  no 
more;  for  we  are  members  one  of  another,"  grows  in  such  a  child 
community,  a  living  truth,  a  principle  of  loftiest  ethics ;  and  in  the 
sense  of  solidarity,  the  feeling  of  organic  oneness,  the  highest  joy  of 
goodness  and  the  deepest  pain  of  badness  becomes  the  perception  of 
the  influence,  mysterious  and  omnipotent,  which  each  atom  exerts  on 
the  whole  body,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  in  the  present  and  in  the  future. 

And  into  this  topmost  reach  of  social  morality  the  little  community 
of  the  kindergarten  begins  to  enter,  blessing  the  individuals  and  pre- 
paring the  soil  for  a  higher  social  state,  that  life  in  common  of  the 
good  time  coming. 

This  social  morality  is  cultured  at  no  cost  of  the  individuality.  The 
sense  of  a  life  in  common  is  not  made  to  drive  out  the  sense  of  a  life 
in  separateness,  in  which  each  soul  stands  face  to  face  with  the  august 
Form  of  Ideal  Goodness,  to  answer  all  alone  to  the  Face  which  searches 
him  out  in  his  innermost  being,  and  wins  him  to  seek  Him  early  and 
to  find  Him.  The  true  Kindergartner  is  very  scrupulous  about  lifting 
the  responsibility  in  any  way  from  the  conscience  of  the  child.  In 
these  appeals  to  the  better  nature  of  all,  it  is  that  better  nature  of 
some  child  which  is  left  to  decide  the  question,  only  helped  by  the  way 
she  puts  the  case.  Even  in  a  case  of  disobedience  to  her  command 
she  is  careful  not  so  much  to  be  obeyed  as  to  be  obeyed  by  the  self-won 
victory  of  the  little  rebel,  who  is  given  time  to  get  over  his  sulk  and  to 
come  to  himself,  and  so  to  arise  and  say,  in  his  own  way,  "  I  have 
sinned."  Nothing  in  the  whole  system  is  more  beautiful  than  this 
effort  to  have  the  child  conquer  himself. 

46 


722  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IX  CHURCH  WORK. 

The  appeal  is  always  through  the  sympathies,  the  affections,  the 
imagination  to  the  sense  of  right  in  each  child,  to  the  veiled  throne 
where  silent  and  alone  Conscience  sits  in  judgment.  Only  it  is  an 
appeal  carried  up  to  this  final  tribunal  by  the  persuasive  powers  of 
social  sympathy,  the  approbation  of  one's  fellows,  the  judgment  in  its 
favor  already  pronounced  by  speaking  faces  and  glowing  eyes.  As 
society  affords  the  sphere  for  the  development  of  conscience,  so  it  fur- 
nishes the  most  -subtle  and  powerful  motives  to  conscience,  and  the 
individual  life  is  perfected  in  the  life  in  common. 

12.     Moral  Culture  through  an  Atmosphere  of  Love. 

An  atmosphere  of  love  is  thus  breathed  through  the  little  society  of 
the  Kindergarten  under  which  all  the  sweetness  and  graciousness  of 
the  true  human  nature,  the  nature  of  the  Christ  in  us,  opens  and  ripens 
in  beauty  and  fragrance.  All  morality  sums  itself  up  into  one  word — 
Love.  "Owe  no  man  anything  but  to  love  one  another:  for  lie  that 
loveth  another  hath  fulfilled  the  law.  For  this,  Thou  shalt  not  commit 
adultery,  Thou  shalt  not  kill,  Thou  shalt  not  steal,  Thou  shalt  not  bear 
false  witness,  Thou  shalt  not  covet ;  and  if  there  be  any  other  com- 
mandment, it  is  briefly  comprehended  in  this  saying,  namely,  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his  neigh- 
bor, therefore  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law." 

To  teach  children  to  really  love  one  another,  to  feel  kindly,  gener- 
ous, unselfish  dispositions  towards  each  other,  and  to  act  upon  those 
dispositions,  is  to  write  the  whole  code  of  conduct  in  the  heart.  And 
plainly  this  is  not  a  matter  for  mere  precept.  It  is  not  to  be  effected 
by  the  most  eloquent  exhortations  of  Sunday-school  teachers  or  of 
pastors.  It  is  a  spirit  to  be  breathed  within  the  very  souls  of  the  little 
ones  in  their  tenderest  years,  from  an  atmosphere  charged  with  loving- 
ness.  This  is  what  makes  a  loving  mother  in  the  home  the  true 
teacher  of  character  in  the  true  school,  vastly  more  influential  than  the 
most  perfect  Sunday-school  or  the  most  wonderful  church.  And  the 
Kindergarten  is  only  a  vicarious  mothering  for  those  whose  homes 
lack  this  divine  nurturing,  a  brooding  over  the  void  of  unformed  man- 
hood and  womanhood  by  a  loving  woman,  bringing  order  out  of  the 
chaos  and  smiling  to  see  it  "  very  good."  Nothing  that  can  help  this 
quickening  of  love  is  neglected  in  the  Kindergarten.  The  daily  work 
is  wrought  with  some  special  aim  in  view,  some  thought  of  affection  in 
the  heart.  It  is  to  be  a  gift  for  father  or  mother,  brother  or  sister,  aunt 
or  uncle,  perhaps,  unknown  to  them,  for  Kindergartner  or  for  pastor. 

As  I  write  I  lift  my  eyes  to  look  at  a  horse  pricked  out  on  white 
paper  and  framed  with  pink  paper  strips,  wrought,  with  what  patient 
toil  of  loving  fingers,  by  the  cutest  of  little  darkies,  the  baby  of  our 
Kindergarten,  for  his  pastor ;  and  duly  presented — not  without  being 
lifted  high  in  air  and  kissed  most  smackingly — to  me  on  our  last 
Christmas  celebration.  Thus  the  daily  toil  weaves  subtle  fibres  of 
affection  around  the  heart,  models  the  soul  into  shape  of  gracious  love. 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  723 

All  this  beautiful  moral  culture  is  wrought  through  the  happy  play 
of  the  Child-Garden,  with  a  minimum  of  talk  about  the  duty  of  these 
simple  virtues  and  with  a  maximum  of  influences  surrounding  the  chil- 
dren to  make  them  feel  the  happiness  and  blessedness  of  being  good. 
The  atmosphere  is  sunny  with  joy.  The  constant  aim  of  the  Kinder- 
garten is  to  fill  all  with  happiness.  Cross  looks  and  hard  words  are 
banished.  The  law  of  kindness  rules,  the  touch  of  love  conquers.  No 
work  is  allowed  to  become  a  task.  It  is  all  kept  play,  and  play  whose 
buoyancy  each  child  is  made  to  feel  inheres  in  the  spirit  of  kindness 
and  affection  and  goodness  which  breathes  through  the  Kindergarten. 
They  are  all  trying  to  do  right,  to  speak  truth,  to  show  kindness,  to  feel 
love,  and  therefore  all  are  happy.  Now  to  be  thoroughly  happy,  over- 
flowingly  happy,  happy  with  a  warmth  and  cheeriness  that  lights  up 
life  as  the  spring  sun  lights  up  the  earth,  this  is  itself  a  culture  of  good- 
ness. It  is  to  fill  these  tender  beings  with  stores  of  mellow  feeling,  of 
rich,  ripe  affection  which  must  bud  and  blossom  into  the  flowers  of  the 
goodness  which  are  briefly  comprehended  under  the  one  name  of  Love. 

"  Virtue  kindles  at  the  touch  of  joy," 

wrote  Mrs.  Browning,  knowing  well  whereof  she  wrote.  Joyousness 
pure  and  innocent* and  unselfish,  overflowing  all  around  like  the  rich 
gladness  of  the  light,  is  the  very  life  of  the  children  of  God.  "  Thou 
meetest  him  that  rrjoiceth  and  worketh  righteousness."  The  "  vital 
feelings  of  delight,"  of  which  Wordsworth  spake,  feed  the  vital  actions 
of  righteousness,  in  working  which  God  is  met.  The  happiness  the 
little  ones  have,  whose  angels  stand  ever  before  the  face  of  their  Father 
in  Heaven,  to  become  like  whom  is  to  enter  even  here  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  must  be  something  like  the  pleasures  which  are  at  God's  right 
hand  for  evermore,  a  joy  which  expresses  and  which  feeds  the  purity 
and  the  goodness  of  the  children  of  the  Heaven-Father. 

Is  not  an  institution  which  provides  for  the  cultivation  of  such  social 
morality,  under  such  an  atmosphere  of  sunny  joy,  a  true  Child  Garden, 
for  the  growth  of  the  soul  and  its  blossoming  in  beauty  ? 

13.     Religious  Culture  in  the  Kindergarten. 

What  is  thus  true  of  the  Kindergarten  as  a  school  of  morality  is 
equally  true  of  it  as  a  school  of  religion.  In  carrying  on  such  a  culture 
of  character  as  that  described  above,  the  Kindergarten  would  be  doing 
a  religious  work  even  though  no  formal  word  were  spoken  concerning 
religion.  It  would  be  culturing  the  spirit  out  of  which  religion  grows. 

Love  is  the  essence  of  religion.  All  forms  of  religion  in  their  high- 
est reach  express  this.  Christianity  positively  affirms  it.  The  very 
being  of  the  Source  and  Fount  of  all  spiritual  life  is  essential  love; 
11  God  is  Love."  He  who  manifested  God  to  man  summed  the  whole 
law  in  two  commandments,  the  dual  sphered  forms  of  this  life  of  love 
in  man — "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and 
with  all  thy  soul  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great 
commandment.  And  the  second  is  like  unto  it.  Thou  shalt  love  thy 


724  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

neighbor  as  thyself."  In  the  order  of  nature,  love  to  our  neighbor  Die- 
cedes  and  prepares  for  love  to  God.  Mother  and  father,  brother  and 
sister  awaken  love  in  us,  drawing  it  out  toward  themselves,  and  thus 
educating  the  soul  to  flow  up  in  love  unto  the  life  of  which  these  earthly 
affections  are  seen  to  be  but  the  shadows.  Human  affections  are  the 
syllables  which  when  put  together  spell  out  the  love  of  God.  They  are 
the  strands  which  twine  together  into  the  "  bands  of  a  man,  the  cords 
of  love  "  wherewith, 
"  The  whole  round  earth  is  every  way  bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

They  are  pulse  beats  in  the  earthly  members  of  the  Eternal  Life 

which 

"  Throbs  at  the  centre,  heart-hearing  alway  ; " 

the  Life 

"Whose  throbs  are  love,  whose  thrills  are  songs." 

The  love  of  the  dear  ones  in  the  home  is  not  something  other  than  the 
love  of  God,  to  be  contrasted  or  even  compared  with  the  love  we  cherish 
towards  the  Father  in  Heaven ;  it  is  part  of  that  love,  its  lower  forms, 
through  which  alone  we  climb  up  to  a  St.  Augustine's  passionate 
"  What  do  I  love  when  I  love  Thee,  O  my  God  ?  "  "  He  that  loveth 
not  liis  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom  he 
hath  not  seen."  Every  true  love  is  the  respiration  from  the  soul  of 
man  of  the  inspiration  of  God  Himself,  the  Essential  and  Eternal  Love. 
Could  the  Church  succeed  in  making  its  members  so  live  that  it  should 
again  be  said — "  See  how  the  Christians  love  one  another" — the  world 
would  own  a  new  inspiration  of  religious  life,  a  new  revelation  of 
religious  truth.  If  the  Kindergarten  succeeds  in  making  a  child- 
society,  filled  with  gentle,  kindly  affection,  pervaded  with  the  spirit  of 
love,  we  should  rest  persuaded  that  herein  it  was  working  the  "prepara- 
tion of  the  heart "  for  the  higher  love,  to  open  duly  in  the  Temple  con- 
sciousness— "  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  in  my  Father's  ;  "  because  in 
the  flowing  up  of  these  springs  of  human  love  we  should  recognize, 
deep  down  below  consciousness,  the  tiding  of  the  Eternal  Love,  the  well 
of  water  springing  up  within  them  unto  everlasting  life. 

But  indeed  there  need  be  no  lack  of  direct  words  of  the  Heavenly 
Father  and  to  Him,  such  as  make  up  what  we  ordinarily  think  of  as 
religious  education.  The  Kindergarten  provides  for  a  natural  child 
religion,  in  its  talks  and  songs  and  simple  prayers.  In  the  games 
wherein  the  little  ones  are  familiarized  with  the  processes  by  which 
man's  wants  are  supplied,  their  minds  are  led  up  to  see  the  Fatherly 
Love  which  thus  cares  for  the  children  of  earth.  Awe,  reverence, 
worship,  gratitude,  affection  are  suggested  and  inspired,  and  the  child 
soul  is  gently  opened  towards  the  Face  of  Holy  Love  shining  down 
over  it,  casting  its  bright  beams  deep  within  the  innocent  mind  in 
thoughts  and  feelings  we  dimly  trace.  Of  this  speech  about  God  there 
is  a  sparing  use,  according  to  the  wisdom  of  the  truest  teachers. 

George  McDonald  tells  how  Ranald  Bannerman's  father  never 
named  GOD,  till  one  rare,  high  moment,  when  nature  spread  her  spell 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  725 

of  gladsome  awe,  aud  invited  the  utterance  of  the  ineffable  nan.e 
and  the  revelation  the  marriage  of  word  and  work  should  make. 

Glib  garrulity  about  God  is  the  vice  of  most  religious  teaching, 
"  falsely  so  called,"  the  bungling  job-work  of  spiritual  tyros  who  never 
should  be  set  upon  so  fine  a  task  as  the  culture  of  the  soul.  The 
simple  child-songs,  full  of  the  spirit  of  religion,  with  so  little  about  it, 
delicately  uplifting  the  thought  of  the  little  ones  to  the  Fatherly  Good- 
ness ;  the  sacred  word  of  child-hearted  prayer  in  its  one  perfect  form, 
"  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven, — "  as  the  old  rubric  would  have  ordered 
it,  "  said  or  sung  "  in  the  opening  of  the  daily  session ;  envelop  the 
Kindergarten  in  a  gracious  sense  of  God,  subtle  as  the  atmosphere,  and 
like  it  pervasive  and  all  inspiring.  Frb'bel  was  profoundly  religious 
himself,  and  sought  to  make  his  new  education  above  all  a  true  religious 
culture.  If  it  had  stopped  short  of  this  it  would  have  been  to  him 
maimed  and  mutilated.  But  he  was  too  humbly  true  to  Nature's 
mothering  to  spoil,  in  trying  to  improve,  her  gentle,  quiet,  unobtrusive 
ways  of  opening  the  child  soul  to  God.  He  knew  that  the  crowning 
consciousness  of  God  in  the  child  soul  must  bide  its  time,  and  cannot 
be  forced  without  deadly  injury.  He  knew  that  the  twelve  years  in 
the  home  go  before  the  hour  in  the  temple ;  are  the  rootings  for  that 
beautiful  flowering. 

To  create  such  an  atmosphere  around  the  tender  buds  of  being,  and 
enswathe  them  ere  they  consciously  open  to  know  God  with  the  felt 
presence  of  a  Fatherly  Goodness ;  to  teach  the  little  ones  their  duties 
one  to  another  as  brothers,  in  such  wise  that  they  shall  come  to  recog- 
nize them  as  the  mutual  obligations  of  the  common  children  of  this 
Fatherly  Love ;  to  guide  their  inquiring  minds  to  see  through  all  the 
law  and  wisdom  and  beneficence  of  nature  the  care  of  this  Fatherly 
Providence ;  to  lift  their  tiny  hands  in  simple,  daily  prayer  to  this 
Fatherly  Worshipf ulness — is  not  this  a  beautiful  culture  of  essential 
religion  in  its  child  stage  ? 

14.     This  Complete  Child  Culture  the  Foundation  of  Church  Work. 

Combining  this  physical,  intellectual,  industrial,  moral  and  religious 
culture,  does  not  the  Kindergarten  become  a  veritable  Child-Garden, 
where  the  tender  saplings  of  the  Heavenly  Father  are  well  started 
towards  symmetric,  rhythmically  rounded  wholeness,  or  holiness?  Is  it 
not  the  cradle  for  the  Christ  Child,  the  infancy  of  the  Coming  Man,  in 
whose  unspoiled  childhood  growing  normally  towards  perfection  "  The 
White  Christ,"  as  the  Norsemen  call  him,  the  pure,vclean,  holy  Image 
of  the  Father  in  the  Son,  is  to  be  "  formed  in  "  men,  to  be  "  born  in  " 
them,  till  "  we  all  come  to  a  perfect  man,  to  the  measure  of  the  stature 
of  the  fullness  of  Christ?" 

I  make  no  exaggerated  plea  for  the  Kindergarten.  To  its  defects 
and  limitations  I  am  not  wholly  blind.  Its  imperfections,  however, 
are  not  serious,  its  limitations  are  no  valid  objection  to  it.  It  is  con- 
fessedly only  a  stage  in  education,  not  a  complete  system.  But  that 


726  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

stage  is  the  all  important  one  of  the  foundation.  True — "and  pity 
'tis,  'tis  true  " — we  have  no  series  of  such  Child-Gardens,  transplanting 
the  children,  stage  by  stage,  after  Nature's  plans,  on  into  manhood  and 
womanhood.  After  this  fair  beginning  we  have  to  transfer  them  to 
schools  wholly  uncongenial,  not  only  to  the  best  life  of  body  and 
mind,  but  alas !  of  the  soul  also ;  where  competition  and  rivalry,  selfish 
ambition  for  priority  of  place,  hard  law  and  a  stern  spirit,  chill  and 
deaden  the  life  so  graciously  begun,  and  prepare  the  children  for  the 
false  society  of  strife  and  selfishness,  "  the  world  "  which  "  if  any  man 
love,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him."  Nevertheless,  the  founda- 
tion of  the  true  education  must  be  laid,  in  the  assurance  that  it  well 
laid  the  life  will  plumb  somewhat  squarer,  and  that  upon  it,  shaped 
and  ordered  by  its  better  form,  string  by  string,  the  layers  of  the  nobler 
education  must  rise,  lifting  humanity  towards  that  blessed  society  yet 
to  be  upon  the  new  earth  over  which  the  new  heavens  arch.  Its  mech- 
anique,  however  wonderfully  wise,  truly  carries  within  it  no  such  re- 
generating power  unless  a  living  soul  vitalizes  it.  As  a  mechanism,  it 
seems  to  me  the  most  perfect  the  world  has  known.  But  the  finest 
thing  about  it  is  the  imperious  demand  it  makes  for  a  true  personality 
at  the  centre  of  its  curious  coil.  No  other  system  of  education  is  so 
insistent  upon  the  necessity  of  a  soul  within  the  system,  depends  so 
absolutely  upon  the  personal  influence  of  the  teacher,  and  recognizes 
this  subordination  of  method  to  spirit  so  frankly.  It  claims  for  itself 
that  its  mechanism  provides  a  true  means  for  the  exercise  of  personal 
influence  upon  the  lives  of  the  little  ones,  prevents  the  waste  of  mis- 
directed effort,  and  the  worse  than  waste  such  labor  always  leaves.  It 
then  seeks  out  and  trains  the  true  mothering  woman,  sympathizing 
with  children,  drawing  out  their  confidence  and  affection,  apt  to 
teach,  quick  to  inspire,  an  over-brooding  presence  of  love,  creative  of 
order  in  the  infantile  chaos.  The  machinery  can  be  worked  in  a 
woodenish  way  by  any  fairly  intelligent  wroman.  It  can  be  success- 
fully worked  to  accomplish  its  grand  aims  only  by  a  noble  woman,  a 
vitalizing  personality.  The  Kindergarten  is  the  wonderful  body  of 
culture  whose  animating  soul  is  the  Kindergartner.  Its  power  is  that 
on  which  Christ  always  relied,  that  on  which  the  Church  still  leans — 
personal  influence  upon  individuals ;  and  its  sphere  for  that  influence 
is  the  most  plastic  period  of  all  life.  The  women  whom  the  Kinder- 
garten seeks  to  win  to  its  cause  are  those  who  come  to  its  work  in  this 
spirit;  women  who  want  not  only  an  avocation,  a  means  of  winning 
bread  and  butter,  but  a  vocation,  a  calling  from  God  for  man. 

My  claim  for  the  Kindergarten  is  that  it  is  a  wonderfully  wise  sys- 
tem for  utilizing  the  most  valuable  years  of  childhood,  hitherto  left  to 
run  to  waste,  in  a  beautiful  provision  for  turning  the  play  instinct  of 
childhood  into  a  genuine  education  of  body,  mind  and  soul ;  that  it 
lays  the  foundation  for  a  really  integral  culture,  a  culture  of  the  whole 
man,  i.  e.  of  holiness  ;  that  it  specially  supplements  the  State  system 
of  education  in  the  points  where  it  is  most  lacking,  the  nurture  of 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  727 

health  and  industrial  training ;  that  in  so  far  as  it  does  all  this  it  com- 
mends itself  most  strongly  to  the  churches  as  a  branch  of  their  work, 
which  is  on  every  hand  tending  towards  education,  as  the  only  means 
of  preventing  those  unfavorable  conditions  for  character  which  the 
poor  find  surrounding  them,  in  their  low  health  and  their  incompe- 
tency  for  skilled  work ;  and  that  above  all  this  it  avowedly  seeks,  and 
is  admirably  adapted  to  secure,  an  initial  culture  of  morality  and  re- 
ligion patterned  upon  nature's  own  methods,  i.  e.  God's  own  plans, 
whose  fruition,  if  ever  carried  on  through  successive  stages  into  adult 
life,  would  be  that  society  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Man,  .in  the  Family 
of  the  Heavenly  Father,  which  is  the  ideal  unto  which  the  Church 
slowly  works,  the  Kingdom  of  God  upon  earth. 

If  the  Church  be  sent  to  heal  all  manner  of  diseases,  physical,  men- 
tal and  moral,  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  its  Lord,  by  disciplining  men 
into  the  name — the  truth,  the  life — of  that  Head  of  the  new  Humanity, 
then  is  Church  Work  the  education  of  men  and  women  towards  that 
ideal  of  St.  Paul — "  Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  to  a  perfect  man,  to  the  measure  of 
the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ." 

And  for  this  task  of  Christian  Education,  wherein  lies  Church  Work, 
the  foundation  must  be  laid — next  above  the  lowest  string  in  the 
building,  the  Family,  and  in  its  place  where  it  does  not  truly  exist — in 
some  system  of  Child  Culture,  under  the  laws  of  Nature  and  in  the 
Spirit  of  Christ.  The  only  approach  to  such  a  system  the  world  holds 
to-day  is  the  Kindergarten.  Therefore  I  claim  it  as  the  fundamental 
Church  Work ;  the  Infant  School  of  the  Future ;  the  Child  Garden 
wherein  the  little  ones  of  the  poor  shall  grow  day  by  day  in  body, 
mind  and  soul,  towards  the  pattern  of  all  human  life. 

The  day  is  not  far  off  when  our  present  pretense  of  Christian  Edu- 
cation in  the  Sunday  School  will  be  viewed  as  the  mere  makeshift 
of  a  time  of  zeal  without  knowledge,  a  provisional  agency  await- 
ing the  coming  of  a  real  soul-school ;  always  perhaps  to  be  continued 
for  certain  fine  influences  inherent  in  it,  but  at  best  only  a  supplement 
to  the  true  culture  of  character ;  needing  to  be  molded  upon  that 
wiser  system.  The  day  is  not  far  off  when  every  church  aiming  to 
carry  on  any  real  mission  work  will  have,  as  the  foundation  for  what- 
ever system  of  schools  it  may  be  trying  to  build  up,  a  Free  Kinder- 
garten. Meanwhile  every  church  founding  one  becomes  a  pioneer  of 
the  true  Church  Work. 

The  thoroughly  religious  tone  of  this  work  can  be  secured,  if  any 
churches  distrust  the  general  supply  of  Kindergartners,  by  the  pastor's 
selecting  one  of  those  blessed  women  whom  almost  every  congregation 
develops — apt  to  teach,  full  of  love  to  children  and  to  God — and  per- 
suading her  to  train  as  a  Kindergartner,  and  then  take  charge  of  the 
Parochial  Kindergarten. 

True,  this  work  will  be  costly  in  comparison  with  the  poor  work  now 
done  so  cheaply  and  with  such  apparently  large  results.  But  as  the 


728  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

real  spirit  of  love  to  God  and  man  inspires  the  activity  of  the  churches, 
and  a  true  discernment  of  what  is  needing  to  be  done  grows  upon  them, 
the  cackling  and  crowing  of  congregations  over  their  ever- to-be-so- 
much-admired  works,  will  give  place  to  a  quieter  and  humbler  feeling ; 
and  churches  will  be  glad  to  do  some  smaller  work,  as  men  judge,  if  so 
it  may  only  be  true  work  for  man  well  done  in  the  Spirit  of  Christ ; 
and  will  rest  content  to  sink  a  thousand  dollars  a  year  in  nurturing  fifty 
or  a  hundred  little  ones.  Only  poor  work  is  cheap.  And  church  work 
must  needs  first  be  sound>  and  only  then  be  cheap  as  may  be. 

True  also  the  State  may  be  appealed  to  for  this  pre-primary  school- 
ing, and  may  engraft  the  Kindergarten  upon  the  Common  School  Sys- 
tem, as  has  been  done  in  some  places,  and  thus  relieve  the  Church  of 
this  charge.  But  if  what  has  been  here  said  commends  itself  to  the 
minds  of  the  clergy,  and  of  those  interested  in  Church  Work,  it  will 
suggest  to  them  strong  reasons  why  the  Church  should  not  seek  to  be 
thus  relieved,  should  be  even  positively  unwilling  to  be  thus  relieved, 
should  hasten  to  occupy  the  ground  with  Church  Kindergartens.  So 
fine  and  delicate  a  work,  on  the  most  plastic  of  all  material,  by  the 
most  personal  of  powers,  seems  greatly  jeopardized  by  being  made  part 
of  a  cumbrous  official  system.  It  may  hold  its  subtle  spirit  within  this 
sphere,  but  there  is  great  risk  of  an  unconscious  lowering  of  tone,  an 
insensible  evaporation  of  the  spirit  of  the  Kindergarten  in  the  routine- 
working  of  its  mechanism.  Above  all  other  branches  of  education  it 
needs  to  be  fed  from  the  deepest  springs  of  motive  power,  to  be  tided 
with  a  holy  enthusiasm,  to  be  made  a  real  religious  ministry.  And 
because,  with  all  its  defects  in  other  respects,  the  Church  best  supplies 
this  spirit  which  is  the  vital  essence  of  the  Kindergarten,  I  hope  to  see 
i£  taken  up  by  the  churches.  The  nurture  of  early  childhood  is  so  pre- 
eminently the  very  task  of  the  Church  that  I  am  persuaded  she  needs  only 
to  understand  this  blessed  institution  to  claim  it,  as  the  development  of 
that  Spirit  of  Truth  who  is  ever  revealing  to  men,  as  they  are  able  to 
bear  them,  the  things  needing  to  be  done  for  the  health  of  humanity, 
for  the  perfecting  of  the  body  of  Christ. 

15.  Providential  Preparation  of  the  Churches  for  Welcoming  this  Work. 
As  I  thus  urge  upon  the  careful  consideration  of  my  brethren  of  the 
clergy,  of  all  branches  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  claims  to  a  promi- 
nent position  in  their  Church  Work  of  an  institution  that  is  only  begin- 
ning to  be  seriously  considered  in  this  country,  an  institution  which 
has  upon  its  surface  so  little  of  that  wherein  many  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  find  all  Church  Work,  I  am  encouraged  by  the  signs  on  every 
hand  of  the  dawning  of  a  day  of  reconciliation,  wherein  those  who 
have  stood  apart  in  their  opinions  about  Church  Work  are  to  find  them- 
selves face  to  face.  Protestantism  has  separated  along  two  lines  of 
work,  drawn  by  two  schools  of  thought.  Some  branches  of  Protestant- 
ism have  based  their  work  in  the  culture  of  Christian  character  upon 
the  child  experience  of  formation,  having  a  strong  sense  of  the  organic 


THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK.  729 

life  of  a  holy  humanity.  Others  have  based  their  work  in  the  culture 
of  Christian  character  upon  the  adult  experience  of  re-formation,  hav- 
ing a  strong  sense  of  the  organic  life  of  a  sinful  humanity. 

Lutheranism,  the  Church  of  England  and  its  American  daughter  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  have  held  to  the  idea  of  nurture,  and  have 
sought  to  grow  normally  from  infancy  the  sons  and  daughters  of  The 
Almighty.  They  are  learning,  however,  that  with  the  best  nurture 
there  will  be  lapses,  deep  and  wide ;  that  the  children  of  the  Heavenly 
Father  may  turn  out  prodigals,  needing  in  the  far-off  land  to  say  to 
themselves,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father  and  will  say  unto  him, 
Father,  I  have  sinned."  They  are  developing  thus,  alike  in  the  Evan- 
gelical and  Ritualistic  wings,  the  revivalistic  spirit  and  methods,  so  that 
a  genuine  Methodist  or  Baptist  would  feel  quite  at  home  in  the  "  Gospel 
Meeting  "  or  "  The  Mission."  While  thus  drawing  nigh  to  their  sister 
churches  in  the  after  work  of  conversion,  the  churches  of  nurture 
ought  to  be  ready  to  receive  this  system  of  child  culture. 

Most  of  the  branches  of  Protestant  Christianity  have  centered  their 
work  upon  conversion,  seeking  to  recreate  the  children  of  Adam  into 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord.  Presbyterians,  Congregational- 
ists,  Methodists  and  Baptists  are  now  remembering  that  under  and 
back  of  the  old  Adam  there  was  in  every  man,  as  man,  the  older  Christ ; 
a  spiritual  nature,  even  though  dormant,  which  could  open,  and  should 
open,  in  every  child  into  the  sonship  of  God.  They  are  thus  feeling 
their  way  to  sub-soil  their  needful  work  of  conversion  with  the  basic 
work  of  nurture  ;  and  are  seeking  to  grow  the  divine  nature  in  child- 
hood before  the  devilish  nature  develops  a  mastery  of  the  being.  The 
Sunday  School  receives  most  attention  in  these  denominations,  and 
shows  thus  the  conscious  need  of  education  as  the  first  of  church 
works.  The  dissatisfaction  felt  with  it  indicates  the  felt  need  of 
something  more  truly  nurturing.  They  are  more  or  less  consciously 
groping,  under  the  leadings  of  The  Spirit  of  Truth,  who  is  guiding  men 
into  all  truth,  in  search  of  a  system  which  will  prove,  what  Dr.  Bush- 
nell  craved  as  the  need  of  the  churches,  a  true  "  Christian  Nurture." 

And  thus  all  branches  of  Protestantism  ought  to  be  able  now  to  re- 
ceive this  gospel  of  God's  servant,  Frederick  Frobel,  in  their  own  tongue, 
and  welcome  it,  and  together  walk  in  the  steps  of  the  true  education 
towards  that  new  earth  into  which,  as  written  of  old,  "  a  little  child 
shall  lead  them." 

16.     This  Theory  Tested  by  Experience. 

It  only  remains  to  be  added  that  this  theory  of  the  Kindergarten  in 
Church  Work  has  been  submitted  to  the  test  of  experiment,  by  the 
Church  I  have  the  privilege  of  serving,  and  that  the  result  is  a  satisfac- 
tory verification  of  the  theory.  Three  years  ago  the  Anthon  Memorial 
Church  in  New  York  opened  its  Free  Kindergarten.  A  meeting  of 
ladies  was  called  and  an  address  made  by  Miss  Peabody,  the  venerable 
apostle  of  the  Kindergarten  in  the  United  States,  whose  long  life  of 
noble  service  in  the  cause  of  education  crowns  its  honored  years  with 


730  THE  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK. 

the  fine  enthusiasm  in  which,  at  tho  age  when  most  are  content  with 
rest,  she  has  consecrated  herself  to  this  gospel  of  the  Christ  Child.  A 
simple  organization  was  effected  from  among  the  ladies  interested  in 
the  idea,  under  an  energetic  management.  A  subscription  list  was 
soon  filled  out  warranting  a  year's  experiment.  Thanks  to  the  counsel 
of  the  best  authority,  that  of  Mad.  Kraus-Boelte,  we  were  led  to  a  most 
fortunate  choice  for  our  Kindergartner.  Miss  Mary  L.  Van  Wagenen 
had  cherished  the  idea  of  a  Free  Kindergartner  for  the  poor,  and 
brought  to  this  venture  that  combination  of  qualities  described  above 
as  essential  to  the  true  Kindergartner,  which  in  her  person  has  made 
this  experiment  so  satisfactory  a  success.  A  number  of  young  ladies 
volunteered  to  act  as  unpaid  assistants.  The  Sunday-school  room 
of  the  church  was  placed  at  the  use  of  the  Kindergarten  Associa- 
tion, and  so  in  due  time  the  Kindergarten  was  opened.  Since  then  it 
has  been  in  session  for  eight  months  of  each  year,  on  five  days  of  the 
week,  from  9£  A.  M.  to  1  P.  M.  About  seventy  children  have  been  kept 
on  the  roll,  as  many  as  car.  be  well  cared  for  by  our  force  of  assistants. 

The  plan  of  volunteer  assistants  has  not  proven  thoroughly  success- 
ful, though  we  still  have  a  few  in  attendance.  It  was  only  designed  as 
a  provisional  supply.  After  the  first  year  a  training  class  for  Kinder- 
gartners  was  opened,  through  which  several  of  her  amateur  helpers 
have  passed,  some  into  the  charge  of  new  Kindergartens,  and  others 
into  the  position  of  qualified  assistants  in  our  own  Kindergarten.  It 
is  our  intention  to  salary  such  assistants,  as  we  are  able,  and  thus  secure 
regular  and  skilled  service. 

To  further  the  physical  culture  of  the  Kindergarten  a  substantial 
dinner  has  been  provided  daily  for  the  children,  and  out  of  door  excur- 
sions made  in  suitable  seasons. 

The  mental  influence  on  the  children  has  been  very  marked.  The 
brightness  of  their  faces  is  an  expression  of  the  intellectual  quickening 
that  has  taken  place.  Soms  of  the  little  ones  have  developed  wonder- 
fully. Their  moral  growth  has  been  no  less  marked.  Some  of  the 
children  seem  literally  re-made.  And  generally,  in  the  charming  spir- 
itual atmosphere  of  this  Child  Garden,  there  seem  to  be  budding  those 
"  fruits  of  the  spirit "  which  are  *•  love,  joy,  peace,  gentleness,  good- 
ness." The  children  are  not  saints  by  any  means ;  but  they  are  grow- 
ing happily,  joyously,  and  on  the  whole  beautifully,  and  as  fast  as  we 
dare  expect.  The  best  testimony  to  the  influence  of  the  work  is  the 
appreciation  the  poor  mothers  show  of  its  effects.  The  children  have 
even  become  missionaries  of  cleanliness,  order  and  love,  and  a  little 
child  is  leading  many  a  household  towards  some  better  life.  Xo  start- 
ling results  are  sought.  We  are  satisfied  to  trust  the  future  with  the 
harvest  of  this  well  used  spring  time. 

It  has  cost  us  about  $1,000  a  year,  and  we  feel  that  it  is  a  good  in- 
vestment for  Christ.  Any  church  with  this  amount  can  plant  the  infant 
school  of  the  future,  and  the  American  Frb'bel  Union  will  help  it  to  a 
good  Kindergartner. 


KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA.  731 


KINDERGARTEN  FOR   NEGLECTED   CHILDREN. 

Address  of  Mrs.  Sarah  B.  Cooper  at  the  graduating  exercises  of  the  Pacific 
Kindergarten  Training  School,  Tuesday  evening,  Sept.  14,  1880. 

When  the  old  king  demanded  of  the  Spartans  fifty  of  their  children 
as  hostages,  they  replied,  "We  would  prefer  to  give  you  a  hundred  of 
our  most  distinguished  men."  This  was  but  a  fair  testimony  to  the  ever- 
lasting value  of  the  child  to  any  commonwealth  and  to  any  age.  The 
hope  of  the  world  lies  in  the  children.  The  hope  of  San  Francisco's 
future  lies  in  the  little  children  that  throng  her  streets  to-day.  Is  it  a 
small  question,  then,  "  What  shall  wTe  do  with  our  children?"  It  seems 
to  me  that  the  very  best  work  that  can  be  done  for  the  world  is  work 
with  the  children.  We  talk  a  vast  deal  about  the  work  of  reclamation 
and  restoration,  reformatory  institutions,  and  the  like,  and  all  this  is  well, 
but  far  better  is  it  to  begin  at  the  beginning.  The  best  physicians  are 
not  those  who  follow  disease  alone,  but  those  who,  so  far  as  possible,  go 
ahead  and  prevent  it.  They  seek  to  teach  the  community  the  laws  of 
health — how  not  to  get  sick.  We  too  often  start  out  on  the  principle 
that  actuated  the  medical  tyro  who  was  working  might  and  main  over  a 
patient  who  was  burning  up  with  fever.  When  gently  entreated  to  know 
what  he  was  doing,  he  snappishly  replied:  "Doing?  I'm  trying  to  throw 
him  into  a  fit.  I  don't  know  much  about  curing  fevers,  but  I'm  death  on 
fits.  Just  let  me  get  him  into  a  fit,  and  I'll  fetch  him."  It  seems  to  me 
we  often  go  on  the  same  principle — we  work  harder  in  laying  plans  to 
redeem  those  who  have  fallen  than  to  save  others  from  falling.  We 
seem  to  take  it  for  granted  that  a  certain  condition  of  declension  must 
be  reached  before  we  can  work  to  advantage.  I  repeat  again  what  I  havo 
often  said  before — we  do  not  begin  soon  enough  with  the  children.  It 
seems  to  me  that  both  Church  and  State  have  yet  to  learn  the  vast  import 
of  those  matchless  words  of  the  great  Teacher  Himself,  where  He  said, 
pointing  to  a  little  child:  "  He  that  receiveth  him  in  My  name,  receiveth 
Me."  He  said  it  because,  with  Omniscient  vision,  He  saw  the  wondrous 
folded-away  possibilities  imprisoned  within  the  little  child.  Again  the 
great  and  good  Teacher  said:  "Take  heed  that  ye  despise  not  one  of 
these  little  ones,  for  I  say  unto  you  that  in  Heaven  their  angels  do  always 
behold  the  face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  Heaven."  And  when  I  see  the 
neglected,  sad-faced,  prematurely-old,  weary-eyed  little  ones  in  the  pur- 
lieus of  vice  and  crime,  there  is  just  one  thought  that  comes  like  a  ray  of 
sunlight  through  these  rifts  of  cloud,  and  it  is  this :  There  is  not  one  of 
these  uncombed,  unwashed,  untaught  little  pensioners  of  care  that  has 
not  some  kind  angel  heart  that  is  pitying  it  in  the  heavens  above.  Parents 
may  be  harsh  and  brutal,  communities  may  be  cold  and  neglectful,  but 
angels  must  regard  them  with  eyes  luminous  with  tender  pity. 

What  shall  we  do  with  these  children?  Good  people  everywhere 
should  combine  to  care  for  them  and  teach  them.  Churches  should  make 
it  an  important  part  of  their  work  to  look  after  them.  The  State  should 
look  after  them.  The  law  of  self-preservation,  if  no  higher  law,  de- 
mands that  they  should  be  looked  after.  How  shall  they  be  looked  after? 
We  answer,  by  multiplying  free  Kindergartens  in  every  destitute  part  of 
the  city.  With  fifty  or  sixty  free  Kindergartens  established  in  the  most 
neglected  districts,  San  Francisco  would  be  a  different  city  ten  years 
hence.  Said  a  wealthy  tax-payer  to  me,  in  response  to  an  appeal  for  a 
subscription  to  our  Jackson-street  work:  "I  give  you  this  most  gladly. 
I  consider  it  an  investment  for  my  children.  I  would  rather  give  five 
dollars  a  month  to  educate  these  children  than  to  have  my  own  taxed  ten 
times  the  amount  by  and  by  to  sustain  prisons  and  penitentiaries. "  This 
was  the  practical  view  of  a  practical  business  man — a  man  of  wise  fore- 
thought and  of  generous  impulses. 

The  School  Board  of  this  city  are  entitled  to  the  grateful  consideration 


732  KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

of  every  thoughtful  citizen  for  their  action  in  accepting  the  class  of  five- 
year-old  children  at  116  Jackson  street,  as  an  experimental  Kindergarten, 
connected  with  the  Public  School  Department.  Let  anybody  go  and 
examine  the  work  for  themselves.  It  is  a  sad  fact  that  between  forty 
and  fifty  just  such  needy  children  have  been  turned  back  into  the  street, 
to  learn  all  its  vice  and  crime,  who  could  not  find  accommodation  in  the 
Silver-street  Kindergarten.  I  tell  you  this  is  a  fact  of  momentous  im- 
port to  this  community.  Remember  that  from  a  single  neglected 
child  in  a  wealthy  county  in  the  State  of  New  York,  there  has  come  a 
notorious  stock  of  criminals,  vagabonds,  and  paupers,  imperiling  every 
dollar's  worth  of  property,  and  every  individual  in  the  community.  Not 
less  than  one  thousand  two  hundred  persons  have  been  traced  as  the 
lineage  of  six  children,  who  were  born  of  this  one  perverted  and  depraved 
woman,  who  was  once  a  pure,  sweet,  dimpled  little  child,  and  who,  with 
proper  influences  thrown  about  her,  at  a  tender  age,  might  have  given  to 
the  world  twelve  hundred  progeny  who  would  have  blest  their  day  and 
generation.  Look  at  the  tremendous  fact  involved!  In  neglecting  to 
train  this  one  child  to  ways  of  virtue  and  well-doing,  the  descendants  of 
the  respectable  neighbors  of  that  child  have  been  compelled  to  endure 
the  depredations,  and  support  in  alms-houses  and  prisons  scores  of  her 
descendants  for  six  generation?.  If  the  citizens  of  San  Francisco  would 
protect  the  virtue  of  their  children,  their  persons  from  murder,  their 
property  from  theft,  or  their  wealth  from  consuming  tax  to  support  pau- 
pers and  criminals,  they  must  provide  a  scheme  of  education  that  will 
not  allow  a  single  youth  to  escape  its  influence.  And  to  effect  the  surest 
and  best  results  these  children  must  be  reached  just  as  early  in  life  as 
possible.  The  whole  effect  of  the  Kindergarten  system  tends  to  prevent 
crime.  And  what  estimate  shall  be  placed  upon  an  instrumentality 
which  saves  the  child  from  becoming  a  criminal,  and  thus  not  only  saves 
the  State  from  care  and  expense  incident  to  such  reform,  but  also  secures 
to  the  State  all  that  which  the  life  of  a  good  citizen  brings  to  it.  Think 
of  the  vast  difference  in  results  had  there  been  1,200  useful,  well  equipped 
men  and  women  at  work  in  that  county  in  New  York,  building  it  up  in 
productive  industries,  instead  of  1,200  paupers  and  criminals  tearing 
down  and  defiling  the  fair  heritage!  We  have  but  to  look  at  this  signifi- 
cant fact  to  estimate  the  value  of  a  single  child  to  the  commonwealth. 

The  true  Kindergartner  proceeds  upon  the  principle  asserted  by  Froebel, 
that  every  child  is  a  child  of  Nature,  a  child  of  man,  and  a  child  of  God, 
and  that  education  can  only  fulfill  its  mission  when  it  views  the  human 
being  in  this  three-fold  relation  and  takes  each  into  account.  In  other 
words,  the  true  Kindergartner  regards  with  scrupulous  care  the  physical, 
the  intellectual,  the  moral.  "You  can  not,"  says  Froebel,  "do  heroic 
deeds  in  words,  or  by  talking  about  them;  but  you  can  educate  a  child 
to  self -activity  and  to  well-doing,  and  through  these  to  a  faith  which  will 
not  be  dead."  The  child  in  the  Kindergarten  is  not  only  told  to  be  good, 
but  inspired  by  help  and  sympathy  to  be  good.  The  Kindergarten  child 
is  taught  to  manifest  his  love  in  deeds  rather  than  words,  and  a  child 
thus  taught  never  knows  lip-service,  but  is  led  forward  to  that  higher 
form  of  service  where  his  good  works  glorify  the  Father,  thus  proving 
Froebel's  assertion  to  be  true,  where  he  says:  "I  have  based  my  educa- 
tion on  religion,  and  it  must  lead  to  religion."  We  seem  to  forgot  that 
the  moral  powers,  like  the  physical  and  mental,  can  only  be  strengthened 
by  exercise.  What  the  world  most  needs  to-day  is  to  bring  more  of  the 
true  Sabbath  into  the  week-day — in  individual  life,  in  family  life,  in  social 
life,  in  business  life,  and  in  national  life.  The  school  should  cultivate 
with  equal  skill  the  perceptive  and  the  reflective  faculties,  the  intellect, 
and  the  conscience.  All  training  should  tend  to  repress  the  lower  nature 
and  arouse  the  higher.  It  should  regulate  the  animal  forces  so  that  they 
should  minister  to  the  spiritual,  thus  becoming  the  faithful  servitors  of 
all  that  is  highest  and  noblest  within  the  little  child. 

And  this  is  the  mission  of  every  true  Kindergartner.     This  is  to  be 


KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA.  733 

your  mission,  my  dear  young  ladies — you  who  go  forth  to  practice  and 
teach  the  principles  of  your  Master  Froebel.  Like  him,  you  must  love 
the  little  ones  whom  you  seek  to  unfold.  Like  him,  you  must  wrap  a 
warm  heart  of  love  about'  them,  and  love  them  into  goodness.  Are  you 
ready  for  the  work?  It  iner.n-5  much  of  toil  and  self-sacrifice;  it  means 
much  of  patience  and  care;  it  means  much  of  weariness  and  discourage- 
ment; it  means  much  of  self-renunciation  and  self-conquest.  One  must 
be  as  patient  as  Penelope  at  her  web,  and  as  tender  as  true  motherhood, 
to  evoke  the  good  and  check  the  bad  in  these  little  neglected  pensioners 
of  poverty  and  want.  There  must  be  a  magnetic  attractiveness  that 
charms  while  it  compels.  There  must  be  a  deep-sighted  sympathy,  which 
is  wiser  than  all  blame,  and  more  potent  than  all  reproof.  There  must 
be  an  abiding  faith  in  the  loving  care  of  an  Almighty  Friend,  in  whose 
help  and  strength  the  patient  toiler  goes  forward,  day  by  day,  feeling 
that,  after  all,  the  richest  reward  of  such  a  life  is  to  live  it. 

I  wish  every  Christian  philanthropist  in  the  city  would  move  toward 
the  care  and  training  of  these  luckless  little  children.  I  wish  every 
church  in  San  Francisco  would  establish  and  carry  forward  one  free 
Kindergarten.  There  need  then  be  no  restraint  in  regard  to  foundation- 
work  in  moral  and  religious  training — not  necessarily  sectarian  training, 
but  good,  sound,  fundamental  Christian  training.  There  could  then  be 
thousands  of  these  little  waifs  under  daily  instruction;  kept  from  the 
pernicious  influences  of  the  streets,  and  taught  all  that  is  good  and  true 
and  pure  and  right  and  kind  and  noble.  They  could  be  taught  industry 
and  order  and  neatness.  They  could  be  taught  reverence  and  self-respect. 
They  could  be  taught  in  the  midst  of  poverty  and  struggle  to  put  their 
trust  in  a  Heavenly  Friend,  who  with  unspeakable  tenderness  said: 
"  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  Me." 

Could  Christian  philanthropy  devise  a  better  or  more  promising  work 
than  this?  It  reaches  down  to  the  very  foundations  upon  which  true 
character  may  be  built.  It  is  full  of  promise  and  fruition  of  hope  and 
reward.  It  is  a  work  that  appeals  to  parentage.  When  fathers  and 
mothers  see  the  faces  of  their  own  darlings  radiant  writh  unalloyed  hap- 
piness, would  it  not  be  well  to  turn  a  tender  thought  on  these  luckless 
little  ones,  left  in  the  world  with  none  to  call  them  by  dear  names,  and 
none  to  be  thoughtful  of  their  pressing  wants,  with  nothing  to  relieve 
the  sad  monotony  of  the  days  and  weeks  and  months  of  their  spare  and 
scanty  lot.  I  have  an  idea  that  in  proportion  as  we  seek  to  bless  these 
hapless  children  we  may  expect  blessing  upon  our  own.  That  in  proper* 
tion  as  we  give  to  these  children  we  keep  for  our  own.  Verily,  it  is  so. 

"  Then  whispered  the  Angel  of  Mothers 

To  the  giver,  iu  tenderest  tone, 
'  In  blessing  the  children  of  others 
You  are  garnering  joys  for  your  own.'  " 


THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN. 

Do  ye  hear  the  children  weeping,  O  my  brothers, 

Ere  the  sorrow  comes  with  years? 
They  are  leaning  their  young  heads  against  their  mother's, 

And  that  cannot  stop  their  tears. 
The  young  lambs  are  bleating  in  the  meadows, 

The  young  birds  are  chirping  in  the  nest, 
The  young  fawns  are  playing  with  the  shadows, 

The  young  flowers  are  blowing  toward  the  west, — 
But  the  young,  young  children,  O  my  brothers, 

They  are  weeping  bitterly! 
They  are  weeping  in  the  playtime  of  the  others, 

In  the  country  of  the  free. — Mrs.  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning. 


734  KINDERGARTEN  FOR  NEGLECTED  CHILDREN. 

The  following  Notes  on  Charity  and' Parochial  Kindergartens,  and 
those  connected  with  public  schools,  with  charitable  institutions  and 
institutions  for  defective  classes,  were  communicated  by  General  Eaton, 
Commissioner  of  Ed.,  in  response  to  application  for  latest  information. 

In  California,  the  first  Charity  Kindergarten  of  San  Francisco,  Cali- 
fornia, Miss  Katharine  D.  Smith,  conductor,  was  established  on  Silver 
Sweet,  in  1878.  This  kindergarten  is  an  organization  of  the  Public 
Kindergarten  Society  of  which  Miss  Marwedel  is  an  officer,  and  is  a 
marvel  of  systematic  discipline.  The  young  ladies  of  the  High  School 
Normal  class  are  sent  to  this  school — one  or  two  daily — to  learn  the 
elements  of  Kindergartning  and  assist  in  teaching,  which  is  supple- 
mental to  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  subject,  delivered  by  Miss  Smith. 

The  Silver  street  work  has  given  birth  and  inspiration  to  the  Jackson 
Street  Charity  Kindergarten,  which  is  now  under  the  immediate  care  of 
Miss  Mary  Kilbridge  (who  succeeded  Miss  Reed  in  March,  1880),  as- 
sisted by  the  young  ladies  of  Mrs.  S.  N.  Cooper's  Bible  class. 

The  Jack<on  Street  Kindergarten,  established  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  Barbary  Coast  by  a  number  of  Presbyterian  ladies  belonging  to 
the  Calvary  Church,  has  had  over  one  year  of  successful,  earnest  work 
among  the  neglected  children  of  that  locality,  and  has  aroused  intelli- 
gent interest  and  warm-hearted  sympathy  among  our  citizens. 

About  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the  work  on  Jackson  street, 
another  Charity  School  was  organized  at  No.  56  First  street  (Mrs. 
Philips,  conductor)  under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Women's  Chris- 
tian Association.  The  results  have  been  beneficial  beyond  all  estimate. 
In  addition  to  these  three  Kindergartens  Miss  Marwedel  reported  in 
October,  1880,  the  names  of  the  following  : 

Minnie  S'reet  Free  Charity  Kindergarten  (Miss  Lizzie  Master). 

Shipplij  Street  Free  Chari'y  Kindergarten  (Mrs.  M.  Loyd). 

Free  Presbyterian  Church  Kindergarten  at  Oakland. 

The  School  Board  of  San  Francisco  established  in  1880,  an  "experi- 
mental Kindergarten  "  on  Jackson  street,  being  the  first  free  public 
Kindergarten  in  the  city,  under  Miss  Flora  Van  dem  Burgh.  Miss 
Marwedel  writes,  "  the  establishment  of  one  public  Kindergarten  with 
the  view  of  having  Kindergartens  connected  with  all  public  schools  is 
accepted  with  great  favor." 

Kindergarten  instruction  has  also  been  given  in  the  Little  Sister*' 
Infant  Shelter  at  San  Francisco,  and  in  the  Institution  for  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb  at  Berkeley. 

In  Illinois  the  Chicago  Charity  Kindergarten,  a  memorial  work  of 
Mrs.  Blatchford,  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  work  of  the  Mothers'  Class, 
held  two  years  ago  by  Mrs.  Putnum.  The  Kindergarten  occupies  two 
large  adjoining  rooms  in  the  basement  of  Mr.  Moody's  church,  and  is 
conducted  by  S.  E.  Walker.  Some  Kindergarten  work  in  the  Parish 
school  in  Danv:lle  was  begun  in  1880. 

In  Detroit,  Michigan,  a  Charity  Kindergarten  was  established  in  the 
Brock  way  Mission  School  in  1880. 

In  Beatrice,  Nebraska,  a  Charity  Kindergarten  exists  in  connection 
with  Christ  Church. 

In  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  a  free  Kindergarten  was  opened  in1  Front  street 
by  Miss  S.  A.  Shawk,  a  pupil  of  Miss  Blow,  under  the  auspices  of  an 
association  of  ladies,  of  which  Mrs.  Alphonso  Tafft  is  president.  Kin- 
dergarten training  is  also  established  in  the  Cincinnati  Orphan  Asylum. 

In  Cleveland,  Ohio,  a  Charity  Kindergarten  was  opened  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Young  Ladies'  Temperance  League,  but  the  association 
failing  to  furnish  the  funds,  Mrs.  A.  B.  Ogden  has  assumed  the  direc- 
tion and  expense. 


CHARITY  KINDERGARTEN.  735 

In  Columbus,  Ohio,  Kindergartens  exist  in  the  Home  of  the  Friendless; 
in  the  State  Institution  for  the  Blind,  and  the  State  Institution  for  Deaf 
Mutes,  and  in  the  New  Orphans'  Home. 

In  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  the  City  Orphan  House  has  adopted  the 
Froebel  material  and  method  with  the  little  children. 

In  the  District  of  Columbia  a  Free  Kindergarten  was  opened  in  the  chapel 
of  the  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  and  is  supported  by  con- 
tributions from  members  of  that  church,  and  the  E  Street  Baptist  Church, 
The  Froebelian  material  and  method  have  been  introduced  into  the 
District  Industrial  School  located  in  Georgetown. 

In  Philadelphia  the  Charity  Kindergarten  movement  has  been  extended, 
with  some  aid  in  room  rent  free  from  the  city,  and  in  connection  with  its 
City  Orphan  House. 

Training  Classes  for  Colored  Teachers* 

"  I  hope  you  will  reserve  a  place  for  at  least  a  brief  notice  of  the  suc- 
cessful efforts  in  this  city  to  put  the  Kindergarten  method  into  the  hands 
of  the  colored  people. 

"The  leading  spirit  here  was  Miss  Young  Jackson,  the  gifted  and 
learned  principal  of  the  Brainbridge  Street  School,  who  exhibited,  in 
some  tentative  efforts,  a  complete  comprehension  of  the  principles  of  the 
system.  She  was  encouraged  by  Miss  Vankirk,  the  oldest  and  most  suc- 
cessful Kindergartner  in  Philadelphia,  who  took  as  pupils  four  of  Miss 
Jackson's  pupils  and  trained  them  in  the  theory  and  manipulations,  and 
last  fall  set  them  at  work;  and,  since  Christmas,  each  couple  has  had  a 
Kindergarten  of  twenty  children  under  Miss  Vankirk's  general  super- 
vision. I  have  visited  both,  and  I  have  never  seen  better  examples  of 
order,  knowledge  and  use  of  words,  and  spontaneous  work  done  by  the 
children.  On  the  30th  of  April  I  attended  the  graduating  exercises  of 
the  pupil  Kindergartners,  which  were  highly  creditable,  and  the  perform- 
ances of  the  little  children  at  their  tables  and  in  the  movement  plays 
directed  by  their  own  singing  were  admirable. 

"But  what  I  came  to  Philadelphia  at  this  time  pnrposely  to  do  was  to 
give  my  blessing  to  another  training  class  of  colored  women  who  have 
been  under  the  training  of  Mrs.  Guion  Gourlay.  Four  of  these  are  grad- 
uates of  Miss  Jackson's  school,  and  four  are  married  women,  and  they 
have  all  been  taught  for  these  past  seven  months  without  money  and 
without  price,  by  Mrs.  Gourlay,  who  feels  as  I  do  about  their  natural 
aptitude,  and  whose  great  sympathy  with  them  (inherited,  she  says,  in 
part  from  an  earnest  anti-slavery  ancestor)  inspires  her  with  a  desire  to 
quicken  in  them  a  sense  of  the  special  work  assigned  to  them  as  factors 
in  the  civilization  of  humanity,  and  especially  as  citizens  of  this  country. 

"  I  will  not  deform  my  page  with  an  account  in  detail  of  the  ungenerous 
opposition  she  has  met  with;  and  the  hi r.  1  ranees  cast  in  her  way  by  per- 
sons who  should  have  aided  her,  though  it  would  put  into  strong  relief 
her  own  noble  perseverence  in  her  generous  purpose.  Through  a  cor- 
respondence I  have  had  with  her  since  last  September  I  have  known 

*  Extracts  from  letter  of  Miss  PEABODY  to  Editor  of  Volume  of  Kindergarten  Papers. 


Y36  CHARITY  KINDERGARTEN  IN  PHILADELPHIA. 

of  her  untiring  labors.  In  her  prospectus  she  said  that  whoever  could 
not  afford  the  fee  must  tell  her  and  she  would  accommodate  her  price  to 
their  necessities;  and  when  it  came  to  the  explanation,  not  any  of  them 
could  afford  to  pay  anything;  but  she  would  not  let  any  one  go  who 
desired  to  learn.  She  has  even,  out  of  her  own  purse,  provided  the 
materials  in  many  instances.  I  have  generally  heard  from  her  after 
every  lesson  given,  many  of  which  lasted  three  or  four  hours.  One  of 
the  life  members  of  our  union  made  them  all  members  of  the  American 
Froebel  Union  for  this  year.  They  will  graduate  on  the  21st  of  May, 
and  I  will  enclose  to  you  the  programme  of  the  exercises,  all  of  which  I 
have  read,  and  also  their  examination  papers ;  and  from  the  beginning 
she  has  sent  to  me  their  abstracts. 

"I  trust  it  will  prove  but  the  beginning  of  a  general  movement  among 
these  people.  Froebel's  education  is  not  merely  of  the  children,  but  of 
their  adult  care-takers.  His  living  with  children  is  the  practical  rendering 
of  Christ's  precept  to  become  as  little  children  themselves.  In  short,  it 
is  mutual  education — self -development.  The  exchange  is  an  equal  one, 
if  it  is  not  even  more  for  the  adult  than  the  child.  The  adult  gives  the 
child  only  the  love  of  time,  space,  and  the  language  which  represents 
this  love,  and  symbolizes  the  higher  spiritual  truths  which  the  children 
give  to  them,  when  they  are  wise  enough  to  divine  the  scope  and  mean- 
ing of  those  spontaneous  activities  which  embody  mutual  laws,  and  are 
alike  in  all  children,  giving  a  plane  for  the  play  of  sociality.  The  advan- 
tage that  the  temperament  of  the  colored  classes  serve,  is  in  the  pre- 
dominence  of  their  aesthetic  sensibility  over  the  mere  force  of  will. 
They  are  more  in  the  natural  equipoise  of  childhood,  and  in  the  case  of 
their  hearts  take  in  broader  impression  and  more  various  impressions 
before  they  begin  to  react.  But  this,  in  the  long  run,  is  an  advantage  if 
education  comes  in  to  give  the  opposite,  directing  their  energies  to  active 
production  of  forms  as  expression,  since  production  of  form  defines 
thought,  and  puts  substance  before  words  in  their  consciousness.  I 
remember  when  I  first  heard  the  Hampton  singers  what  an  impression 
was  made  on  me  by  their  original  music,  what  a  revelation  it  was  to  me 
of  the  truth  that  "man's  extremity  is  God's  opportunity,"  and  that,  in 
the  future  interchange  of  their  spiritual  knowledge  with  the  proud  Anglo- 
Saxon's  knowledge  of  this  world's  law,  and  even  of  that  necessary  cor- 
relation of  cosmic  forces  which  we  call  the  material  universe,  they  have 
the  advantage.  But  I  am  getting  in  too  deep  waters,  and  will  close  by 
sending  you  the  programme  of  the  closing  exercises  of  Mrs.  Gourlay's 
class,  which  pioneers  the  good  time  coming  when  both  races  shall  be 
seen  to  be  only  opposite  factors  of  an  harmonized  humanity." 

The  Eureka  Class  of  Kindergartners,  under  training  since  November 
3,  1880,  by  Mrs.  Guion  Gourlay,  had  their  closing  exercises  at  Weskly 
Hall,  on  Saturday,  May  21,  1881.  Each  of  the  nine  members  read  a  very 
creditable  essay  on  topics  suggested  by  their  studies,  and  the  work  on 
which  they  were  about  to  enter,  and  received  a  diploma  from  Miss 
Peabody,  President  of  the  American  Froebel  Union. 


EARLY  TRAINING. 

APHORISMS  AND  SUGGESTIONS — ANCIENT  AND  MODERN. 


WE  are  physiologically  connected  and  set  forth  in  our  beginnings,  and 
it  is  a  matter  of  immense  consequence  to  our  character,  what  the  connec- 
tion is.  In  our  birth  we  not  only  begin  to  breathe  and  circulate  blood, 
but  it  is  a  question  hugely  significant  whose  the  blood  may  be.  For  in 
this  we  have  whole  rivers  of  predispositions,  good  or  bad,  set  running  in 
us — as  much  more  powerful  to  shape  our  future  than  all  tuitional  and 
regulative  influences  that  come  after,  as  they  are  earlier  in  their  begin- 
ning, deeper  in  their  insertion,  and  more  constant  in  their  operation. 

Here,  then,  is  the  real  and  true  beginning  of  a  godly  nurture.  The 
child  is  not  to  have  the  sad  entail  of  any  sensuality,  or  excess,  or  distem 
pered  passion  upon  him.  The  heritage  of  love,  peace,  order,  continence 
and  holy  courage  is  to  be  his.  He  is  not  to  be  morally  weakened  before- 
hand, in  the  womb  of  folly,  by  the  frivolous,  worldly,  ambitious,  expec- 
tations of  parents-to-be,  concentrating  all  their  nonsense  in  him.  His 
affinities  are  to  be  raised  by  the  godly  expectations,  rather,  and  prayers 
that  go  before ;  by  the  steady  and  good  aims  of  their  industry,  by  the 
great  impulse  of  their  faith,  by  the  brightness  of  their  hope,  by  the  sweet 
continence  of  their  religiously  pure  love  in  Christ.  Born,  thus,  of  a  pa- 
rentage  that  is  ordered  in  all  righteousness,  and  maintains  the  right  use 
of  every  thing,  especially  the  right  use  of  nature  and  marriage,  the  child 
will  have  just  so  much  of  heaven's  life  and  order  in  him  beforehand,  as 
have  become  fixed  properties  in  the  type  of  his  parentage. 

Observe  how  very  quick  the  child's  eye  is,  in  the  passive  age  of  in- 
fancy, to  catch  impressions,  and  receive  the  meaning  of  looks,  voices,  and 
motions.  It  peruses  all  faces,  and  colors,  and  sounds.  Every  sentiment 
that  looks  into  its  eyes,  looks  back  out  of  its  eyes,  and  plays  in  miniature 
on  its  countenance.  The  tear  that  steals  down  the  cheek  of  a  mother's 
suppressed  grief,  gathers  the  little  infantile  face  into  a  responsive  sob. 
With  a  kind  of  wondering  silence,  which  is  next  thing  to  adoration, 
it  studies  the  mother  in  her  prayer,  and  looks  up  piously  with  her,  in 
that  exploring  watch,  that  signifies  unspoken  prayer.  If  the  child  is 
handled  fretfully,  scolded,  jerked,  or  simply  laid  aside  unaffectionately, 
in  no  warmth  of  motherly  gentleness,  it  feels  the  sting  of  just  that  which 
is  felt  towards  it ;  and  so  it  is  angered  by  anger,  irritated  by  irritation, 
fretted  by  fretfulness ;  having  thus  impressed,  just  that  kind  of  impa 
tience  or  ill-nature,  which  is  felt  towards  it,  and  growing  faithfully  into 
47 


/j-gg  EARLY  TRAINING. 

the  bad  mold  offered,  as  by  a  fixed  law.  There  is  great  importance,  in 
this  manner,  even  in  the  handling  of  infancy.  If  it  is  unchristian,  it  will 
beget  unchristian  states,  or  impressions.  If  it  is  gentle,  ever  patient  and 
loving,  it  prepares  a  mood  and  temper  like  its  own.  There  is  scarcely 
room  to  doubt,  that  all  most  crabbed,  hateful,  resentful,  passionate,  ill- 
natured  characters ;  all  most  even,  lovely,  firm  and  true,  are  prepared,  in 
a  great  degree,  by  the  handling  of  the  nursery.  To  these  and  all  such 
modes  of  feeling  and  treatment  as  make  up  the  element  of  the  infant's 
life,  it  is  passive  as  wax  to  the  seal.  So  that  if  we  consider  how  small  a 
tpeck,  falling  into  the  nucleus  of  a  crystal,  may  disturb  its  form  ;  or,  how 
even  a  mote  of  foreign  matter  present  in  the  quickening  egg,  will  suffice 
to  produce  a  deformity  ;  considering,  also,  on  the  other  hand,  what  nice 
conditions  of  repose,  in  one  case,  and  what  accurately  modulated  sup- 
plies of  heat  in  the  other,  are  necessary  to  a  perfect  product ;  then  only 
do  we  begin  to  imagine,  what  work  is  going  on,  in  the  soul  of  a  child,  in 
this  first  chapter  of  life,  the  age  of  impressions. 

I  have  no  scales  to  measure  quantities  of  effect  in  this  matter  of  early 
training,  but  I  may  be  allowed  to  express  my  solemn  conviction,  that 
more,  as  a  general  fact,  is  done,  or  lost  by  neglect  of  doing,  on  a  child's 
immortality,  in  the  first  three  years  of  his  life,  than  in  all  his  years  of 
discipline  afterwards.  And  I  name  this  particular  time,  or  date,  that  I 
may  not  be  supposed  to  lay  the  chief  stress  of  duty  and  care  on  the  latter 
part  of  what  I  have  called  the  age  of  impressions;  which,  as  it  is  a  mat- 
ter somewhat  indefinite,  may  be  taken  to  cover  the  space  of  three  or  four 
times  this  number  of  years;  the  development  of  language,  and  of  moral 
ideas  being  only  partially  accomplished,  in  most  cases,  for  so  long  a  time. 
Let  every  Christian  father  and  mother  understand,  when  their  child  is 
three  years  old,  that  they  have  done  more  than  half  of  all  they  will  ever 
do  for  his  character.  What  can  be  more  strangely  wide  of  all  just  appre- 
hension, than  the  immense  efficacy,  imputed  by  most  parents  to  the  Chris- 
tian ministry,  compared  with  what  they  take  to  be  the  almost  insignifi- 
cant power  conferred  on  them  in  their  parental  charge  and  duties.  Why, 
if  all  preachers  of  Christ  could  have  their  hearers,  for  whole  months  and 
years,  in  their  own  will,  as  parents  do  their  children,  so  as  to  move  them 
by  a  look,  a  motion,  a  smile,  a  frown,  and  act  their  own  sentiments  and 
emotions  over  in  them  at  pleasure ;  if,  also,  a  little  farther  on,  they  had 
them  in  authority  to  command,  direct,  tell  them  whither  to  go,  what  to 
learn,  what  to  do,  regulate  their  hours,  their  books,  their  pleasures,  their 
company,  and  call  them  to  prayer  over  their  own  knees  every  night  and 
morning,  who  could  think  it  impossible,  in  the  use  of  such  a  power,  to 
produce  almost  any  result  ?  Should  not  such  a  ministry  be  expected  to 
fashion  all  who  come  under  it  to  newness  of  life?  Let  no  parent,  shift- 
ing off  his  duties  to  his  children,  in  this  manner,  think  to  have  his  defects 
made  up,  and  the  consequent  damages  mended  afterwards,  when  they 
have  come  to  their  maturity,  by  the  comparatively  slender,  always  doubt» 
ful,  efficacy  of  preaching  and  pulpit  harangue. 

DR.  BUSHNELL.     Christian  Nurture. 


CARE  OF  THE  BODY,  &c.  739 

As  we  prepare  in  good  weather  whatever  will  be  needed  in  a  storm,  so 
in  youth  must  we  lay  up  orderly  habits  and  moderation,  as  savings  against 
time  of  age. 

Children  should  be  led  to  industry  in  useful  learning  by  persuasion  and 
admonition ;  but  never  by  blows  and  disgraceful  treatment. 

But  such  things  only  make  them  disinclined  to  effort  and  disgust  them 
with  their  labor. 

Blame  and  praise  should  be  used  alternately ;  but  care  should  con- 
stantly be  taken  that  the  former  dues  not  discourage,  and  that  the  latter 
does  not  render  over-confident  and  careless. 

As  a  plant  is  nourished  by  moderate  watering,  but  is  drowned  by  too 
much,  so  are  the  mental  powers  of  children  strengthened  by  labors 
judiciously  imposed,  but  are  destroyed  by  excessive  tasks. 

Children  should  never  be  refused  their  necessary  recreation ;  it  should 
be  remembered  that  nature  has  divided  our  whole  lives  into  labor  and 
recreation. 

Thus  we  slacken  the  strings  of  the  bow  and  the  lyre,  that  we  may  be 
able  to  tighten  them  again. 

Children  must  also  be  accustomed  not  to  live  effeminately,  to  restrain 
their  tongues,  and  to  overcome  their  anger. 

Yet  fathers  should  remember  their  own  youth,  and  should  not  judge 
too  harshl}r  the  transgressions  of  their  sons. 

As  physicians  mingle  bitter  drugs  with  sweet  confections,  and  thus 
mike  what  is  agreeable  a  means  of  administering  to  the  patient  what  is 
healthful,  so  should  fathers  unite  the  severity  of  their  punishments  with 
kindness ;  should  sometimes  give  the  reins  to  the  impulses  of  their  sons, 
and  so  natirnes  check  them;  should  be  forbearing  to  a  mere  error,  and 
even  if  they  suffer  themselves  to  become  angry,  should  recover  again 
from  it. 

It  is  often  well  to  pretend  not  to  have  observed  some  action  of  children. 

When  we  overlook  the  faults  of  our  friends,  should  we  not  sometimes 
do  the  sains  for  those  of  our  children? 

Children  should  be  taught  to  be  communicative  and  open ;  to  avoid  all 
that  savors  of  secrecy,  which  tends  to  lead  them  away  from  uprightness, 
and  to  accustom  them  to  wrong. 

The  understanding  is  not  a  vessel,  that  needs  filling ;  it  is  fuel,  that 
needs  kindling.  It  is  kindled  to  truth  by  the  faculty  of  acquiring  knowl- 
edge, and  by  love. 

He  who  listens  to  the  speech  of  another  without  kindling  his  understand- 
ing at  it,  as  at  a  light,  but  contents  himself  with  merely  hearing,  is  like 
one  who  goes  to  a  neighbor  for  fire,  but  only  sits  still  there  and  warms 
himself. 

He  only  receives  an  appearance  of  wisdom,  like  the  red  color  from  the 
shining  of  a  flame  ;  but  the  inner  rust  of  his  soul  is  not  heated ;  nor  is  its 
darkness  driven  away.  PLUTARCH. 

He  who  disciplines  his  body  is  healthy  and  strong,  and  many  persons 
have  thus  rescued  their  lives  from  danger,  served  their  friends,  been  use- 
ful to  their  country,  gained  fame  and  glory,  and  lived  a  happy  life. 

The  body  becomes  accustomed  to  whatever  occupation  is  pursued ;  and 
accordingly  it  should  be  trained  to  the  best  exercises. 

Forgetfulness,.  despondency,  ill  temper  and  even  frenzy,  often  assail  the 
mind,  in  consequence  of  neglect  of  bodily  discipline,  with  so  much  power, 
as  even  to  cause  the  loss  of  what  knowledge  is  already  gained. 

SOCRATES. 

As  the  power  of  speech  is  easily  misused,  so  are  gymnastics ;  for  supe- 
riority in  bodily  exercises  can  easily  be  abused  to  the  injury  of  others. 


Y40  CARE  OF  THE  BODY,  &c. 

Beginning  with  the  third  year,  when  the  intelligence  and  the  power  of 
speech  awake,  the  child  should  be  occupied  with  plays  appropriate  to  its 
age.  From  these  plays  a  judgment  may  be  formed  of  the  child's  adapted- 
ness  to  a  future  calling. 

Changes  of  toys  should  not  be  made  too  rapidly,  for  fear  of  developing 
instability  of  character. 

From  the  third  to  the  sixth  year,  suitable  stories  should  be  told  the 
child ;  and  these  should  be  such  as  to  furnish  him  with  ideas  of  God  and 
of  virtue. 

Parents  and  teachers  must  seek  occasion  of  securing  and  maintaining 
influence  over  children  by  means  of  personal  respect. 

Bodily  punishment  is  only  admissible  whjre  children  or  pupils  violate 
the  respect  due  to  age,  or  a  law  of  education. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  sense  of  shame  and  of  honor  should  early  be 
awakened. 

Parents  should  be  more  anxious  to  instill  into  their  children  a  deep- 
seated  youthful  modesty,  than  to  leave  them  a  pile  of  gold :  and  therefore 
they  should  carefully  keep  from  the  sight  of  the  young  all  that  can  injure 
their  modesty  or  morals. 

For  where  the  old  are  immodest,  the  shamelessness  of  the  young  is 
increased.  PLATO. 

To  the  mother  belongs  the  bodily  nourishment  and  care  of  children ; 
to  the  father,  their  instruction  and  education. 

The  distinction  of  sexes  must  early  be  observed. 

Milk  is  the  most  natural  and  therefore  the  best  food  for  children.  Wine 
injures  them  by  heating  them  and  causing  sickness. 

Even  children  at  the  breast  should  be  accustomed  to  suitable  exercise. 
Children  should  early  be  accustomed  to  heat  and  cold,  to  confirm  their 
health ;  and  all  habits  should  be  taught  from  as  early  an  age  as  possible. 

Children  should  not  be  obliged  to  do  actual  labor,  nor  to  be  instructed, 
before  the  fifth  year,  for  fear  of  stunting  them. 

The  loud  crying  of  children — unless  it  is  caused  by  sickness — is  their 
first  gymnastic  exercise. 

Their  plays  should  be  in  the  similitude  of  what  they  are  afterwards  to 
practice  in  earnest.  ARISTOTLE. 

Since  children  are  always  possessed  of  great  liveliness  and  susceptibil- 
ity, since  their  powers  of  observation  grow  keener  and  stronger  as  their 
consciousness  develops,  and  their  impulses  to  activity  are  stronger  in  pro- 
portion as  their  character  is  nobler,  therefore  proportionately  greater  care 
should  be  taken  to  preserve  them  from  immoral  influences,  to  protect  and 
direct  the  growth  of  the  mind,  and  to  accustom  them  to  proper  modes  of 
speech. 

Parents  and  teachers  should  show  to  their  children  and  pupils  a  truly 
virtuous  example  ;  and  punishments  should  be  proportioned  to  faults,  and 
should  be  so  administered  as  to  produce  improvement. 

Although  the  virtues  of  good  nature,  mildness  and  placability  are  high 
ones,  still  they  must  have  their  limits  ;  and  must  not  interfere  with  the 
strictness  necessary  to  maintain  the  laws. 

Man  must  early  be  trained  to  the  conviction  that  the  gods  are  the  di- 
rectors of  all  things,  and  that  they  see  the  inmost  thoughts  of  men. 

It  is  only  by  this  means  that  men  will  be  preserved  from  foolish  pre- 
sumption and  from  wickedness,  as  Thaies  says :  That  men  must  live  in 
the  consciousness  that  all  around  them  is  filled  with  the  gods.  This  will 
keep  them  more  chaste  than  if  they  were  in  the  holiest  of  temples. 

From  religion,  which  is  a  holy  fear  of  the  gods,  proceed  the  virtues  of 
modesty,  and  filial  piety. 


CARE  OF  THE  BODY,  &c.  741 

The  peculiar  traits  of  each  character  should  be  developed ;  it  should 
not  be  attempted  to  impress  a  foreign  mark  upon  them ;  just  actors  are 
wont  to  select  not  the  best  parts,  but  those  most  suitable  to  them. 

It  should  not  be  claimed  that  there  is  no  art  or  science  of  training  up 
to  virtue.  Remember  how  absurd  it  would  be  to  believe  that  even  the 
most  trifling  employment  has  its  rules  and  methods,  and  at  the  same  time 
that  the  highest  of  all  departments  of  human  effort — virtue — can  be  mas- 
tered without  instruction  and  practice.  CICEKO. 

The  education  of  children  should  begin  at  their  birth. 

Bathing  children  and  letting  them  crawl  about  are  to  be  recommended. 

We  came  into  the  world  entirely  ignorant,  and  with  incapable  bodies, 
but  with  the  capacity  to  learn. 

Man  learns  incredibly  much  in  the  first  years  of  his  life,  by  mere  expe- 
rience, without  any  instruction  at  all. 

Impressions  on  the  vSenses  supply  the  first  materials  of  knowledge. 
Therefore  it  will  be  well  to  present  these  impressions  in  a  proper  order.  Es- 
pecially should  the  results  of  seeing  be  compared  with  those  of  feeling. 

By  motion  they  learn  the  idea  of  space,  so  that  they  no  longer  grasp 
after  distant  objects. 

Children  speak  at  first  a  universal  natural  language,  not  articulated,  but 
accented  and  intelligible. 

Nurses  understand  this  language  better  than  others,  and  talk  to  the 
children  in  it. 

What  words  are  used  in  it  are  indifferent ;  it  is  only  the  accent  which 
is  important. 

It  is  assisted  also  by  the  children's  gestures  and  the  rapid  play  of  their 
features. 

Crying  is  their  expression  for  hunger,  heat,  cold,  &c. 

Their  grown  up  guardians  endeavor  to  understand  this  crying  and  to 
stop  it ;  but  often  misunderstand  it,  and  try  to  stop  it  by  flattery  or  blows. 

The  first  crying  of  children  is  a  request. 

If  this  is  not  attended  to,  they  proceed  to  commanding. 

They  begin  by  helping  themselves,  and  end  by  causing  themselves  to  be 
waited  on. 

All  the  bad  conduct  of  children  arises  from  weakness. 

If  they  are  made  strong,  they  will  be  good. 

One  who  can  do  all  things,  will  never  do  anything  evil. 

Before  we  come  to  our  understandings,  there  is  no  morality  in  our 
actions ;  although  we  sometimes  see  manifestations  of  it  in  the  suscepti- 
bilities of  children  to  the  actions  of  others. 

The  tendencies  of  children  to  clestructiveness  are  not  the  result  of 
wickedness,  but  of  vivid  impulses  to  activity. 

Children  should  be  helped  when  it  is  necessary ;  but  no  notice  should 
be  taken  of  their  mere  notions  ;  and  they  should  be  made  to  help  them- 
selves as  much  as  possible. 

Causeless  crying  will  be  best  cured  by  taking  no  notice  of  it.  For 
even  children  dislike  to  exert  themselves  for  nothing. 

Crying  can  be  soothed  by  drawing  the  child's  attention  to  some  strik- 
ing object,  without  letting  it  know  that  you  are  paying  it  any  special 
attention. 

Costly  playthings  are  superfluous.  Cheap  and  simple  ones  are  pre- 
cisely as  good. 

Nurses  can  entertain  children  very  much  by  telling  them  stories. 

Some  few  easily  pronounced  words  should  be  often  pronounced  to  the 
child,  names  of  things  which  should  be  shown  to  them  at  the  same  time. 

ROUSSEAU. 


742 


EARLY  TRAINING 


The  youngest  children  should  be  instructed  in  things  visible. 

Upon  such,  pictures  make  the  deepest  impression. 

Examples  arc  for  them  ;  and  precept ;  but  not  abstract  rules. 

The  teacher  should  not  be  too  much  of  a  genius. 

Or  if  he  is,  let  him  learn  patience. 

It  is  not  always  the  pupils  who  understand  quickest  who  are  the  best. 

The  sloth  of  pupils  must  be  compensated  by  the  teacher's  industry. 

Beginners  must  work  slowly;  and  then  faster  and  faster,  as  they 
advance. 

Learning  will  be  pleasant  to  the  pupils,  if  their  teachers  treat  them  in 
a  friendly  and  suitable  manner  ;  show  them  the  object  of  their  work;  do 
not  merely  listen  to  them  but  join  in  working  with  them  and  converse 
with  them ;  and  if  sufficient  variety  is  afforded. 

It  is  especially  important  that  the  pupils  should  themselves  be  made  to 
teach;  Fortius  says,  that  he  learned  much  from  his  teachers,  more  from 
his  fellow-pupils,  and  most  from  his  scholars. 

The  school  is  a  manufactory  of  humanity. 

The  art  of  training  up  man  is  not  a  superficial  one,  but  one  of  the  pro- 
foundest  secrets  of  nature  and  of  our  salvation.  COMENIUS. 

Be  careful  of  your  children  and  of  their  management.  As  soon  as  they 
begin  to  creep  about  and  to  walk,  do  not  let  them  be  idle. 

Young  people  must  have  something  to  do,  and  it  is  impossible  for  them 
to  be  idle. 

Their  bodies  must  be  kept  in  constant  activity ;  for  the  mind  is  not  yet 
able  to  perform  its  complete  functions. 

But  in  order  that  they  may  not  occupy  themselves  in  vicious  or  wicked 
ways,  give  them  fixed  hours  for  relaxation ;  and  keep  them  all  the  rest  of 
the  time,  as  far  as  possible,  at  study  or  at  work,  even  if  of  trifling  useful- 
ness, or  not  gainful  to  you. 

It  is  sufficient  profit  if  they  are  thus  kept  from  having  an  opportunity 
for  evil  thoughts  or  words. 

Therefore  it  is  that  children  are  nowhere  better  situated  than  at  school 
or  at  church.  MOSCHEHOSCII. 

Domestic  government  is  the  first  of  all;  from  which  all  governments 
and  dominions  take  their  origin. 

If  this  root  is  not  good,  there  can  be  neither  good  stern  nor  good  fruit 
from  it. 

Kingdoms,  moreover,  are  made  up  of  single  families. 

Where  fathers  and  mothers  govern  all  at  home  and 'let  their  children's 
obstinacy  prevail,  neither  city,  market,  village,  country,  principality  nor 
kingdom  can  be  governed  well  and  peacefully.  LUTIIEH. 

Doctor  Martin  Luther  wrote  to  his  son  as  follows  :  Grace  and  peace  in 
Christ,  my  dear  little  son.  I  see  with  pleasure  that  you  learn  well  and 
pray  constantly.  Continue  to  do  so,  my  son.  When  I  come  home,  I  will 
bring  you  a  beautiful  present. 

I  saw  a  beautiful  pleasant  garden,  where  many  children  were  walking, 
with  golden  clothes,  and  eating  beautiful  apples  under  the  trees,  and 
pears  and  cherries  and  plums,  and  were  singing  and  jumping  and  enjoying 
themselves  ;  and  they  had  beautiful  little  ponies  with  golden  bridles  and 
silver  saddles. 

Then  I  asked  the  man  who  owned  the  garden,  what  children  these 
were.  And  he  said,  "These  are  the  children  who  pray  willingly,  learn* 
well  and  are  good." 

Then  I  said,  "Dear  man,  I  also  have  a  son,  called  Hanschen  Luther. 
May  he  not  also  come  into  the  garden,  so  that  he  can  eat  such  beautiful 


EARLY  TRAINING.  743 

apples  and  [tears,  and  ride  such  pretty  ponies,  and  play  with  these  chil- 
dren "i " 

Then  the  man  said,  u  If  he  prays  willingly,  and  learns  well  and  is 
good,  then  he  may  come  into  the  garden,  and  Lippus  and  Jost  too  ;  and 
it'  they  all  come,  tney  shall  have  fifes  and  drums  and  singing  and  all  sorts 
of  stringed  instruments,  and  dance  and  shoot  with  little  cross-bows." 

And  he  showed  me  an  open  meadow  in  the  garden,  arranged  for  dan- 
cing; and  there  were  hanging  up  many  golden  fifes  and  drums  and  silver 
cross-bows. 

But  this  was  quite  early,  and  the  children  had  not  dined;  so  that  I 
could  not  wait  to  see  the  dancing.  So  I  said  to  the  man,  "Ah,  my  deal- 
sir;  I  will  go  at  once  and  write  all  this  to  my  dear  little  son  ILmschen,  so 
that  he  shall  pray  constantly  and  learn  well  and  be  diligent,  so  that  he 
also  may  come  into  the  garden  ;  but  he  has  an  aunt  Lehne,  whom  he  must 
bring  with  him." 

Then  the  man  said,  u  It  shall  be  so  ;  go  and  write  so  to  him." 

Therefore,  dear  little  son  lianschen,  learn  and  pray  with  good  courage, 
and  tell  Lippus  and  Jost  also,  so  that  they  may  pray  and  learn  also,  and 
then  you  can  all  ttiree  be  admitted  into  the  garden. 

And  now  you  are  commended  to  the  Almighty  God.  And  greet  aunt 
Lehne  ;  and  give  her  a  kiss  for  me.  LUTHER. 

As  birds  are  born  with  the  power  of  flying,  horses  with  that  of  run- 
ning, and  beasts  of  prey  with  a  furious  courage,  so  is  man  born  with  the 
peculiar  faculty  of  thinking,  and  of  mental  activity. 

Therefore  do  we  ascribe  to  the  soul  a  heavenly  origin. 

Defective  and  unekr-witted  minds,  mental  abortions  and  monstrosities, 
are  as  rare  as  bodily  ekfenmities. 

Not  one  individual  can  be  found  who  can  not  by  labor  be  brought  to  be 
good  for  something. 

Any  one  who  considers  this  will  as  soon  as  he  has  children  devote  the 
utmost  care  to  them.  QUNTILIAN. 

The  symptoms  of  children's  inclinations  are  so  slight  and  obscure,  and 
the  promises  so  niu-irtain  ai.d  fallacious,  that  it  is  very  hard  to  establish 
any  solid  judgment  or  conjecture  r.j  en  them. 

A  tutor  should  have  rather  an  elegant  than  a  learned  head,  though  both, 
if  such  a  pei-son-  can  be  found  ;  but,  however,  manners  and  judgment 
should  be  preferred  before  reading. 

'Tis  the  custom  of  schoolmasters  to  be  eternally  thundering  in  their 
pupils'  cars,  as  they  were  pouring  into  a  funnel.  Now  I  would  have  a 
tutor  to  correct  this  error,  and  that,  at  the  very  first  outset,  he  should, 
according  to  the  capacity  he  has  to  eleal  with,  put  it  to  the  test,  permitting 
his  pupil  himself  to  taste  and  relish  things,  and  of  himself  to  choose  and 
discern  them,  sometimes  opening  the  way  to  him,  and  sometimes  making 
him  break  the  ice  himself. 

Socrates,  and  since  him,  Arcesilaus,  made  first  their  scholars  speak, 
and  then  spoke  to  them. 

'Tis  the  effect  of  a  strong  and  well-tempered  mind  to  know  how  to 
condescend  to  his  pupil's  puerile  notions  and  to  govern  and  direct  them. 

Let  the  master  not  only  examine  him  about  the  bare  words  of  his  les- 
son, but  also  as  to  the  sense  and  meaning  of  them,  and  let  him  judge  of 
the  profit  he  has  made,  not  by  the  testimony  of  his  memory,  but  by  that 
of  his  understanding. 

Let  him  make  him  put  what  he  hath  learned  into  a  hundred  several 
forms,  and  accommodate  it  to  so  many  several  subjects,  to  see  if  he  yet 
rightly  comprehend  it,  and  has  made  it  his  own.  'Tis  a  sign  of  crudity 
and  indigestion,  to  throw  up  what  we  have  eaten  in  the  same  condition  it 


-44  EAULY  TRAINING. 

was  swallowed  down  ;  the  stomach  has  not  performed  its  office,  unless  it 
hath  altered  the  form  and  condition  of  what  was  committed  to  it  to  concoct. 

Oar  minds  work  only  upon  trust,  being  bound  and  compelled  to  follow 
the  appetite  of  another's  fancy ;  enslaved  and  captive  under  the  authority 
of  another's  instruction,  we  have  been  so  subjected  to  the  trammel  that 
we  have  no  free  nor  natural  pace  of  our  own. 

Let  the  tutor  make  his  pupil  examine  and  thoroughly  sift  everything  he 
reads,  and  lodge  nothing  in  his  head  upon  simple  authority  and  upon  trust. 

Bees  cull  their  several  sweets  from  this  flower  and  that  blossom,  here 
and  there  where  they  find  them,  but  themselves  after  make  the  honey, 
which  is  all  and  purely  their  own,  and  no  longer  thyme  and  marjoram. 

So  the  several  fragments  the  pupil  borrows  from  others  he  will  trans- 
form and  blend  together  to  compile  a  work  that  shall  be  absolutely  his 
own. 

To  know  by  rote  is  no  knowledge. 

Our  pedagogues  stick  sentences  full  feathered  in  our  memories,  and 
there  establish  them  like  oracles,  of  which  the  very  letters  and  syllables 
are  the  substance  of  the  thing. 

I  could  wish  to  know  whether  a  dancing-master  could  have  taught  us 
to  cut  capers  by  only  seeing  them  do  it  as  these  men  pretend  to  inform 
our  understandings,  without  ever  setting  them  to  work,  and  to  make  us 
judge  and  spa.ik  wjll,  without  exercising  us  in  judging  and  speaking. 

"Pis  the  gene /al  opinion  of  all,  that  children  should  not  be  brought  up 
in  their  paren  s'  lap.  The'.r  natural  affection  is  apt  to  make  the  most 
discreet  of  them  over-fond. 

It  is  not  enough  to  fortify  a  child's  soul,  you  are  also  to  make  his 
sinews  strong ;  for  the  soul  will  be  oppressed,  if  not  assisted  by  the  body. 

A  boy  must  be  broken  in  by  the  pain  and  hardship  of  severe  exercise, 
to  enable  him  to  the  pain  and  hardship  of  dislocations,  colics,  and 
cauteries. 

Let  conscience  and  virtue  be  eminently  manifested  in  the  pupil's  speech. 
Make  him  understand  that  to  acknowledge  the  error  he  shall  discover  in 
his  own  argument,  though  o;ily  found  out  by  himself,  is  an  effect  of  judg- 
ment and  sincerity,  which  are  the  principal  tilings  he  is  to  seek  after,  and 
that  obstinacy  and  contention  are  common  qualities,  most  appearing  in 
and  be  it  becoming  a  mean  soul. 

Let  him  examine  every  man's  talent ;  and  something  will  be  picked  out 
of  their  discourse,  whereof  some  use  may  be  made  at  one  time  or  another. 
By  observing  the  graces  and  manners  of  all  he  sees,  he  will  create  to  him- 
self an  emulation  of  the  good,  and  a  contempt  of  the  bad. 

Let  an  honest  curiosity  be  planted  in  him  to  enquire  after  every  thing, 
and  whatever  there  is  of  rare  and  singular  near  the  place  where  he  shall 
reside,  let  him  go  and  see  it. 

Methinks  the  first  doctrine  with  which  one  should  season  his  under- 
standing, ought  to  be  that  which  regulates  his  manners  and  his  sense ; 
that  teaches  him  to  know  himself,  and  how  both  well  to  die  and  well  to 
live. 

How  many  have  I  seen  in  my  time,  totally  brutified  by  an  immoderate 
thirst  after  knowledge ! 

Our  very  exercises  and  recreations,  running,  wrestling,  music,  dancing, 
hunting,  riding,  and  fencing,  will  prove  to  be  a  good  part  of  our  study. 

I  would  have  the  outward  behavior  and  mien,  and  the  disposition  of  the 
limbs,  formed  at  the  same  time  with  the  mind. 

It  is  not  a  soul,  it  is  not  a  body,  that  we  are  training  up;  it  is  a  man, 
}tn  I  we  ou^ht  no",  to  divide  him  into  two  parts ;  and,  as  Plato  says,  we  are 
not  to  fashion  one  without  the  other,  but  make  them  draw  together  like 
two  horses  harnessed  to  a  coach. 


DR.  CHANNING— FILIAL  DUTY.  745 


FILIAL   RESPECT,    GRATITUDE,    AND    CONFIDENCE. 

1.  You  are  required  to  view  and  treat  your  parents  with  respect.    Your  tender, 
inexperienced  age  requires  that  you  think  of  yourselves  with  humility,  and  con- 
duct yourselves  with  modesty;  that  you  respect  the  superior  age.  and  wisdom, 
and  improvements  of  your  parents,  and  observe  toward  them  a  submissive  de- 
portment.    Nothing  is  more  unbecoming  in  you,  ^nothing  will  render  you  more 
unpleasant  in  the  eyes  of  others,  than  froward  or  contemptuous  conduct  toward 
your  parents.     There  are  children,  and  I  wish  I  could  say  there  are  only  a  few, 
who  speak  to  their  parents  with  rudeness,  grow  sullen  at  their  rebukes,  behave 
in  their  presence  as  if  they  deserved  no  attention,  hear  them  speak  without  no- 
ticing them,  and  rather  ridicule  than  honor  them.     There  are  many  children  at 
the  present  day  who  think  more  highly  of  themselves  than  of  their  elders;  who 
think  that  their  own  wishes  are  first  to  be  gratified;   who  abuse  the  condescen- 
sion and  kindness  of  their  parents,  and  treat  them  as  servants  rather  than 
superiors.     Beware,  my  young  friends,  lest  you  grow  up  with  this  assuming  and 
selfish  spirit.     Regard  your  parents  as  kindly  given  you  by  God,  to  support, 
direct,  and  govern  you  in  your  present  state  of  weakness  and  inexperience. 
Express  your  respect  for  them  in  your  manner  and  conversation.     Do  not  neg- 
lect those  outward  signs  of  dependence  and  inferiority  which  suit  your  age. 
You  are  young,  and  you  should  therefore  take  the  lowest  place,  and  rather  re- 
tire than  thrust  yourselves  forward  into  notice.     You  have  much  to  learn,  and 
you  should  therefore  hear,  instead  of  seeking  to  be  heard.     You  are  dependent, 
and  you  should  therefore  ask  instead  of  demanding  what  you  desire,  and  you 
should  receive  every  thing  from  your  parents  as  a  favor,  and  not  as  a  debt.    I  do 
not  mean  to  urge  upon  you  a  slavish  fear  of  your  parents.     Love  them,  and  love 
them  ardently  ;  but  mingle  a  sense  of  their  superiority  with  your  love.     Feel  a 
confidence  in  their  kindness;   but  let  not  this  confidence  make  you  rude  and 
presump'uous,  and  lead  to  indecent  familiarity.     Talk  to  them  with  openness 
and  freedom  ;  but  never  contradict  with  violence;  never  answer  with  passion 
or  contempt. 

2.  You  should  be  grateful  to  your  parents.    Consider  how  much  you  owe  them. 
The  time  has  been,  and  it  was  not  a  long  time  past,  when  you  depended  wholly 
on  their  kindness — when  you  had  no  strength  to  make  a  single  effort  for  your- 
selves,— when  you  could  neither  speak  nor  walk,  and  knew  not  the  use  of  any 
of  your  powers.     Had  not  a  parent's  arm  supported  you.  you  must  have  fallen 
to  the  earth,  and    perished.     Observe   with   attention  the  infants   which  you 
so  often  see,  and  consider  that  a  little  while  ago  you  were  as  feeble  as  they  are : 
you  were  only  a  burden  and  a  care,  and  you  had  nothing  with  which  you 
could  repay  your  parents1  affection.     But  did  they  forsake  you  ?     How  many 
sleepless  nights  have  they  been  disturbed  by  your  cries!     When  you  were  sick, 
how  tenderly  did   they  hang  over  you !     With  what  pleasure  have  they  seen 
you  grow  up  to  your  present  state!     And  what  do  you  now  possess  which  you 
have  not  received  from  their  hands?     God,  indeed,  is  your  great  parent,  your 
best  friend,  and  from  him  every  good  gift  descends ;  but  God  is  pleased  to  be- 
stow every  thing  upon  you  through  the  kindness  of  your  parents.     To  your 
parents  you  owe  every  comfort:  you  owe  to  them  the  shelter  you  enjoy  from  the 
rain  and  cold,  the  raiment  which  covers,  and  the  food  which  nourishes  you. 
While  you  are  seeking  amusements,  or  are  employed  in  gaining  knowledge  at 
school,  your  parents  are  toiling  that  you  may  be  happy,  that  your  wants  may 
be  supplied,  that  your  minds  may  be  improved,  that  you  may  grow  up  and  be 
useful  in  the  world.     And  when  you  consider  how  often  you  have  forfeited  all 
this  kindness,  and  yet  how  ready  they  have  been   to  forgive  you,  and  to  con- 
tinue their  favors,  ought  you  not  to  look  upon  them  with  the  tenderest  grati- 
tude?    What  greater  monster  can  there  be  than  an  unthankful  child,  whose 
heart  is  never  warmed  by  the  daily  expressions  of  parental  solicitude;  who, 
instead  of  requiting  his  best  friend  \>y  his  affectionate  conduct,  is  sullen  and  pas- 
sionate, and  thinks  his  parents  have  done  nothing  for  him,  because  they  will  not 
do  all  he  desires?     Consider  how  much  better  they  can  decide  for  you  than  you 
can  for  yourselves.     You  know  but  little  of  the  world  in  which  you  live.     You 
hastily  catch  at  every  thing  which  promises  you  pleasure ;  and  unless  the  au- 


74(3  DR.  CHANNING— FILIAL  DUTY. 

thority  of  a  parent  should  restrain  you,  you  would  soon  rush  into  ruin,  without 
a  thought  or  a  fear.  In  pursuing  your  own  inclinations,  your  health  would  be 
destroyed,  your  minds  would  run  waste,  you  would  grow  up  slothful,  selfish, 
a  trouble  to  others,  and  burdensome  to  yourselves.  Submit,  then,  cheerfully  to 
your  parents.  Have  you  not  experienced  their  goodness  long  enough  to  know, 
that  they  wish  to  make  you  happy,  even  when  their  commands  are  most  severe? 
Prove,  then,  your  sense  of  their  goodness  by  doing  cheerfully  what  they  require. 
When  they  oppose  your  wishes,  do  not  think  that  you  have  more  knowledge 
than  they.  Do  not  receive  their  commands  with  a  sour,  angry,  sullen  look, 
which  says,  louder  than  words,  that  you  obey  only  because  you  dare  not  rebel. 
If  they  deny  your  requests,  do  not  persist  in  urging  them,  but  consider  how 
many  requests  they  have  already  granted  you.  Do  not  expect  that  your  parents 
are  to  give  up  every  thing  to  you,  but  study  to  give  up  every  thing  to  them. 
Do  not  wait  for  them  to  threaten,  but  when  a  look  tells  you  what  they  want, 
fly  to  perform  it.  This  is  the  way  in  which  you  can  best  reward  them  for  all 
their  pains  and  labors.  In  this  way  you  will  make  their  houses  pleasant  arid 
cheerful.  But  if  you  are  disobedient,  perverse,  and  stubborn,  you  will  make 
home  a  place  of  contention,  noise,  and  anger,  and  your  best  friends  will  have 
reason  to  wish  that  you  had  never  been  born.  A  disobedient  child  almost  al- 
ways grows  up  ill-natured  and  disobliging  to  all  with  whom  lie  is  connected. 
None  love  him,  and  he  has  no  heart  to  love  any  but  himself.  If  you  would  be 
amiable  in  your  temper  and  manner,  and  desire  to  be  beloved,  let  me  advise  you 
to  begin  life  with  giving  up  your  wills  to  your  parents. 

3.  Again,  you  should  express  your  respect  for  your  parents,  by  placing  unre- 
served confidence  in  them.     This  is  a  very  important  part  of  your  duty.     Chil- 
dren should  learn  to  be  honest,  sincere,  open-hearted  to  their  parents.     An  artful, 
hypocritical  child  is  one  of  the  most  unpromising  characters  in  the  world.     You 
should  have  no  secrets  which  you  are  unwilling  to  disclose  to  your  parents.     If 
you  have  done  wrong,  you  should  openly  confess  it,  and  ask  that  forgiveness 
which  a  parent's  heart  is  so  ready  to  bestow.     If  you  wish  to  undertake  any 
thing,  ask  their  consent.     Never  begin  any  thing  in  the  hope  you  can  conceal 
your  design.     If  you  once  strive  to  impose  on  your  parents,  you  will  be  led  on, 
from  one  step  to  another,  to  invent  falsehoods,  to  practice  artifice,  till  you  become 
contemptible  arid  hateful.     You  will  soon  be  detected,  and  then  none  will  trust 
you.     Sincerity  in  a  child  will  make  up  for  many  faults.     Of  children,  he  is  the 
worst  who  watches  the  eyes  of  his  parents,  pretends  to  obey  as  long  as  they 
see  him,  but  as  soon  as  they  have  turned  away  does  what  they  have  forbidden. 
Whatever  else  you  do,  never  deceive.     Let  your  parents  always  learn  your  faults 
from  your  own  lips,  and  be  assured  they  will  never  love  you  the  less  for  your 
openness  and  sincerity. 

4.  Lastly,  you  must  prove  your  respect  and  gratitude  to  your  parents  by  at- 
tending seriously  to  their  instructions  and  admonitions,  and  by  improving  the 
advant  :ges  they  afford  you  for  becoming  wise,  useful,  good,  and  happy  for  ever. 
I  hope,  my  young  friends,  that  you  have  parents  who  take  care,  not  only  of 
your  bodies,  but  your  souls;   who  instruct  you  in  your  duty,  who  talk  to  you 
of  your  God  and  Saviour,  who  teach  you  to  pray  and  to  read  the  Scriptures, 
and  who  strive  to  give  you  such  knowledge,  and  bring  you  up  in  such  habits, 
as  will  lead  you  to  usefulness  on  earth,  and  to  happiness  in  heaven.     If  you 
have  not,  I  can  only  pity  you;  I  luve  little  hope  that  I  can  do  you  good  by 
what  I  have  here  said.     But  if  your  parents  are  faithful  in  instructing  and  guid- 
ing you,   }"ou  must  prove  your  gratitude  to  them  and  to  God,  by  listening 
respectfully  and  attentively  to  what  they  say;  by  shunning  the  temptations  of 
which  they  warn  you,  and  by  walking  in  the  paths  they  mark  out  before  you. 
You  must  labor  to  answer  their  hopes  and  wishes,  by  improving  in  knowledge; 
by  being  industrious  at  school;   by  living  peaceably  with  your  companions;  by 
avoiding  all  profane  and  wi/ked  language;  by  fleeing  bad  company  ;   by  treat- 
ing all  persons  with  respect;   by  being  kind  and  generous  and  honest,  and  by 
loving  and  serving  your  Father  in  heaven.     This  is  the  happiest  and  most  de- 
lightful way  of  repaying  the  kindness  of  }rour  parents.     Let  them  see  you  grow- 
ing up  with  amiable  tempers  and  industrious  habits;  let  them  see  you  delighting 
to  do  good,  and  fearing  to  offend  God;  and  they  will  think  you  have  never 
been  a  burden. — Duties  of  Children.     Works  III.,  p.  287. 


GOETHE.— CULTIVATION  OF  REVERENCE.  ^4^ 

CULTIVATION   OF   REFERENCE.* 

We  must  fancy  Wilhelm  in  the  'Pedagogic  province,'  proceeding  towards  the 
'CuiEF,  or  the  THREE,'  with  intent  to  place  his  son  under  their  charge,  in  that 
wonderful  region,  '  where  he  was  to  see  so  many  singularities.' 

Wilhelm  had  already  noticed  that  in  the  cut  and  color  of  the  young  people's 
clothes  a  variety  prevailed,  which  gave  the  whole  tiny  population  a  peculiar 
aspect:  he  was  about  to  question  his  attendant  on  this  point,  when  a  still 
stranger  observation  forced  itself  upon  him  :  ail  the  children,  how  employed 
soever,  laid  down  their  work,  and  turned,  with  singular  yet  diverse  gestures, 
towards  the  party  riding  past  them;  or  rather,  as  it  was  easy  to  infer,  towards 
the  Overseer,  who  was  in  it.  The  youngest  laid  their  arms  crosswise  over 
their  breasts,  and  looked  cheerfully  up  to  the  sky ;  those  of  middle  size  held 
their  hands  on  their  backs,  and  looked  smiling  on  the  ground;  the  eldest  stood 
with  a  frank  and  spirited  air, — their  arms  stretched  down,  they  turned  their 
heads  to  the  right,  and  formed  themselves  into  a  line ;  whereas  the  others  kept 
separate,  each  where  he  chanced  to  be. 

The  riders  having  stopped  and  dismounted  here,  as  several  children,  in  their 
various  modes,  were  standing  forth  to  be  inspected  by  the  Overseer,  Wilhelm 
asked  the  meaning  of  these  gestures;  but  Felix  struck-in  and  cried  gaily : 
'•  What  posture  am  I  to  take  then  ?"  "  Without  doubt,"  said  the  Ov 
"the  first  posture:  the  arms  over  the  breast,  the  face  earnest  and  cheerful  to- 
wards the  sky."  Felix  obeyed,  but  soon  cried:  "This  is  not  much  to  my 
taste;  I  see  nothing  up  there:  does  it  last  long?  But  yes!'' exclaimed  he, 
joyfully,  "yonder  are  a  pair  of  falcons  flying  from  the  west  to  the  east:  that  is 
a  good  sign,  too?" — "As  thou  takest  it,  as  thou  behavest,"  said  the  other: 
"Now  mingle  among  them  as  they  mingle."  He  gave  a  signal,  and  the  chil- 
dren left  their  postures,  and  again  betook  them  to  work  or  sport  as  before. 

Wilhelm  a  second  time  'asks  the  meaning  of  these  gestures;'  but  the  Over- 
seer is  not  at  liberty  to  throw  much  light  on  the  matter;  mentions  only  that 
they  are  symbolical,  '  nowise  mere  grimaces,  but  have  a  moral  purport,  which 
perhaps  the  CHIEF  or  the  THREE  may  farther  explain  to  him.'  The  children 
themselves,  it  would  seem,  only  know  it  in  part ;  '  secrecy  having  many  ad- 
vantages ;  for  when  you  tell  a  man  at  once  and  straightforward  the  purpose  of 
any  object,  he  fancies  there  is  nothing  in  it.'  By  and  by,  however,  having  left 
Felix  by  the  way.  and  parted  with  the  Overseer,  Wilhelm  arrives  at  the  abode 
of  the  Three  '  who  preside  over  sacred  things,'  and  from  whom  farther  satis- 
faction is  to  be  looked  for. 

Wilhelm  had  now  reached  the  gate  of  a  wooded  vale,  surrounded  with  high 
walls:  on  a  certain  sign,  the  little  door  opened,  and  a  man  of  earnest,  imposing 
look  received  our  Traveler.  The  latter  found  himself  in  a  large  beautifully 
umbrageous  space,  decked  with  the  richest  foliage,  shaded  with  trees  and 
bushes  of  all  sorts;  while  stately  walls  and  magnificent  buildings  were  dis- 
cerned only  in  glimpses  through  this  thick  natural  boscage.  A  friendly  recep- 
tion from  the  Three,  who  by  and  by  appeared,  at  last  turned  into  a  general  con- 
versation, the  substance  of  which  we  now  present  in  an  abbreviated  shape. 

•'  iSince  you  intrust  your  son  to  us,"  said  they,  "it  is  fair  that  we  admit  you 
to  a  closer  view  of  our  procedure.  Of  what  is  external  you  have  seen  much 
that  does  not  bear  its  meaning  on  its  front.  What  part  of  this  do  you  wish  to 
have  explained?" 

"  Dignified  yet  singular  gestures  of  salutation  I  have  noticed  ;  the  import  of 
which  I  would  gladly  learn:  with  you,  doubtless,  the  exterior  has  a  reference 
to  the  interior,  and  inversely  ;  let  me  know  what  this  reference  is." 

"Well-formed  healthy  children,"  replied  the  Three,  "bring  much  into  the 
world  along  with  them  ;  Nature  has  given  to  each  whatever  ho  requires  for 
time  and  duration ;  to  unfold  this  is  our  duty ;  often  it  unfolds  itself  better  of 

*  Cnrlyle's  Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Essays.    Vol.  I,  204. 


748  GOETHE. -CULTIVATION  OF  REVERENCE. 

its  own  accord.  One  thing  there  is,  however,  which  no  child  brings  into  the 
world  with  him ;  and  yet  it  is  on  this  one  thing  that  all  depends  for  making 
man  in  every  point  a  man.  If  you  can  discover  it  yourself,  speak  it  out." 
Wilhelm  thought  a  little  while,  then  shook  his  head. 

The  Three,  after  a  suitable  pause,  exclaimed,  "  Reverence !"  Wilhelm 
seemed  to  hesitate.  "Reverence!"  cried  they,  a  second  time.  "All  want  it, 
perhaps  yourself." 

"Three  kinds  of  gestures  you  have  seen;  and  we  inculcate  a  threefold  rev- 
erence, which,  when  commingled  and  formed  into  one  whole,  attains  its  full 
force  and  effect.  The  first  is  Reverence  for  what  is  Above  us.  That  posture, 
the  arms  crossed  over  the  breast,  the  look  turned  joyfully  towards  heaven ; 
that  is  what  we  have  enjoined  on  young  children ;  requiring  from  them  thereby 
a  testimony  that  there  is  a  God  above,  who  images  and  reveals  himself  in 
parents,  teachers,  superiors.  Then  comes  the  second ;  Reverence  for  what  is 
Under  us.  Those  hands  folded  over  the  back,  and,  as  it  were,  tied  together; 
that  down-turned  smiling  look,  announce  that  we  are  to  regard  the  earth  with 
attention  and  cheerfulness :  from  the  bounty  of  the  earth  we  are  nourished; 
the  earth  affords  unutterable  joys ;  but  disproportionate  sorrows  she  also  brings 
us.  Should  one  of  our  children  do  himself  external  hurt,  blamably  or  blame- 
lessly; should  others  hurt  him  accidentally  or  purposely;  should  dead  invol- 
untary matter  do  him  hurt ;  then  let  him  well  consider  it ;  for  such  dangers 
will  attend  him  all  his  days.  But  from  this  posture  we  delay  not  to  free  our 
pupil,  the  instant  we  become  convinced  that  the  instruction  connected  with  it 
has  produced  sufficient  influence  on  him.  Then,  on  the  contrary,  we  bid  him 
gather  courage,  and,  turning  to  his  comrades,  range  himself  along  with  them. 
Now,  at  last,  he  stands  forth,  frank  and  bold ;  not  selfishly  isolated ;  only  in 
combination  with  his  equals  does  he  front  the  world.  Farther  we  have  nothing 
to  add." 

"  I  see  a  glimpse  of  it !"  said  "Wilhelm.  "  Are  not  the  mass  of  men  so  marred 
and  stinted,  because  they  take  pleasure  only  in  the  element  of  evil-wishing  and 
evil-speaking?  Whoever  gives  himself  to  this,  soon  comes  to  be  indifferent 
towards  God,  contemptuous  towards  the  world,  spiteful  towards  his  equals; 
and  the  true,  genuine  indispensable  sentiment  of  self-estimation  corrupts  into 
self-conceit  and  presumption.  Allow  me,  however,"  continued  he,  "  to  state 
one  difficulty.  You  say  that  reverence  is  not  natural  to  man :  now  has  riot  the 
reverence  or  fear  of  rude  people  for  violent  convulsions  of  nature,  or  other  in- 
explicable mysteriously  foreboding  occurrences,  been  heretofore  regarded  aa 
the  germ  out  of  which  a  higher  feeling,  a  purer  sentiment,  was  by  degrees  to 
be  developed?" 

"Nature  is  indeed  adequate  to  fear,"  replied  they,  "but  to  reverence  not 
adequate.  Men  fear  a  known  or  unknown  powerful  being;  the  strong  seeks 
to  conquer  it,  the  weak  to  avoid  it ;  both  endeavor  to  get  quit  of  it,  and  feel 
themselves  happy  when  for  a  short  season  they  have  put  it  aside,  and  their  na- 
ture has  in  some  degree  restored  itself  to  freedom  and  independence.  The 
natural  man  repeats  this  operation  millions  of  times  in  the  course  of  his  life ; 
from  fear  he  struggles  to  freedom  ;  from  freedom  he  is  driven  back  to  fear,  and 
so  makes  no  advancement.  To  fear  is  easy,  but  grievous ;  to  reverence  is  diffi- 
cult, but  satisfactory.  Man  does  not  willingly  submit  himself  to  reverence,  or 
rather  lie  never  so  submits  himself:  it  is  a  higher  sense  which  must  be  com- 
municated to  his  nature ;  which  only  in  some  favored  individuals  unfolds  itself 
spontaneously,  who  on  this  account,  too,  have  of  old  been  looked  upon  as 
Saints  and  Gods.  Here  lies  the  worth,  here  lies  the  business  of  all  true  Re- 
ligions, whereof  there  are  likewise  only  three,  according  to  the  objects  towards 
which  they  direct  our  devotion." 

The  men  paused ;  Wilhelm  reflected  for  a  time  in  silence ;  but  feeling  in  him- 
self no  pretension  to  unfold  these  strange  words,  he  requested  the  Sages  to 
proceed  with  their  exposition.  They  immediately  complied.  "  No  Religion 
that  grounds  itself  on  fear,"  said  they,  "  is  regarded  among  us.  With  the  rev- 
erence to  which  a  man  should  give  dominion  in  his  mind,  he  can,  in  paying 
honor,  keep  his  own  honor;  he  is  not  disunited  with  himself  as  in  the  former 
ease.  The  Religion  which  depends  on  Reverence  for  what  is  Above  us,  we 
denominate  the  Ethnic;  it  is  the  Religion  of  the  Nations,  and  the  first  happy 
deliverance  from  a  degrading  fear :  all  Heathen  religions,  as  we  call  them,  are 


GOETHE.-CULTIVATION  OF  REVERENCE.  749 

of  this  sort,  whatsoever  names  they  may  bear.  The  Second  Eeligion,  which 
founds  itself  on  Reverence  for  what  is  Around  us,  we  denominate  the  Philo- 
sophical; for  the  Philosopher  stations  himself  in  the  middle,  and  must  draw 
down  to  him  all  that  is  higher,  and  up  to  him  all  that  is  lower,  and  only  in  this 
medium  condition  does  he  merit  the  title  of  Wise.  Here  as  he  surveys  with 
clear  sight  his  relation  to  his  equals,  and  therefore  to  the  whole  human  race, 
his  relation  likewise  to  all  other  earthly  circumstances  and  arrangements  nec- 
essary or  accidental,  he  alone,  in  a  cosmic  sense,  lives  in  truth.  But  now  we 
have  to  speak  of  the  Third  Religion,  grounded  on  Reverence  for  what  is  I'nder 
us:  this  we  name  the  Christian;  as  in  the  Christian  Religion  such  a  temper  is 
the  most  distinctly  manifested :  it  is  a  last  step  to  which  mankind  were  litted 
and  destined  to  attain.  But  what  a  task  was  it,  not  only  to  be  patient  with 
the  Earth,  and  let  it  lie  beneath  us,  we  appealing  to  a  higher  birthplace;  but 
also  to  recognize  humility  and  poverty,  mockery  and  despite,  disgrace  and 
wretchedness,  suffering  and  death,  to  recognize  these  things  as  divine;  nay, 
even  on  sin  and  crime  to  look  not  as  hindrances,  but  to  honor  and  love  them  as 
furtherances,  of  what  is  holy.  Of  this,  indeed,  we  find  some  traces  in  nil  ages: 
but  the  trace  is  not  the  goal :  and  this  being  now  attained,  the  human  species 
can  not  retrograde;  and  we  may  say  that  the  Christian  Religion,  having  once 
appeared,  can  not  again  vanish;  having  once  assumed  its  divine  shape,  can  be 
subject  to  no  dissolution." 

"  To  which  of  these  Religions  do  you  specially  adhere  ?"  inquired  Wilhelm. 

"  To  all  the  three,"  replied  they,  "for  in  their  union  they  produce  what  may 
properly  be  called  the  true  Religion.  Out  of  those  three  Reverences  springs 
the  highest  Reverence,  Reverence  for  One's  self,  and  these  again  unfold  them- 
selves from  this;  so  that  man  attains  the  highest  elevation  of  which  he  is  ca- 
pable, that  of  being  justified  in  reckoning  himself  the  Best  that  God  and  Na- 
ture have  produced  ;  nay,  of  being  able  to  continue  on  this  lofty  eminence, 
without  being  again  by  self-conceit  and  presumption  drawn  down  from  it  into 
the  vulgar  level." 

The  Three  undertake  to  admit  him  into  the  interior  of  their  Sanctuary; 
whither,  accordingly,  he,  'at  the  hand  of  the  Eldest,'  proceeds  on  the  morrow. 
Sorry  are  we  that  we  can  not  follow  t'hem  into  the  '  octagonal  hall,'  so  full  of 
paintings,  and  the  '  gallery  open  on  one  side,  and  stretching  round  a  spacious, 
gay.  flowery  garden.'  It  is  a  beautiful  figurative  representation,  by  pictures 
and  symbols  of  Art,  of  the  First  and  the  Second  Religions,  the  Ethnic  and  the 
Philosophical ;  for  the  former  of  which  the  pictures  have  been  composed  from 
the  Old  Testament ;  for  the  latter  from  the  New.  We  can  only  make  room  for 
some  small  portions. 

"I  observe,"  said  Wilhelm,  "you  have  done  the  Israelites  the  honor  to  se- 
lect their  history  as  the  groundwork  of  this  delineation,  or  rather  you  have 
made  it  the  leading  object  there." 

"As  you  see,"  replied  the  Eldest;  "for  you  will  remark,  that  on  the  socles 
and  friezes  we  have  introduced  another  series  of  transactions  and  occurrences, 
not  so  much  of  a  synchronistic  as  of  a  synchronistic  kind ;  since,  among  all 
nations,  we  discover  records  of  a  similar  import,  and  grounded  on  the  same 
facts.  Thus  you  perceive  here,  while,  in  the  main  field  of  the  picture,  Abra- 
ham receives  a  visit  from  his  gods  in  the  form  of  fair  youths.  Apollo  among 
the  herdsmen  of  Admetus  is  painted  above  on  the  frieze.  From  which  we 
may  learn,  that  the  gods,  when  they  appear  to  men,  are  commonly  unrecog- 
nized of  them." 

The  friends  walked  on.  Wilhelm,  for  the  most  part,  met  with  well-known 
objects;  but  they  were  here  exhibited  in  a  livelier,  more  expressive  manner, 
than  he  had  been  used  to  see  them.  On  some  few  matters  he  requested  ex- 
planation, and  at  last  could  not  help  returning  to  his  former  question  :  "  Why 
the  Israelitish  history  had  been  chosen  in  preference  to  all  others  ?" 

The  Eldest  answered:  "Among  all  Heathen  religions,  for  such  also  is  the 
Israelitish,  this  has  the  most  distinguished  advantages ;  of  which  I  shall  men- 
tion only  a  few.  At  the  Ethnic  judgment-seat ;  at  the  judgment-seat  of  the 


*750  GOETHE.— CULTIVATION  OF  REVERENCE. 

God  of  Nations,  it  is  not  asked  whether  this  is  the  best,  the  most  excellent  na- 
tion ;  but  whether  it  lasts,  whether  it  has  continued.  The  Israelitish  people 
never  was  good  for  much,  as  its  own  leaders,  judges,  rulers,  prophets,  have  a 
thousand  times  reproachfully  declared ;  it  possesses  few  virtues,  and  most  of 
the  faults  of  other  nations :  but  in  cohesion,  steadfastness,  valor,  and  when  all 
this  would  not  serve,  in  obstinate  toughness,  it  has  no  match.  It  is  the  most 
perseverant  nation  in  the  world;  it  is,  it  was.  and  it  will  be.  to  glorify  the  name 
of  Jehovah  through  all  ages.  We  have  set  it  up,  therefore,  as  the  pattern 
figure:  as  the  main  figure,  to  which  the  others  only  serve  as  a  frame." 

"It  becomes  not  me  to  dispute  with  you,"  said  Wilhelm,  "  since  you  have 
instruction  to  impart.  Open  to  me,  therefore,  the  other  advantages  of  this 
people,  or  rather  of  its  history,  of  its  religion." 

"  One  chief  advantage,"  said  the  other,  "  is  its  excellent  collection  of  Sacred 
Books.  These  stand  so  happily  combined  together,  that  even  out  of  the  most 
diverse  elements,  the  feeling  of  a  whole  still  rises  before  us.  They  are  com- 
plete enough  to  satisfy ;  fragmentary  enough  to  excite ;  barbarous  enough  to 
rouse;  tender  enough  to  appease;  and  for  how  many  other  contradicting 
merits  might  not  these  Books,  might  not  this  one  Book,  be  praised  ?"  *  *  * 

Thus  wandering  on,  they  had  now  reached  the  gloomy  arid  perplexed  pe- 
riods of  the  History,  the  destruction  of  the  City  and  the  Temple,  the  murder, 
exile,  slavery  of  whole  masses  of  this  stiff-necked  people.  Its  subsequent  for- 
tunes were  delineated  in  a  cunning  allegorical  way ;  a  real  historical  delinea- 
tion of  them  would  have  lain  without  the  limits  of  true  Art. 

At  this  point,  the  gallery  abruptly  terminated  in  a  closed  door,  and  Wilhelm 
was  surprised  to  see  himself  already  at  the  end.  "In  your  historical  series, " 
said  he,  "  I  find  a  chasm.  You  have  destroyed  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  and 
dispersed  the  people;  yet  you  have  not  introduced  the  divine  man  who  taught 
there  shortly  before ;  to  whom,  shortly  before,  they  would  give  no  ear." 

"To  have  done  this,  as  you  require  it,  would  have  been  an  error.  The  life 
of  that  divine  Man,  whom  you  allude  to,  stands  in  no  connection  with  the 
general  history  of  the  world  in  his  time.  It  was  a  private  life ;  his  teaching 
was  a  teaching  for  individuals.  What  has  publicly  befallen  vast  masses  of  peo- 
ple, and  the  minor  parts  which  compose  them,  belongs  to  the  general  History 
of  the  World,  to  the  general  Religion  of  the  World ;  the  Religion  we  have 
named  the  First.  What  inwardly  befalls  individuals  belongs  to  the  Second  Re- 
ligion, the  Philosophical :  such  a  Religion  was  it  that  Christ  taught  and  prac- 
ticed, so  long  as  he  went  about  on  Earth.  For  this  reason,  the  external  here 
closes,  and  I  now  open  to  you  the  internal." 

A  door  went  back,  and  they  entered  a  similar  galley ;  where  Wilhelm  soon 
recognized  a  corresponding  series  of  Pictures  from  the  'New  Testament,  They 
seemed  as  if  by  another  hand  than  the  first:  all  was  softer ;  forms,  movements, 
accompaniments,  light  and  coloring. 

Into  this  second  gallery,  with  its  strange  doctrine  about  '  Miracles  and  Para- 
bles,' the  characteristic  of  the  Philosophical  Religion,  we  can  not  enter  for  the 
present,  yet  must  give  one  hurried  glance.  Wilhelm  expresses  some  surprise 
that  these  delineations  terminate  "with  the  Supper,  with  the  scene  where  the 
Master  and  his  Disciples  part."  He  inquires  for  the  remaining  portion  of  the 
history. 

"  In  all  sorts  of  instruction,"  said  the  Eldest,  "in  all  sorts  of  communication, 
we  are  fond  of  separating  whatever  it  is  possible  to  separate ;  for  by  this 
me  ;ns  alone  can  the  notion  of  importance  and  peculiar  significance  arise  in  the 
young  mind.  Actual  experience  of  itself  mingles  and  mixes  all  things  to- 
gether; here,  accordingly,  we  have  entirely  disjoined  that  sublime  Man's  life 
from  its  termination.  In  life,  he  appears  as  a  true  Philosopher, — let  not  the  ex- 
pression stagger  you, — as  a  Wise  Man  in  the  highest  sense.  He  stands  firm  to 
his  point:  he  goes  on  his  way  inflexibly,  and  while  he  exalts  the  lower  to  him- 
self, while  he  makes  the  ignorant,  the  poor,  the  sick,  partakers  of  his  wisdom, 
of  Ins  riches,  of  his  strength,  he,  on  the  other  hand,  in  nowise  conceals  Ins  di- 
vine origin;  he  dares  to  equal  himself  with  God,  nay,  to  declare  that  he'hirn- 
aelf  is  God.  In  this  manner  he  is  wont,  from  youth  upwards,  to  astound  his 


GOETHE -CULTIVATION  OF  REVERENCE.  75  J 

familiar  friends:  of  these  he  gains  a  part  to  his  own  cause;  irritates  the  rest 
against  him;  and  shows  to  all  men,  who  are  aiming  at  a  certain  elevation  in 
doctrine  and  life,  what  they  have  to  look  for  from  the  world.  And  thus,  for 
the  noble  portion  of  mankind,  his  walk  and  conversation  are  even  more  in- 
structive arid  profitable  than  his  death  :  for  to  those  trials  every  one  is  called, 
to  this  trial  but  a  few.  Now,  omitting  all  tl  at  results  from  this  consideration, 
do  but  look  at  the  touching  scene  of  the  Last  Supper.  Here  the  Wise  Man,  as 
it  ever  is,  leaves  those  that  are  his  own,  utterly  orphaned  behind  him  ;  and 
while  he  is  caivful  for  the  Good,  he  feeds  along  with  them  a  traitor,  by  whom 
lie  and  the  Better  are  to  be  destroyed.'' 

This  seems  to  us  to  have  'a  deep,  still  meaning;'  and  the  longer  and  closer 
we  examine  it,  the  more  it  pleases  us.  Wilhelm  is  not  admitted  into  the  shrine 
of  the  Third  Religion,  the  Christian,  or  that  of  which  Christ's  sufferings  and 
death  were  the  symbol,  as  his  walk  and  conversation  had  been  the  symbol  of 
the  Second,  or  Philosophical  Religion.  "  That  last  Religion,"  it  is  said, — 

"That  last  Religion,  which  arises  from  the  Reverence  of  what  is  Beneath  us; 
that  veneration  of  the  contradictory,  the  hated,  the  avoided,  we  give  to  each 
of  our  pupils,  in  small  portions,  by  way  of  outfit,  along  with  him,  into  the 
world,  merely  that  he  may  know  where  more  is  to  be  had.  should  such  a  want 
spring  up  within  him.  I  invite  you  to  return  hither  at  the  end  of  a  year,  to 
attend  our  general  Festival,  and  see  how  far  your  son  is  advanced  :  then  shall 
you  be  admitted  into  the  Sanctuary  of  Sorrow." 

"Permit  me  one  question,"  said  Wilhelm  :  "  as  you  have  set  up  the  life  of 
this  divine  Man  for  a  pattern  and  example,  have  you  likewise  selected  his  suf- 
ferings, his  death,  as  a  model  of  exalted  patience'/" 

"Undoubtedly  we  have,"  replied  the  Eldest,  "Of  this  we  make  no  secret; 
but  we  draw  a  veil  over  those  sufferings,  even  because  we  reverence  them  so 
highly.  We  hold  it  a  damnable  audacity  to  bring  forth  that  torturing  Cross, 
and  the  Holy  One  who  suffers  on  it,  or  to  expose  them  to  the  light  of  the  Sun. 
which  hid  its  face  when  a  reckless  world  forced  such  a  sight  on  it;  to  take 
these  mysterious  secrets,  in  which  the  divine  depth  of  Sorrow  lies  hid,  and 
play  with  them,  fondle  them,  trick  them  out,  and  rest  not  till  the  most  reverend 
of  all  solemnities  appears  vulgar  and  paltry.  Let  so  much  for  the  present  suf- 
fice—  *  *  *  The  rest  we  must  still  owe  you  for  a  twelvemonth.  The  instruc- 
tion, which  in  the  interim  we  give  the  children,  no  stranger  is  allowed  to  wit- 
ness:  then,  however,  come  to  us,  and  you  will  hear  what  our  best  Speakers 
think  it  serviceable  to  make  public  on  those  matters." 

Could  we  hope  that,  in  its  present  disjointed  state,  this  emblematic  sketch 
would  rise  before  the  minds  of  our  readers,  in  any  measure  as  it  stood  before 
the  mind  of  the  writer;  that,  in  considering  it,  they  might  seize  only  an  out- 
line of  those  many  meanings  which,  at  less  or  greater  depth,  lie  hidden  under 
it,  we  should  anticipate  their  thanks  for  having,  a  first  or  a  second  time, 
brought  it  before  them.  As  it  is,  believing  that,  to  open-minded  truth-seeking 
men,  the  deliberate  words  of  an  open-minded  truth-seeking  man  can  in  no  case 
be  wholly  unintelligible,  nor  the  words  of'such  a  man  as  Goethe  indifferent,  we 
have  transcribed  it  for  their  perusal.  If  we  induce  them  to  turn  to  the  original, 
and  study  this  in  its  completeness,  with  so  much  else  that  environs  it,  and 
bears  on  it,  they  will  thank  us  still  more,  To  our  own  judgment  at  least,  there 
is  a  fine  and  pure  significance  in  this  whole  delineation:  such  phrases  even  as 
'the  Sanctuary  of  Sorrow,'  'the  divine  depth  of  Sorrow,'  have  of  themselves  a 
pathetic  wisdom  for  us:  as  indeed  a  tone  of  devoutness,  of  calm,  mild,  priest- 
like  dignity  pervades  the  whole.  In  a  time  like  ours,  it  is  rare  to  see,  in  the 
writings  of  cultivated  men,  any  opinion  whatever  bearing  any  mark  of  sincerity 
on  such  a  subject  as  this:  yet  it  is  and  continues  the  highest  subject,  and  they 
that  are  highest  are  most  fit  for  studying  it,  and  helping  others  to  study  it. 


NATURE  AND  ART. 
§  10.       NATURE    AND    ART. 

m  looking  at  our  nature  we  discover  among  its  admirable  endowments, 
the  sense  of  perception  of  Beauty.  We  see  the  germ  of  this  in  every 
human  being,  and  there  is  no  power  which  admits  greater  cultivation  ; 
and  why  should  it  not  be  cherished  in  all  ?  *  *  *  Beauty  is  an  all- 
pervading  presence.  It  unfolds  in  the  numberless  flowers  of  the  spring. 
It  waves  in  the  branches  of  the  trees  and  the  green  blades  of  grass.  It 
haunts  the  depths  of  the  earth  and  sea,  and  gleams  out  in  the  hues  of 
the  shell  and  the  precious  stone.  And  not  only  these  minute  objects, 
but  the  ocean,  the  mountains,  the  clouds,  the  heavens,  the  stars,  the 
rising  and  setting  sun,  all  overflow  with  beauty.  The  universe  is  its 
temple ;  and  those  men  who  are  alive  to  it  can  not  lift  their  eyes  without 
feeling  themselves  encompassed  with  it  on  every  side.  An  infinite  joy  is 
lost  to  the  world  by  the  want  of  culture  of  this  spiritual  endowment. 
Suppose  that  I  were  to  visit  a  cottage,  and  to  see  its  walls  lined  with  the 
choicest  pictures  of  Raphael,  and  every  spare  nook  filled  with  statues  of 
the  most  exquisite  workmanship,  and  that  I  were  to  learn  that  neither 
man,  woman,  nor  child  ever  cast  an  eye  at  these  miracles  of  art,  how 
should  I  feel  their  privation  !  how  should  I  want  to  open  their  eyes,  and 
to  help  them  to  comprehend  and  feel  the  loveliness  and  grandeur  which  in 
vain  courted  their  notice !  But  every  husbandman  is  living  in  sight  of  the 
works  of  a  divine  artist ;  and  how  much  would  his  existence  be  elevated 
could  he  see  the  glory  which  shines  forth  in  their  forms,  hues,  propor- 
tion, and  moral  expression  !  I  have  spoken  only  of  the  beauty  of  nature, 
but  how  much  of  this  mysterious  charm  is  found  in  the  elegant  arts  and 
especially  in  literature  ?  The  best  books  have  the  most  beauty.  The 
greatest  truths  are  wronged  if  not  linked  with  beauty,  and  they  win  their 
way  most  surely  and  deeply  into  the  soul  when  arrayed  in  this  their  nat- 
ural and  fit  attire.  W.  E.  CHANNING.  Self -Culture 

Beauty — a  living  presence  of  the  earth, 

Surpassing  the  most  fair  ideal  forms 

Which  craft  of  delicate  spirit  hast  composed 

From  earth's  materials,  waits  upon  my  steps  ; 

Pitches  her  tents  before  me  as  I  move, 

An  hourly  neighbor.  WORDSWORTH. 

Nature  never  did  betray 
The  heart  that  loved  her;  'tis  her  privilege 
Through  all  the  years  of  this  our  life,  to  lead 
From  joy  to  joy  ;  for  she  can  so  inform 
The  mind  that  is  within  us,  so  impress 
With  quietness  and  beauty,  and  so  feed 
With  lofty  thoughts,  that  neither  evil  tongues, 
Rash  judgments,  nor  the  sneers  of  selfish  men 
Shall  e'er  prevail  against  us,  or  distrust 
Our  cheerful  faith  that  all  which  we  behold 
Is  full  of  blessings.         *         * 

*         *         When  thy  mind 
Shall  be  a  mansion  for  all  lovely  forms, 
Thy  memory  be  as  a  dwelling-place 
For  all  sweet  sounds  and  harmonies  :  oh  !  then 
If  solitude,  or  fear,  or  pain,  or  grief 
Should  be  thy  portion,  with  what  healing  thoughts 
Of  tender  joy,  will  thou  remember  me 
And  these  my  exhortations. 

WORDSW  :>RTII.     On  revisiting  the  Wye. 


PUBLIC    INSTRUCTION    IN    PRUSSIA  753 

FROBEL'S  INFANT  AND  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. 

The  infant  garden  did  not  at  first  meet  with  favor  from  the  school  authorities 
of  Berlin,  and  has  attained  its  present  development  there  under  individual  and 
associated  auspices,  by  which  tra'ning  schools  have  been  established  and  the 
83rstem  has  thus  been  provided  with  appropriate  teachers.  In  the  notice  which 
follows  of  Frobel's  labor?  we  adopt  substantially  the  account  by  Dr.  Schmidt, 
in  his  History  of  Education,  in  place  of  the  memoranda  made  after  a  visit  to 
several  of  these  "gardens  of  infant  culture,"  in  Hamburg,  in  1854. 

Frederic  Wilhelm  August  Frobel  was  born  April  21,  1%S2,  at  Oberweissbach, 
in  the  principality  of  Rudolstadt,  where  he  passed  his  infancy  in  the  rural  life 
of  a  country  parsonage.  At  the  age  of  10  years  he  was  placed  under  the  care 
of  an  uncle,  the  Rev.  Superintendent  Hoffman,  at  Stadt-Ilm.  His  teachers 
understood  not  the  dreamy  love  of  nature  in  the  boy,  and  some  years  later  he 
began  the  study  of  forestry  under  a  forester  in  Neuhaus  His  favorite  sciences 
were  mathematics  and  natural  history.  In  the  year  1805  he  entered  upon  his 
proper  profession  by  engaging  as  a  teacher  at  Gruner's  school,  in  Frankfort. 
He  read  with  profound  interest  the  works  of  Pestalozzi,  and  lived  and  labored 
•  two  years  with  this  great  pedagogue*  Inspired  by  the  enthusiastic  nobleness 
of  the  profession,  he  resolved  to  qualify  himself  more  for  an  efficient  discharge 
of  its  duties,  and  entered  upon  a  course  of  studies  at  the  universities  of  Gottin- 
gen  and  Berlin,  devoting  himself  principally  to  the  Asiatic  languages,  history, 
and  philosophy.  lu  1813  he  participated  in  the  war  for  the  liberation  of  his 
country,  and  the  dawning  sun  of  national  liberty  awoke  in  him  the  desire  to 
promote  the  development  of  the  spiritual  freedom  of  the  people.  This  desire 
was  strengthened  by  Fichte's  work  on  national  education,  and  by  his  intercourse 
with  Middendorff  and  Langethal.  After  the  war  Frobel  was  appointed  assistant 
inspector  of  the  Royal  Museum  of  Mineralogy,  at  Berlin.  In  1826  he  published 
his  work  on  "  Human  Education."  After  laboring  some  years  in  the  education 
of  the  children  of  a  deceased  brother,  and  at  a  special  institution  in  Keilhau, 
(1817  to  1828,)  he  undertook  the  reorganization  of  a  popular  school  in  Swit- 
zerland, where  he  laid  the  basis  of  his  reputation  as  a  practical  educator,  in  the 
institution  he  established  in  the  castle  of  Waldensee,  placed  at  his  disposition  by 
the  generous  owner.  As  a  result  of  the  first  public  examination  in  this  school, 
he  was  invited  by  a  deputation  from  the  canton  of  Bern  to  the  position  of  director 
of  a  new  orphan  home  to  be  established  in  Burgdorf,  which  he  accepted. 

Frobel's  experience  of  life  and  his  conversations  with  teachers  lead  him  again 
to  the  conviction  that  school  education  was  without  its  true  foundation  until 
u  reformation  in  the  family  and  home  education  could  be  effected.  The 
importance  of  the  earliest  education  and  the  necessity  of  training  competent 
mothers  rose  vividly  before  his  mind.  He  resolved  to  apply  his  new  idea  of 
education,  the  realization  of  whioh  had  been  prevented  by  unavoidable  obstacles, 
at  least  to  the  training  of  earliest  youth,  and  to  replace  his  "  Book  for  Mothers" 
by  a  theoretical  and  practical  instruction  for  women.  With  this  intent  he  relin- 
quished his  charge  in  Burgdorf  and  went  to  Berlin,  where  the  idea  of  an  infant 
school  matured  in  him.  At  Burgdorf  and  in  Berlin  it  had  become  Frobel's  firm 
conviction  that  to  excite  the  desire  for  learning  must  precede  all  instruction,  and 
that  to  educate  is  a  human  function,  springing  from  the  inner  life,  but  also  react- 
ing, in  a  developing  and  progressive  manner,  on  this  source  ;  that  the  family  ia 

*  Pestalozzi  wro^  in  Frobel's  alburn,  October  7,  1805 : 

Man  forces  the  way  to  his  aim 
By  the  flame  of  thought 
And  the  bolt  of  eloquence  ; 
But  he  accomplishes  his  task 


754  PUPLIC    INSTRUCTION    IN   PRUSSIA. 

tbc  centre,  en  the  health  of  which  depends  not  only  the  health  of  the  state, 
but  without  the  prosperity  of  which  no  real  progress  in  education  can  take  place. 
At  Blankenburg  these  ideas  became  reality.  In  his  infant-garden  (kindergar- 
ten) Frobel  undertook  to  give  life  and  form  to  his  pedagogic  views. 

THE    KINDERGARTEN. 

The  infant-garden,  as  Frobel  says,  leads  the  child  back  to  nature,  into 
nature,  through  the  garden,  that  it  may  early  know,  what  God  united  man  shall 
not  part.  He  occupied  himself  with  the  child  under  school  age,  and  made  it  his 
object  to  develop  all  the  powers  and  faculties  of  the  child,  which  are  necssary 
to  a  full  realization  of  instruction  in  school.  In  the  first  years  of  life,  when  a 
child  learns  quickest  and  easiest,  and  lays  the  foundation  to  his  entire  intellec- 
tual life,  to  withdraw  the  young  mind  from  a  home  in  which,  left  to  itself,  it  falls 
into  moral  and  mental  decay;  to  bring  the  children  of  families  in  which  exists  a 
healthy  life  for  some  hours  every  day  into  communion  wi:h  their  equals,  and  to 
give  them  a  common  employment,  so  necessary  to  the  development  of  the  mind, 
and  which  can  be  executed  only  by  a  number  of  children  of  the  same  age — such 
is  the  purpose  of  the  infant-garden. 

On  the  four-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing 
Frobel  founded  his  infant-garden,  which  was  to  embrace  four  institutions:  1st, 
a  model  institute  for  the  care  of  children  ;  2d,  a  training  school  for  nurses  of 
children  ;  3d,  an  institute  for  suitable  plays  and  amusements  of  children;  4th, 
an  establishment  with  which  all  parents,  mothers,  educators,  and  especially 
future  infant-gardeners,  should  be  in  constant  relation  fjy  a  published  periodical. 
Frobel  called  his  institution  infant-garden  (kindergarten)  because  he  thought  it 
necessary  that  a  garden  should  be  connected  with  it,  and  because  he  wished 
symbolically  to  indicate  by  this  name  that  children  resemble  the  plants  of  a 
garden,  and  should  be  treated  with  similar  care.  He  declares  the  object  of  hig 
fir^t  infant  garden,  begun  in  Blankenburg,  near  Rudolstadt,  to  be  :  "  It  shall  not 
only  take  under  its  care  children  under  school  age,  but  also  give  them  occupa- 
tion suitable  to  their  nature,  to  strengthen  their  bodies,  to  practice  their  sense?, 
and  to  keep  busy  the  awakening  mind — to  make  them,  in  a  pleasant  manner, 
familiar  with  nature  and  man,  by  properly  directing  their  minds  to  the  first  cause 
of  aH  life,  to  harmony  with  themselves." 

Tho  adequate  means  for  the  realization  of  this  object  is,  according  to  Frobel, 
play ;  for  it  was  clear  to  him  that  the  revival  of  intellectual  activity  in  the  first 
years  of  life  cannot  be  brought  about  by  instruction,  but  only  by  activity— 
which  means,  by  an  activity  peculiar  to  the  child.  "  In  the  occupation  and  play 
of  a  child,  especially  in  its  first  years,  is  formed,  in  union  with  its  surroundings 
and  under  their  quiet  and  unperceived  co-operation,  not  only  the  germ  but  also 
the  heart  of  its  futuje  life,  in  regard  to  all  which  we  must  acknowledge  as 
belonging  to  germ  and  heart — inner  life,  self-reliance,  and  future  individuality. 
From  the  first  occupation  results  not  only  the  exercise  and  invigoration  of  the 
body,  limbs,  and  exterior  organs  of  the  senses,  but,  above  all,  the  development  of 
the  heart,  the  culture  of  the  spirit,  and  the*  waking  of  inner  feelings  and  instinctive 
judgment."  An  inward  and  outward  activity  in  and  through  play  is  the  aim 
of  Frobel — instead  of  words  to  induce  the  child  to  action,  instead  of  books  to 
give  him  means  of  employment,  to  bring  life  where  hitherto  only  abstractions 
were  ruling.  By  regulated  means  of  occupation  to  offer  suitable  food  to  the 
desire  of  activity  striving  for  development — this  is  the  task  of  the  infant-garden. 
By  self-employment  the  child  shall  b^  induced  to  free  activity,  to  labor  in  its 
highest  sense  ;  and,  in  truth,  the  ethic  and  economic  value  of  labor  is  here  recog- 
nized, because  it  becomes  manifest  that  it  not  only  develops  the  physical  power 
but  promotes  intelligent  attention,  devotion,  and  endurance ;  also,  the  child  is 
made  conscious  of  the  value  of  labor ;  the  enjoyment  to  be  able  to  become  n*«- 


PUBLIC    INSTRUCTION    IN    PRUSSIA.  755 

ful,  is  created  ;  finally,  the  way  in  which  labor  culminates  and  is  ennobled  in 
art  is  shown  to  the  child,  and  in  him  to  mankind  in  general.  As  the  Creator 
creates  ever  since  the  beginning,  so  his  image,  man,  wants  activity  from  his  first 
existence. 

The  infant  garden  and  its  plays  are  based  on  the  laws  of  human  nature.  In 
them  Frobel  has  laid  the  foundation  for  the  scientific  treatment  of  the  infant  age; 
by  a  faithful  observation  of  nature  and  a  devoted  attachment  to  infant  life,  he 
has  discovered  its  psychologic  laws  and  applied  them  with  great  insight  to  the 
gifts  of  play.  All  intellectual  functions  find  in  them  occasion  to  utter  them- 
selves ;  the  longing  for  motion  finds  nourishment  in  the  gymnastics  of  play,  the 
desire  of  knowledge  is  regulated  and  developed  by  the  exercise  of  the  senses 
and  faculties  of  observation ;  the  wish  for  activity  obtains  an  opportunity  for 
normal  cultivation  by  voluntary  employment;  ideality  is  excited  and  sustained 
by  the  formation  of  beautiful  forms,  by  singing,  drawing,  &c.  In  this  manner 
the  infant  garden  makes  use  of  play  as  a  conscious  and  fertile  means  of  educa- 
tion. It  takes  hold  of  the  truly  childish  nature  and  gives  to  the  infant  mind  a 
suitable  nourishment ;  it  allows  the  child  to  remain  a  child  and  keeps  away 
what  belongs  to  a  riper  age.  Its  main  employments  are  plays,  its  means 
of  education  the  instruments  of  play.  To  begin  with  natural  development, 
Frobel  went  back  to  the  first  education  by  the  mother.  In  his  "  caressing 
songs  of  the  mother "  he  gives  a  clue  to  the  manner  in  which  the  child  is  to  be 
treated  during  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  life.  In  the  "first  gift  of  play," 
the  box  with  six  balls,  which  contain  three  primary  and,  three  mixed  colors,  he 
offers  the  first  toy,  the  simplest  body,  by  which  a  harmonious  impression  is 
made  on  the  child  when  the  box  is  held  before  its  eyes  If  then  the  mother 
hangs  the  various  balls,  alternately,  on  a  string  over  the  bed  of  the  infant,  it  will, 
in  fixing  its  eyes  upon  the  object  attracting  its  look,  learn  to  understand  the 
circumscription  of  the  form  arid  the  distinction  of  color ;  will  also  see  the  law  of 
contrast  when  the  intermediate  color  is  placed  between  two  primary  colors ;  as, 
also,  in  the  motion  of  the  ball,  in  the  three  directions  of  length,  breadth,  and 
depth,  with  accompanying  song  of  "  up  and  down,"  "  to  and  fro,"  &c.,  it  will 
receive  an  impression  of  motion,  while,  in  encircling  the  ball  in  its  hands,  it  will 
strengthen  the  muscles  of  the  hand  and  have  its  sensation  directed  to  one  point. 

From  the  ball  the  "second  gift  of  play"  passes  over  to  the  cube,  the  sim- 
plest regular  body  with  even  surfaces,  and  adds  next  the  intermediate  between 
ball  and  cube,  the  cylinder.  With  ball,  cylinder,  and  cube,  the  three  normal 
forms,  are  now  executed  various  plays,  by  moving  and  spinning  them  on  a 
thread  or  needle.  By  quickly  turning  the  cube,  as  the  needle  or  thread  is  fast- 
ened in  the  surface,  corner,  or  edges,  appear  the  different  axes,  and  the  three 
fundamental  forms  of  mechanics  are  shown — cylinder,  wheel,  and  double  cone. 
By  perceiving  that  the  cylinder — in  the  disappearance  of  the  corners  of  the  cube 
in  turning — is  contained  in  the  cube,  and  the  ball  in  the  cylinder,  the  law  is 
demonstrated  how  all  succeeding  is  contained  in  the  preceding  form.  Thus  the 
infant  mind  is  impressed  with  the  first  laws  of  space,  form,  and  motion.  When 
the  child  has  seen  in  the  ball  the  dimensions  of  time  and  space,  it  has,  in  the 
second  gift,  experienced  the  idea  of  motion,  always  hearing  the  corresponding 
little  songs  ;  and  when,  by  these  plays  and  its  total  surroundings,  it  is  so  far 
developed  as  to  express  the  various  forms  and  begins  to  busy  itself  more  inde- 
pendently with  the  different  ideas,  to  inquire  into  the  cause  of  things,  and  desires 
to  analyze  the  whole  into  its  parts  and  to  unite  again  the  parts  into  a  whole,  it 
receives  the  "third  gift  of  play" — the  cube,  divided  through  the  centre,  parallel 
to  all  sides.  With  this  gift  the  child  begins  to  invent.  It  discovers  that  unity 
becomes  a  plurality,  that  the  many  parts  are  similar  to  the  whole  and  equal 
among  themselves;  it  realizes  similarity,  equality,  and  inequality  of  objects;  it 
distinguishes  the  whole  arid  its  parts  by  the  division,  the  size  and  form,  and 
takes  an  idea  of  a  whole,  a  half,  a  quarter,  an  eighth,  of  above,  below,  inside,  and 


756  PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION    IN   PRUSSIA 

outside.  The  play  with  this  gift  will  answer  the  threefold  desire  for  activity 
in  the  child;  it  w.ll  represent  with  the  eightfold  divided  cube,  the  forms  of  per- 
ception, life,  and  beauty,  by  making  of  the  cube  two  halves,  four  quarters,  &c  ; 
by  building  chairs,  benches,  tables,  &c.;  by  laying  out  circles,  stars,  flowers, 
&c.  And  as  in  this  manner  it  can  form  and  invent,  by  aid  of  the  eight  cubes, 
more  than  300  forms,  it  prepares  the  action  of  reason  by  the  forms  it  recognizes?, 
the  practical  in  human  society  by  the  forms  of  life  it  imitates,  and  the  world  of 
feeling  by  the  forms  of  beauty.  In  this,  as  in  all  plays  of  Frobel,  attention 
should  be  given  to  the  following  : 

1.  In  building  the  child  has  a  small  slate,  divided  into  squares  of  equal  size, 
with  the  surfaces  of  the  cubes  to  build  on,  that  it  may  from  the  beginning  accus- 
tom itself  to  regularity,  care  and  precision,  exactitude  and  beauty. 

2.  To  create  ki  the  child  at  once,  clearly  and  distinctly,  the  impression  of  the 
whole,  the  play  should  be  handed  him  for  his  free  use,  opening  the  cover  of  the 
box  a  little,  then  turning  it  upside  down,  then  placing  it  right  before  the  child, 
who  should  move  the  cover  from  underneath  the  box,  so  that  the  cubes  iu  it, 
after  lifting  off  the  box,  lie  on  the  table  in  the  form  of  one  large  cube.     With 
this  cube  the  child  begins  to  play,  as  long  as  it   wishes  quietly  to   itself,  until, 
by  look  and  voice,  it  invites  your  aid,  when  words  are  given  to  his  doings. 

3.  In  no  play  should  the  child  be  allowed  to  destroy;  it  should  always  add 
to  the  given  form  or  create  something  new,  &c. 

In  each  formation  the  child  should  use  up  all  the  cubes,  in  order  to  become 
accustomed  to  reflection,  to  have  always  a  distinct  aim  before  his  eyes,  to  look 
at  the  object  to  be  represented  in  many  relations  and  regards — which  is  neces- 
sary when,  for  instance,  a  cube  left  over  must  be  put  into  conneclion  with  the 
object  represented — to  make  use  of  all  the  material  at  his  disposition,  and  to  pass 
over  nothing  unnoticed  nor  leave  anything  unused. 

The  "fourth  gift  of  play"  is  the  cube  divided  into  eight  tablets,  by  which, 
instead  of  contents,  the  extent  of  surface  appears,  and  not  only  space-filling  forms 
of  beauty,  life,  and  perception,  but  also  space-encircling  hollow  forms  may  be 
executed  ;  the  law  of  equilibrium — in  laying  on  the  small  side  of  one  tablet 
another  with  its  broad  side — and  the  law  of  continued  motion — by  placing  all 
tablets  in  a  line,  so  that  the  falling  of  the  first  will  cause  all  others  to  fall  also — 
are  presented  to  the  child's  view  and  comprehension. 

Thus  far  the  child  plays  to  his  fourth  year  of  life.  For  the  play  from  the 
fourth  to  the  sixth  year  serve  the  fifth  and  sixth  gifts  of  play.  The  "  fifth  gift  " 
contains  the  cube  divided  twice  in  every  direction,  by  which  27  small  cubes  are 
made,  of  which  three  are  again  cut  in  halves  and  three  in  quarters.  This  serves 
as  a  fundamental  view  into  algebraic  geometry  and  trigonometry.  The  child 
sees  the  triangle  produced  by  the  division,  which  as  a  body  surrounded  the 
prism  ;  it  constructs  the  parallelogram  and  trapezoid  and  builds  the  Py  Jiagorean 
problem.  Beside  these  forms  of  perception,  a  great  wealth  of  forms  is  given, 
which,  indeed,  introduce  to  the  architecture  of  life  and  beauty. 

The  "sixth  gift  of  play  "  contains  cubes  twice  divided  through  all  sides,  into 
tablets,  of  which  six  are  again  cut  in  height  and  width,  by  which  the  square 
and  form  of  column  is  represented.  Parallel  with  these  gifts  are  given  small 
plates,  as  the  surfaces  of  regular  bodies,  to  bring  into  view  their  various  figures. 
They  consist  in  plates  of  triangles,  showing  the  right,  the  acute,  and  the  obtuse 
angle;  and  of  squares,  beginning  with  four  and  doubling  to  64.  With  them 
the  child  constructs  regular  figures,  i.  c.,  squares  and  rectangles,  which,  by  diag- 
onals are  divided  into  right  angles,  triangles,  &c.  Little  wooden  sticks  serve  to 
indicate  the  lines.  In  the  play  with  sticks  the  child  learns  to  know  the  perpen- 
dicular, horizontal  and  diagonal  line;  to  find  them  again  in  nature,  and  to  apply 
them  to  practical  life.  Involuntarily  it  seizes  the  pencil  to  draw  on  the  squares 
of  the  slate  the  forms  made  by  the  sticks  while  they  are  yet  before  its  mind. 
Meanwhile  children  of  three  or  four  years  work  at  plaiting,  forming  the  prettiest 


PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION   IN   PRUSSIA.  757 

figures  in  their  plays,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  vividly  before  their  spirit 
from  the  plays  in  which  they  previously  engaged.  Those  who  draw  pass  from 
the  simplest  to  more  complicated  forms  by  way  of  contradistinction.  Others 
are  employed  in  carving,  which  goes  hand  in  hand  with  drawing,  when  the  child, 
with  a  pin,  first  makes  the  same  figures  and  forms  on  square  ruled  paper.  The 
carved  flowers,  birds,  &c.,  are  preparatory  to  plastic  formations,  in  which  the 
pin  is  exchanged  for  pencil  and  chisel.  Auxiliary  to  plastic  formations  is  the 
making  of  figures  by  so-called  cross-sticks,  of  forms  and  figures  in  sticks  and 
peas,  and  the  art  of  coupling  and  pinching,  which  constructs  little  boats,  boxes, 
ships,  &c.,  from  square  pieces  of  paper.  Singing  enlivens  and  beautifies  many 
of  these  plays,  and  conducts  the  child  into  the  world  of  harmony.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  brought  to  nature  and  its  life;  the  constant  dwelling  in  the  free  air 
gives  a  familiarity  with  the  life  of  nature.  The  child  learns  the  care  of  ani- 
mals, of  birds,  rabbits,  &c.,  which  are  given  to  its  charge,  and  understands  work 
in  the  garden  by  sowing  and  planting,  digging,  and  watering  a  little  bed  of  its 
own,  while  in  such  little  work  the  name,  form,  and  life  of  plants  and  animals  is 
told  him.  Physical  exercise  is  not  neglected.  The  various  plays  of  motion  are 
adapted  to  the  different  degrees  of  development  of  the  child.  In  the  "  caress- 
ing songs  of  mothers,"  such  plays,  which  aim  at  a  harmonious  development  of 
the  body  and  all  its  limbs,  are  arranged  in  an  ascending  scale,  and  in  part 
attached  to  imitations  of  motion  in  nature  and  life,  which,  in  their  execution, 
are  accompanied  by  suitable  little  songs. 

While  in  this  multiplicity  of  plays  the  choice  is  generally  left  to  the  child, 
his  liberty  is  conceded,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  when  the  infant  gardener  desires 
to  direct  his  attention  more  permanently  to  one  certain  play  the  child  becomes 
accustomed  to  endurance  and  self-control.  The  will  of  the  child  is  restrained 
and  forced  to  join  the  thoughts  and  aims  of  a  greater  number,  and  to  this  end  it 
often  engages  in  one  play  with  several  children,  lays  out  one  figure,  so  that 
each  brings  in  a  particular  part,  &c. 

Finally,  this  infant  play  is  not  without  its  religious  consecration.  True,  the 
child  is  not  introduced  to  religion  by  committing  to  memory  unintelligible  Bible 
verses  or  hymns ;  but  when  the  child  on  Christmas  beholds  a  representation  of 
Christ  in  the  manger  it  connects  a  joyful  impression  with  the  appearance  of  the 
Saviour  of  humanity.  In  such  and  other  similar  ways  is  laid  in  their  tender  hearts 
a  deep  foundation  of  religious  sensibility.  The  infant  garden  should  not  neglect 
the  cultivation  of  a  consciousness  of  God  in  the  infant  heart ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
should  nurse  the  same.  By  taking  the  child  into  a  God-pervaded  nature— rto 
the  flowery  sea  of  spring,  the  terrible  magnificence  of  the  storm,  to  the  life  of 
the  rose,  and  the  insect  sporting  out  its  joyful  little  life — there  the  child  should 
feel  God  and  find  him  in  every  flower  and  every  star.  From  its  relations  to 
parents  it  should  realize  the  Father  of  all  the  children  in  heaven  and  earth,  and 
learn  to  love  him  and  to  keep  his  commandments  by  giving  honor  to  truth,  by 
doing  the  right,  loving  and  practicing  the  good.  The  child  should  be  influenced 
to  express  his  feelings  toward  God,  to  excite  and  strengthen  them  by  praying 
before  him  and  with  him  in  holy  moments  of  life.  "  He  who  will  early  know 
the  Creator,"  says  Frb'bel,  "  must  practice  his  power  for  a  conscious  exercise  of 
the  good,  for  doing  good  is  the  bond  between  the  Creator  and  his  work,  and  the 
conscious  good  action  is  the  living  union  of  man  and  God,  the  final  point  and 
eternal  aim  of  all  education." 

While  the  principles  of  FrobePs  system  were  not  approved  by  the  Prussian 
minister  of  education,  the  Duke  of  Meiniugen  placed  the  castle  of  Marienthal  at 
his  disposal,  in  which,  to  his  death,  Frb'bel  instructed  teachers  of  infant  gardens. 
The  scholars  received  instruction  in  physiology,  psychology,  natural  history, 
(especially  botany,)  history  of  education,  the  arts  and  plays  for  children,  as 
drawing,  plaiting,  building,  cutting,  folding,  coupling,  &c. 
'  HVo'bel  died  June  2J ,  1852,  but  not  his  work.  To  the  activity  of  Midden 


758  PUBLIC    INSTRUCTION    IN   PRUSSIA 

dorff,  and  Bertha  de  Billow  after  him,  it  is  due  that  infant  gardens  flourish  in 
the  north  and  south  of  Germany.  They  exist  in  Hamburg,  Altona,  Gotha, 
Sondershausen,  Weimar,  Frankenhausen,  Erfurt,  Meiningen,  Eisenach,  Ohrdruff, 
Apolda,  Altenburg,  Liibeck,  Dresden,  Gorlitz,  Leipzig,  Berlin,  Stuttgart",  &c. 
In  Switzerland  they  have  been  revived  since  1859 ;  in  Belgium  they  were 
introduced  in  1857;  in  Holland  they  became  known  in  1858;  in  France  they 
gained  Marbeau — who  founded  the  creches — and  Madame  Mallet ;  in  Spain, 
(Bilbao,)  England,  (London,  Manchester,  Dublin,)  North  America,  (New 
York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,)  and  Russia,  especially  Finland,  great  interest  is 
shown  in  the  infant  gardens.  The  "Manuel  Pratique  des  Jar  dins  d'Evfants 
de  Frederic  Frocbel,  a  1'usage  des  institutrices  et  des  meres  de  famille,  compose 
surdes  documents  allemands,  par  J.F.Jacobs,  avec  une  introduction  de  Madame 
la  Baronne  de  Marenholtz,  (Bruxelles,  1859,")  gives  a  complete  insight  into 
the  infant  garden ;  the  "Erziehung  der  Gegeuwart,"  a  pedagogic  periodical,  by 
Carl  Schmidt,  as  well  as  the  "  Education  Nouvelle,"  of  Lausanne  by  Raouy, 
are  devoted,  since  1861,  to  the  diffusion  of  Frobel's  system. 

Michelet  also  recognized  that  the  principles  of  Frobel  are  those  npon  which 
education  must  progress,  when  he  says  in  his  work,  "LaFemm  :"  "  By  a 
clear  spiritual  eye  and  his  grand  simplicity  Frobel  has  found  what  the  wise  have 
hitherto  sought  in  vain  :  the  secret  of  education.  Frobel's  doctrine  is  the  edu- 
cational truth  of  the  age.  His  system  is  neither  exterior  nor  prescribed  nor 
arbitrary;  it  is  drawn  from  the  child  itself;  the  child  begins  the  history  and 
creative  action  of  humanity  anew." 

In  Frobel's  infant  garden  are  the  ideas  of  present  and  future  education  in  a 
circumscribed  sphere;  for  the  first  time  the  material  of  education  is  arranged  in 
an  organic  manner,  so  that  the  future  has  only  to  add  to  Frobel's  means  of 
employment,  which  especially  have  regard  to  mathematics,  mechanics,  and  draw- 
ing, the  experimental  physic,  chemistry,  and  physiology — of  course  in  accord 
with  the  pupil's  degree  of  development — and  that  the  popular  school  (and  this 
is  the  great  task  of  the  future)  should  intimately  connect  itself  in  an  organic 
relation  to  the  infant  garden.  From  the  time  in  which  this  is  done  a  new  era 
in  the  development  of  popular  schools  will  begin — a  truly  national  education. 

The  main  principles  of  infant  culture,  as  inculcated  by  Frobel  and  set  forth 
by  his  admirers,  are  not  new  to  thoughtful  educators;  and  similar  methods  and 
means,  not  so  completely  systematized  or  so  early  applied,  have  been  tried  in 
this  country,  but  not  always  with  due  caution  or  with  proper  understanding  of 
the  infant  nature.  These  views  have  already  greatly  modified  the  exercises  and 
methods  of  our  primary  schools;  but  there  is  still  room  for  a  lower  or  earlier 
grade  of  schools,  and  for  places,  methods  and  material  aids  of  instruction  similar 
to  those  of  the  Kindergarten.  Mrs.  Horace  Mann  and  Miss  E.  P.  Peabody,  in  their 
treatise  on  the  subject  (Boston,  1863)  entitled  "  Moral  Culture  of  Infancy  and 
Kindergarten  Guide"  and  recent  letters  of  Miss  Peabody,  published  in  the 
"Herald  of  Health,"  have  already  inaugurated  some  movements  in  this  direction. 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS. 


SUMMARY   VIEW    OF    FROEBEI/S    PRINCIPLES. 

THE  leading  ideas  of  FrbbePs  educational  system  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  following  statements  : 

1.  The  task  of  education  is  to  assist  natural  development  towards  its 
destined  end.     As  the  child's  development  begins  with  its  first  breath, 
so  must  its  education  also. 

2.  As  the  beginning  gives  a  bias  to  the  whole  after  development,  so 
the  early  beginnings  of  education  are  of  most  importance. 

3.  The  spiritual  and  physical  development  do  not  go  on  separately  in 
childhood,  but  the  two  are  closely  bound  up  with  one  another. 

4.  There  is  at  first  no  perceptible  development  except  in  the  physical 
Wgans,  which  are  the  instruments  of  the  spirit.     The  earliest  develop- 
ment of  the  soul  proceeds  simultaneously  with,  and  by  means  of  that 
of  the  physical  organs. 

*  5.  Early  education  must,  therefore,  deal  directly  with  the  physical 
development,  and  influence  the  spiritual  development  through  the  exer- 
cise of  the  senses. 

6.  The   right  mode   of  procedure   in   the  exercise  of  these  organs 
(which  are  the  sole  medium  of  early  education)  is  indicated  by  nature 
in  the  utterances  of  the  child's  instincts,  and  through  these  alone  can  a 
natural  basis  of  education  be  found. 

7.  The  instincts  of  the  child,  as  a  being  destined  to  become  reason- 
able, express  not  only  physical  but  also  spiritual  wants.     Education 
has  to  satisfy  both. 

8.  The  development  of  the  limbs  by  means  of  movement  is  the  first 
that  takes  place,  and,  therefore,  claims  our  first  attention. 

9.  The  natural  form  for  the  first  exercise  of  the  child's  organs  is 
play.     Hence  games  which  exercise  the  limbs  constitute  the  beginning 
of  education,  and  the  earliest   spiritual  cultivation  must  also  be  con- 
nected with  these  games. 

10.  Physical  impressions  are  at  the  beginning  of   life  the  only  possi- 
ble medium  for  awakening  the  child's  soul.     These  impressions  should 
therefore  be  regulated  as  systematically  as  is  the  care  of  the  body,  and 
not  be  left  to  chance. 

11.  Frobel'a  games  are  intended  so  to  regulate  the  natural  and  in- 
stinctive activity  of  the  limbs  and  senses  that  the  purpose  contemplated 
by  nature  may  be  attained. 

12.  Through  the  gradual  awakening  of  the  child's  will  this  instinct- 
ive activity  becomes  more  and  more  conscious  action,  which,  in  a  further 
stage  of  development,  grows  into  productive  action  or  work. 

13.  In  order  that  the  hand — which  is  the  most  important  limb  as 
regards  all  active  work — should  be  called  into  play  and  developed  from 
the  very  first,  Frobel's  games  are  made  to  consist  chiefly  in   hand- 


SUMMARY. 

exercises,  with  which  are  associated  the  most  elementary  facts  and  ob- 
servations from  nature  and  human  life. 

14.  Inasmuch  as  in  the  human  organism,  as  well  as  in  all  other  or- 
ganisms, all  later  development  is  the  result  of  the  very  eailiest,  all  tliat 
is  greatest  and  highest  springs  out  of  the  smallest  and  lowest  begin- 
nings, education  must  endeavor  to  emulate  this  unbroken  continuity 
of  natural  development.     Frbbel  supplies  the  means  for  bringing  about 
this  result  in  a  simple  system  of  gymnastic  games  for  the  exercise  of 
the  limbs  and  senses ;  these  contain  the  germs  of  all  later  instruction 
and  thought,  for  physical  and  sensual  perceptions  are  the  points  of  de- 
parture of  all  knowledge  whatever. 

15.  As  the  earliest  awakening  of  the  mind  has  hitherto  been  left  to 
chance,  and  the  first  instinctive  activity  of  childhood  has  remained  un- 
eomprehended  and  unconsidered,  there  has  of  course  been  no  question 
of  education  at  the  very  beginning  of  life.     It  was  Frobel  who  first  dis- 
covered a  true  and  natural  basis  for  infant  education,  and  in  his 
"  Mutter  und  Koselieder"  he  shows  how  this  education  is  to  be  carried 
on  and  made  the  foundation  for  all  later  development. 

It  is,  therefore,  essential  that  the  principles  and  methods  laid  down 
by  Frobel  should  be  attended  to  at  the  very  beginning  of  education,  if 
full  benefit  is  to  be  derived  from  the  Kindergarten. 

The  training  of  mothers,  and  all  who  have  the  management  of 
young  children,  in  the  application  of  Frb'bel's  first  principles  of  educa- 
tion, is  consequently  the  starting-point  for  the  complete  carrying  out  of 
his  system,  and  consequently,  too,  of  immense  importance. 

The  little,  seemingly  insignificant  games  and  songs  devised  for  the 
amusement  of  infants  are  easy  enough  for  girls  of  the  lowest  degree 
of  culture  to  "master.  The  true  development  of  women  in  all  classes 
will  best  be  accomplished  through  training  them  for  the  educational 
calling,  seeing  that  nature  has  pre-eminently  endowed  them  for  this 
work.  Simple  receipts  for  the  management  of  health  (and,  above  all, 
the  practical  application  of  them  in  the  care  of  children)  are  also  within 
the  grasp  of  women  of  all  degrees  of  culture.  By  placing  such  instruc- 
tion within  the  reach  of  women  of  all  classes  the  first  step  will  be  taken 
towards  the  full  and  perfect  training  of  the  female  sex,  of  all  who  have 
the  care  of  children,  of  all  future  mothers  in  all  ranks  of  society,  for 
their  educational  vocation. 


EARLY  TRAINING- PEST ALOZZI  AND  FROEBEL.  761 

The  principles  and  methods  of  Pestalozzi,  as  presented  by  Rev. 
Charles  Mayo  and  Miss  Mayo  in  the  Pestalozzian  School  at  Cheam, 
near  London,  and  in  their  addresses  and  Manuals  of  Object  Teaching 
in  Arithmetic,  and  Early  Steps  in  Natural  Science,  were  adopted  by 
the  Home  and  Colonial  Infant  School  Society  in  their  (London) 
Model  and  Normal  Classes  in  1836;  and  one  of  the  teachers  in  the 
Training  Class  of  the  Society  (Miss  M.  E.  M.  Jones),  who  inaugurated 
the  Oswego  system  (so  called)  of  Object  Teaching,  thus  summarizes 

PESTALOZZl'S  LAWS   OF   CHILD   CULTURE. 

THE  merit  of  the  Pestalozzian  system  is  that,  recognizing  the 
character  of  children,  it  adapts  itself  to  this,  doing  invariably 
and  systematically  what  all  good  parents  and  teachers  do  often 
and  intuitively. 

Pestalozzi  recognized  the  nature  of  a  child  as  threefold — phys- 
ical, mental,  and  moral.  He  demanded  that  this  nature  should 
be  aided  in  developing  itself  simultaneously,  harmoniously,  and 
progressively.  He  noted  the  threefold  characteristics  of  this 
threefold  nature,  and  said,  "  The  chief  characteristic  of  a  child's 
physical  nature  is  activity ;  of  his  intellectual  nature,  love  of 
knowledge ;  of  his  moral  nature,  sympathy.  No  educational 
system  can  suit  him  unless  it  works  by  these." 

I.  Activity  is  a  law  of  childhood.  Its  abuse  produces  rest- 
lessness, love  of  mischief,  etc.  It  were  not  too  much  to  demand 
that  the  number  of  hours  devoted  by  growing  boys  and  girls  to 
physical  exercise,  in  some  shape  or  other,  should  equal  those  de- 
voted to  intellectual  exercises.  This  the  teacher  can  not  secure. 
She  can,  however,  insist  (as  a  necessary  condition  of  work)  that 
her  pupils  shall  have  two  recesses  in  the  morning,  and  one  in  the 
afternoon,  each  twenty  minutes  long;  that  daring  the  time  of 
recess  they  be  not  constrained  to  quietude ;  for  children,  unless 
asleep,  can  not  rest  without  they  play,  and  they  can  not  play 
without  making  a  noise ;  that  they  shall  sit  and  stand  alternate- 
ly ;  that  they  shall  have  physical  exercise  between  each  lesson, 
unless  singing  or  recess  intervene,  and  that  the  remainder  of  the 
time  be  honestly  occupied  in  school  work. 

It  is  really  a  sad  sight  to  see  young  children  permitted  neither 
to  work  nor  play,  but  kept  in  their  seats  for  two  or  three  hours 
under  pretense  of  studying.  Were  schools  instituted  for  the 
purpose  of  training  little  ones  to  the  love  of  mischief  and  to 
idleness,  they  could  hardly  adopt  better  means  to  secure  such 
an  end.  To  divide  a  school  into  two  sections,  to  take  each  al- 
ternately, and,  while  teaching  one,  to  provide  the  other  with 


762  THE  LAWS  OF  CHILDHOOD. 

something  to  dc  (the  doing  of  which  is  to  be  tested),  as  copying 
printed  columns  of  words,  arranging  patterns  of  forms  or  colors, 
weighing,  measuring,  working  number  exercises  on  slates  or 
blackboards,  drawing  the  school-room  to  scale,  reproducing  on 
their  own  slates  lessons  in  spelling  or  in  language.  All  this  re- 
quires not  only  the  necessary  apparatus,  but  training,  energy, 
and  moral  influence  on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  It  is  easier,  to 
be  sure,  to  remain  in  one's  seat,  calling  up  one  class  at  a  time, 
and  hearing  these  read  and  spell  in  turn,  while  the  rest  are  com- 
manded "  to  keep  studying." 

Now  that  another  method  of  keeping  school  is  introduced 
consistently  with  the  greater  energy  expended  by  teachers  and 
children,  the  number  of  school  hours  ought  to  be  diminished. 
It  has  been  amply  proved  that  the  children  of  the  Home  and  Co- 
lonial Schools,  London,  now  attending  school  during  five  hours, 
make  greater  progress  than  they  formerly  did  in  six. 

I  shall  not  be  surprised  to  find  the  number  of  hours  reduced 
to  four.  Edwin  Chad  wick,  J.  Currie,  and  other  educators,  who 
can  speak  as  having  authority,  declare  that  more  than  four  hours 
in  the  day  can  not  advantageously  be  spent  in  school  by  chil- 
dren less  than  eight  years  of  age. 

Even  in  the  case  of  elder  children,  I  should  not  be  inclined  to 
add  to  the  four  hours;  but  I  would  diminish,  and  at  length  dis- 
pense with  the  intervening  physical  exercises,  recesses,  etc.  Gym- 
nastics and  drilling  are  good,  but  these  can  have  another  time 
set  apart  for  them ;  and  as  soon  as  the  scholar  is  able  to  work 
alone,  he  should  be  required  to  spend  at  first  twenty  minutes, 
and  ultimately,  perhaps,  two  hours  in  the  performance  of  an  ap- 
pointed task,  not  merely  in  preparation  for  recitation,  but  in 
writing  exercises,  and  in  the  reproduction  of  the  oral  lessons  he 
receives  from  his  teacher,  etc. 

To  make  these  oral  lessons  worth  recording,  indeed  to  insure 
them  as  being  of  any  value  at  all,  they  must  be  well  prepared. 
Much,  if  not  all  the  time  gained  by  the  teacher  will  be  devoted 
to  this.  In  Germany  or  England,  a  trained  teacher  (and  un- 
trained teachers  are  not  recognized)  would  no  more  think  of  ad- 
dressing her  scholars  without  preparation,  than  a  lecturer  his 
audience,  or  a  minister  his  congregation. 

II.  Love  of  knowledge  is  a  law  of  childhood.  The  abuse  of 
this  produces  idle  and  impertinent  curiosity.  It  is  a  simple 
fact,  that  the  appetite  of  a  child  for  knowledge  is  as  keen  as  his 
appetite  for  food.  If  we  say  we  find  it  otherwise,  it  is  because 


THE  LAWS  OF  CHILDHOOD.  763 

we  give  him  words  when  he  knows  not  what  they  express,  signs 
when  he  knows  not  what  they  symbolize — the  husk  instead  of 
the  kernel ;  or  if,  indeed,  the  kernel  is  there,  he  can  not  get  at  it 
through  the  shell.  The  maxims  laid  down  by  Pestalozzi  for  the 
mental  training  of  children  are  as  follows: 

"  1st.  Reduce  every  subject  to  its  elements.  One  difficulty  at 
a  time  is  enougli  for  the  mind  of  a  child,  and  the  measure  of  in' 
formation  is  not  what  you  can  give,  but  what  he  can  receive. 

"  2d.  Begin  with  the  senses.  Nfever  tell  a  child  what  he  can 
discover  for  himself. 

"  3d.  Proceed  step  by  step.  Take  qpt  the  order  of  the  sub- 
ject, but  the  order  of  nature. 

"  4th.  Go  from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  from  the  idea  to 
the  word,  from  the  signification  to  the  symbol,  from  the  exam- 
ple to  the  rule,  from  the  simple  to  the  complex." 

Formerly  we  reversed  all  these  rules.    Our  usual  plan  of  teach- 
ing children  to  read  and  spell  is  a  good  example  of  their  viola- 
tion.    Let  us,  on  the  contrary,  follow  these  rules,  and  we  ascend 
From  Form  to  Geometry  ; 
"     Place  to  Geography  ; 
"      Weight  to  Mechanics  / 

"     Size  to  Proportion  in  Drawing  and  Architectural  De- 
signs ; 

"     Number  to  Arithmetic  and  Algebra  ; 
"      Color  to  Chromatography  ; 
"     Plants  to  Botany  ; 
"     Animals  to  Zoology  / 
*'     Human  Body  to  Physiology  • 
"      Objects  to  Mineralogy,  Chemistry,  etc. ; 
"     Actions  to  Arts  and  Manufactures  / 
"     Language  to  Grammar. 
With  reference  to  this  ascent,  Pestalozzi  noted, 
First,  the  order  in  which  the  faculties  are  developed  with  re- 
spect to  one  another ;  and, 

Secondly,  the  order  in  which  each  develops  itself  with  respect 
to  its  objects : 

1.  First,  the  perceptive  Faculty  ;<> 
Secondly,  the  Conceptive  Faculty ; 
Thirdly,  the  Reasoning  Faculty. 

2.  In  the  exercise  of  the  Perceptive  faculty,  the  perception  of 
likeness  precedes  tlie  perception  of  difference,  and  the  perception 
of  difference  perceptions  of  order  and  proportion. 


^64  THE  LAWS  OF  CHILDHOOD. 

Iii  the  exercise  of  the  Conceptivc  faculty,  concepts  of  things 
physical  precede  concepts  of  things  imaginary,  and  concepts  of 
things  imaginary  concepts  of  things  metaphysical. 

In  the  exercise  of  the  Reasoning  faculty,  the  power  of  tracing 
effect  from  cause  is  based,  chiefly,  on  the  perception  of  order  • 
the  power  of  tracing  analogies  on  the  perception  of  likeness ; 
the  judgment  on  the  perception  of  difference. 

III.  Sympathy  is  a  law  of  childhood.  Pestalozzi  argued  that 
young  children  can  not  be  governed  by  appeals  to  conscience, 
veneration,  or  the  love  of  the  beautiful,  because  in  them  these 
sentiments  are  not  yet  developed.  Still  less  are  they  to  be  gov- 
erned by  the  excitements  of  emulation,  as  commonly  understood, 
or  of  fear.  True,  the  principle  of  emulation  exists  in  the  child, 
and  a  wise  teacher  will  appeal  to  it,  not  with  reference  to  his 
class-fellows,  but  to  his  task.  The  lesson,  and  not  the  schoolmate, 
is  to  be  overcome.  The  latter  is  to  be  recognized  not  as  an  an- 
tagonist, but  as  a  fellow-worker.  The  prize  of  success  is  not  for 
one,  but  for  all. 

The  principle  of  fear,  too,  exists  in  the  child.  It  is  right  that 
he  should  be  afraid  to  incur  the  displeasure  of  his  teacher ;  but 
the  fear  of  bodily  pain  merely  is  the  lowest  of  all  motives.  It  is 
hardly  possible  to  cultivate  the  conscience  of  a  child  who  is 
brought  up  under  its  influence ;  for,  if  he  do  right  from  fear  alone, 
he  will  certainly  do  wrong  whenever  he  judges  he  has  a  chance 
of  doing  it  undetected.  This  every  one  knows. 

Concerning  fear  and  emulation,  as  employed  by  unwise  teach- 
ers, Pestalozzi  wrote,  "  Moral  diseases  are  not  to  be  counteracted 
by  moral  poisons."  He  maintained  that  very  young  children 
were  to  be  governed  by  sympathy ;  that  the  teacher  can,  and 
does  communicate  her  own  spirit  to  the  scholars.  "  Do  and  be," 
said  he, "  what  you  wish  your  children  to  do  and  be."  "  Work 
with  the  will,  not  against  it." 

Furthermore,  he  showed  that  this  sympathy,  as  a  motive  to 
action,  must  be  gradually  superseded  by  the  rule  of  right,  so  soon 
as  the  children  are  able  to  recognize  and  apply  the  latter;  for 
all  good  government  tends  to  self-government — all  good  educa- 
tion, in  childhood,  tends  to  self-education. 

May  the  children  of  our  schools  progress  from  suitable  im- 
pressions to  befitting  habits ;  from  good  feelings  to  right  princi- 
ples; from  submission  to  the  impulse  of  fear  to  obedience  to  the 
dictates  of  conscience ;  from  love  of  friends  to  the  love  of  God. 


PESTALOZZI  AND  Swiss  PEDAGOGY.  —  Memoir  and  Educational 
Principles  of  John  Henry  Pestalozzi,  with  Biographical  Sketches 
of  other  Swiss  Educators,  and  some  account  of  Swiss  Pedagogy  in 
other  countries.  By  Henry  Barnard,  LL.D.  800  pp.,  $3.50,  cloth. 

CONTENTS. 

Swiss  Cantonal  and  Educational  Development,  ....  1-48 

Educators  before  Pestalozzi, 

1.  Monastic  Educators  and  Pedagogy, 

Abbey  of  St.  Gall  —  Iso,  Notker,  Mpengall,  Palatinus, 

2.  Protestant  Ascendancy  and  Educational  Institutions, 

Zurich,  Geneva,  Lausanne  —  Zwingli,  Calvin,  and  Beza, 

3.  Rousseau  and  Modern  Pedagogy, 19 

Relations  of  Pestalozzi  to  Rousseau, 45 

Pestalozzi,  his  Assistants  and  Disciples, 49-352 

I.    John  Henry  Pestalozzi, 49-160 

1.  Childhood  and  Youth,  1746-1767, 49 

2.  Agricultural  and  Educational  Experiments,       56 

3.  The  Evening  Hour  of  a  Hermit,  1780, 59 

4.  Leonard  and  Gertrude,  1781 b2 

5.  Life  and  Writings  between  1781-1798, 65 

6.  Experience  at  Stanz,  1798, 68 

7.  Institution  at  Bungdorf,  with  Kriisi,  Buss,  and  Tobler, 

8.  Experience  at  Buchsee,  1804, 

9.  Pestalozzian  Institution  at  Yverdon, 87 

10.  Last  Years,  1815  to  1827, 114 

11.  List  of  Publications,  and  Pestalozzian  Literature, 127 

12.  Celebration  of  One  Hundredth  Birthday, 145 

II.    Assistants  of  Pestalozzi, 155-224 

1.  Herman  Kriisi, 161 

2.  Johannes  Buss, 198 

3.  Joseph  Schmid, 201 

4.  John  George  Tobler, 'Mb 

5.  John  Ramsauer, 215 

6.  Johannes  Niederer, 217 

7.  Rosette  Kasthofer  Niederer  —  School  for  Girls, 

8.  Nagali  and  other  Special  Instructors, 222 

III.    Disciples  and  Promoters  of  Pestalozzianism  abroad,  .  223-352 

Germany, 223-304 

1.  Fichte  —  Appeal  to  the  German  Nation, 225 

Development  of  Pestalozzian  Prussian  Primary  School, 227 

2.  Plamann,  Pestalozzian  Institute  in  Berlin, §32 

3.  Blochmann  and  the  Popular  School, 235 

4.  Zeller, 241 

5.  Denzel, 245 

6.  Von  Turk, 247 

7.  Harnisch, 257 

8.  Dinter, 259 

9.  Diesterweg, 266 

10.    Frcebel  and  the  Kindergarten, 271 

Indebtedness  to  Swiss  Pedagogy  -  Letter  to  Princess  Sophia,  ....  273 

Genesis  and  Development  of  the  Kindergarten, 293 

France, .    - 305-312 

1.  Early  Publications  —  Chevannes,  Julian  de  Paris, 305 

2.  Teachers  and  Schools  — Normal  School  at  Strasburg, 

3.  Official  recognition  —  Cousin,  Guizot,     .    .  ' 307 

4.  Demetz  and  Farm  Schools, 308 

5.  Infant  Schools  and  Kindergartens— Marenholtz,  Pape-Carpentier,     .    .  309,310 

6.  Recent  Recognition  and  Discussion, 312 

Italy,  Spain,  and  Russia, 311-312 

England, ? 313-320 

1.  Owen  — Work  in  Pestalozzian  Aim,  Method,  and  Spirit, 313 

2.  Brougham,  Mayo,  Graves  — Infant  Schools, 318 

3.  Sir  J.  K.  Shuttleworth,  Tate,  Tillyard  — Battesea  Training  College,    .  319 

4.  Recent  Publications— Leitch,  Quick,  Browning, 320 

United  States, 321-338 

1     Maclure  and  Neef,  1807-1812, 321 

2.  Pickett,  Griscom,  Keargy,  1812-1826, 327 

3.  Reports  on  the  Prussjan-Pestaloftzian  System, 337 

Cousin,  Bache,  Stowe,  Mann,  Barnard, 337 

4.  Sheldon's  Work  at  Oswego,  for  Object  Teaching, 338 

5.  General  Dissemination  and  Acceptance  of  Principles, 338 

Pestalozzi  in  the  Literature  of  the  World, 339-352 

List  of  400  Treatises  on  Pestalozzi  and  his  System, 339 

Selected  Treatises  of  Pestalozzi, 521-798 


VJii  PESTALOZZI  AND  OTHER  SWISS  EDUCATORS. 

IV.    Fellenberg  and  tlie  Hofwyl  Institution, 353-410 

Memoir  of  Phillip  Emanuel  von  Fellenberg, 3:3 

Autobiography  of  School  Life, 353 

Relations  to  Faxin  Schools  and  Industrial  Education, 358 

Pestalozzi— Fellenberg  — Vehrli, 357 

Hofwyl  —  Estate  and  Schools, 367 

Gradual  Development  of  Educational  Institutions, 369 

Literary  Institution, „ 3C9 

Principles  of  Education, 372 

Subjects,  Methods,  and  Discipline, 377 

Reminiscences  of  an  English  Pupil  (Owen), 377 

Described  by  Visitors  in  1818, 401 

School  of  Agriculture, 385 

Outline  of  Normal  Course,  Woodbndge, 387 

Influence  on  Agricultural  Education  in  United  States, 395 

Meykirk  —  Agricultural  Colony, 411 

School  for  Girls  —  Madame  and  Miss  Fellenberg, 415 

V.    Madame  de  Staei  and  Swiss  Female  Educators,    .    .    .  417-424 

Pedagogic  Views  —  Pestalozzian, 419 

Madame  Necker  and  Progressive  Education  —  Education  of  Girls,    .    .    .  423 

Madame  de  Portugall  and  MissProgler —  Infant  Schools  and  Kindergarten,  424 

VI.    Velirli  and  Industrial  Schools, 425-448 

Memoir  of  Jacob  Vehrli, 427 

Work  at  Hofwyl  —  Industrial  School, 429 

Normal  School  at  Krutzlmgen, 43;) 

Swiss  System  of  Industrial  Schools, 435 

Influence  on  European  and  American  Pedagogy, 448 

VII.    Girard  and  the  Elementary  Public  School, 449-472 

Memoir  of  Gregoire  Girard, 451 

School  Work  at  Friburg, 453 

Educational  Treatises  and  influence, 460 

Normal  School  Development  in  the  Public  System, 461 

Teachers'  Seminary  at  Kussnacht, 471 

VIII.    Nagali  and  Swiss  Vocal  Culture, 473-488 

Memoir  of  George  Nagali  and  M.  T.  Pfeiffer, 473 

Swiss  Music  —  Popular  Concerts  and  Clubs, 477 

Pestalozzian  Method  of  Teaching  Singing, 479 

Introduction  into  the  United  States  — Boston, 481 

IX.    Agassiz  and  Science  Teaching, 489-496 

Agassiz  at  Home  and  School  —  Pestalozzian  Training, 489 

Influence  as  a  Teacher  in  the  United  States, 491 

X.    Scherr  and  Recent  Swiss  Pedagogy, 497-512 

Memoir  of  Thomas  Scherr, 497 

Democracy  at  School  —  Education  Universal, 502 

School  Festivals  — Gymnastic  and  Military  Drill, 508 

.School  Statistics  and  Illiteracy  —  Swiss  and  American, 509 

Contrast  of  Swiss  School  Life  in  the  15th  and  19th  Centuries, 511 

Autobiography  of  Thomas  Platter, 511 

XI.    Selected  Treatises  of  Pestalozzi, 521-784 

Leonard  and  Gertrude  —  Entire  as  published  in  1781, 525 

Pedagogical  Additions  in  1818  —  School  at  Bonnal, 659 

Christopher  and  Alice, 665 

How  Gertrude  teaches  her  Children, 669 

Pestalozzi's  Subjects  and  Methods  of  School  Instruction,    .....  675 

Addresses  as  Head  of  the  Family, 703 

First  and  Last  Pedagogical  Utterances, 721-768 

Evening  Hour  of  a  Recluse  (1780), 721 

Letters  on  Early  Education  (1825)£ 734 

Song  of  the  Dying  Swan  (1826), 753 

XII.    Value  of  Pestalozzi's  Contributions  to  Pedagogy,    .    .  769-784 

German,  French,  English,  and  American  Estimate  and  Summary,    ...  796 

Index, 785 


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KINDERGARTEN  BUILDINGS  AND  GROUNDS. 

UY  MISS   CAROLINE  PROGLEK,* 
Directress  of  Special  Training  at  Geneva. 


The  Kindergartens  have  multiplied  within  fifteen  years,  and  have 
spread  over  the  whole  globe,  but  wherever  this  new  education  has  been 
introduced  it  has  had  to  be  contented  with  very  defective  provisional 
arrangements.  Private  dwelling-houses,  workshops,  stores,  even  aban- 
doned breweries,  as  has  often  been  the  case  in  England,  have  been  util- 
ized for  this  purpose.  What  is  especially  wanted  is  a  garden,  or  a  culti- 
vatable  open  space,  attached  to  the  premises;  if  that  condition  is  fulfilled, 
we  can  pass  over  many  deficiencies. 

Every  country  has  its  organic  decrees  and  regulations  for  school  build- 
ings; nothing  similar  yet  exists  for  Kindergartens,  so  that  we  must  here 
give  an  ideal  type.  We  hope  to  succeed  in  throwing  some  light  upon  this 
quite  new  question. 

Place,  Orientation,  Enclosure. 

The  choice  of  the  place  designed  to  receive  a  Kindergarten,  and  its 
dependencies,  is  a  very  serious  question ;  more  serious,  perhaps,  than  the 
choice  of  a  place  for  a  primary  school.  It  is  important  that  it  shall  be 
central,  that  it  shall  be  as  near  as  possible  to  the  little  people,  who  cannot 
be  taken  long  distances.  The  approach  to  the  place  should  be  salubrious, 
and  the  place  itself  situated  in  an  airy,  quiet  quarter,  outside  the  daily 
movement  of  great  centers.  If  it  is  a  Kindergarten  for  a  rural  community, 
it  must  be  accessible  to  all,  even  to  detached  villages.  The  condition  of 
proximity  must  be  subordinate,  in  the  country,  as  well  as  in  the  city,  to 
the  facility  and  safety  of  access. 

It  is  difficult  always  to  give  to  a  school  the  orientation  that  is  judged 
best  for  hygiene  and  for  lighting.  The  rooms  in  which  the  children  are 
should,  if  possible,  be  exposed  to  the  north  and  east.  This  exposure,  the 
coolest  at  all  times  of  the  year,  has  been  objected  to  because  it  necessitates 
the  use  of  more  fuel  in  winter,  and  therefore  more  expense.  But  in  these 
days  this  argument  has  lost  much  of  its  weight,  because  of  the  perfection 
to  which  science  and  ingenuity  have  brought  the  apparatus  of  heating. 

We  have  said  that  the  Kindergarten  must  be  easy  of  access.  To  this 
we  would  add  that  it  should  be  absolutely  independent  of  all  neighboring 
buildings,  and  that  it  should  be  situated  in  the  midst  of  a  garden.  We 
should  like  to  have  it  surrounded,  in  a  city,  by  a  grating,  with  a  wall  for 
a  basis;  in  the  country,  by  a  living  hedge.  In  city  communities,  where 
in  all  probability  the  locality  must  be  on  a  street  or  in  a  public  square,  we 
would  recommend  the  building  to  be  Trom  3  to  5  meters  [10  to  17  feet] 
back  of  the  line  of  houses.  Behind  the  principal  building  should  be  the 
uncovered  yard,  planted  with  trees,  and  a  small  territory  for  the  children's 
gardens.  Building,  court,  garden,  and  enclosure,  should  occupy,  in  a  city, 

*  Report  to  Brussels  International  Congress.    Translated  by  Mrs.  Horace  Mann. 
49 


770  KINDERGARTEN  BUILDINGS  AND  GROUNDS. 

12  or  15  ares  [13,000  to  16,000  sq.  ft],  at  least;  in  the  country,  8  or  10 
ares  [9,000  to  11,000  sq.  ft.]. 

In  an  institution  for  little  children,  it  is  always  best  that  the  apartments 
shall  be  on  the  ground  floor,  as  stairways  are  more  or  less  dangerous,  and 
require  more  watching  of  the  little  ones.  Such  buildings  do  not  require 
deep  foundations,  and  have  the  advantage  of  not  being  costly. 

The  ground  under  such  buildings  should  always  be  in  good  sanitary 
condition,  underdrained,  and  free  from  all  surface  dampness. 

In  cases  where  it  is  necessary  to  put  Kindergartens  into  primary  school 
buildings,  the  two  institutions  should  have  their  separate  entrances  and 
different  recreation-hours. 

Number  of  Rooms. 

The  number  of  rooms  necessary  for  the  Kindergarten  will  not  be  the 
same  in  the  city  and  the  country.  In  cities,  the  Kindergarten  will  contain 
three  or  four  divisions,  each  of  which  must  be  placed  under  the  charge 
of  a  teacher.  These  divisions  require  as  many  rooms,  and  a  covered  yard 
or  play-room.  We  think  that  a  Kindergarten,  even  in  populous  centers, 
should  not  receive  more  than  150  pupils;  the  maximum  of  200  should 
never  be  passed. 

One  teacher,  if  she  wishes  to  apply  the  method  intelligently  and  with 
good  fruit,  should  have  no  more  than  30  pupils.  If  this  number  is  ex- 
ceeded, she  should  have  an  assistant,  to  whom  she  can  confide  a  part  of 
her  pupils.  On  this  condition  alone  should  a  Kindergarten  number  50 
children. 

In  rural  communities,  where  there  is  generally  but  one  teacher,  she  will 
unite  all  the  children,  who  will  not  often  exceed  30  (the  statistical  number 
of  children  in  a  community  of  1,000  inhabitants).  Two  halls,  one  for 
work  and  one  for  play,  will  be  sufficient. 

Surface,  HeigJit,  and  Shape  of  the  Rooms? 

A  hall  designed  for  a  maximum  of  30  pupils  should  be  7m50  by 
6m50  [24.6  by  20.3  ft.],  or  8  m.  by  7  [26.2  by  23.0  ft.],  in  order  that  each 
child  may  have  an  average  surface  of  a  square  meter  [10.8  sq.  ft.].  The 
teachers  of  Kindergartens  having  constantly  to  speak  and  sing  with  their 
little  pupils,  too  large  halls  are  found  to  be  very  fatiguing,  and  always 
injurious  to  the  voice.  We  do  not  think  the  height  of  the  halls  should 
exceed  3m60  or  3m80  [11.8  or  12.5  ft.],  if  we  wish  to  obtain  good 
acoustic  conditions;  3m75  [12.3  ft.]  high  and  48.75  square  meters  [524.7 
sq.  ft.]  of  surface  would  furnish  each  pupil  3.656  cubic  meters  [129  cu.  ft.] 
of  air.  The  halls  should  be  not  far  from  square.* 

The  furniture  must  be  moveable,  that  the  teacher  may  group  the  chil- 
dren at  her  will  for  the  various  labors  or  exercises. 

Each  working-room  must  open  by  a  double  folding-door  into  the  cov- 

*  In  the  section  of  Hygiene  [at  the  meeting  of  the  International  Congress  of  Education 
at  Brussels,  Aug.,  1880],  M.  Perrin  stated  that  the  requirements  of  the  Council  of  Educa 
tion  were,  for  each  pupil,  one  meter  of  superficies  and  four  meters  of  height.  The  section 
adopted  almost  unanimously  the  proposition  of  M.  Janssens,  that,  for  a  class  of  fifty,  the 
minimum  accommodations  required  was  a  room  9.60  meters  by  8  and  4.75  in  height  [31.5  by 
96.2  by  15.6  ft.].  The  light  should  be  a  side-light,  and  should  only  come  from  one  side. 
—Journal  of  Education,  London,  Oct.  1, 1880,  no.  135,  p.  225. 


.  KINDERGARTEN  BUILDINGS  AND  GROUNDS.  771 

ered  yard,  that  the  children  may  inarch  in  and  out  two  by  two.     This 
covered  yard  should  be,  in  a  city,  as  often  as  possible,  a  central  space. 

In  case  the  form  of  the  land  on  which  the  building  is  placed  obliges 
these  plans  to  be  modified,  we  advise  that  the  four  working-rooms  should 
be  connected  by  a  corridor,  and  the  play-room  should  be  annexed  to  the 
rear  of  the  principal  building.  The  play -room  is  indispensable  to  a  Kin- 
dergarten. It  is  more  than  a  covered  yard;  it  is  a  hall  of  gymnastic  exer- 
cises, designed  for  marches,  for  rings,  for  plays,  etc.  As  this  hall  would 
unite  several  divisions  in  play  hours,  12  meters  by  10  [39.4  by  32.8  ft.] 
would  not  be  exaggerated  proportions,  giving  Om280  [8.6  sq.  ft.]  as  the 
minimum  for  each  child. 

Parlor. 

The  parlor  annexed  is  a  reception-room  for  the  parents.  It  is  at  the 
eame  time  the  office  of  the  instructor-in-chief,  who  keeps  in  it  the  regis- 
ters of  her  school  administration.  In  the  city,  the  parlor  will  need  to  be 
larger  than  in  the  country,  and  will  serve  for  a  place  of  reunion  for  the 
teachers.  It  ought  to  be  near  the  entrance,  and  open  from  the  vestibule. 

In  every  Kindergarten  there  should  be  two  cabinets;  one  to  hold  all  the 
material  for  work,  the  other  the  work  done  by  the  children,  and  their 
collections  of  plants,  seeds,  minerals,  etc. 

In  the  rural  districts  a  domestic  should  fill  the  place  of  janitor.  Her 
charge  will  be  the  material  care  of  the  children  and  the  neatness  of  the 
whole  establishment.  Her  lodging  should  be  a  chamber  and  a  kitchen. 
Behind  these  rooms  should  be  another  kitchen,  for  warming  the  food  of 
the  children  who  pass  the  day  at  the  school,  and  where  the  soup  shall  be  pre. 
pared,  which  will  be  gratuitously  distributed.  Near  the  entrance,  and 
opening  from  the  vestibule,  should  be  a  room  for  the  children's  outside 
clothing,  hats,  etc. 

We  need  not  insist  upon  the  details  of  this  room,  sp  indispensable  to 
the  healthfulness  and  neatness  of  the  establishment.  If  there  is  room 
enough,  a  little  dormitory,  where  the  children  who  fall  asleep  can  be  laid 
on  suitable  couches,  should  be  found  in  every  Kindergarten. 

Walls  and  Ceilings. 

The  rooms  should  be  floored  with  pine,  which  is  not  so  cold  as  oak,  and 
permits  frequent  washing.  If  moisture  is  feared,  it  is  well  to  harden  the 
floor  with  a  preparation  of  India  rubber.  The  walls  should  be  smooth 
and  glossy,  covered  with  plaster,  and  painted  in  oils  in  a  neutral  tint. 
Painting  in  oil  is  healthy;  we  also  recommend  it  for  the  ceilings. 

Light — Heating  Apparatus —  Ventilating. 

Each  room  should  be  lighted  by  a  casement  window  placed  in  middle  of 
outer  wall,  and  open  like  doors  from  the  middle  with  hinges  on  the  sides. 
It  should  be  3m60  [11.8  ft.]  wide;  the  sill,  Om80  [29.5  or  31.5  in.]  above 
the  floor,  and  at  least  3m  [9.8  ft.]  high,  extending  to  ceiling.  Each  fold 
should  be  divided  into  quarters — the  outer  quarter  each  Om90  [35.4  in.] 
wide — the  outer  fixed,  and  the  inner  made  to  swing  back  and  fasten  on  to 
the  outer.  Glass  should  be  transparent,  and  not  ground  or  colored. 
Simple  curtains  will  keep  out  direct  rays. 


772  KINDERGARTEN  BUILDINGS  AND  GROUNDS. 

An  apparatus  for  heating,  outside  the  rooms,  is  preferable  to  all  others 
for  little  children,  owing  to  the  dangers  of  stoves  and  other  modes  of 
heating.  In  an  apparatus  which  gives  great  satisfaction,  the  heating  ap- 
paratus is  under  the  floor,  and  fed  by  external  air;  the  channels  built  in 
the  walls  send  the  fresh  warmed  air  into  orifices  that  open  Im50  [4.9  ft.} 
above  the  floor.  It  is  always  possible,  even  in  very  cold  winters,  to  obtain 
an  average  temperature  of  14°  C.  [57°  F.]  before  the  opening  of  the  school. 
Notwithstanding  the  impossibility  of  opening  the  windows,  the  air  re- 
mained pure,  and  the  temperature  was  sufficiently  high.  The  cost 
amounted  to  12  francs  [$2.40]  for  each  pupil.  The  average  expense  of 
fuel  did  not  exceed  50  Kg.  [110  Ibs.]  per  day,  or  1  centime  [0.2  cts.]  per 
pupil.  As  we  recommend  small  classes,  this  apparatus  is  as  complete 
as  can  be  desired,  and  simplifies  very  much  the  labor  of  the  janitor. 

Ventilation  is  secured  by  supply  of  fresh  air  in  connection  with  heating 
apparatus. 

Water- Closets. 

These  should  be  placed  inside  the  building  to  prevent  exposure  to  the 
children,  and  they  can  be  so  built  as  to  be  wholly  inoffensive.  The  seats 
should  be  of  white  pine,  and  thoroughly  washed  every  day.  The  basina 
should  be  of  crockery,  closed  hermetically  when  shut;  the  number  oi 
seats  should  be  one  for  every  twenty  children,  the  urinals,  one  for  every 
forty  boys,  and  so  constructed  that  they  can  be  simultaneously  flushed 
several  times  every  day.  The  urinals  should  be  made  of  slate,  the  only 
substance  which  does  not  become  oxydized,  and  which,  well  washed, 
emits  no  odors.  The  premises  should  be  easily  ventilated. 

We  do  not  think  a  refectory  necessary.  The  children  can  eat  their 
lunches  in  one  of  the  rooms,  which  will  be  kept  clean  and  aired. 

Furniture. 

The  furniture  *of  a  Kindergarten  must  unite  certain  conditions.  It 
must  be  portable,  of  moderate  price,  simple  and  not  complicated,  solid 
and  requiring  few  repairs,  the  seats  of  two  sizes,  with  backs;  the  first 
size  for  children  from  2-J  years  to  4,  28  cm.  [11.0  in.]  high;  second  size, 
for  children  from  4  to  6  years  of  age,  31  cm.  [12.2  in.],  and  both  24  cm. 
[9.4  in.]  wide,  and  Im35  [53.2  in.]  long,  with  backs  25  to  28  cm. 
[9.8  to  11  in.]  high.  The  table  of  the  first  size  should  be  45  cm.  [17.7  in.] 
high,  30  cm.  [11.8  in.]  wide,  and  Im35  long;  of  the  second  size,  52  cm. 
[20.5  in.]  high,  35  cm.  [13.8  in.]  wide,  and  Im35  long.  The  tables  must 
be  provided  with  a  moveable  border,  4  cm.  [1.6  in.]  high,  that  can  be 
raised  or  lowered  at  will,  for  certain  ball  plays.  The  play-room  should 
be  surrounded  with  benches.  The  black-board  must  be  on  rollers. 

The  Recreation  Yard. 

A  large.court  for  this  purpose  is  indispensable  to  a  Kindergarten.  It 
should  occupy  a  place  at  least  as  large  as  the  whole  building,  and  be 
divided  into  two  parts,  one  surrounded  with  trees  for  the  plays,  the  other 
divided  off  into  little  gardens.  The  soil  should  be  well  drained,  rolled, 
and  covered  with  sand,  to  avoid  any  dampness.  Around  the  shaded  por- 
tion should  be  low  benches,  and  we  should  like  to  see  a  fountain  in  the 
middle,  furnished  with  a  cock  which  could  be  closed  at  pleasure. 


KINDERGARTEN  BUILDINGS  AND  GROUNDS.  773 

The  wall  around  the  play-yard  should  be  adorned  with  climbing  plants, 
and  the  little  gardens  should  be  partially  shaded,  where  the  children  can 
plant  seeds  of  all  such  plants  as  will  serve  for  conversations;  flowers,  veg- 
etables, cereals,  textile 'plants,  etc.  These  little  plantations  will  prove  an 
inexhaustible  mine  of  pleasure  and  instruction.  The  children  should  be 
taught  to  respect  these  gardens,  which  no  one  is  to  invade  but  the  teach- 
ers. The  child  who  receives,  in  the  spring,  one  of  these  little  beds,  Om80 
by  Om40  [31.5  by  15.7  inches]  in  size,  will  dig  it, 'rake  it,  sow  it,  water 
it,  under  the  direction  of  the  teacher,  and  what  he  reaps  from  it  will  be 
his  own  property.  There  will  be  a  little  building  for  the  spades,  rakes, 
watering-pots,  etc.,  of  which  the  children  are  to  be  taught  to  take  care, 
and  if  the  premises  will  permit,  a  little  stable  should  be  found  in  all  such 
play-grounds,  containing  a  few  animals;  a  lamb,  a  goat,  rabbits,  pigeons, 
etc. ,  of  which  the  children  should  be  taught  to  take  care. 

A  beautiful  Kindergarten  building,  the  Froebelhaus,  was  erected  at 
Spire,  in  1874.  The  local  committee  endeavored  to  make  it  answer  in 
every  way  to  the  wishes  of  the  great  Master.  It  stands  in  the  midst  of  a 
large  garden  ornamented  with  trees,  several  meters  in  the  rear  of  the  line 
of  the  street,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  a  parterre  of  flowers.  The 
principal  fa9ade  of  the  building  is  18  meters  [59  ft.]  in  length,  the  build- 
ing 10  meters  [32.8  ft.]  deep.  Each  story  contains  two  halls  of  60  squarre 
meters  [645.8  sq.  ft.],  a  vestibule,  a  parlor,  a  dressing-room,  etc.  But 
the  premises  are  too  small  for  the  200  children  that  now  constitute  the 
Kindergarten. 

Several  years  ago  numerous  Kindergartens  were  opened  in  Munich. 
One  peculiarity  of  them  would  be  dear  to  the  Master.  To  every  school 
for  young  girls,  built  si&ce  1873,  a  Kindergarten  has  been  annexed,  an 
excellent  arrangement,  which  allows  the  elder  pupils  to  go  every  day  for 
several  hours  to  learn  the  care  they  will  have  to  take  of  their  own  broth- 
ers and  sisters  at  first,  and  of  their  own  children  when  they  become 
mothers.  The  Kindergartens  are  not  in  the  main  school  buildings,  but 
erected  in  the  gardens.  The  vestibule  opens  into  one  of  the  gymnastic 
halls,  which  at  certain  hours  serves  as  a  covered  play-ground  for  the 
little  ones. 

Economy  of  ground,  diminution  of  the  expenses  of  construction,  etc,, 
are  advantages  which  make  us  wish  to  see  many  cities  imitate  the  noble 
example  of  Munich. 

Saint  Gall  and  Winterthur  in  Switzerland  have  each  their  Kindergarten. 
In  the  former  city  the  two-story  building  does  not  seem  to  us  to  answer 
well  for  little  children. 

Winterthur  has  one  of  the  prettiest  Kindergartens  we  are  acquainted 
with.  This  elegant  construction  rises  in  a  nest  of  verdure.  With  its 
columnar  porch,  and  its  grey  seats,  the  Kindergarten  of  Winterthur  makes 
an  excellent  impression.  In  the  lower  story  are  the  great  hall  and  its 
dependencies,  and  three  rooms  for  work. 

We  regret  that  here  the  children  have  to  descend  stairs  three  times  a 
day  to  reach  the  play-room.  This  beautiful  Kindergarten  cannot  serve  as 
a  type  for  the  popular  Kindergartens,  which  must  be  more  simple  and  lesa 
costly.  It  occupies  a  surface  of  325  square  meters  [3497.6  sq.  ft] 


\ 


KINDERGARTEN  MATERIAL, 


In  the  limited  space  at  our  disposal  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  complete  expla- 
nation of  the  varied  material  used  in  a  Froebel  Kindergarten,  but  the  following 
enumerations  and  brief  description  will  serve  to  give  a  general  idea  of  the 
various  occupations,  and  the  usual  price  of  the  principal  material  is  given  that 
those  who  are  not  Kindergartners  may  be  able  to  form  an  estimate  of  the  ex- 
pense. A  more  full  catalogue  may  be  obtained  by  addressing  any  large  dealer 
in  school  supplies,  or  manufacturer  of  Kindergarten  material. 


FIRST   GIFT. 

The  first  gift  consists  of  six  soft  balls  about  1| 
inches  diameter,  and  usually  made  of  wqol  or  hair, 
covered  with  a  netting  of  worsted  in  tbe  three  pri- 
mary and  three  secondary  colors.  A  trained  Kin- 
dergartner  should  be  competent  to  make  these  for 
herself,  and  will  not  be  satisfied  with  the  inferior 
goods  often  offered  by  dealers. 


SECOND    GIFT. 

The  second  gift  consists  of  a  sphere,  cylinder 
and  cube,  provided  with  the  necessary  staples 
and  holes  for  suspending  in  the  air,  an  additional 
plain  cube,  two  rattan  axles  for  revolving  the 
forms,  and  two  posts  and  a  cross  beam  for  sus- 
pending them. 

All  in  a  neat  wooden  box  properly  construct- 
ed for  supporting  the  posts  and  beam. 

Price,  $0.60  ;  Postage,  $.09 


THIRD     GIFT. 

Eight  rock  maple  cubes  one  inch  square,  in  a  neat,  strong, 
varnished  wooden  box  with  slide  cover, 

Price,  $0.20  ;  Postage,  $.05 


FOURTH    GIFT. 


Eight  oblong  blocks  of  rock  maple,  each  two  inches 
long,  one  inch  wide  and  one-half  inch  thick. 

In  neat,  strong,  varnished  wooden  box  with  slide  cover, 
Price,  $0.20  j  Postage,  $.05 


776 


KINDERGARTEN  MATERIAL. 


FIFTH  GIFT. 

A  cube  (3x3x3  inches)  consisting  of  21  whole 
cubes  (1  cubic  inch),  six  half  cubes  and  12  quarter 
cubes. 

In  varnished  wooden  box  with  slide  cover, 

Price,  $0.40;  Postage,  $.15 


SIXTH  GIFT. 

Large  cube,  consisting  of  18  whole,  and  three 
lengthwise  and  six  breadthwise  divided  oblong 
blocks.  In  wooden  box,  slide  cover, 

Price,  $0.40;  Postage,  $.15 


The  above  blocks  should  be  made  with  great  accuracy  from  the  most  thor- 
oughly seasoned  hard  rock  maple. 

SEVENTH   GIFT. 

The  Seventh  gift  consists  of  quadrangular  and  triangular  tablets  usually  of 
wood,  although  a  heavy  card-board  serves  the  purpose  fairly,  at  a  much  less 
price,  while  they  retain  their  corners.  If  of  wood  they  should  be  finely  polish- 
ed, and  are  desirable  in  light  and  dark  woods. 

Price.    Postage. 
A.    Eight  squares,  one  inch  on  each  side,  in  wooden 

box, $0.25      $.02 

A.  2.     Sixteen  squares,  as  above, 35       .03 

B.  Sixty-four  half  squares,  one  inch  on   each 

leg.     Wooden  box, 50        .03 

C.  Twenty-four  equilateral  triangles,  one  inch 

each  side.     Wooden  box, 40        .02 

C  2.  Fifty-four    equilateral    triangles,  as    above,        .50        .03 


D.     Sixty-four    obtuse-angled    triangles. 

Acute  angles  30°.     Wooden  box,         .60        .03 


E.    Fifty-six  right-angled  triangles,  30° 

and  60°.     Wooden  box,          .        .         .60        .04 


The  tablets  for  the  seventh  gift  are  also  made  in  very  heavy  and  solid  paper 
board,  each  form  and  quantity  as  indicated  above  in  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  in  a  paper 
box.  The  whole  set, Price,  $1 .00 ;  Postage,  $.08 

kindergarten  Parquetry. — Those  occupations  in  which  something  permanent 
can  be  made,  are  the  most  interesting,  and  seem  to  be  more  productive  of 
good. 


KINDERGARTEN  MATERIAL. 


777 


It  is  owing  largely,  no  doubt,  to  this  feature,  that  the  weaving  and  braiding 
is  now  the  most  popular  occupation  in  the  school  and  family.  With  this 
thought  in  mind,  a  new  occupation  has  been  devised  in  connection  with  the 
Seventh  Gift  which  is  termed  Kindergarten  Parquetry,  and  which  has  been  re- 
ceived with  favor  by  leading  Kindergartners. 

It  consists  of  colored  paper  similar  to  the  weaving  and  braiding  papers,  but 
cut  accurately  to  the  forms  and  sizes  of  the  tablets  in  the  Seventh  Gift.  A  pu- 
pil having  designed  with  the  tablets  a  figure  which  is  deemed  worthy  of  pre- 
servation, is  allowed  to  reproduce  it  permanently,  by  pasting  papers  of  corres- 
ponding forms  on  to  a  heavy  paper  or  card-board.  These  triangular  papers 
are  sold  with  the  backs  gummed  like  postage  stamps,  and  also  plain. 


For  Kindergartens  the  plain  is  perhaps  preferred  by  the  majority,  as  the 
occupation  of  gumming  neatly  affords  the  best  possible  practice  in  manual  dex- 
terity. But  for  home  use  where  less  supervision  is  available  the  gummed 
papers  are  more  desirable. 

A  box  containing  one  thousand  pieces,  assorted  forms  gummed,  is  sold  for  forty 
cents,  and  the  same  without  gum  for  twenty-five. 


778  KINDERGARTEN  MATERIAL. 


EIGHTH    GIFT. 


Sticks  for  Stick  Laying. — This  Gift  consists  of  wooden  sticks,  which  are  cut 
to  various  lengths,  and  used  to  teach  numerical  proportions  and  for  producing 
elementary  forms,  preparatory  to  drawing. 


That  which  is  usually  called  the  multiplication  table  is  taught  by  means  of 
this  Gift,  by  actual  observation.  Instruction  in  reading  according  to  the  pho- 
netic method,  as  well  as  imitation  of  all  letters  of  the  alphabet,  together  with 
Roman  and  Arabic  numerals,  are  taught  in  connection  therewith,  preparatory 
to  the  instruction  in  writing. 

The  sticks  for  this  Gift,  if  colored  red,  yellow,  blue,  purple,  orange  and  green, 
are  very  attractive  and  useful. 

NINTH   GIFT. 

Rings  for  Ring  Laying. — This  Gift  consists  of  whole  and  half  wire  rings  for 
laying  figures  embodying  circles.  A  continuation  of  the  Eighth  Gift  and  pre- 
paratory to  drawing  and  designing. 


The  rings  as  ordinarily  made  are  not  soldered  at  the  joints,  and  hence  are 
not  rings  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term. 

They  may  be  obtained  soldered,  but  of  course  are  more  expensive. 

A  box  with  36  whole  rings  and  72  half  rings,  assorted  sizes,  not  soldered, 
sells  for  fifty  cents,  and  if  soldered,  for  about  seventy  cents. 

TENTH  GIFT. 

Drawing. — This  material  is  slates  and  paper  properly  netted  in  squares. 

The  paper  formerly  used  was  ruled  into  squares  over  the  entire  surface,  and 
the  ruling  was  very  inaccurate. 

Recently  drawing  paper  and  books  have  been  introduced  in  which  the  lines 
are  accurately  engraved  and  printed,  and  each  small  sheet  or  page  has  a  plain 
margin.  These  features  add  to  the  value  of  this  material. 

Still  more  recently  slates  ruled  in  the  same  way  have  been  made  as  shown  in 
cut  on  the  following  page,  which  are  received  with  great  favor  because  positive 
corners  are  thus  provided  for  counting  from  in  dictation. 


KINDERGARTEN  MATERIAL. 


779 


ELEVENTH    GIFT. 

The  Eleventh  Gift  or  occupation  is  perforating,  and  the  material  consists  of 
ruled  papers  and  cards,  a  heavy  needle  in  a  handle,  and  a  felt  cushion  or  pad 
on  which  to  lay  the  paper  or  card. 

TWELFTH    GIFT. 

Embroidering. — This  material  is  varied,  consisting  of  cards,  plain  or  perfor- 
ated, silks  or  worsteds  and  needles.  Cards  ready  pricked  in  various  geometri- 
cal patterns  are  largely  used  in  this  occupation  by  many  Kindergartnera. 

THIRTEENTH   GIFT. 

Cutting  Paper. — Squares  of  papers  are  folded  and  cut  in  various  ways,  pro- 
ducing symmetrical  designs.  The  child's  natural  propensity  to  destroy  with 
scissors  is  here  guided  in  such  an  ingenious  manner  that  the  most  astonishing 
results  are  produced.  The  usual  material  is  plain  squares  of  white  or  colored 
paper  which,  after  having  been  properly  folded,  are  marked  by  the  teacher,  to 
guide  the  pupils  in  cutting. 

A  modification  of  the  above  consists  in  the  use  of  papers  having  guide  lines 
ruled  on  one  side  serving  the  same  purpose  as  the  ruled  lines  on  the  netted 
drawing  papers,  and  enabling  the  pupils  to  do  for  themselves  much  which  was 
formerly  done  by  the  Kindergartner. 

The  Following  diagrams  represent  the  ruled  cutting  papers. 


\1Z 


\ 


\J/ 


Z 


\ 


Fig.  1  represents  the  ruled  paper 
before  being  folded. 

\0 


Fig.  2. 

Fig.  2  is  one  of  the  triangular 
surfaces  which  is  on  the  outside 
when  folded. 


Fig.  1.    * 


780 


KINDERGARTEN  MATERIAL. 


Fig.  3  represents  this  same  sur- 
face with  cutting  marks  applied. 


Fig.  3. 

Fig.  4  is  the  same  design  when 
cut  and  mounted. 


Fig.  4. 

Square  papers,  plain  and  ruled,  of  various  grades  and  colors  are  furnished  in 
this  occupation  by  the  manufacturers  of  material. 

FOURTEENTH    GIFT. 

Weaving. — Strips  of  colored  paper  are  woven  into  a  differently  colored  sheet 
of  paper,  which  is  cut  into  strips  throughout  its  entire  surface,  except  a  mar- 
gin at  each  end.  The  greatest  variety  of  designs  are  produced,  and  the  inven- 
tive powers  of  teacher  and  pupils  constantly  increase  their  numbers. 


This  occupation  is  no  doubt  more  popular  and  fascinating  than  any  other, 
and  the  material  offered  is  in  such  variety  that  a  detailed  list  is  impracticable 
here.  The  very  undesirable  tendency  among  Kindergartners  to  multiply  and 
complicate  the  material  is  more  fully  seen  in  this  occupation  than  in  any  other, 
and  in  this  as  in  all  the  gifts,  has  the  inevitable  effect  to  greatly  increase  the 
cost  of  manufacture. 

The  mats  and  fringes  for  weaving  are  put  up  in  packages  of  twelve  mats  and 
the  corresponding  fringe,  and  sold  for  from  ten  to  twenty  cents,  according  to 
size  and  quality. 


KINDERGARTEN  MATERIAL. 
FIFTEENTH    GIFT. 


Plaiting.—The  gift  consist?  of  fifty  durable  hard- 
wood slats,  ten  inches  long. 

Per  set,         .        Price,  $0.15  ;  Postage,  $0.03. 

The  forms  which  may  be  produced  in  this  gift 
are  almost  inexhaustible  and  very  pleasing. 


781 


SIXTEENTH   GIFT 

Jointed  Slats. — Four  jointed  sets 
in  box.  One  of  four  links.  One  of 
six  links.  One  of  eight  links.  One 
of  sixteen  links.  4 

The  whole  set,  in  box,  $0.40  ;  Post- 
age, $0.04. 

As  this  gift  is  to  represent  various 
lines,  angles  and  figures,  and  not  to 
be  used  as  a  measure,  the  slight  links  jointed  in  the  four  sets  are  much  more 
desirable  than  the  large  jointed  metric  measure  sometimes  substituted. 

SEVENTEENTH    GIFT. 

Paper  strips  for  Lacing. — Paper  strips  of  various  colors — eight  or  ten  inches 
long,  and  folded  lengthwise — are  used  to  represent  a  variety  of  fanciful  forms, 
by  bending  and  twisting  them  according  to  certain  rules. 

One  hundred  strips,  ^  inch  wide,  20  inches  long,  Price,  $0.15,  Postage,  $0.03 

EIGHTEENTH     GIFT. 

Folding  Paper. — The  material  for  paper-folding  consists  of  square,  rectan- 
gular, triangular  and  circular  pieces  with  which  variously  shaped  objects  are 
formed. 

NINETEENTH    GIFT. 


Peas  or  Cork  Work. — Skeleton  forms  of  ob- 
jects are  formed  with  soaked  peas  and  pointed 
sticks,  or  with  cork  cubes  and  pointed  wires. 

The  sticks  are  the  same  as  in  the  eighth  gift. 
The  pointed  wires  are  much  more  convenient 
than  sticks,  and  have  recently  come  very  much 
into  favor. 


Price.       Postage. 

Wires  of  various  lengths,  per  box, $0.20          $0.02 

Cork  cubes,  per  package  of  100, 25  .01 

TWENTIETH    GIFT. 

Price.       Postage. 

Modeling  knife  of  wood,  with  handle,  per  dozen,    .         .         .     $0.50  $0.02 
Modeling  knife  of  wood,  without  handle  and  generally  pre- 
ferred, per  dozen, 25  .02 

Modeling  boards  of  wood,  per  dozen,     '.         .         .         .         .1.50 
Clay,  prepared.,  per  pound, 05 


782  KINDERGARTEN  MATERIAL. 


BUSY  WORK  TILES. 

An  occupation  for  the  youngest  children— in  the  home,  the  Kindergarten, 
and  the  Primary  school.  Each  Tile  is  a  finely  finished  board,  six  inches  square, 
holes  drilled  in  three  designs.  In  No.  1  board  the  holes  are  arranged  in 
a  square,  in  No.  2  in  a  triangle,  and  in  No.  3  in  a  "circle  surrounding  a  Greek 
cross.  No.  1  is  more  generally  used. 

As  put  up  for  Kindergarten  and  school  use,  the  boards  are  without  pegs, 
and  the  pegs  are  in  boxes  of  one  thousand  each,  assorted  in  six  colors. 

For  private  use  one  board  with  a  good  assortment  of  pegs  is  put  up  in  a 
paper  box,  making  it  complete. 

Price.       Postage. 

One  Tile  without  Pegs, $0.25  $0.05 

One  thousand  Pegs,  six  colors  in  a  box,  ...  .20  .04 

One  Tile  in  box  with  Pegs,       ..'....  .35  .08 

In  ordering  say  which  pattern  is  wanted,  whether  No.  1,  No.  2,  or  No.  3. 

PAPERS   AND   STRAWS    FOR   STRINGING. 

Short  pieces  of  straws  and  squares  or  circles  of  colored  papers  strung  alter- 
nately on  a  thread  produce  a  very  pleasing  effect  and  afford  useful  occupation. 

Circles  of  colored  paper  1  inch  diameter  for  stringing 

with  straws,  1,000  pieces, $0.25             $0.02 

Squares  of  colored  papers  1  inch  square,  1,000  pieces,     .  .20                .02 

Straws  10  inches  long,  per  100, .10 

Straws  cut  to  f  inch  long,  per  box  of  1,000  pieces,           .  .20 
The  cut  straws  are  a  great  convenience. 

MRS.  HAILMANN'S  SECOND  GIFT  BEADS. 

Beads  in  the  forms  of  second  gift,  viz.,  sphere,  cylinder  and  cube,  and  in 
six  colors,  have  been  recently  introduced  with  much  satisfaction  for  stringing. 

In  the  foregoing  list  of  gifts  and  material  the  old  German  notation  has  been 
used,  and  no  distinction  made  between  the  gifts  proper  and  the  occupations. 

This  has  been  adopted  because  no  other  is  so  generally  understood,  and  be- 
cause it  conforms  to  the  description  of  the  material  in  several  of  the  preced- 
ing papers. 

All  the  above  goods  and  a  large  line  of  primary  school  occupation  material 
are  made  and  furnished  by  Milton  Bradley  Co.,  Springfield,  Mass.,  who  will 
send  to  any  address  a  very  complete  illustrated  catalogue  gratis,  or  samples 
of  material  on  receipt  of  the  price  as  above  indicated. 


KINDERGARTEN  PUBLICATIONS.  783 

REVISED  EDITION  OF  THE  PARADISE  OF  CHILDHOOD. 

BY   EDWARD   WIBBE. 

This  standard  work,  the  first  guide  with  complete  plates  published  in  the 
English  language  and  still  the  only  book  covering  the  whole  course,  has  be- 
come a  necessity  with  every  Kiudergartner,  and  should  be  in  the  hands  of 
every  intelligent  mother  and  every  progressive  Primary  School  teacher. 

A  paper  entitled  Kindergarten  Culture,  and  also  the  text  of  the  "  Hand- 
book for  the  Kindergarten,"  have,  in  the  revised  edition,  been  added  to  the 
original  work  without  increase  in  price,  and  the  separate  publication  of  the 
Hand-book  is  discontinued.  Very  full  diagrams  for  all  the  gifts  and  occupa- 
tions are  found  in  the  plates  of  "  The  Paradise  of  Childhood"  and  in  no  other 
form  can  as  full  directions  and  diagrams  be  obtained  for  the  same  moderate 
price.  It  contains,  in  this  edition,  100  large  double  column  quarto  pages,  and 
76  full-page  lithograph  plates.  The  work  is  neatly  printed  on  fine  plated 
paper. 

In  one  volume,  4to  paper  covers, $1  50 

In  one  volume,  4to  cloth  and  gilt, 2  00 

A  KINDERGARTNER'S  MANUAL  OF  DRAWING. 

EXERCISES   FOR  YOUNG  CHILDREN  UPON  FIGURES  OF   PLANE    GEOMETRY. 

BY   N.    MOORE. 

Seventeen  Large  Quarto  Lithographic  Plates,  and  Sixteen  Pages  of  Letterpress. 
The  special  form  in  which  drawing  has  been  presented  to  Kindergartners, 
to  guide  them  in  their  teaching,  does  not  meet  all  the  needs  of  their  pupils, 
and  during  the  last  four  years  a  number  of  Kindergartners  have  adopted,  in 
preference,  Miss  Moore's  series  of  drawing  exercises,  which  seem  to  them  to 
answer  their  purpose  more  fully.  This  differs  from  the  "  School  of  Drawing" 
commonly  used,  in  following  more  closely  the  order  of  progression  seen  in  the 
sewing,  pricking,  etc. 
Price,  post  paid, 50  cents. 

THE  KINDERGARTEN  AND  THE  SCHOOL, 

BY    FOUR   ACTIVE    WORKERS. 

150  pages,  illustrated  with  a  steel  plate  portrait  of  Froebel,  six  full-page 
colored  plates  of  occupations,  and  wood  engravings  of  the  gifts. 

Cloth,  black  and  gold,  price,  by  mail,  $1.00.  To  clubs  price  80  cents,  post- 
age or  express  extra. 

The  book  comprises  five  papers  as  follows: — "Froebel:  The  Man  and  his 
Work. — By  ANNE  L  PAGE.  The  Theory  of  Froebel's  Kindergarten  System. 
— By  ANGELINE  BROOKS.  The  Gifts  and  Occupations  of  the  Kindergarten. 
— By  ANGELINE  BROOKS.  The  use  of  Kindergarten  Material  in  the  Primary 
School  — By  Mrs.  A.  H.  PUTNAM.  The  Connection  of  the  Kindergarten  with 
the  School. — By  Mrs.  MARY  H.  PEABODY. 

Hon.  John  Eaton  says  : — 

"  In  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  pages  of  your  « Kindergarten  and  School '  you 
have  given  in  readable  style  a  correct  idea  of  Froebel  and  of  his  principles  and  meth- 
ods in  the  use  of  gifts  and  occupations.  I  believe  every  teacher  who  will  read  it  with 
care  will  be  interested  and  benefited." 

These  three  books  are  published  by 
MILTON  BRADLEY  CO.,  Springfield,  Mass. 


784  KINDERGARTEN  PUBLICATIONS. 

NEW  KINDERGARTEN  SONG  BOOKS. 

SONGS,  GAMES,  AND  RHYMES  FOR  THE  NURSERY,  KINDERGARTEN,  AND 
PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. — With  notes  and  suggestions  by  Eudora  Lucas  Hailmann, 

In  the  preface  the  author  says  : — 

"  To  parents,  Kindergartners  and  Primary  teachers,  these  songs  and  games 
are  presented  with  the  hope  that  they  will  in  some  measure  satisfy  the  demand 
for  a  wholesome,  elevating  kind  of  music,  and  for  words  suited  to  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  of  very  young  children. 

"  The  cultivation  of  the  music  sense  should  hegin  in  earliest  childhood,  but 
like  all  beginnings  the  task  is  most  difficult  and  delicate.  If  it  be  neglected 
during  the  first  few  years  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  re-arouse  it.  To  meet. this 
need  in  earliest  infancy  is  the  justification  for  the  hand  and  finger  games  con- 
tained in  this  book.  »"»'.*  Reverence,  enthusiasm,  conscientiousness,  sen- 
timent free  from  sentimentality,  order  without  pedantry,  freedom  not  law- 
lessness, a  rich  imagination  not  random  fancy,  grace  not  mannerisms,  experience 
not  mere  words,  being  not  seeming,  are  some  of  the  lessons  which,  I  hope, 
may  be  learned  from  the  songs,  games,  and  rhymes  contained  in  this  volume." 

This  book  contains  211  pieces  classified  as  follows  : — 

Opening  Songs,  15;  Closing  Songs,  10;  Songs  and  Games  of  the  Seasons, 
16;  Weather  Songs  and  Games,  10;  Songs  and  Games  of  Animated  Nature, 
35;  Trades  and  Occupations,  19;  Marches  and  Movement  Plays,  31  ;  Ball 
Games,  20 ;  Finger  and  Hand  Games,  26  ;  Miscellaneous  Games,  30. 

169  Pages,  Paper,  $1.25.    Cloth,  $1.75. 

SONGS  FOR  LITTLE  CHILDREN. — A  collection  of  songs  and  games  for  Kin- 
dergartens and  Primary  schools.  Part  I.  Composed  and  arranged  by  Eleanor 
Smith,  with  preface  by  Mrs.  Alice  Putnam. 

The  following  are  the  closing  sentences  of  Mrs.  Putnam's  preface : — 

"  This  book  is  sent  out  in  the  hope  that  it  may  lead  Kindergartners  and  Pri- 
mary teachers  to  look  more  carefully  everywhere  for  the  right  means  to 
develop  a  right  musical  feeling  in  children. 

"  Many  Kindergartners  in  Chicago  feel  gratefully  the  good  results  of  their 
lessons  with  Miss  Smith,  and  we  hope  others  of  our  '  guild '  may  find  the 
same  pleasure  which  we  have  had  in  these  songs." 

Prof.  W.  L.  Tomlins,  of  Chicago,  says  : — 

"  *  SONGS  FOR  LITTLE  CHILDREN  '  will  meet  a  long  felt  want  in  the  kinder- 
gartens. It  is  an  admirable  book,  and  will  undoubtedly  attain  the  success  it 
deserves." 

Miss  Betty  Harrison,  President  of  the  Chicago  Kindergarten  Club,  says : — 

"  I  like  the  book  thoroughly.  In  the  first  place  the  words  and  the  music  are 
one.  That  is,  they  express  the  same  thought  to  the  child, — as  in  '  the  black- 
smith/ the  clang  of  the  anvil,  the  slow  moving  of  the  bellows,  the  quick  flying 
of  the  sparks  are  expressed  as  much  by  the  notes  as  by  the  words.  *  *  * 
But  the  crowning  feature  of  the  book,  to  me,  is  that  many  of  the  songs  follow 
closely  the  thought  of  Froebel  expressed  in  his  Mother  Play  and  Nursery 
Songs,  which  latter  is  the  soul  of  his  system.  So  I  hail  them  with  delight,  in 
this  new  and  more  attractive  form,  thoroughly  artistic,  yet  at  the  same  time 
child-like." 

This  book  contains  84  pieces  divided  as  follows  : — 

Morning  Songs,  7  ;  Songs  of  the  Seasons,  26  ;  Gift  Songs,  27  ;  Marching 
Songs,  3;  Circle  Games,  5;  Trade  Songs,  4;  Miscellaneous,  17;  Closing 
Songs,  3.  109  Pages,  Paper,  $0.90. 

Both  these  books  are  well  printed  on  heavy  paper,  and  the  names  of  the 
authors  are  sufficient  assurance  that  they  will  be  found  of  surpassing  value  to 
teachers  of  young  children. 

Chicago,  111.  Springfield,  Mass. 

THOS.  CHARLES.  MILTON  BRADLEY  CO. 


CHILD   CULTURE  PAPERS. 

[Republished  from  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education.] 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction.  —  Development  of  the  Kindergarten,    .       i-xvi 

1.  LETTER  OP  EDITOR  OP  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  op  EDUCATION,        .        .        .        .    iii 

2.  LETTER  OF  Miss  E.  P.  PEABODY, v 

Progress  made  in  Europe, vii 

Beginnings  made  in  the  United  States, xi 

I.    FROEBEL  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

Memoir  of  Frederick  .August  Froebel, 17-128 

1.  PRINCIPAL  EVENTS  IN  HIS  PERSONAL  HISTORY, 17 

2.  PRINCIPAL  EVENTS  IN  THE  FROEBELIAN  CIRCLE, 18 

Aids  to  the  Understanding  of  IFVoetoel, 19 

1.  AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  OF  HOME  AND  SCHOOL  TRAINING,    .       .        .       21-43 

Froebel's  Letter  to  Duke  of  Neiningen 21 

Early  Childhood  —  Loss  of  Mother  —  Local  Influences, 22 

Family  Life  — First  Entrance  into  School  — Key  to  Inner  Life,  .  .  .  .23 
Joy  and  Strength  in  Self-Activity  —  Discordants  —  Harmony  of  Nature,  .  .  24 

Reconcilement  of  Differences  —  Life  away  from  Home, 2'j 

Physical  Growth  and  Play  —  Religious  and  Social  Culture, 29 

Influence  of  Manner  on  Pupils  — Choice  of  Vocation, 30 

Passion  for  Theatricals  — Studies  at  Jena  — Botany  — Zoology,  .        .        .        .33 

Death  of  Father  — Land  Surveying— Shelling's  Bruno, 34 

Philosophy  and  Art  —  Influence  of  Nature  —  Architect, 35 

Choice  of  Teaching  for  Life  Work  —  Model  School  —  Private  Tutor,  .        .        .37 

Life  as  an  Educator  — Play,  Activity,  and  Gifts 41 

Residence  with  Pestalozzi  1808-1810  —  Study  of  Pestalozzianism,       .  .42 

Studies  of  Language  and  Natural  History  in  Gottingen, 43 

Lectures  in  Berlin  University  —  Experiences  of  Soldier's  Life,  .  .  .  .45 
Acquaintance  with  Middendorff  and  Langethal  —  Museum  of  Mineralogy,  .  46 
Supplement  by  Dr.  W.  Lange, 47 

2.  FROEBEL'S  STUDIES  IN  PESTALOZZIANISM  —  BASIS  OP  His  OWN  SYSTEM,    .       49-68 

Froebel's  Letter  to  the  Princess  Sophia  of  Schivarzburg  Rudoldstadt,  1820,  49 
Aim  and  Subject  of  Pestalozzi's  Pedagogy  — Man  in  his  Totality,  .  .  .49. 

The  Child  as  a  Sentient  Being  — The  Book  for  Mothers, 50 

Development  by  the  conscious  inspection  of  Nature  — Senses,     .        .        .        .52 

The  Book  for  Mothers  never  completed  —  Language, 54 

Law  of  Contrasts  and  their  Reconcilement, 55 

Exaltation  into  a  Culture  of  Intelligence  and  Sympathy,      ...        1        .    56 

Discrimination  — Imitation  — Power  of  Rhythm, 57 

Computability  —  Ideas  of  Number  —  Method  with  Objects,          .        .        .        .58 

Form -Elementary  Ideas  — Educative  Influences  of  Play, 59 

Manner  of  handling  Subjects  of  School  Instruction, 61 

Not  by  Books,  but  by  Real  Objects  and  Intuitions, 62 

Teachers  must  be  penetrated  with  the  true  spirit  and  trained,      ....    62 

50  (785) 


i  FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

Assistants— Pupils  in  training  for  teaching ,.,   63 

Organization  of  a  School  of  Eighty  Pupils— Two  Divisions 63 

First  Division  composed  of  Children  under  Eight  Years — Nurture 63 

Second  Division — Lower  and  Upper  Class 03 

Upper  Class— Study  and  Productive  Industries— "technology 64 

Every  Subject  treated  in  Organic  Unity  of  the  Child  and  Pupil.. 65 

Every  Member  of  the  School  must  be  regular  and  punctual 65 

Special  Educational  Aims— Order  and  Progressive  Growth 65 

Possibility  of  Introducing  Pestalozzi's  method  into  Families 66 

Connection  of  Elementary  Instruction  with  higher  Scientific  Culture 07 

8.  LANGE'S  REMIWINISCENSES  OF  FROEBEL 69-80 

Froebel  at  Hamburg  in  184&— Address  to  Women's  Union 69 

What  is  New  in  Froebel's  Aim  and  Method 71 

Fundamental  Ideas  of  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  and  Froebel 72 

Diesterweg's  Adaptation  of  Pe»talozzi's  Views  to  Popular  Schools 73 

Personal  Relations  of  Froebel— Experience  in  Teaching 74 

Development  of  Individual  Men  and  the  Race — Macrocosm  and  Microcosm..  76 

Family  School  at  Griesheim — Institution  at  Keilhau — Marriage    77 

Publication  1819— 1826— Institute  at  Wattensee— F.  Froebel  and  Barop 79 

Girls  School  at  Willisau— Official  Report  of  Berne  Cantonal  Commission 80 

Educational  Institute  for  Orphans,  and  Teacher's  Class  at  Burgdorf 80 

Genesis  of  the  Kindergarten  at  Blankenberg  in  1837 81 

Come  let  us  live  with  our  Children — Kindergarten  in  Dresden  in  1839 81 

4.  THE  KINDERGARTEN — GENESIS,  NAME,  AND  OBJECTS 82-96 

(1)  WINTHUR — Froebel's  First  Announcement  to  Barop  in  1829 82 

Letter  from  Burgdorf  in  1836  to  the  Froebelian  Circle 82 

Inauguration  of  plan  at  Blankenberg  in  1837— Sonntagsblat 83 

Appeal  to  the  Women  of  Germany  at  Guttenberg  Festival  1840 83 

Foundation  of  the  Universal  German  Institution  at  Keilhau 84 

Publication  of  Die  Mutter  und  Koselieder — Pictures,  Play  and  Songs 84 

Explanation  of  Gifts  for  Play — Movement,  Plays,  and  Songs 85 

Intercourse  with  Nature  and  Social  Phenomena 87 

Domestic  Education  improved  by  Kindergarten  Pupils 88 

Women  to  be  trained  as  Mothers  and  Nurses 89 

Organic  Connection  between  the  Kindergarten  and  School 90 

(2)  PAYNE— Froebel's  Interpretation  of  the  Activity  of  Children 91 

Play  the  Natural  Occupation  of  the  Child  in  its  normal*state 92 

Theory  in  Practice— Gifts  for  the  Culture  of  Observation 93 

Objections  to  the  System  Considered 95 

5.  BAROP— CRITICAL  MOMENTS  IN  FROEBEL'S  INSTITUTIONS 97-101 

Financial  Difficulties  in  Keilhau 97 

FroebeJ's  Training  Institute  at  Marienthal— Marriage.     97 

Son  of  a  Prince  taken  into  the  Institution— Visit  to  Switzerland 100 

Difficulties  from  Priestly  Opposition— Interposition  of  PfyfiEer 101 

Meeting  of  the  Cantonal  Teachers  for  three  months  at  Burgdorf !():] 

Origin  of  the  name  Kinderga-rtea 101 

6.  ZEH— OFFICIAL  INSPECTION  AND  COMMENDATION  OF  KEILHAH 103-110 

Disturbance  in  Government  Circles  about  Burchen?chaften 105-110 

Suspicions  of  Barop  in  1824— Withdrawal  of  Children 105 

Froebel's  Faith  in  God  in  the  Darkest  Hour— Pdea  of  Kindergarten 106 

Teachers  reported  in  1824— Testimony  to  their  Fidelity 108 

Unity  of  Life  in  Teachers  and  Pupils— Institutional  Teaching 109 

7  UNITY  OF  LIFE— IDEAL  AND  ACTUAL 111-115 

8  PRUSSIAN  INTERDICT  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN 116 

9.  LAST  DAYS— MARENHOLTZ.  AND  MIDDENDORFF 117-121 

Teacher's  Convention  at  Gotha— Last  Illness— Funeral 117 

10.  COLLECTED  WRITINGS,  BY  DR.  W.  LANGE 125-126 

PREFACE  AND  CONTBNT& 125 

11.  PUBLICATIONS  RELATING  TO  FROEBKL  AND  ins  SYSTEM  ..  127- 123 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  5 

II.    FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM. 

Educational  Views  a«  Expounded.  >>y  JETriends 120-400 

I.      .Villiam  MiddendorJT 129-144 

Memoir  and  Educational  Work 129 

Thoughts  on  the  Kindergarten— Devotion  of  a  Life 142 

II.     Freidrich  Adolpli  \Villielm  Diesterweg 145-160 

Acceptance  and  Advocacy  of  Froebel's  Child-Culture 151 

III.     Bertlia  V.  Marenholtz—Bulow 149-288 

1.  Memorial  of  a  Wonderful  Educational  Mission 145 

2.  PUBLICATIONS  IN  ELUCIDATION  OP  FROEBEL'S  THEORIES 159 

THE  CHILD— NATURE,   AND  NURTURE  ACCORDING  TO  FROEBEL 169 

1.  THE  CHILD  IN  ITS  HELPLESSNESS  AND  INFINITE  CAPACITIES 161-169 

(1)  Relations  to  Nature— Subject  to  her  Laws 162 

(2)  Relations  to  Humanity— The  Individual  share?  the  Destiny  of  the  Race. .    163 

(3)  Relations  to  God— Lives  and  Progress  for  a  Higher  Development 166 

Woman— The  Educator  of  Mankind— Develops  the  Child  in  all  its  Relation? ....  169 

2.  EARLIEST  DEVELOPMENTS  OP  THE  CHILD 170-179 

Physical  Movements— Prompted  by  Necessities  of  its  Being 170 

Exercises  of  the  Limbs— Sense  of  Touch— The  Hand 171 

Shaping  and  Producing— Constructions  in  Sand  and  Clay :  172 

Sense  of  Sound— Cradle  Songs— Rythm— Awakening  of  Feeling 174 

Material  Needs — Gardening — Its  Pleasures 175 

Desire  to  know  why,  whence,  and  wherefore — Comparison 176 

Social  Impulse— The  Basis  of  Moral  Cultivation 177 

Religious  Instinct— Follows  Social  Development 177 

God  through  Nature— Natural  Phenomena  Symbolic 178 

8.    FROEBEL'S  THEORY  OP  EDUCATION  OR  DEVELOPMENT 181-189 

Education  is  Emancipation— Setting  free  bound  up  Forces 181 

Natural  Order,  or  Progress  according  to  Law — Race 18  2 

Pestalozzi's  endeavor  to  discover  and  apply  the  principle 183 

Froebel  claims  to  have  completed  the  method 183 

Chief  Aim  of  Education  is  Moral  Culture 1,86 

All  Instruction  and  Developing  Exercises  should  perfect  the  Soul 184 

Law  of  Opposites  and  their  Reconciliation 187 

Theory  requires  Freedom,  Assistance,  and  Unity 189 

4.  ERRORS  IN  EXISTING  EDUCATION  OP  EARLY  CHILDHOOD 1 90  200 

Physical— Bad  Nursing,  and  Insufficient  Food  and  Exercise ]  90 

Moral— Improper  Surroundings  and  Treatment 191 

Intellectual— Want  of  Direction  and  over  Stimulant 193 

Requisites  for  Healthy  Growth  in  well  directed  Activity 194 

Educative  Uses  of  Playthings  and  Play— Evolution  of  Ideal J06 

Necessary  Force  exists  in  Mother's  Love  if  properly  trained 200 

5.  FROEBEL'S  METHOD  op  DEVELOPMENT 101-218 

Meaning  of  Method— Both  General  and  Special 202 

Object  of  Thought — Perception,  Observation,  Comparison,  Judgment 204 

Comparison  or  Reconciliation  of  Opposites 204 

Pestalozzi's  Fundamental  Law— A.  B.  C.,  Form,  Number,  Language 205 

Differences  between  Education  and  Instruction 206 

Feeling  and  Willing— Good  and  Beautiful— Self  and  Others 206 

Insufficiency  of  Pestalozzi's  Doctrine  of  Form 207 

Law  of  Balance,  universal  and  beneficial 211 

Mystic  side  of  Froebel's  Principles 212 

0.    THE  KINDERGARTEN ..-.219  22ft 

The  Child  World  as  it  appears  to  an  outsider 219 

Movement  Games  with  explanatory  Songs 219 

Occupations — in  playful  work  and  workful  play 220 

Ideal  and  useful  Art — Cabinet  of  Collections  and  Products . .     221 

Choral  melody— affectionate  and  reverential 229 

Kindergarten  work  begins  in  the  Mother's  Lap 223 

Should  be  continued  in  all  girl  schools  and  education 223 


5  FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  WORK. 

Freedom  of  Development — Suitable  Condition 228 

Work  or  Activity  for  Development 223 

Unity  or  Progression— Continuity  of  Development 224 

Hindrances  to  the  Realization  of  the  Kindergarten 255 

f.    THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS 227 

Book  for  Mothers  the  basis  of  Froebel's  System 227 

Its  Philosophy  best  felt  by  Children  and  Mothers 228 

First  Development  goes  on  in  play,  which  must  be  assisted 229 

Examples  given  based  on  the  instincts  of  infancy  230 

8.  EARLIEST  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THB  LIMBS 231-232 

Popular  Nursery  Games  originate  in  the  Motherly  Instinct 231 

Exercises  of  the  Hand,  Fingers,  and  Wrist ...232 

9.  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATION  TO  NATURE 239 

Games  should  deal  with  Natural  Phenomena 233 

The  Weather  Cock— The  Sun-Bird— The  Child  and  the  Moon 284 

Farm  Yard  Gate— Little  Fishes— Bird  Song 337 

10.  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  MANKIND 200 

Mother— Family  Circle  and  Life— Neighborhood 240 

Froebel's  Introduction  to  their  Relationships 241 

Finger  Games— Physical,  Mental,  and  Moral  Uses 242 

First  Impressions  in  Critical  Moments  most  lasting 243 

First  Walk,  Fall,  Fright,  Pain— Game  of  Bopeep— Confidence 244 

Cuckoo  game — Conditions  for  Indulgence — Habits 245 

First  step  to  moral  development — High  expels  the  low 247 

Sense  of  Taste— Germs  of  aesthetic  Culture— Moral  Freedom 249 

Handicrafts  and  other  Industries— Movement  Games 251 

Habitation— Instinct  for— Constructive  Tastes  and  Habits 252 

Value  of  Manual  Labor— Respect  for  the  Laborer 253 

Sense  of  hearing  and  vocal  organs— Voices  of  Nature 254 

Drawing,  ideal  and  productive— Froebel's  Occupations 257 

Foundations  laid  for  social  development  in  family  and  life 259 

11.  THE  CHILD'S  FIRST  RELATIONS  TO  GOD 261-278 

Belief  in  God,  inborn,  intuitive,  and  can  be  developed 261 

First  step  through  the  love  and  trust  in  its  Mother 261 

Choral  Melodies— Gestures,  and  words  of  reverence— Prayer 262 

Personal  Activity  and  Experiences— Symbolic  Interpretations  of  Nature 263 

Froebel's  Mother  Book— Child's  own  Story  and  History  Book 269 

Inner  conscious  life  not  possible  with  children 275 

Pictorial  Representations  deepen  Impressions 271 

Christ  as  a  Divine  Child— God  manifest  in  Man  275 

Church  services  for  Children— Analogies  in  Nature 277 

Early  Education  must  be  based  on  religion 278 

12.  SUMMARY  VIEW  OP  FROEBEL'S  PRINCIPLES.  279-280 

Education  begins  and  ends  with  Life 279 

Follows  natural  laws,  and  must  be  guided  by  intelligence  and  love 279 

Mothers  and  Kindergartners  must  be  trained 280 

SUPPLEMENT  TO  CHILD'S  RELATIONS  TO  GOD 281-288 

Child  Life  in  Christ.  By  Rev.  Stopford  Brooke 281 

IV.  Congress  of  Philosophers  at  Frankfort,  in  1869 289-336 

Problem  of  Popular  Education  in  Pedagogical  Section, 289 

REPORT  op  PROP.  J.  W.  FICHTE,  EMBODYING  CONCLUSIONS 291 

1.  Education  the  Problem  of  the  Age V91 

2.  Philosophical  Systems  in  the  Educational  Problem 295 

Fundamental  Principles  of  Herbart  and  Beneke  examined 295 

8.  Pschological  Basis  of  Modern  Pedagogy 305 

4.  Axioms  of  All  Christian  Pedagogy 312 

6.  Pestalozzianism  the  basis  of  National  Systems 318 

6.  Froebel's  additions  to  Pestalozzi  solve  the  Problem 322 

7.  Education  of  Childhood  according  to  Froebel 327 

a  Day  Nurseries  for  Neglected  Children 333 


FROEBEI/S  EDUCATIONAL  WORK.  7 

V.  International  Congress  of  Education  at  Brussels,  in  IS  SO 337-400 

PAPERS  ON  THE  VALUE,  AND  FCRTHER  EXTENSION  OP  FROEBEI/S  VIEWS U51 

i.  FISCHER— PRESIDENT  OF  FROEBEL  SOCIETY  IN  ^"IENNA 339-302 

Grounds  on  which  Froebel's  system  is  assailed,  examined 33» 

Kindergarten  should  prepare  for  school 349 

Kindergartners  should  have  a  special  training 3-17 

8.  GUIIUAUME— MEMBER  OF  BELGIAN  EDUCATIONAL  LEAGUE 353-3GS 

Froebel's  system  extends  beyond  the  Kindergarten  age  and  culture 353 

Cardinal  idea  of  his  Education  of  Man— Force  in  Nature 355 

Extension  of  the  Gifts  and  Occupations  into  the  School  period  necessary 358 

Letters  to  Emma  Bothman  in  1852 — Kindergarten  and  School 362 

Language — How  Lina  learns  to  write  and  read — Excursions 3C4 

Number— Form  and  Dimension— Material  for  Intermediate  Class 365 

III.    THE  KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD  CULTURE. 
Progressive  Improvement  of  ZVIan. vials  arid.  ^Methods.'. 3R9-450 

1.    A-B-C  BOOKS  AND  PRIMERS 309-378 

Persian— Chinese— Greek— Latin  A-B-C 369 

Primer— Catholic  and  Protestant 373 

English  Primer  of  Henry  VIII— Horn  Book  illustrated 373 

S     A  GUIDE  FOR  THE  CHILD  AND  YOUTH 375 

RULES  FOR  THE  BEHAVIOR 

Part  One— Alphabet,  Prayers,  Graces  and  Instructions 375 

Symbolic  Alphabet.    In  Adam's  Fall,  &c 370 

Rules  for  Behavior  at  Home,  School  and  Church 378 

Modifications  in  New  England  Primer  enlarged 379 

8.    THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PRIMER  WITH  SHORTER  CATECHISM  379-100 

Historical  Data— Webster's  Reprint  in  1S44  of  Edition  of  177-7 379 

Illustrations— John  Hancock— Adam's  Fall— Mr.  John  Rogers  at  the  Stake...  381 
Infant  Songs  and  Prayers — Letters.large  and  small — Syllables. short  and  long..  382 

Who  was  the  first  Man  ?— Lessons  for  Youth— Commandments— Creed 3?fi 

Mr.  John  Rogers'  Advice  to  his  Children 388 

Shorter  Catechism  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines 390 

Mr.  John  Cotton— Spiritual  Milk  for  American  Babes 396 

Dialogue  between  Christ,  Youth,  and  the  Devil 39S 

4.  THE  PETTY  SCHOOLS.    BY  C.  H.,  1659 401-41-1 

How  to  teach  little  children  to  say  their  letters,  to  spell,  and  to  read 402 

How  children  who  don't  study  Latin  may  be  employed 408 

Hints  for  providing  a  Petty  School,  and  its  daily  and  weekly  routine 410 

5.  THE  ENGLISH  SCHOOLMASTER.    BY  EDWARD  COOTE 414 

Title  Page— The  Schoolmaster's  Cautions 414 

6.  ORBIS  SENSUALIUM  PICTUS 415 

Janua  Linguarum  of  W.  Batens  in  1615  415 

Jfcnua  Reserata  of  Comenius  in  1631 415 

English  Edition  by  Charles  Hoole  in  165S 415 

Encyclopedia  of  things  subject  to  Senses 415 

Woodward's  Gate  of  Sciences,  165S 41<; 

1     THE  GERMAN  TEACHER'S  PATH  FINDER— BY  PIESTERWEG 417-4.W 

Dr.  Busse — Intuitional,  or  Object  Teaching  in  1873 417 

(1)  Aims  and  Methods — Teaching  by  Inspection  or  Intuition 417 

Historical  Development  from  Bacon  to  Diesterweg 421 

Different  kinds  of  Intuitions  for  Object  Teaching 430 

(2)  The  Method  and  its  Rules 433 

Actual  Inspection  of  real  material— and  doing 433 

E:vsy  to  difficult — Simple  to  complex — Concrete  to  abstract 434 

Instruction  according  to  Material,  and  Individual  Child 434 

Use  of  Poetry  and  Conversation 435 

(S)    Best  Guides  and  Aids  for  Observation,  Thinking,  and  Language 43E 


S  KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD  CULTURE. 

Kindergarten  ^Worlc  in  Different  Countries 451-738 

L    MADAME  HENRIETTA  BREYMANN  SCHRADER 451 

Froebelian  Institute  in  Berlin 453  _ 

II.    MADAME  DE  PORTUGALL— GENEVA 473-480 

Value  and  Extension  of  the  Kindergarten  Principle..., 473 

III.  THE  CRECHE.  AND  CHILD  CULTURE  IN  FRANCE 481-488 

Day  Nurseries— Infant  A  sylums— Training  Institute 481 

IV.  KINDERGARTEN  AND  CHILD  CULTURE  IN  BELGIUM 489-512 

1.  PUBLIC  KINDERGARTENS  IN  BRUSSELS 49-2 

2.  INTUITIONAL  TEACHING  IN  MODEL  SCHOOL 497 

V.    RECENT  KINDERGARTEN  PUBLICATIONS  IN  ENGLAND 513-528 

1.  HINDRANCES  AND  ENCOURAGEMENTS  IN  KINDERGARTEN  WORK 513 

2.  USE  or  NATURAL  AND  HOUSEHOLD  PHENOMENA 523 

3.  RELATIONS  or  KINDERGARTEN  TO  INFANT  SCHOOLS 526 

VI.    KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  UNITED  STATES 529-736 

A.  EXAMPLES  OF  TRAINING  INSTITUTES  AND  KINDERGARTENS 535 

1.  BOSTON  TRAINING  CLASS  AND  KINDERGARTEN 535 

2.  MRS.  MARIA  BOELTE-KRAUS.— REMINISCENCES  OF  KINDERGARTEN  WORKS.. .539 

New  York  Training  Institute  and  Kindergarten 537.—. 

3.  EXPERIENCE  OF  NEW  YORK  FEMALE  COLLEGE 557 

B.  PAPERS  IN  ELUCIDATION  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM 561-736 

1.    FROEBEL'S  PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  IN  THE  NURSERY.    Miss  Peabody  M1-5H 

Helplessness  of  Infancy— Getting  Possession  of  its  Organization 561 

Froebel's  Use  of  the  Natural  Instincts— Uses  of  the  Ball 566 

9.  THE  MOTHER  PLAY  AND  NURSERY  SONGS.  Miss  Susan  E.  Blow 575-594 

Unity  of  Human  Life— Germs  of  all  Faculties 578 

8.  SOME  ASPECTS  or  THE  KINDERGARTEN.  Miss  Susan  E.  Slow 595-616 

Froebel's  De'aling  with  Natural  Phenomena 595 

Daily  Talks— Doing  and  Expressing— Occupations 601 

Laws  of  Intuitional  Teaching 607 

4.  FROEBEL'S  PRINCIPLES  IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.    Miss  Peabody 6i7-624 

Quality  of  Education  to  be  considered— Special  Training 617 

6.    KINDERGARTENS  THE  FIRST  GRADE  IN  CITY  SYSTEM.    W.  T.  Harris 625-642 

Conditions  Precedent— Ideal  Kindergartens 625 

General  and  Special  Disciplines — Transition  from  Home  to  School 629 

Relation  to  Trades— Moral  Discipline— Education  of  Play 631 

Practical  Conditions  Necessary  to  Success 639 

8.    KINDERGARTEN  METHODS  IN  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS.    Mrs.  Louise  Pollock. .  .643-653 

Lecture  to  the  Public  School  Teachers  of  Washington 643 

t.    THE  PUBLIC  AND  CHARITY  KINDERGARTEN.    Miss  Peabody 651-653 

Miss  Quincy's  Shaw  in  Boston— Miss  Blow  in  St.  Louis 651 

8.  INFLUENCE  OF  KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING  ON  HOMES.    Mrs.  H.  Mann..  .654-604 

Homes  of  the  extreme  Poor — New  Element  of  Sweetness  and  Light 658 

9.  KINDERGARTEN  WORK  IN  CALIFORNIA 665-672 

Mtss  Marwed el— Young  Women's  Christian  Association 665 

Silver  Street  Kindergarten— Kindergarten  Workers 668 

10.    KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING  FOR  ARTIST  AND  ARTISAN.    Miss  Peabody. . .  .673-678 

A  Primary  Art-School—Play  converted  into  Habits 673 

Special  Training  in  the  Kindergarten 676 

11.  Clay  Modeling  for  Home  and  Kindergarten.    Edwin  A.  Spring .679-685 

12.  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  AND  WORKINGMAN'S  SCHOOL,    f'elix  Adler..  ..636-690 

13.  USE  OF  COLORS  IN  TEACHING  MUSICAL  NOTATION.    D.  Batchelor 691-704 

14.  FREE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  CHURCH  WORK,    R.Heber  Newton 705-730 

15.  KINDERGARTEN-  FOR  NEGLECTED  CHILDREN 731-736 

Barnard's  Kindergarten  Papers,  Hartford,  Ct.,  736  pages,  will  be  sent  by  mail  on 

receipt  of  $3.50 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 

[AMERICAN  FROEBEL  UNION  EDITION:! 


A-B-C  Books,  and  Alphabet  Teaching,  371,  402. 
A-B-C  of  Perception,  Pestalozzi,  205,  323,  360. 
A-B-C  illustrated  in  New  England  Primer,  383. 

How  taught  in  Hoole's  1'etty  Schoolc,  402,  404. 

Dice  and  Picture?,  Trencher  and  Wheel,  403. 
Abel,  Curl,  law  of  opposites,  601. 
Abstract  and  concrete,  501. 
Activity,  Instinct  for,  70,  170,  218,  619. 

Pleasurable,  is  play.  639. 

Regulated  for  a  result,  224,  533, 619. 

Law  of  Human  Development.  223,  639. 
Adler.  Kindergarten  Work,  668,  687. 

Free  Kindergarten  in  N.  S.,  687. 

Worklngman's  schools,  689. 
Action,  or  doing.  224. 
Admission  to  Kindergarten,  494. 
Adolf,  Henry,  Benefactor  of  Hamburg,  8. 
Advanced  class  in  Kindergarten,  470,' 552,  560. 
Aesthic  Intuitions,  Nature  of,  512. 

Earliest  germs  can  be  cultivated,  249. 
Aldrich,  Mrs.  A.,  Visit  to  Berlin  Kindergarten,  465. 

Mrs.  Schroder's  Work  in  Berlin,  451. 
Allegories,  use  in  Education,  486. 
Allen,  Nathaniel  T.,  650. 

Kindergarten  in  Family  School  in  1864,  650. 
Allston.  Washington,  Picture  of  Uriel,  573. 
Alphabet  and  Spelling,  how  taught,  Hoole,  401-404. 
American  Froebel  Union,  15. 
American  Journal  of  Education,  3,  75. 
Amusement,  the  law  of  the  nurseiy,  677. 
Analogies  of  tone  and  color,  257,  692. 

Material  and  spiritual  things,  238,  277,  604. 
Angelic  feature  in  human  nature,  637,  712.         [497 
Anschauungsunterricht.  teaching  by  intuition,  417, 
Antagonism— School  and  Kinder°:arten,353,468, 
Anthon  Memorial  Church  Kindergarten,  729. 
Antithesis,  or  Doctrine  of  Opposite?,  602,  636. 
Aphorisms  on  early  training.  737,  759. 
Appetites,  to  be  regulated,  not  extinguished,  250. 
Approbation,  Love  of,  in  children.  24S,  587. 
Architecture  and  equipment  of  Kindergarten,  492. 
Armstroff,  W.,  Object  teaching— its  history,  444. 
Aristotle,  on  early  culture  of  children,  740,  761. 

Man— educated  and  uneducated,  637. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  cited,  707. 
Art,  in  its  general  sense,  621, 752. 
Art,  High,  is  always  simple,  673. 
Art  Education,  Kindergarten  the  first  step.  673,  631. 
Artist  and  Artisan,  Cardinal  Wiseman,  673,  684. 
Artistic,  applied  to  industry,  255.  678. 
Art  and  Philosophy,  Froebel's  choice  between,  35. 
Arts  and  Trades,  in  schools  as  they  are,  631,  687. 

All  Froebel's  games  develope  some  aptitude, 630. 
Associations,  for  educational  purposes,  243. 

Families  for  child  culture,  243.530. 
Astronomy,  in  intuitive  teaching,  ."M)4 
Asylums  for  dependent  children,  485,  566,  712. 

Historical  Development,  485. 

General  aspect  of  inmates,  566. 
Assistants,  514,  641,  723. 
Attractive,  how  school  can  be  made,  509,  658. 
Attendance  at  Kindergarten— half  time,  494,  641. 
Attention,  power  and  Jiabit  of,  635. 
Atherton,  H.  B.,  Kindergarten  in  Nashua,  12. 
Autobiography.  Froehel's  letter,  21-48. 

Mrs.  Kraus-Boplte,  537-550. 
Axioms  of  Christian  Pedagogy,  Fichte,  313. 


Bacon,  F., father  of  realism  and  real  schools,  421, 49a 

Essay  on  Education,  and  Influence,  761. 
Babes,  American,  Cotton's  Spiritual  milk  for,  396. 

German  Kindergarten  treatment,  465. 
Bn by-flaps  in  Kindergarten,  468. 
Balance,  Froebel's  law  of,  187,  211. 
Ball  in  Froebel's  Gilts,  358.  567.  571. 

Red  and  the  Cube,  358,  567,  604.  570. 
Barnard.  Henry,  Letter  to  Miss  JValxxly,  3. 

Educational  Publications.  List,  7(M. 

Kindergarten  and  Child  Culture  1'apers.  3,  791. 
Barop,  Arnold,  educational  labors,  18,79,  97. 

Experience  in  Switzerland.  97,  104, 
Basedow,  Normal  School  at  Dessau,  423,  424.  701. 

Plates  of  Elementary  book,  by  Chodowiccki,  423 

Von  Rochow,  Salzman,  and  Campe,  followers  ,423. 
Batchellor,  D.,  Colors  in  teaching  music,  16,  692. 

Analogies  of  Tone  and  Color,  692. 
Beauty,  and  beautiful  denned,  210.  752. 

Composed  of  form,  color,  sound,  etc.,  210. 

In  nature  and  art,  sense  of.  752. 
Belgium, — Infant  school.  Gardiermes,  489. 

League,  or  institute  of  Instruction,  337. 

Kindergarten  Work,  489,  761 

Marenholtz-Bolow's  Kindergarten  work.  489. 
Beneke.  F.  E.,  principles  of  education.  300,  761. 
Berlin,  Kindergarten,  Mrs.  Schrader,  451-468. 

Teachers1  convention,  289. 
Berry  and  Michaelis— K.  songs  and  games.  765. 
Bibliography  of  Kindergarten,  127,  157,  785. 
Birds1  Nest,  237,  680. 

Blankenburg,  FroebeFs  Kindergarten,  47,  83,  754. 
Blow,  Miss  Susan  E.,  Kind,  in  St.  Louis.  11, 641. 

Mother  play  and  nursery  songs,  575-594. 

Some  aspects  of  the  Kindergarten,  595-616. 
Blue,  in  color  and  music,  696. 
Body,  and  its  health,  231.  314. 

Object  of  study— Pestalozzi.  51. 
Boelte,  Maria  Kraus.  10,  15,  551. 

Recollections  of  Kindergarten  work,  537. 
Boileau,  cited,  509. 

Bo-peep.  Game  of,  moral  significance,  244. 
Borschitzky,  J.  F.,  Songs  for  Kinder.,  543,  765. 
Boston  Normal  Kindergarten.  559. 
Botany,  Froebers  partiality,  212,  367,524. 

Pestalozzi's  use,  59. 

Bothman,  Emma,  Froebers  letter  to.  362. 
Bradley,  Milton,  Kindergarten  material,  14,  775. 
Breymann,  Henrietta,  Mrs.  Schrader, 451. 
Brooke,  Stopford,  Child-life  in  Christ,  281. 
Brown,  T.,  Philosophy,  cited.  564. 
Browning,  Mrs.  E.  B.,  cited.  583,  733. 
Brus«el?,  Public  Kindergartens,  491-496. 

International  Congress  of  Education,  337. 
Bnilclins.  Infant's  first  efforts  in,  173. 
Buildings  and  Equipment  for  Kindergarten,  455. 

Proo-ler's  Report.  769. 

Bradley'*  and  Steiger'e  List,  775. 
Bnisson.'  cited.  497 

Buls.  C.,  Report  on  public  Kindergartens,  491. 
Burdach's  theory  of  child-life.  230. 
Bnrgclorf.  Froebel's  course  for  teachers.  80. 
Burschenschaften.  Unpopularity  attached  to  Keil 
Bushnell.  H.,  Christian  nurture.  709.  737.  [hail,  97 

Importance  of  the  earliest  impressions.  738. 
Busse,  F.,  Intuitional  or  object  teaching,  417-50. 

791 


792 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 


California,  Kindergarten  work,  665,  731. 

Miss  Marwedel,  Los  Angeles,  Oakland,  S.  F.,  665. 

Young  Woman's  Christian  Association,  666. 

Jackson's  street  Kindergarten,  667. 

Silver  Street  Kindergarten,  667. 

Little  Sisters'  Kindergarten,  666. 

Teacher's  trials  and  troubles,  Miss  Smith,  6(58. 

Mrs.  Cooper— Miss  K.  D.  Smith,  670,  731. 
Calisthenics,   early  application,  623,  710,  713. 
Campe,  Assistant  of  Basedow,  423.  [751. 

Carlyle's  translation  of  Goethe  on  Reverence,  747, 
Carpenter,  Significance  of  Froebel'sgamc,  252. 
Carpentier,  Maria,  488. 
Carr,  Ezra  C.,  785. 
Oisper  Hauser,  cited,  199. 
Catechism,  Shorter,  of  Westminster  Divines,  390. 

Influence  on  George  Combe.  663. 
Chodowiccki,  Engraver  of  Basedow's  plates,  423. 
Channing,  W.  E.,  745,  752,  762. 

Filial  respect  and  obedience,  741. 
Character,  included  in  education,  183,  312,  712,  717. 
Charity  Kindergartens,  Influence  on  homes,  72, 651, 

Berlin,  Mrs.  Schrader,  452,  456.  [654. 

Boston,  Mrs.  Shaw,  652. 

California,  665,  731,  734. 

Cincinnati,  734. 

Philadelphia,  652,  735. 

St.  Louis,  651. 

New  York,  687,  730. 

Chauncy  Hall  Kindergarten,  Miss  Wheelock,  21. 
Chemistry,  505. 

Child  Culture,  Papers  on,  3,  737,  761. 
Child,  The,  161,  281,  308, 417,  500,  562. 
Child — its  natur*and  nurture,  Froebel's  ideas,  161- 

Marenholz-Bulow's  Elucidation,  160,  161.       [280. 

Relations  to  nature,  162,  232. 

Relations  to  humanity,  163,  240,6,8. 

Relat'ons  to  God,  166,  261,  281. 
Child-Garden,  712,  725. 
Child-Life  in  Christ— Brooke,  281. 

Faith— Hope— Love,  283. 
Child's  Paradise,  14,  638,763. 
Child's  songs  and  poetry,  288,  340,  724. 
Child's  taking  possession  of  itself,  564. 

Learning  to  walk,  565. 
Child  Life,  Burdach's  theory,  230. 
Children,  the  poor  and  neglected,  651,669, 705, 733. 

At  play — meaning  of,  91. 
Christ,  a  Divine  Child,  Froebers  idea,  275. 
Christ,  Youth,  and  Devil,  Conversation,  398. 
Christ,  the  World's  teacher.  561,  575. 
Christianity  in  education,  281,  313.  705,767. 
Christie,  Alice  M..  Translator  of  Tlie  Child,  161. 
Christmas  tree  and  presents,  Froebers  use,  265, 275. 

Kraus-Boelte,  549,  554,  549. 
Church  doors,  and  window,  Froebel's  game,  273. 
Church  work.  639,  705. 
Cicero,  Thoughts  on  early  training,  741. 
City  life  for  children.  535,"  711. 
Clap,  ITathaniel,  Advice  to  children,  400, 
Claasen,  Guide  to  infant  gardens,  8. 
Cleanliness,  in  children,  difliculties  with,  689. 
Cleanliness  and  physical  care,  596,  659,  717. 
Coal-diggers,  Froebel's  game,  253. 
Co-education  of  sexes,  555. 
Colored  balls,  Froebel's,  508. 
Color-blindness,  574. 
Colored  children,  Kindergarten  for,  735. 
Colors  in  teaching  music.  16,  257. 

Batchellor,  use  of,  16,  603 
Combe,  George.  Early  Childhood.  662 

Relations  of  Relis-ion  to  Science.  662. 
Come,  let  us  live  with  our  Ch  Idren,  SI.  226. 
Comenius,  Amos,  Method.  420,  422,  498. 

Things,  not  words— Nature,  not  Picture,  422. 
Comparison.  Habit  of.  176. 
Common  Schools,  533.  534. 

Common  Sense.  Intuitive  judgment  of  affairs  523. 
Composition,  ^xercises  in'obiect  teaching.  433. 
Concentration  and  religious  devotion,  271. 


Conception  and  perception,  418. 

Usually  imperfect,  420. 

Concrete  to  Abstract,  Individual  to  general,  -134 
Conduct,  Motives  to  good,  713  762. 

Result  of  right  early  training,  707. 
Conferences  of  Kindergartneri-,  560. 
Congress  of  Education,  International,  337. 
Congress  of  Philosophers,  289. 

Fichte's  report  of  action,  291.  [OJG 

Connections  and  dependences,  Froebel's  uses,  f,9v 
Conclusion,  several  conceptions,  301. 
Conscience  illustrated  by  cuckoo  game,  584,  585. 
Consciousness,  Beneke,  300. 

Froebel,  615. 

Herbert,  295. 

Fichte,  312,  323. 

Construction,  Child's  efforts  in,  172,  506. 
Construction  and  Equipment,  769. 
Continuity  of  development,  225. 
Contrasts,  Froebel's  illustrations,  359,  003. 

Pestalozzi's  recognition,  55. 
Conversational  method,  Pestalozzi,  440. 

Marcel's  method,  reference,  507. 
Conversation,  for  language  purpose,  426,  471, 

Developed  in  object  teaching,  433-450. 

Ehrlich,  Exercises  for,  439. 
Conversion  and  nurture,  729. 
Cooper,  Mrs.  S.  B.,  Kindergarten  Work,  731. 
Cooperation  of  parents  and  teachers,  551. 
Cotton,  John,  first  Minister  of  Boston,  390. 

Spiritual  milk  for  American  babes,  396. 
Counting.  Game  to  facilitate  learning,  571,  742. 
Cradle-School,  482,  485. 
Creative  and  artistic  faculty  in  children.  676. 
Creche,  or  day -nurseries,  332,  481,  492. 
Cram,  and  doing,  427. 
Crime,  Causes  and  prevention,  762. 
Crying,  741. 
Crystalization,  356. 
Cuckoo  game,  Froebel's,  587. 
Curiosity  to  know,  175,  427. 
Currie,  James*,  early  culture,  762,  785. 
Cutting  paper,  613. 
Cube  and  the  ball.  358. 
Culture,  capacity  for,  295,  314. 
Cylinder,  858,  360. 

Daily  Routine,  Kindergarten,  219,  339,  468,494,  88$. 
Dambeck,  C.,  Guide  to  object  teaching,  445. 
Dame  Schools,  and  school  ma'am,  752. 
Day  nurseries,  Mrs.  ghaw's,  332,  468.  481. 
Debts,  Inconvenience  of.  Froebel's,  33.  97. 
Defects,  in  existing  popular  education,  339,533, 61? 

In  Kindergartens,  340,  545. 
Demon  of  Socrates,  627. 
Definition  without  intuition,  321. 
Delhez.  C..  gymnastics  for  the  senses.  502. 
Denominational  schools  and  public  schools,  705. 
Denzel,  Religious  and  material  instruction,  440. 
Desire  and  will,  296. 
Dessau,  Basedow's  normal  school  at,  423. 
Development  defined,  181,  223,  314. 

Froebel's  Law,  181,  616. 

Unity,  Freedom,  and  Work,  224. 
Devotional  exercises,  in  school,  412. 

Kindergarten,  276. 

Dice  method,  in  teaching  alphabet,  403. 
Diesterweg,  A.,  Intuitions  in  object  teaching,  51". 
Diesterweg,  memoir,  145. 

Contents  of  Guide  for  Ger.  Teachers,  147. 

Services  and  estimate  of  Frrehcl,  148. 

Characteristic*  of  Middendorf.  135. 
Difficulties  in  Kindergarten  work,  514. 
Dimension  and  form.  365. 
Director  of  Kindergarten.  641. 
Discipline  in  Petty  School,  of  1659,  411. 

Kindergarten,  672. 

Discouragements  in  Kindergarten  work,  513. 
Dogmatic  teaching.  510. 
Doing  and  learning,  learning  by  doing,  99, 259, 3K 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 


793 


nomePtte  life  and  economy,  88,  453,  523.  527. 

.-'iiuauiu  iur  traiuing  Kiudergartuers,  454,  537. 
Drawing,  363,  629. 

Froebel's  method  of  linear,  344,  506. 
Dramatic  performances,  470,  569.         [479,  596,  684. 
Dresden,  Frankenburg's  Kindergarten  in  1839,  47. 

Training  institute,  9. 

Drunkenness,  and  bad  physical  conditions,  350,  715. 
Duncan,  Mrs.,  Green  Pastures,  288. 
Duty,  and  right,  reciprocal,  316. 

Ear,  aud  hearing.  562.    How  trained,  257,  442,  700. 
Early  childhood,  Errors  in  education,  190. 
Early  English  school  books,  375,  377. 
Early  impressions,  most  lasting,  737. 

Should  be  right,  and  conduce  to  development,  279. 
Early  training,  authorities  on,  737-752,  761. 


Montaigne,  744,  763. 
Lyschinska,  448,  525. 
Newton,  705, 
Peabody,  617.  766. 
Pestalozzi,  49,  319,  763. 
Plutarch.  739,  764. 
Plato,  709,  740,  7ri4. 
Quintilian,  743.  764 
Ratich,  421,  764. 
Rousseau,  423,  741,  764. 
Socrates,  739. 
Schrader,  451. 


Aristotle,  740,  761. 

Bacon,  421,  761. 

Bushnell,  737. 

Cicero,  741. 

Combe,  662. 

Comenius,  422,  742, 762. 

Froebel,  201,  765. 

Franke,  422,  462. 

Goethe,  747,  762. 

Locke,  423,  763. 

Luther,  420,  743. 

Marenholtz,  161. 

Moscherosch,  742. 
Easy,  to  difficult,  434. 

Eating,  Childrens'  habits,  to  be  regulated,  249,  564. 
Education  of  man, Contents  of  Froebel's  treatise, 125. 
Eudcation  and  instruction,  difference,  183,  207. 
Education,  denned  and  described,  297. 
Education  and  a  republic,  293,  533.  617. 
Educational  Activity,  functions,  297. 
Educational  function  of  play,  330,  577,  639. 
Ehrlich,  C.  G.,  Exercises  in'language,  439. 
Eighth  Gift,  361. 
Eliot,  George,  cited,  716. 
Emancipation  of  natural  forces,  181,  355. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  cited,  561,  604,  718. 
Em  tional  nature,  625,  692. 
Encouragements  and  rewards,  583. 
Encouragements  in  Kindergarten  work,  518. 
End.  aim  and  struggle  for  an,  37,  122. 
England,  Kindergarten  work,  513. 
Epochs  in  education  of  human  being,  49,  625. 

Infancy,  or  age  of  Impressions,  nurture,  625.  737. 

Youth,  school  period,  625. 

Apprenticeship  to  a  vocation,  631. 

Citizenship,  Occupation,  634. 

Church,  and  relations  to  a  future,  625,  705. 
Equipment  for  Kindergarten  work,  775. 
Equality,  292,  313,  691. 

Erasmus,  Learning  natural  to  children,  405. 
Errors  in  existing  education  of  early  childhood,  190. 

Physical — ignorant  nursing,  bad  air  and  food,  190. 

Moral — bad  surroundings  and  treatment,  185, 191. 

Intellectual— neglect  ot  direction,  etc.,  193. 

Requisites  for  correcting  errors,  etc.,  194. 
Evil,  the  problem  of,  619,  662. 
Exchange  and  fusion,  reconcilement  of  opp  .213. 
Excursions  of  pupils  with  teachers, 39, 458, 462, 549. 
Expense  of  Kindergarten  instruction,  473,  640. 

Unnecessary  toys,  16,  85,  741. 
Experience,  lessons  from,  247,  577. 
Expulsive  power  of  higher  tastes,  249.  [563. 

Eye,  Education  by  color,  form,  position,  etc.,  441, 

Froebel's  process,  622. 

Facts,  not  words — Goethe,  428. 
Fables,  use  in  moral  instruction.  449. 
Faculties,  Development  of,  not  cram,  181. 
Faith,  Children's  in  mother,  233,  661. 

Faith  in  God.  2<S4,  566,  615. 

Froehel's,  in  his  mission,  97,  122,  144. 
Fall,  or  oriirinal  sin.  315. 
Fall,  a  child's  first,  243. 


Family,  a  divine  institution,  124,  654. 

Pestalozzi's  use  of,  53-60,  523. 
Family  associations,  243. 

Gallaudet's  suggestion,  530. 
Family  egotism,  and  general  benevolence,  214. 
Failures  made  instructive.  681. 
Family  life  for  young  females  away  from  home,  335, 

Training  for,  and  in,  537,  625. 
Family  life  with  morally  exposed  children,  731. 
Farm  life,  for  neglected  city  children,  481. 
Farm-yard  gate,  Froebel's  game  of,  23(1. 
Faults  of  children,  sympathy  with,  245. 
Fear,  in  school  or  family  government,  247,  549. 

Associated  with  reverence,  748. 
Feeling  defined.  302. 

Feeling  and  willing  right  is  morality,  119,  676. 
Female  education,  83, 134,  762. 
Feudalism,  292. 
Fichte,  J.  G.  v.  Report  for  Cong,  of  Philos.,  291. 

A-B-C  of  Perception,  325,  837. 
Fifth  Gift,  756,  776. 
Finger-games,  Froebel's.  242. 
Finger  piano  forte,  Froebel's  game,  255. 
Fishes,  Froebel's  game  of  the  little,  237. 
First  gift,  Froebel's,  explained,  85,  95.  570,  755. 
First  impressions,  a  child's,  279,  575,  708,  787. 

Fault  or  fall,  243,  315. 

Notice  by  others,  248. 

Reverence  for  God,  747. 
Fischer,  A.  S.,  at  Brussels  Congress,  339. 

Further  development  of  Froebel's  system,  339. 

On  Ball,  Cube,  and  Cylinder,  358. 
Fitting,  Froebel's  methods  to  their  end,  519. 
Florence,  Mass.,  Hill's  Kindergarten,  465. 
Folding  material  and  method.  351,  613. 
Food,  furnished  to  charitv  Kindergartens, 554, 661 
Foot  excursions,  Froebel's  practice  with  pupili?,39. 

Madame  Schrader,  462. 
Force,  in  Froebel's  system,  355,  609. 
Foresters  life,  Froebel's  choice.  31. 
Forgiveness,  Prayer  for,  *63,  313. 
Form,  Pestalozzfs  doctrine,  59,  205. 

Froebel's  modification,  207. 
Formation  of  Character,  183,  312,  712. 
Foundling  Asylums,  appearance  of  children,  566. 
Fourth  Gift,  756,  776. 

Frankfort,  Congress  of  Philosophers,  289. 
Frankenburg,  Kindergarten  in  Dresden  in  1839, 47. 
Free  Kindergarten,  687. 
Freedom  of  Development,  233,  757. 
Froebel's  principles  and  system  of  education,  279. 
Franke,  cited,  422,  762. 
Froebel,  Christian  Ludwig,  15,  113. 
Froebel,  Ferdinand,  first  pupil  of  Frejdrich,  79, 100. 
Froebel,  Karl.  96,  785. 
Froebel,  Friedrich  August,  Portrait,  1. 

Autobiography.Letter  to  Duke  of  Meiningen,  21. 

Principal  events  in  personal  history,  15.  - 

Religious  views  and  character,  29,  118,  723. 

Lange's  reminiscences  and  comments,  69. 

Mother  play,  and  nursery  songs,  84,  575. 

Education  of  man,  354-360. 

Educational  views,  by  Marenholtz-Bulow,  161. 

Collected  writings.  Contents,  125. 

As  embodied  in  publications  of  his  own,  125. 

Elucidated  by  assistants  and  disciples,  127,  159 

Applii-able  to  children  of  all  races  and  places,  73. 

Fundamental  training  of  artist  and  artizan,  673. 

Identity  and  difference,  in  Pestalozzi,  72. 

Resemblances  with  Rousseau  &  Diesterweg,  73. 

Modifications  of  Fichte,  73. 

Uses  of  natural  and  social  phenomena,  528. 

Mystic  side  of  philosophy,  218. 

Vehemence  of  manner,  93, 100,  115. 
Froebelian  circle,  events  in,  15. 

Literature,  13, 127,  159.  785. 

Steiger's  list,  on  sale,  785. 
Fiihr.  and  Ortman,  object  teaching,  447. 
Fundamental  Impulses.  307. 
Fusion,  taking  in  and  giving  out,  213. 


794 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 


Gallaudet,  Thomas  H.,  5-29,  531,  762. 
Plan  of  Infant  School  in  1828,  529.  [532 

Suggestions  on  model  primary  schools  in  1838 
Madame  Schrader's  views,  453. 
Garden,  or  Open  Space,  41,  596,  7*i9. 
Garden  and  gardening  for  children,  174,  524,  618. 

Actual  experience,  538. 
Garderies  in  France,  482. 
Gardieunes  in  Belgium,  489. 
Garland,  Miss,  law  of  contrasts,  15. 

Boston  Training  Kindergarten,  559. 
Games,  Froebel's,  assist  natural  laws,  231,  279.  — 
Finger,  242;  Hand,  241:  Movement,  566;  Church 
door,  273;  Coal  diggers,  253;    Cuckoo,  245, 
584;   Carpenter,  252;    Farm-yard,  236;    Bo- 
peep,  244;   Fishes,  237;  Market,  254;    Pat- 
ty-cake, 592;    Riders.   248;    Sun-bird,    231; 
Weather-cock,  233,  580. 
Games  of  the  hand,  initiate  trades,  593. 
Games  of  the  finger  facilitate  artistic  work,  212. 
General  Discipline,  628. 
Genius,  or  individuality,  299-309,  417,  558. 
German  Pedagogy,  319. 
Genesis  of  the  Kindergarten,  82,  91, 114. 
German  Kindergarten,  Mrs.  Schrader,  445. 
Aldrich,  Account  of  visit  to,  465. 
Lyschinska,  Principles,  459. 
German  Teachers'  General  Assembly,  48. 
Gesture,  significance  of,  263,  595,  747. 
Geography,  rudimental  ideas,  503,  690. 

Froebel's  plan,  39. 

Geography  and  history,  associated,  690. 
Geological  Facts,  505. 
Geometry,  349,  506,  611. 

Gifti^Jn  Froebel's  system,  play  not  work,  674. 
-"-Classification  and  Combination,  85.  94,  630. 

Illustrated,  and  described,  754.  775. 
God,  Child's  first  relations  to  166,  261. 
Reverence  to  be  cultivated,  285, 747. 
Knowledge  through  his  works,  664,  757. 
Moral  government,  how  taught,  663. 
Oneness  with,  328,  561. 
God  is  love,  723. 

God-likeness,  Froebel's  idea,  119,  325. 
Goethe,  cited,  423,  428,  595. 

Cultivation  of  reverence,  747. 
Golden  Rule  in  Kindergarten,  720. 
Good  manners,  taught  in  Kindergarten,  635,  718. 
Good  and  beautiful,  in  thought  and  action,  208. 
Good  and  bad  as  opposites,  209. 
Gotha,  German  Teachers'  Assembly  in  1852  48. 
GOttingen  University,  Froebel  at,  48. 
Go ttzsch,interp rotation  of  Prussian  regulation,427. 
Gourlay,  Mrs.  G.,  and  colored  children,  735. 
Gracefulness  and  muscular  training,  623. 
Grassman,  F.  H.  G.,  Language  teaching,  426,  435. 
Grammar,  in  school  curriculum,  420. 

Exercises  in  connection  with  objects,  433. 
Graves,  Miss.  12. 

Greediness,  daintiness,  and  excessive  eating,  249. 
Grounds  and  school  premises,  219,  492,769. 
Gruner,  Dr.,  model  school,  37. 
Guilliaume,  Jules,  International  Congress,  &53. 

Further  extension  of  Froebel's  system.  a53-30S 
Gymnastics  adapted  to  little  children,  219,  232,543. 
Guides  and  manuals,  768,  783. 
Gurney,  versions  of  Froebel's  songs,  233,  253,  255. 

Habits,  Formation  of  good,  70.  684. 
Habitation,  Froebel's  use  of  the  instinct  of,  253. 
Half-holidays.  412. 
Hailman,  W.  N.,  Kindergarten  work,  13. 

Editor  of  Kindergarten  Messenger,  14. 

Publications,  78. 

Haines,  Henrietta,  first  Kindergarten  in  N.  Y.,  11. 
Half-time  for  public  Kindergartens,  641. 

Economy  of  space  and  teachers,  641. 
Hamburg,  first  Kindergarten.  1849,  134. 

Froebel's  public  address,  47. 
Hand,  Education  of,  172,  253,  684. 
Hand  games,  Froebel's,  241,  251,  261,  279. 


Hand-signs  in  teaching  music,  701. 
Handicrafts  and  other  industries,  251,  633,  689. 
Hanschmann,  Life  of  Froebel.  358.  786. 
Harder,  F.,  Hand-book  of  object  teaching,  443. 
Harmonica.  Froebel's  use  of,  256,  680. 
Ha:nisch,  W.,  speaking,  writing,  and  obs-er..  435. 
Harmony,  corporation  of  all  the  parts,  210,  703. 
Harris,  William  T.,  625,  786. 

Kindergartens  in  public  school  system,  625-642. 
Hay,  D.  K.,  Symmetrical  beauty,  cited,  073,  675. 
Health  and  Happiness,  614.  615. 
Healthy  growth  of  the  child,  190. 
Hearing,  Training  ol,  562.  7UO. 
Heenvart,  Eleono  e,  544,  766. 
Heritage  of  predispositions.  163,  737. 
Heydenleldt,  Kindergarten  work,  668. 
Helba,  Proposed  institution  of  Froebel  at,  47,  99. 
Helplessness  of  infancy,  561,  621. 
Hiding  Game,  Froebel.  584. 
Hierarchy  of  Work,  691. 
Hindrances  to  natural  development,  621,  654. 

Kindergarten  work,  514. 
Hoffman,  Henry.  786. 

Hofmeister,  Wilhelmine,  Froebel's  wife,  15,  78. 
Holidays,  and  children,  265,  549. 
Home,  a  divine  institution,  Mann,  125,  654. 

Pestalozzi,  Fichte,  and  Froebel's  views,  73. 
Home,  the  true  Christian,  125,  654,  677. 
Homes  of  neglected  children,  654. 

Influenced  by  charity  Kindergartens,  657. 
Home  and  school,  Reciprocal  influence,  491,  657. 
Hoole,  Charles,  Author  and  teacher,  401,  413. 

The  Petty-schoole  for  little  children,  401. 
Hope,  as  a  motive,  678. 
Horn-book,  earliest  school  book,  375. 

Illustration,  416. 
Human  being,  161,  621.  671. 

Human  body  ,Pestalozzi's  use  in  object  teaching.425 
Human  race.  Education  of,  Froebel,  125,  216,  854.' 
Humanity,  Child's  relation  to,  Froebel,  163, 240,  251. 
Humboldt,  A.  v.,  Fundamental  law  of  Unity,  214. 
Hunter.  Thomas,  Kindergarten  in  Normal  Train, 

Conditions  of  success,  535.  [ing.  533. 

Hydenfddt.  S..  Kindergarten  in  San  Francisco,  670. 
Hymns  for  children,  by  Watts,  381,  385. 

Poetic  expression  of  feeling,  288,  752. 

Ideal  of  Life,  and  School.  437.  626. 
Ideas,  formed  out  of  object-impressions,  301,  419. 
Imagination,  culture  of,  507,  635, 758. 
Imitation,  and  imitation  games,  251,  259. 
Imperfections  of  Kindergartens.  226.  473. 
Impressions,  the  age  of,  Bushnell,  737. 
Rapid  succession,  244. 

Importance  of  earliest,  243,  738. 

Froebel.  Kind,  and  child-culture,  322,  353. 
Incomplete  Knowledge,  4(i4. 
Inculcation,  and  Development,  297.  302. 
Individual,  Helplessness  of  the,  638. 

Participant  by  education  in  conquests  of  race, 638. 
Individuality,  inborn,  and  product  d,  417,  558. 

Pestalozzi,  and  Froebel's  treatment,  72,  319,  327. 

Fichte's  treatment,  305,  311. 
Individuality  and  humanity,  166.  226.  569.  639. 
Indulgence  to  a  child,  when  and  what,  247. 
Industry  and  art,  255.  536,  631,  688. 
Infancy,  age  of  impressions,  302.  56-2,  708,  737. 

Nurture  period  in  education,  625. 
Infant  schools,  references,  487,  526,  529,  763. 

Historical  development,  485. 

Gallaudet's  plan  in  1828,  529. 
Inherited  aptitudes  and  capacities,  163,  305,  737. 
[nner  revelation,  or  spiritual  experience,  270. 
[nspection,  and  intuition,  419,  497. 
Instinct  in  animal  life,  620. 

Not  sufficient  for  the  child,  620. 

Must  be  assisted  by  the  mother,  etc.,  279. 
instruction  and  development,  difference,  70,  314. 
"intellect.  Growth  on  surrounding. etc. ,113, 193, 620, 

Neglect,  conditions  of  healthy,  194. 
nterhational  Congress  of  education  of  1880,  337. 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 


795 


Intermediate  grade,  or  class,  361,  364,  366,  555. 
Intermediate  grade,  or  class,  555,  559. 

Home  and  school,  the  Kindergarten,  241,  658. 

Kindergarten  and  school,  Transition,  363,  459, 

Primary  school,  478,  643. 
Intuition,  Defined,  419,  497. 

Suitable  to  the  Kindergarten  period,  501. 

Herbert,  Beneke,  Fichte,  295—319. 
Intuition  and  intuitional  method — Sluys,  497. 

Defined  by  Littre,  Kant,  Lavousse,  497. 

The  method— historical,  498. 

Subjects  and  results,  502,  507. 
Intuitional  teaching,  Dr.  Busse,  417^450. 

Aims  and  principles,  Historical,  417,  497 

Bacon,  Ratich,  Comenius,  Basedow,  Campe,  421. 

Franke,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Rochow,  423. 

Vogel,  Grassman,  Vormann,  Otto,  427. 

Diesterweg,  Different  kinds  of  intuitions,  432,511. 

Immediate  objects,trainingof  the  senses,etc.,432. 

The  method,  successive  steps,  434. 

Manuals  and  material,  435. 

Pestalozzi,  knowledge  fromdoingand  seeing:,  167. 
Invention  encouraged Jby  Froebel's  system,  676. 
Isolation  of  a  child  or  man,  impossible,  561,  721. 

Relations  to  nature^  fellows,  God,  162-169. 
Israelitish  people,  Goethe's  tribute  to,  749. 
Ivv,  Kindergarten  lesson  for  children,  461. 

Occupations  connected,  462. 

Jacob's  manuel  for  infant  gardens,  563,  758. 
Jarvis,  Miss  Josephine,  15. 

English  version  of  Froebel's  system,  128. 
JeanTaul  Richter,  cited,  196,  328. 
Jena  University,  attended  by  Froebel,  33. 
Jesus  Christ,  a  Divine  Child,  275,  626. 

Teachings  respecting  children,  281. 

Children's  longings  for,  288. 

Christmas  trees  and  presents,  275,  549. 

Influence  in  Froebel's  own  education,  29. 119. 
Joiner,  Significance  of  Froebel's  game  of,  251,  252. 
Judgment,  cultivation  of  sound,  507,  523. 

Cited,  315,  316,  418,  497,  760. 
Juvenile  literature,  531. 

Kant,  Table  of  the  inner  sense,  418. 
Keilhau,  Froebel's  German  Educational  Inst.,  77. 
Keeping  still,  a  paralyzing  process,  621. 
Kindergarten  Papers,  1,  800. 

Editor's  letter  to  Pres.  American  Froebel  Union,3. 

Contents  of  the  volume,  3.    Index,  791. 
Kindergarten,  Genesis  and  name,  80,  82, 104. 

Aims,  219,  339,  514,  516,  548,  626. 
Kindergarten,  aspects  and  characteristics  of,  by — 

Peabody,5,  561,  617,  672.  Marwedel,  E.,  671. 

Lange,  W.,  769.  Schmidt,  753. 

Blow,  S.  E.,  575-616.          Diesterweg,  135. 

Marenholtz-Bulow,  219.    Harris,  W.  T.,  625. 

Manning,  E.  A.,  513.         Pollock,  L.,  643. 

Aldrich,  A.,  465.  Mann,  M.,  654. 

Lyschniska.  459,  525.         Buls,  C.,  491. 

Schrader,  451,  Newton,  705-730. 

Guilliaume,  333.  Fichte,  291. 

Adler,  689.  Cooper,  731. 

Hunter,  533.  Kraus,  537—558. 

Fichte,  339.  Batchellor,  692. 

Fischer,  339.  Spring,  677. 

Winthur,  82.  Portugall,  473. 

Publications  on,  765. 
Kindergarten  development,  5-16. 

German  States,  6,  9,  451. 

Austria  and  Italy,  6,  348. 

France  and  Switzerland,  1,  8, 481. 

Belgium,  239.    Great  Britain,  7,  513. 

United  States,  10,  529,  625,  679,  705. 

Interdict  in  Prussia  in  1851, 11,  49. 

Difficulties  and  encouragements.  513-522. 
Kindergarten,  Internal  economy,  672. 

Construction,  grounds,  and  equipment,  64,  455, 

Plays,  games,  and  occupations,  456, 575.  [492, 769. 

Attention  to  personal  habits,  496. 

Registers,  Inspection,  Reports,  495. 


Kindergarten,  Internal  economy. 

Chief  and  assistant  Kindergartners,  494,  641. 

Parental  cooperation,  515,  551,  648,  660. 

Transition,  or  older  class,  518, 555. 

Admission,  cleanliness,  etc.,  496. 
Kindergartens  in  public  system,  491,  625. 

Peabody,  617. 

Fischer,  348. 

Portugal,  473. 

Harris,  625-642. 

Pollock,  643-650. 

Buls,  Brussels  system,  491. 
Kindergarten  work  for  neglected  children,  467. 

Mann,  Mrs.,  654-664. 

Peabody,  651,  735. 

Adler,  687. 

California  experience,  665-672. 

Cooper,  731. 

Newton,  705. 
Kindergarten  principles  for  mothers  and  nursery. 

Marenholtz,  161-280. 

Kraus-Boelte,  547. 

Guilliaume,  353. 

Peabody,  561. 

Blow,  575-616. 
Kindergartners,  Special  training,  533,  551. 

Fischer,  347, 

Garland,  559. 

Harris,  641. 

Hunter,  533. 

Kraus-Boelte,  537,  551. 

Peabody,  497,  561,  624,  735,  879. 

Marenholtz,  158. 

Marwedel,  671. 

Portugall,  477. 

Pollock,  647. 

Schrader,  471.  [687,  471 

Kindergartens  for  artist  and  artisan,  353,  669,  67~3, 
Kindergarten  pupils,  in  school,  199,  517. 

Preparation  in  transition  class,  363,  478,  518. 

Sub-primary,  suggested  by  Harris,  633. 
Kindergarten,  Deteriorations  and  perversions,  13, 

Marenholtz-Bulow,  226.  [546,  678 

Kindergarten  Messenger,  14,  766. 
Know,  Desire  to,  universal,  175,  405. 
Knowledge,  Applied  in  action,  344,  368. 
Koehler,  Guide  for  Kindergartners,  335,  647,  786. 
Kraus,  John,  and  Mrs.  Kraus-Boelte,  537-558. 

Kindergarten  guide,  15,  784. 

Work  in  education  department,  550. 
Kriege,  Matilda  H.,  10, 11, 14,  787. 
Kriege,  Mrs.  and  Miss,  Kindergarten  in  Boston,  11. 

Instructions  to  her  training  class,  14. 
Krippen,  and  value,  331,  333. 

Labor  problem,  685,  714. 

Labor,  in  education,  221,  251,  673,  682,  687. 

Lamb,  Charles,  cited,  620. 

Lange,  W.,  Reminiscences  of  Froebel,  69. 

Collected  writings— preface  and  contents,  17,  125. 

Aids  to  understanding,  71.    Middendorf,  131. 
Langethal,  Froebel's  acquaintance  with,  15,  45,  77. 
Language,  Study  of,  43. 

Busse^s  method  with  objects,  432. 

Froebel  and  Pestalozzi,  43,  53,  364. 

Grassman,  by  conversation,  426. 

Begun  by  practice  in  Kindergarten,  442,  636. 

Harnisch,  observation  and  conversation,  435. 

Ehrlich,  observation,  conversation,  writing,  439. 

Richter,  observation  and  conversation,  444. 

Fuhr,  connected  exercises  in  speaking,  447. 

Schumacher.  Pictures  in  aid  of  composition,  449. 
Language  of  Signs,  568. 
Law  of  human  development,  Pestalozzi,  204. 

Froebel's  modification,  187. 
Learning,  natural  to  children,  175,  405. 
Leipsic,  Vogel's  school,  425.  [289. 

Leonhardi,  Dr.  and  congress  of  philosophers,  158, 
Lessons,  Scheme  of  preparation  for.  463. 
Levin,  Louise,  Second  wife  of  Froebel,  16.  270. 
Liberty  of  development,  Froebel's,  law,  223. 


796 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 


Liebenstein,  Froebel's  location  in,  47,  121. 

Favorable  for  making  system  known,  144. 
Life,  defined  by  Frobel,  217,  232. 
Light  and  truth,  Analogy  between,  591. 

Froebel'e  use  of,  591. 
Limbs,  earliest  development  in,  124. 
Lina,  how  she  learns  to  write  and  read.  364. 
Lind,  Jenny,  Musical  taste,  256. 
Living  teacher,  and  oral  instruction,  763. 
Local  attachment  and  influences,  22,  752. 
Love,  as  a  motive,  247,  285,  549. 
Love,  as  a  force  in  moral  reconstruction,  200. 
Love  to  an  invisible  being,  how  developed,  274. 

God  must  become  man,  119,  749. 
Lubeu,  A.,  Instruction  speaking  and  reading,  443. 
Lubeck— Miss  Boelte's  experience,  546. 

Training  class  for  nurses,  547. 
Lunch,  moral  uses,  599,  690. 
Luther,  M.,  Letter  to  his  little  son,  742. 

Plea  for  the  intuitive  method,  420. 
Ltitzow  free  corps,  Froebel  and  Middendorff,  136. 
Luz,  G.,  Object-teaching  for  youngest  classes,  446. 
Lyschinska,  Mary  J.,  the  Kind,  principle,  458,  525. 

German  Kindergarten,  459. 

Nature,  and  surrounding  life  in  early  culture,523. 

Relation  to  English  infant  school,  526. 

Macrocosmos,  and  Microcosm,  72. 

Magic,  applied  to  productive  art,  673. 

Mankind,  or  education  of  the  race,  180,  201,  638. 

Man.  in  the  child,  260,  575,  632. 

Man,  Froebel's  Treatise  on  Education,  49, 125. 

Mann,  Horace,  reference,  763. 

Mann,  Mrs.  Horace,  Moral  culture  of  infancy,  14. 

Kindergarten  children  and  their  homes,  654. 

Translations  by,  17, 49, 69, 97, 117, 339, 353, 473, 497. 
Manner,  Influence  on  the  young,  30,  635,  718. 
Manners,  making  their,  in  old  times,  380. 
Manning,  Miss  E.  A.,  Difficulties  in  Kindergarten, 

Encouragements,  518.  [513. 

Manuals  and  aids  for  Kindergarten  work,  129, 159, 
Manual  labor,  artistic  and  utilitarian,  254, 673.  [785. 

In  ordinary  and  special  schools.  480,  687. 
Maps,  in  geography,  since  1800,  582. 
Marbeau,  Day  Nurseries,  483. 

French  Treatment  of  Infants.  481. 
Marenholtz-Bnlow,  Memoir,  149-160. 

The  Child,  nature  and  nurture,  161-280. 

Summary  of  Froebel's  principles,  279. 

Reminiscences  of  Froebel,  5,  117. 

The  Kindergarten  to  an  outsider,  219. 
Marienthal,  Kindergarten,  etc.,  48,  755. 
Market-booth,  Froebel's  game  of,  254. 
Marwedel,  Emma,  Kindergarten  work,  665. 

Who  shall  become  Kindergartuers,  671. 
Maternal  schools,  485,  490. 
Maternal  feeling  and  sympathy,  566. 
Material  in  object-teaching,  choice  of,  433. 

Kindergarten,  15,  16,  85,  471,  769,  775. 

Bradley1*  and  Steiger'e,  775,  785. 
Mathematical  intuitions,  431. 
Mediaeval  Primer,  414. 
Mediation  of  Opposes,  328. 
Meiningen,  Duke,  Froebel's  letter  to,  21-48. 

Grant  of  Marienthal  Castle  to  Froebel,  48. 
Memory,  secret  of,  96. 
Method,  or  plan  of  work,  defined,  202. 
Methodical  instruction,  203. 
Methodology,  general  and  special,  79. 
Meyer,  Mrs.  Bertha,  467. 
Meyers,  in  Kindergarten  work,  8.  527. 
Microcosmos  and  Macrocosmos,  72. 
Middendorff,  W.,  and  Froebel,  45,  119. 

Memoir  by  Lange,  131. 

Characteristics  by  Diesterweg,  135. 

Thoughts  on  the  Kindergarten,  122. 

Last  days  of  Froebel,  118. 
Milk,  for  young  children,  468. 
Mind,  Individual  and  generic,  638. 

Results  of  many-sided  culture,  595. 
Mineralogy,  Froebel1  s  study  of,  46. 


Model  Kindergarten  and  Classes,  552. 
Modeling  in  clay,  lor  children,  172,632,679,  682. 
Montaigne,  Thoughts  on  early  culture,  743,  744. 
Moon  and  the  child,  Froebel's  game,  235 
Moral  culture  secured  only  by  practice,  199,  676. 
Moral  culture,  Formation  of  character,  103. 

Through  social  life  of  Kindergarten,  717,  721. 

Through  manners,  718. 

Out  of  negative  self,  719. 

Industrial  training,  714. 

Physical  training,  713. 

Through  happy  plays  and  love,  711,  722. 
Moral  education,  foundation,  208,  675. 
Moral  Government  of  God,  633. 
Moral  intuitions,  431,  662. 
Moral  discipline,  in  Kindergarten,  570. 
Morality  and  Religion,  317, 510,  676,  721. 
Morehouse,  C.  B.    The  Kindergarten,  766. 
Moseley,  Criticism  on  object  teaching,  464. 
Mother  Book,  Pestalozzi,  52,  339. 
Mothers'  Conference  and  Class,  551. 
Mother-goose,  Demoralizing  pictures,  660. 
Mother-element  in  education,  332. 
Motherly  instincts.  Enlightenment  of,  230,323,501. 
Mother  play  and  nursery  songs.  84,  328. 

Marenholtz-Buluw,  227.     Peabody,  561. 

Miss  Blow's  treatment,  575. 
Motion,  Normal  condition  of  life,  565,  570. 
Movement  plays,  363,  568. 
Muscles,  once  trained,  act  pleasurably,  631,  633. 
Museum,  or  children's  cabinet,  221. 
Music,  Instrumental,  681. 
Music,  Vocal,  early  and  continuous,  255,  257,  693. 

Should  be  universal,  255,  704. 

Does  not  aim  to  make  geniuses,  257. 

Froebel's  use  and  method,  255. 
Musical  Notation  and  Colors,  692. 
Mutter-und  Kose-lieder,  84,  *27  ;  translated,  565. 

Basis  of  Froebel's  lectures,  228. 
Mystic  side  of  Froebel's  philosophy,  218. 

Name  of  Kindergarten,  104. 
Narration,  and  seeing,  439,  471. 
National  Education  for  the  Age,  291-336. 
National  strength  and  glory,  291. 
Nationalization  of  systems,  516. 
Natural  scenery,  Influence,  22,  37,  340,  752. 
Nature,  and  natural  methods,  188,  279,  637. 

Abuses  of  the  term,  Harris,  (  37. 
Nature,  the  outward  world,  523,  525.  752. 

Child's  relations  to,  Froebel,  162,  225,  233. 

Place  in  early  culture,  Pestalozzi, Froebel,220, 523. 

Lyschinska,  525. 
Natural  language,  568. 
Nationalization  of  educational  systems.  516. 

Kindergarten  belongs  to  humanity,  291,517. 
Neatness  in  clay- moulding,  683.  . 
Needlework  and  knitting.    " 
Neglected  and  destitute  children,  536,  721. 

Mrs.  Shaw's  charity  Kindergarten,  651,  657. 

California  Kindergarten  work,  665,  733. 
Neighbors,  Love  of,  to  be  cultivated,  7,  657. 
Newton.  R.  Heber,  653. 

Free  Kindergarten  and  church  work,  705-730. 
New  education,  Froebel's  system,  71,  626,  224. 
New  England  district  schools,  529. 
New  England  Primer,  Announcement  in  1692.  379. 

Webster's  reprint  in  1844  of  edition  of  1777,  399. 

Endorsement  of  prominent  divines,  380. 

Pictorial  alphabet  and  verses.  383.  [381. 

Dr.  Watts'  cradle  and  other  hymns  for  children. 

Prayers,  creed,  sentences,  etc..  385. 

John  Rogers,  cut  and  advice.  388. 

Westminster  Shorter  Catechism.  390. 

Cotton,  John,  Spiritual  milk  for  Am.  babes.  396 

Dialogue  between  Christ,  Child,  and  Devil,  398. 

Nathaniel  Clap,  Advice  to  children,  400. 
New  Hampshire,  Kindergarten  work,  13. 
New  York  Citv,  Kindergarten  work,  11,  533,551. 
Newton.  R.  Heber,  705. 

Kindergarten  in  church  work,  705—730. 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 


797 


Noa.  Henrietta,  pl.iys  for  Kindergarten,  786. 
Nonsense  verse*.  133,  6B2. 
Normal  Kindergarten,  477,  533-660. 

Berlin,  453. 

Boston,  558. 

Dresden,  158. 

New  York,  551,  557. 

Philadelphia,  7-35. 
Normal  training,  for  Schools  and  Colleges,  551,  761. 

Kindergartners,  551,  676. 
Novitiate  teachers  in  St.  Louis,  641. 
Number,  first  ideas  of,  58, 365. 
Nurses,  Importance  overlooked,  89.  548. 

Trained  in  Kindergarten  methods,  548,  551. 
Nursery  games  and  songs,  National,  516. 
Nursery  plays  and  songs,  Froebel,  227.      [161-280. 

Froebel's   views    expounded    by    Marenholtz. 

Peabody,  Lecture  to  young  Kindergartners,  561. 

Blow,  Mother  play  and  nursery  songs,  571. 
Nursery,  graduates  into  Kindergarten,  548. 
Nurture  period  of  education,  625,  625. 

Obedience  to  authorities  and  law,  308,  616,  741. 
Obedience,  Conditions  and  motives  for,  247,  741. 

Channing,  745. 

Obeisance,  or  making  manners,  380,  411,  743. 
Oberlin,  485,  764. 
Objective  counterpart,  609. 

Object  or  intuitional  teaching,  169,  420.  [450. 

Object  teaching,  aims,  methods  and  manners,  417- 

Deftned,  analyzed,  and  described,  418. 

Historical  development  from  Bacon,  419-24. 

Objections  to,  Valid  as  to  certain  kinds,  426. 

Prussian  regulation  of  1854,  427. 

True  grounds  between  the  extremes,  429.     [430. 

Diesterweg's  enumeration  of  differing  intuition, 

Immediate  aims,  Subordinate  aims,  432. 

Laws  of  the  method  in  Kind,  and  Primary,  433. 

Manual,  and  aids  for  object  teaching,  435. 
Objections  to  Froebel's  system,  473-476. 

Expense,  473. 

Unsuitable  to  the  Poor,  474. 

Pedagogical,  475. 

No  connection  with  school,  476. 
Observation,  Habit  of  accurate  and  rapid,  9,  432. 

Developed  by  Kindergarten  methods,  82,  442. 

Pestalozzi's  fundamental  law,  445. 

Froebel's  adoption  and  extension. 
Occupation  or  vocation  for  life,  127,  653. 
Occupations,  Froebel's,  342,  361,  612,  645-7. 

Berlin  Kindergarten,  453-470. 
Ogden,  Mrs.  John,  Kindergartner,  11. 
Oneness  with  God,  41,  561,  583,  755. 
Opposites,  Doctrine  of,  524,  878. 

Froebel's  law,  204. 

Reconcilement,  211. 
Oral  Teaching,  436,  441,  763. 
Order,  Heaven's  first  law,  569. 
Order  of  development,  304. 
Orientation,  503. 
Original  sin,  282,  315,  390,  396. 
Originality,  or  individuality  of  children,  676. 
Orphan  Asylums,  480,  566,  734. 
Ortman.  J.  H., Object  teaching  in  com.  schools,  447. 
Otto,  of  Miihlhausen,  Obj.  teaching  in  schools,  428. 
Oversight  of  each  pupil,  how  secured,  641. 
Over-stimulation,  303. 
Ownership,  Instinct  and  results,  174. 

Pain,  excess  of  sensation,  301. 
Palissy,  learning  by  failure,  681. 
Pape-Carpentier,  Madame,  488. 
Parables,  Christ's  use  of,  277. 
Parentage,  and  Parents,  314,  737. 
Parental  feeling,  42. 

CoSperation  and  representation,  328,  515,  551. 
Parochial  work  and  charity  Kindergarten,  705. 
Parochial  work  with  neglected  children,  734. 
Pastoret,  Madame,  infant  asylum  in  France,  486. 
Patriotism,  grown  by  serving,  46. 
Patty-Cake,  'Froebel's  game  and  song,  592. 


Pauper-class  in  United  States,  091.  [Krippen,  333. 
Pauline,  princess  of  Lippe  Detmpld,  loimder  of 
Payne,  J.,  Genesis  and  characteristics  of  Kind.,  91. 

Publications,  764,  768. 
Peabody,  Miss  E.  G.,  Experience  in  Kind.,  7. 

Letter  on  Kindergarten  development.  5-16. 

Kindergarten  for  artist  and  artisan,  G73. 

Froebel's  methods  in  nursery,  561. 

Charity  Kindergartens  in  U.  S.,  651. 

Froebel's  system  in  Am.  Pub.  Education,  617. 

Training  of  Colored  Kindergartners,  735. 

Publications  by,  768. 
Peas,  method  of  using,  613. 
Peculiarity,  inherent  and  inherited,  306. 
Pedagogy,  library  of  practical,  165. 
Pedagogical  theories,  295,  306. 
Perception,  and  sense  impressions,  301,  419. 
Perfectibility  of  human  nature,  638. 
Perforating  prepared  paper,  612,  63. 
Personality  and  self-will  in  children,  246. 
Pestalozzi,  and  Pestalozzianism,  755,  784. 

Froebel's  study  with  in  1808,  42, 136. 

Use  of  phenomena  of  nature,  523. 

Object  or  intuitional  teaching,  320. 

Doctrine  of  form,  59  ;  Motives  appealed,  63. 

Fundamental  Law,  205 

Great  gift  to  Pedagogy,  320,  322. 
Petty  Schoole  of  1659,  in  England,  by  Hoole,  401. 

Alphabet,  402;  spell  distinctly,  404 ;  read,  407. 

Reading  catechisms,  and  Christian  duty,  409. 

How  to  found,  Discipline,  411. 
Philadelphia,  Kindergarten,  11.  653,  735. 
Philanthropinum,  Basedow's  school,  423. 

StJzman,  Campe,  Rochow,  and  others,  423. 
Philosophy  and  art,  Froebel's  choice,  35. 
Physical  training  in  Kindergarten,  170. 
Physics,  for  Intuitional  Method,  506. 
Pictorial  illustrations  in  school  work,  377. 
Pictures  ia  school  teaching,  449,  346. 
Pietism,  Franke's  school  of,  423. 
Piety,  Rule  and  Result,  317. 

Plato,  Thoughts  on  play  and  early  training,  710,  740. 
Play  and  playing,  Educative  function,  330,  577,  639, 

Child's  instinct,  91,  218.  [709. 

Plays,  Recreative  and  social,  718. 
Playthings,  too  expensive  and  artistic,  16,  81. 

Ultimate  purpose,  196.  329,  335,  571. 
Plea  for  Kindergarten,  Peabody,  673. 
Plutarch,  Thoughts  on  early  training,  739,  764. 
Poetry  in  object  teaching,  434. 
Politeness,  Respect  for  others,  in  manner,  30,  718. 
Pollock,  Louise,  Kindergarten  work,  650. 

Kindergarten  methods  in  Primary  schools,  643. 

Peculiar  features  of  the  Kindergarten,  648. 
Polyhedron,  office  in  Froebel's  system,  361. 
Polytechnic  schools,  founded  on  Bacon,  421. 
Poor  and  neglected  children,  Treatment,  705. 
Popular  Education  and  Popular  Errors,  291,  295. 

Flcbfte,  Report  on  Problem,  293. 
Portugall,  Madame  de,  8, 43. 

Extension  of  Froebel's  System,  473,  480. 
Portrait,  Froebel,  1. 
Potter's-Clay,  in  Kindergarten,  683. 
Practice  of  quietness,  School-books  of  1659,  40^. 
Practice,  much — Precepts,  few,  672. 
Practical  education,  so-called,  307,  628,  673. 

Trades  and  arts,  631,  673,  685. 
Prayers.  Kindergarten,  549,  410. 

New  England  Primer,  381,  385. 

Marenholtz,  suggestions,  687. 
Prayers  for  children,  385,  687,  725. 
Precocity  of  development,  507,  677. 
Precepts,  and  models  and  practice,  460,  486. 
Preparation  of  lessons,  for  Kindergartners,  463. 
Primary  schools,  and  instruction,  297, 310,  314,  532. 

Kindergarten  connections,  350,  362,  478,  535,  643. 

Discipline,  unnatural,  533. 

Historical  data,  411.  529. 
Primer,  Mediaeval,  described,  414. 
Primer,  the  new,  by  Hoole,  404. 
Primer,  the  New  England  of  1777,  377,  381. 


798 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 


Prism  and  Cylinder,  359. 

Private  and  public  education,  488. 

Private  tutor,  Froebers  experience,  38. 

Productive  labor,  for  a  result,  607,  613,  675. 

Progler,  Miss,  construction!*  lor  kindergartens ,  769. 

Progressive  Development,  283. 

Prussia,  Prohibition  of  the  Kindergarten,  116. 

Regulation  limiting  intuitional  teaching,  427. 

Goltzch's  interpretation,  428. 
Psalms  in  meter,  Early  school-book,  408. 
Psalter,  Early  school-book,  408,  411. 
Psalter-class  in  Petty  school,  411. 
Psychology  in  education,  295,  297,  308. 
Public  Kindergft-tens,  491,  625,  642. 
Publications  in  aid  of  child-culture,  761,  765 
Pupils  to  teacher,  ratio,  620. 
Pyramid  and  cone,  Froebel's  use,  359. 

Quality  of  education  in  public  schools,  617. 

Moral  and  Industrial  Elements,  618. 
Qualifications  of  a  Kindergartner,  557,  647,  671. 
Questioning,  Better  than  precept,  677. 
Questions  largely  encouraged,  621. 
Qtiinet,  Edgar,  Estimate  of  Froebol,  624. 
Quintilian,  Early  training  of  children,  743,  764. 

Races,  human,  enlightenment,  183,  664. 

Education  demanded  for,  291,  313. 
Rogier,  Kindergarten  in  Belgium,  487. 
Ratich,  Plea  for  intuitive,  or  object  teaching,  421. 
Raumer,  K.  von,  Pedagogy,  cited.  421,  764. 
Readers  and  reading     Hoole  in  1659,  407. 

Connected  with  object  teaching,  440. 
Reading,  in  instruction  of  children,  436,  439. 
Receptivity  of  children,  Age  of  impressions,  417, 737 

Productivity,  259,  320,  417. 
Reconcilement  of  opposites,  329. 
Record-books  and  Registers,  639. 

Brussels  public  Kindergartens,  495. 
Recreation,  66,  519,  614. 
Red  color,  significance  of,  695. 
Reflection,  Mental  process,  635. 
Relationships  of  child,  Nature,  Man  and  God,  162. 
Religion  and  religious  instruction,  324.  749. 

Child's  first  relations  to  God,  261-278,  676. 

Pestalozzi'3  method,  265. 

Froebel,  27,  111,  117,  261,  723. 

Combe,  662. 

Diesterweg,  512. 

Goethe,  Formal  Cultivation,  747,  749. 
Religious  intuitions,  Diesterweg,  431. 
Religion  and  science,  662. 
Religious  instinct,  86,  97,  177,  431,  566,  166. 
Reminiscences  of  Froebel,  Lange,  W.,  833. 

Marenholtz,  117,  151,  161,  451. 

Boelte,  537. 

Middendorf,  119. 

Republicanism  and  education,  292, 535. 
Restrictions  on  play,  349. 
Reverence,  gratitude  and  love,  to  God,  566. 

Middendorf,  140,  141. 

Channing  and  Goethe.  746.  749. 
Rhymes  and  Rhythm,  advantages  of,  170,  573.  623. 
Rhombohedron,  357. 
Rhombodo-decahedron,  361. 

Richter,  C.,  Object  teaching  in  El.  schools,  426,444. 
Richter,  Jean  Paul,  cited. 
Ricthammer,  Bavarian  schoolmaster,  429. 
Riders,  Froebel,  Game  of  the,  248. 
Rochow.  E.  von,  Intuitional  method,  423,  763. 
Rogers,  Rev.  John,  and  his  children.  388. 

Advice  to  his  children  in  verse,  388. 
Ronge.  Mad., Kindergarten  in  London  1854. 1, 8,  543. 
Rounds,  Children's  attempts  at  circles,  362. 
Rousseau,  Emil  E.,  Gospel  of  human  nature,  423. 

Principles  of  Emil  applied  by  Basedow,  423. 

Absence  of  the  mother-element,  423. 

Elevated  and  improved  by  Pestalozzi,  207,  425. 

Hints  on  early  training,  741,  764. 
Rucket,  Pastor,  address  at  Froebers  grave,  121. 


Rudoldstadt,  German  educational  institution.  10' 

Teacher's  union  at,  117. 

Riiegg,  H.  R.,  Instruction  in  language,  Manual,  451 
Running  wild,  not  development,  620. 
Rural  surroundings,  535. 
Russell,  William,  perceptive  faculties,  763. 

Salis-Schwabe,  Madame,  6,  158. 

Salaries,  of  Kindergartners  in  St.  Louis,  641. 

Salzman,  Assistant  of  Basedow,  423. 

Saturday,  half-holiday,  412. 

Saying  lessons  in  Petty  school,  412. 

Scattock,  influence  of  passes,  528. 

School  and  Kindergarten,  Differences,  363.  689. 

Bond  or  class  of  union  and  transition ,557,  629. 
School-discipline  in  United  States,  637. 
School-garden,  352,  551,  557. 
School  of  good  manners,  School-book  of  1659,  40! 
School  management,  78. 

Scheffel,  Annette,  Berlin  Kindergarten,  456,  471. 
Schelling,  Bruno,  35,  636. 

Schlotterbeck,  Intuitive  or  object  teaching,  440. 
Schmidt,  Froebel  and  the  Kindergarten,  753,  758. 
Schrader,  Henrietta  Breyman,  Kind,  work,  451. 

Visit  to,  by  Mrs.  Aldrich,  469. 

Kindergarten  principle,by  Miss  Lyschinska,  45! 
Schwab,  Dr.  E.,  School  Garden,  557. 
Science  and  Religion,  509,  662. 
Science  of  teaching,  77, 80. 
Scolding  and  love,  contrast,  549. 
Scolding  children,  549. 
Sculpture,  as  an  Art,  685. 
Second  gift,  nature  and  uses,  94,  755. 

Extension  of  uses  in  to  advanced  class,  358. 

FroebeFs  original  and  developed  vices,  358. 
Seed  of  plants.  Analogy  of  the  soul,  621,  661. 
Self-activity,  24,  42,  71,  170,  218,  314, 630. 
Self-consciousness,  first  token,  418. 
Self-education,  297,  309.  638.  752. 
Self-government,  to  be  cultivated,  298. 
Self-knowledge,  by  personal  action,  320,  638. 
Self-reliance,  87,  366. 
Self-seeking  and  its  opposite,  204,  324. 
Self-will,  and  personality,  246. 

Must  submit  to  social  conditions,  247. 
Seligman,  Joseph,  Aid  to  Kindergarten,  639. 
Sensation,  and  Ideas,  322,  501. 
Senses,  Cultivation  in  intuitive  teaching,  432. 

Taste,  562;  Touch,  442,  563. 

Sight,  441,  563  ;  Hearing,  442.  561 ;  Smell,  563. 
Sense,  a  receptivity  for  impressions,  417. 

More  perfect  in  beasts,  418. 
Sense,  impression,  and  intuitions,  418,  502,  562. 

Unity,  419  ;  difference  with  animals, 
Sensuous  intuitions  from  outward  objects, 430. 
Seventh  Gift,  Nature  and  Uses,  766. 
Shaw,  Mrs.  Qjiincy,  Free  Kindergarten,  652. 

Day  nurseries,  847. 

Shenstone,  Schoolmistress,  cited,  416. 
Shirzett,  Emily,  Kindergarten  Publications,  786. 
Sign-language,  Natural,  568. 

Sight,  Training  by  color,  form,  distance,  441,  574 
Similar  and  dissimilar  things,  176,  204,  594. 
Singing  and  songs,  Froebel's  use,  256,  340. 
Site  of  educational  buildings,  160. 
Sitting  still,  unnatural  to  young  children,  677,  50 
Sixth  Gift,  Nature  and  Uses,  600,  645,  756. 
Sixth  year  of  a  child,  634. 
Slnys,  A.,  Intuitive  Teaching,  497. 
Smell,  Training  sense  of,  564. 
Smiling,  Child's  first  expression  of  love,  564,  56 
Smith,  Katharine  D.,  Trials  in  Kindergarten,  66 
Snell,  Anna,  Pupil  of  Middendorff,  7. 
Social  Instinct,  309,  311.  566. 
Social  side  of  the  Kindergartens,  177,  241,  508,  71' 
Social  institutions,  431,  509. 
Social  intuitions,  177,  311,  511. 
Socrates,  Thoughts  on  early  training,  739,  743. 
Son  firs  and  Rhythm,  256,  340,  341. 
Sout,  Herbert's  Idea  of  the,  295.    Beneke's,  30. 
Sound,  Sense  of,  174. 


INDEX  TO  KINDERGARTEN  PAPERS. 


799 


Sorrow,  Goethe's  interpretation,  263,  751. 
Speaking  and  observing  exercises.  439,  443. 
Spekter,  O.,  Fifty  Fables  for  children,  449. 
Spelling,  Hoole's  directions  for  Petty  Schoole,  404. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  710,  704. 
Sphere,  356,  360. 

Spiritual  milk  for  American  Babes,  Cotton,  396. 
Spontaneous  action,  always  pleasurable,  82,639,677. 
St.  Louis,  Public  Kindergarten,  641,  760. 
St.  Paul's  Standard  of  Church  work,  705. 

Kindergarten,  the  earliest  step,  528. 
State  and  Education,  327,  763. 
Steinmetz-Strasse  Kindergarten,  451.  [765. 

Steiger,  E., Kindergarten  literature  audmaterial,  15, 

Kindergarten  Tracts,  766. 

Designs  for  K.  occupations,  767. 
S tick-laying  and  drawing,  350. 
Still,  and  stillness,  unnatural  to  children,  665,  677. 
Stockwell  Training  Kindergarten,  544. 
Story-telling  and  narration,  to  children,  347, 449,599. 

Mrs.  Mann  on,  800. 

Strips  of  leather,  paper,  etc.,  for  platting,  339. 
Stupidity,  Play  inconsistent  with,  95. 
Style  and  intuitive  teaching  —  Imagination,  507. 
Suggestions  on  early  training,  737-756. 
Sun-bird,  Froebel's  game,  234. 
Supplementary  Papers,  800. 
Surroundings,  accidental  and  designed,  304. 
Switzerland,  Federal  and  Cantonal,  473,  763.     [634. 
Symbols,  Natural  phenomena,  99,  64,  864,  175,  590, 
Symbolical  meaning  of  Froebel's  plays,  359,  590. 

Talks  and  Object  Lessons,  479,  573,  599. 

Lessons  in  Language,  439,  479. 
Talking,  and  teaching,  438. 
Tasks  and  play,  639,  718. 
Taste  and  Imagination,  507,  512. 
Taste,  the  sense,  249,  297,  562. 
Teaching  Children,  Methods  and  manuals  : 

Armstroff ,  444.  Haihnan,  765. 

Ascham,  761.  Hanschmann,  765. 

Bacon,  421,  488,  761.          Heerwart,  765. 

Basedow,  423,  764.  Hoole,  401.  763. 

Busse,  417.  Koehler,  766. 

Calderwood,  762.  Kraus,  766,  768. 

Currie,  762,  765.  Lancaster,  763. 

Comenius,  422,  499,  764.   Locke,  763. 

Dambeck,  445.  LaSallc,  763. 

Diesterweg,  147, 445,  499.  Luben,  443. 

Dunn,  762.  Luz,  446. 

Duruy,  762.  Marcel,  763. 

Ehrlich,  438.  Middendorff,  131. 

Fenelon,  762.  Otto,  428. 

Franke.  423.  762.  Peabody,  585,  767. 

Froebel,  91,  125, 161,  766.  Pestalozzi,  21,  763,  764. 

Fuhr,  447.  Richter.  444. 

Grassmann,  426,  435,         Ruegg,  450. 

Graser,  762.  Ratich,  429.  764. 

Harder,  443.  Rousseau,  423,  764. 

Harnisch,  435.  Schumacher,  449. 

Technical  Element  in  Kindergarten,  524,  631. 
Temperament  and  character,  312,  315. 
Theatricals,  FroebePs  experience.  32. 
Thinking,  without  intuition,  unfruitful.  420,  432. 
Thinking  and  speaking  exercises,  435,  4S6. 
Third  Gift,  85,  600.  609,  644. 
Third  Gift.  Nature  and  Uses,  85,  94,  755. 
Thought,  Laws  of  developed,  432. 
Thompson,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  324,  624. 
Tone  and  color,  analogies,  692. 

Use  of  colors  in  teaching  musical  notation,  701. 
Tonic-sol-fa  method.  693. 
Tools  in  Clay  Modeling,  683. 
Touch,  Sense  of,  92,  365,  563. 
Toys,  and  Kindergarten  material,  16,  769. 

Too  expensive  and  complete,  85. 
Trades,  Aptitudes  for,  631,  673,  679,  714. 
Training,  general  principles,  495. 

Suggestions  on  early,  737,  750. 

Kindergartuers,  451,  533,  557,  623,  671. 


Transformation,  Froebel's  Law,  859. 
Transition  from  home  to  school,  629. 
Transition  class  from  Kindergarten,  478,537,  557. 
Trust  and  Faith,  284,  661. 
Tyndall  on  color,  573. 

Understanding,  sum  of  two  or  more  conceptions,301 
United  States,  Department  of  Education,  3,  557. 

Kindergartens  in,  5,  550. 

Unity  of  Life,  Froebel's  law,  111,  115,  358,  364.  615. 
Unity  of  sense  impressions  and  intuitions,  418. 
Unity  of  light,  love,  and  life,  in  God,  325,  328,  723. 
Unity,  41,  183,  214,  225. 
Unity  and  Diversity,  357. 
Universe,  God,  Nature,  Man,  216. 
Unity  and  Law,  217. 
Universal  German  Institution,  84. 
Universal  Human  Culture,  292,  326. 
Utilities,  in  Froebel's  occupations,  614. 
Unselfishness,  Nurture  of,  707,  719. 
Utterance  of  a  child,  the  first,  99, 161,  179. 

Vanity  in  children,  248. 

Van  Kirk,  Miss,  Kindergarten  in  Phil.,  11,  735. 

Van  Wagenen,  Mary  L.,  Parochial  Kind.,  730. 

Vegetable  World,  and  the  child,  213,  267,  503. 

Violence  with  children,  659. 

Virtue  and  morality,  how  attained,  199,  509. 

Vocation,  Aptitudes  and  education  for,  363,  626. 

Froebel's  choice,  31. 
Tocal  music,  256,  700. 
Vogel,  Schools  of  Leipsic,  425. 
Voluntary  work  pleasurable,  91,  633,  639. 
Volter,  on  object  teaching,  427. 
Vorman,  cited,  428. 

Walk,  the  child's  learning  to,  565. 

Different  with  the  young  animal,  565. 
Walker,  Dr.  W.,  Training  of  Nurses,  547. 
Walter,  Louis,  Marenholtz-Bulow,  Work,  149. 

Froebel-Literature,  127,  159. 

Want  and  Wickedness,  Relations  of,  715.         [101. 
Wartensee,  Froebel's  institution  in  Switzerland,79, 
Watering-Pot,  Froebel's  hand-game,  238. 
Watts,  Isaac,  Hymns  for  children,  381,  385. 
Webster,  Ira.  Publisher  in  1844  of  N.  E.  Primer,  381. 
\Vearying  of  pupils  to  be  avoided,  829. 
Weather-cock,  Froebel's  game,  233,  580. 
Weston,  Misf,  and  Miss  Garland's  Institute,  11, 559. 
Westminster  shorter  Catechism,  390. 
Wheat,  Kindergarten  lesson  on.  460. 
Wheelock,  Lucy,  Translations  by,  21,  82,  125. 

Poetry  for  Children,  800. 

Whole  duty  of  man.  School-book  of  1659,  409. 
Why  and  How,  of  Things.  661,  671. 
Wiebe,  Edward,  Paradise  of  Childhood,  783. 
Wieland,  cited,  136. 
Will,  and  will-power,  302,  453,  638. 
Willisau,  Froebel's  school  for  girls  in  Switz.,  80. 
Wiseman,  Cardinal,  673.  716. 
Woman's  mission.  83,  336.  677. 

Deficient  education.  655. 
WTords  and  things,  323. 
World-law,  or  law  of  balance,  211. 
Wordsworth.  William,  cited,  583,  637.  723,  752. 
Work,  the  basis  of  morality  and  education ,221, 254. 

Conscious,  or  productive  action,  279. 
Work-School,  689. 
Worship,  Child's  first  ideas  of,  179,  275. 

Yellow  Color  in  Music,  696. 

Young  children,  Suggestions  respecting,  737-752. 

Youths'  behavior,  School  Reader  in  1659,  411. 

Young  Women's  Christian  Associations,  666. 

Youth,  an  epoch  in  education,  625. 

Yverdon,  Froebel's  residence  at,  38. 

Zeh,  School  Councillor,  Report  on  Keilhau,  106. 
Zoology,  Subject  for  Intuitive  Teaching,  503. 


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SLUYS  (A.,  Director  of  Model  School,  Brussels):  Intuition  and  Intuitive  Methods,  with 
notice  of  Infant  and  Kindergarten  work  in  Switzerland,  France  and  Belgium,  by  Pape- 
Carpentier,  Marbeau,  Portugall,  Buls  and  Miss  M.  J.  Lyschinska.  32  pages.  25  cents, 

MANNING  (Miss  E.  A.,):  Some  Difficulties  and  Encouragements  in  Kindergarten  Work  in 
England,  with  suggestions  on  Early  Culture,  by  Miss  Lyschinska  16  pages.  25  cents. 

KRAUS-BOELTE  (Mrs.  Maria  and  Prof.  John):  Reminiscences  of  Kindergarten  Work, 
with  account  of  New  York  Normal  Kindergarten  and  Associated  Model  Classes;  with  Por- 
trait and  other  Contributions  to  Froebel's  Kindergarten  in  United  States.  48  pages.  50  cts. 

PEABODY  (Elizabeth  P.):  Froebel's  Principles  and  Methods  in  the  Nursery;  Kindergarten 
Culture  in  Public  Schools.  40  pages.  25  cents. 

BLOW  (Susan  E.)  The  Mother  Play,  and  Some  Aspects  of  the  Kindergarten— Lectures 
addressed  to  Kindergartners  in  St  Louis,  44  pages.  25  cents,  in  neat  cloth-bound  cover. 

GALLAUDET,  GARLAND,  HUNTER  AND  OTHERS:  Boston  Training  Class;  Early -Kindergar- 
ten Work  in  United  States.  32  pages.  25  cents. 

HARRIS  ( William  T.)  AND  MRS.  LOUISE  POLLOCK:  Kindergarten  in  the  Public  School 
System,  and  Froebel's  Method  in  Public  Primary  School.  26  pages.  25  cents, 

MANN  (Mrs.  Horace)  AND  Miss  PEABODY:  Charity  Kindergartens  and  the  Homes  of  the 
Poor— Experience  in  Boston  and  San  Francvsco.  32  pages.  25  cents. 

SPRING  (Marcus)  AND  Miss  PEABODY:  Clay  Modeling  and  other  Kindergarten  Occupa- 
tions, a  Training  for  Art  (Ideal  and  Industrial).  16  pages.  25  cents. 

BATCHELLOR  (D.)  :  Use  of  Color  in  Teaching  Children  to  Sing,  and  the  Analogies  of  Tone 
and  Color.  16  pages.  25  cents. 

NEWTON  (Rev.  11.  Heber):  The  Free  Kindergarten  in  Church  Work,  and  for  Neglected  Chil- 
dren. 32  pages.  25  cents. 

BUSHNELL  (Horace)  Goethe,  Channing  and  others:  Aphorisms  and  Suggestions  on  Early 
Training,with  Hints  on  Buildings,  Grounds  and  Equipment  for  Kindergartens.  80  pp,  50  cts. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  PAPERS  will  be  printed,  if  called  for,  viz.:  Use  of  Stories  In 
Child- Culture,  by  Mrs.  Mann  and  Anna  Buckland;  The  Kindergarten  in  Relation  to  Family 
Life  and  School,  read  to  the  London  Froebel  Union  by  Miss  Shirretf;  the  Kindergarten  in 
San  Francisco,  in  Reports  of  Miss  Marwedel,  Mrs.  Cooper,  Miss  Virginia  Smith  and  others; 
Prof.  Hailman  and  Kindergarten  Work  in  the  West;  The  One  Hundreth  Birthday  of  Froebel 
in  Many  Lands. 

§3T"Liberal  discount  made  on  all  bills  over  $10. 

ORDERS  ADDRESSED  TO  Barnard's  American  Journal  <tf  Education, 

28  Main  Street  Hartfora. 


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'JAN  2  i  2001 

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LD  21A-50m-ll,'62                              ,  .General  Library 
<D3279alO)476B                              University  of  California 

